Originally Posted By DisneyGreek If you were to build a new version of the Haunted Mansion. What story line would you use, Phantom manor, Gracey Manor, etc. or would you do a combination.
Originally Posted By cerise667 I would keep the mansion as is and have the doom buggies travel at a slightly lesser speed to guests can actually take in the scenery ;-)
Originally Posted By wingednike I like the original idea that combined Mansion with Pirates. The abandoned bride story was a lot creepier than the new, murderous one.
Originally Posted By Bellella I think the only change that they should do with the Mansion is that they should put back that young woman turning into shriveled corpse portrait that they replaced with the portrait of whats-his-name Gracie and have the portraits gradually change from the normal to the macabre instead of the flashing with the lightning. You can't really see details with that effect. What exactly is the "abandoned bride story?"
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb >>>I like the original idea that combined Mansion with Pirates. The abandoned bride story was a lot creepier than the new, murderous one.<<< Agreed, I always preferred "beating heart" bride to Constance. She was so sad.
Originally Posted By avimagine Bellella pretty much any old timer here (a few years posting history) will direct you to this site for your HM questions <a href="http://www.doombuggies.com/home.php" target="_blank">http://www.doombuggies.com/home.php</a>
Originally Posted By Bellella Great website by those obsessed, but apparently I have to download an MP3 file just to hear the bride story. Can any of you just tell me what it's about?
Originally Posted By TP2000 Oh, for gosh sakes, there is no plot to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion! The whole "Master Gracey" thing was something dreamed up by bored College Program CM's in Florida who were too geeky to get invited to the parties that all the other College Program CM's were going to. The birth of the Internet sealed the deal as these kids put their plotline ideas on their fledgling webpages, because God knows if you read something on the Internet than it must be true, and the rest is history. Or fabricated history, at least. There's no big plotline for the Haunted Mansion. There's no secret message. It's just a haunted house ride with a bunch of creepy effects and dark show scenes thrown together as you ride through an old dusty haunted house and out into the graveyard beyond. And it's got a catchy theme song that goes with it. That's it. If Walt, and his hand-picked team of Imagineers working at the top of their game in the 1960's, wanted there to be a plot line and some important character like "Master Gracey", then they would have built the attraction to feature that. But they didn't do that, there is no plot or hidden meaning, and no amount of fabricated plot development by 21st century Fanbois and date-less College Program ride operators out in Florida can change that. End of story. ;-)
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl The backstory I heard about was that the bride was the young fiancee of a retired sea captain (who would go on to become the "Ghost Host"), who was unusually tight-lipped about his past. He decided to go to sea one last time before the wedding, and he left her with the run of his mansion, with the exception of the topmost attic of the tower. After several months without hearing from him, her curiosity got the better of her, and she went into the forbidden room. She found out why it was forbidden: her fiancee was not a retired MERCHANT captain, nor a retired NAVAL captain, but a retired PIRATE captain, the very captain whose exploits were a local legend. Despondent over the discovery, she jumped from the attic window, dying right in front of the doorstep, of a broken heart and a broken neck. Just after the funeral, the Captain came home. Realizing that he'd been responsible for the death of the woman he loved, he hung himself from a rafter in the tower attic (". . . to find a way out! Of course, there's always MY WAY."). Not a backstory I'd regard as "creepy"; rather, one I'd regard as romantic. And definitely preferable to the "axe-murdering bride" backstory that's been grafted on. I wonder how closely this lines up with the MP3 on the Doom Buggies site.
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl Incidentally, "Master Gracey" came from one of the tombstones, which in turn came from Disney Imagineer Yale Gracey.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb The story in post 10 is very close to the story I heard many years ago, it ties in well w/ the nautical weather vane and location next to POTC. My first visit to the Mansion after hearing it, while keeping the story in mind, was the only time I got my hot and cold running chills.
Originally Posted By TP2000 No, seriously you guys, you do know those plots and backstories were made up by ride operators 30 years after the ride opened, right? It's all been made up by geeky ride ops sitting around the break room. It's not really a plot designed by Imagineering. You know that, right? Right?
Originally Posted By Socrates Please note the book "The Haunted Mansion" by Jason Surrell (copyright 2003). The chapter on Disneyland's Haunted Mansion is too extensive to reproduce here (of course), but here are some excerpts: Page 17: The Legend of Captain Gore: "Ken [Anderson] wrote his first creative treatment in February 1957, setting the attraction inside the seaside manor of an old sea captain..." The book describes several re-writes, culminating on page 32, The End of the Story, 3rd paragraph: "Though not as intricately constructed as a Shakespearean play, a story exists..." Socrates "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb And if the story isn't imagineered, how does that in anyway negate my enhanced experience of riding HM with the story in mind?
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl Hmm. And Jason Surrell would presumably know, even if he wasn't the originator: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Surrell" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J..._Surrell</a>
Originally Posted By SafariRob I would re-theme it to the old cartoon "Lonesome Ghosts" and put lots of characters in it. JUST KIDDING!
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I would re-theme it to the old cartoon "Lonesome Ghosts" and put lots of characters in it.<< I would re-theme it to the relatively recent movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and put .... um .... uhhh ...... never mind.
Originally Posted By PhotoJoe Now I don't know what to believe. When my family was there for the sleepover, they read us the entire story (documented at www.wordpress.disneyjoe.com) and they told us that the ride started as this story, which was then handed over to the imagineers to create a ride around. I chose to believe what we were told by the fine Disney folks....right or wrong.
