Disney has now made several movies based on theme park rides. And while they haven’t all been massive hits, in the case of the one franchise that was, the Pirates of the Caribbean films were so big that they ended up becoming part of the ride. One has to believe that if Disney’s new Haunted Mansion movie is also a hit there is at least the possibility that something similar could happen with the historic Haunted Mansion at Disneyland or Magic Kingdom. Or perhaps, it’s already happening.
While the Haunted Mansion movie is overflowing with references to the iconic attraction, there are more than a few of the grim grinning ghosts that are entirely original creations. I recently had a chance to speak with Haunted Mansion VFX Supervisor, and frequent Disneyland visitor Edwin Rivera, and asked him what it would be like if, like Jack Sparrow, some element he worked on from the movie made it into the ride. Surprisingly, he says Walt Disney Imagineering seemed to be planning to do exactly that even while the film was still in production. He explained…
It’s funny you mention that. When Disney came out to look at the set, some of the Imagineers were there and said “Oh, we’re taking that, and we’re taking that’ particular part. So I think some of that’s already happening.
While Rivera couldn’t recall what specifically it was that Walt Disney Imagineering saw that they wanted to take, it certainly sounds like they saw some stuff that they thought they could use in some way. Perhaps we'll get a new ghost added to the 999 happy haunts from among those in the film.
It should be said that just because Imagineering may have been making plans to bring elements from the Haunted Mansion movie into the ride, that doesn’t mean it will actually happen. There were apparently similar plans when the Haunted Mansion movie starring Eddie Murphy was made 20 years ago, but when that film failed to find an audience any plans that had been made evaporated.
But it’s also possible that Imagineering could be looking to add simple elements from the film, like particular props. Doing that could add a bit of the flavor of the film to the attraction at Disneyland or Walt Disney World without transforming the attraction into something totally new. In the same way that the actual chest of gold from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl sits inside Disneyland’s version of that ride, perhaps a piece of the Haunted Mansion movie could be placed somewhere on the ride without making something out of it. Rivera even suggested that any changes might be that simple since he can’t really imagine where Imagineers would put anything from the film. He continued…
In looking at that ride when we went through it, there’s so much detail and so much, little bits and bobs everywhere, so I can’t imagine which “hole” they would have needed to fill but maybe they just made room for some of the props and set that we have.
If Imagineering is looking to add something like simple props to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland or Walt Disney World, that could happen anytime, and likely would with little if any fanfare. For anything bigger, it will likely all come down to whether or not Haunted Mansion is a hit at the box office and becomes a major franchise. Even Jack Sparrow wasn’t added to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride until the first movie had been a smash and a sequel had been released.
