Originally Posted By The Goddess Mara The Haunted Mansion is placed in Fantasyland because, according to Japanese culture, this is the most appropriate spot based on its "spirit" based content. This has been explained by Imagineers in one or more books.
Originally Posted By Mr X Well, whatever then. It's a stupid location, whatever reasons they want to give for it.
Originally Posted By The Goddess Mara The Japanese don't think it's a stupid location: it makes perfect sense to them. And it is a park located in Japan for mostly Japanese guests.
Originally Posted By TDR_Fan It does look rather odd sitting right behind Dumbo. I like the realistic setting of the other versions versus the medieval fair type atmosphere of Fantasyland.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris Mr X - As a long time resident of Japan and as somebody married to one, I thought you'd be a bit more accepting of their culture.
Originally Posted By SuperDry I've never really understood the issue some people have with the placement of TDL's HM. I guess if you wanted to frame a picture of Dumbo in the foreground and the HM in the background, you could. But I find that if you look at it from the parade route, it doesn't really matter that Dumbo is right behind you. It's kind of odd, since I do in general really buy in the the Disney parks "sense of place" mentality in their design, but this one doesn't bother me for some reason.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris Plus it gives us the whole "Quiz Question" of which attraction is found in a different land in every MK around the world.
Originally Posted By Mr X I think you guys are missing my point here. I'm saying it's a stupid location because the architecture doesn't match ANYTHING around it. It looks horrible. I don't care about the idea of the Haunted Mansion being in Fantasyland, per se, I just don't think a copy of the Florida building looks good there at all. If it had been a different style of building, something that somehow "matched" Fantasyland (though I can't really imagine how), I wouldn't have a problem with it. As it is, I just think it looks shoehorned in and ugly (while the almost identical Florida version looks great where it is)...nothing to do with whether or not I agree with Japanese culture or anything like that. I apologize for not being clear though, when I said "stupid location", I should've been more specific by saying "that particular building is in a totally stupid location, it doesn't match the surroundings and looks horrible". Does that make more sense?
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 I agree with Mr. X. If they had themed the show building to match Fantasyland, it wouldn't look so strange. Too bad they didn't do a "medieval" HM. They could have matched it to the castle, but just a bit creepier looking. That way, it would have tied into the land more.
