When Disney made the best ghost stories!

It’s that time of the year where ghouls and ghosts take over our streets. Since I had been on a Disney kick I was thinking fondly about the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. I had talked about the attraction in the past and compared it to the God of War series. Specifically how the attraction, and game had richly themed environments. With that in mind I was wondering about how it was presented in game form.

I discovered an old Disney game that had a dedicated Haunted Mansion stage. Mickey no Tokyo Disneyland Daibōken was a game published by Tomy for the Super Famicom (SFC) in 1994. The game featured Mickey and his friends at Tokyo Disneyland. Mickey was trying to get his friends together to practice for a concert. Each friend just so happened to be located in a different area of the park.

There were bad guy weasels trying to keep Mickey from his duties as he traveled around. Of course Mickey had to be able to fight against bad guys, but in a Disney game you couldn’t really be too violent. So Mickey was given two types of balloons that he could use on his adventure. The water balloon he could bounce off of, as well as throw at his enemies. Then there was a helium balloon that allowed him to float to higher platforms, of breeze over gaps. Parents wouldn’t be able to object to Mickey defending himself with balloons after all.

The big attraction at each land was the basis for each stage. It was neat seeing how things like Big Thunder Mountain, and the Pirates of the Caribbean were turned into platforming levels.

The fourth stage was set in the Haunted Mansion. That attraction was arguably the greatest dark ride ever created. It was layered with so much detail that it developed a cult following. Even I was not immune to its importance in theme park history. In fact I wrote about the Hatbox Ghost 10 years ago on this blog. You can read about the history of the Haunted Mansion on the Disney Family Museum page. The fact that the Japanese game was able to turn iconic scenes featured in the attraction into actual stages was mind blowing. The “stretching room” for example was amazing, it took advantage of the SFC’s fabled “Mode 7.”

The attraction did not have a definitive story, but was rather a collection of spooky vignettes. An official album tried to tie together the various scenes. However many things were added, or removed through its history. Each of these changes were embraced by the fans. Fan theories spread among the community, in the ‘80s these were discussed in fanzines, and would eventually make their way online. Even leftovers from a refurbishment got a legend all to themselves.

The game even featured animated suits of armor. This was a brilliant callback. In the early days of the attraction in the late 1960’s they actually had cast members wearing the armor, and pop out to scare riders. This was eventually turned into a stationary animatronic that rattled.

The busts that followed visitors in the foyer, and the head of Madame Leota in a floating crystal ball also appeared in the game. The developers at Tomy had certainly done their homework. The attraction was filled with 999 Happy Haunts. There was plenty to pull from, and many ghosts that people should expect to see in a game.

The deepest cuts in the game were the ghost portraits. Not every painting by Disney Animator / Imagineer Marc Davis was featured in the original attraction, or the follow ups in Florida or Tokyo. The ghostly fisherman was part of a pirate theme that had originally been pitched for the attraction. The mariner with the harpoon had appeared in both Mickey no Tokyo Disneyland Daibōken, as well as Epic Mickey.

At the end of each stage there was a version of “Pegleg” Pete waiting to challenge Mickey. He wore a costume that was appropriate for the particular attraction. In Stage 4 Pete was waiting in the mansion graveyard. He was a pale blue color, and wore a pale victorian suit as many of the ghosts did in the attraction. He floated around the stage, and shot plasma balls at Mickey. As far as I know this was the first and only time this version of Pete had ever appeared in an officially licensed game.

In honor of this eerie version of Pete, and just in time for Halloween I decided to make an illustration of “Phantom Pete.” What do you think? Should Disney revisit platform gaming? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Hatbox Ghost, a familiar face returns to Disneyland...

For those that still follow this blog I say thank you. I miss writing each day and think about how prolific I used to be. But there is no time to lament when we have cool things to talk about. As many of you may (or may not!) know I am a big Disney fan. I like the animation and Disneyland Park. One of my favorite attractions was updated recently. Actually it was "retro"-fitted recently. On the occasion of Disneyland's 60th Anniversary several attractions have been getting updates and new fireworks shows, parades, merchandise and other goodies are in store for visitors. The one that seems to have everyone most excited is the return of the Hatbox Ghost to the Haunted Mansion. For those that don't know there was an animatronic in the Attic scene of the ride, just after the Ballroom and before going into the Graveyard. Anyhow this animatronic was called the Hatbox Ghost because his head would disappear from his shoulders and reappear inside a hatbox he was carrying. The effect never worked great and audiences could still see the head in both locations even under low light. So the character was pulled after two weeks on opening in late 1969 by Imagineers. Yale Gracey, the effects Imagineer was the person that most likely made the call. As the years went on most forgot about the character, attractions in Disneyland rarely stay the same for long. Little details are added or changed on a year-to-year basis.

The Hatbox Ghost became a sort of urban legend in the park. He was there for such a short time that only the most die-hard fans even knew about him. Over the past decade there was a revival on the character. He began turning up on official Disneyland merchandise and audiences couldn't get enough of him. The Hatbox Ghost built a cult-like following which was unique considering that the attraction itself had so many wonderful characters that most of them could have symbolized the attraction. Yet fans seemed to gravitate towards the ghost that stuck around the shortest amount of time. When the merchandise began materializing over the past decade many hoped that the figure would find his way back home. It didn't happen for the 40th, 50th or 55th celebrations but this year would be it! I did want to say something about the update character. The park had to update their presentation in order for the effects to work the way they were intended.

The majority of the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion were audio animatronics wrapped in transparent plastic clothes. This looked his the hydraulic components well and looked convincing in low light. However the Hatbox Ghost sat so close to audiences that they could clearly see where his head was hiding within the hatbox. In the updated version the Imagineers gave the ghost dark colored fabric that they painted to appear semi-translucent. The artists highlighted the seams as skeleton legs and ribcage in backlight colors over the fabric. This hid all of the new hydraulics and electronics that went into the figure. The head itself was a projection map on a black screen. The head inside the box was also a projection so that no matter how close audiences looked the physical head was not in either location. This was similar to an effect that I proposed on a blog entry over at MiceChat. With the effect and animation in place the ghost had finally found a permanent home and would be haunting visitors for many years to come.

The team at Imagineering did a fantastic job of recreating the original designs from Yale Gracey, Marc Davis and Colin Campbell. I did want to say that there was an artist that I think deserves some recognition for the updated look. Brandon Ragnar Johnson is a well-known name in the art community. The Southland resident is a huge fan of Disneyland and his mid-century-meets-pop aesthetic compliments the company very well. Many years ago he did a piece inspired by the Haunted Mansion. In the illustration there is a green room with a portrait of the Hatbox Ghost hanging on the wall along with a crystal ball with the head of Madame Leota. He created a second piece with the head inside the hatbox and the letters HM. It was a brilliant tribute. The use of colors and strong shapes made it one of the best Haunted Mansion illustrations ever made.

A few years after that illustration came out Disney announced that they were working on a new Haunted Mansion movie with director Guillermo DelToro. This was a surprise to the 2011 San Diego Comic Con attendees. Some in attendance won posters for the movie. The illustration by Ragnar was redone to include the name plaque of the Haunted Mansion and words 999 Haunts.

The Hatbox Ghost looked slightly different than Ragnar's previous illustration. The hair was much thinner and the colors were just a bit stronger on the new poster. The sneer, sinister stare and gold tooth were unmistakable in both versions.

When the new Hatbox Ghost was revealed I couldn't help but notice how similar the animation was to the design of Ragnar. The artist clearly knew what elements were the most important to create to capture the spirit of the character. With a few shapes and color choices fans could make out the face from across the room or even while sitting right in front of the piece. The same clean shapes and colors were obvious in the remake. Neither Disney nor Ragnar had to make the face hyper-realistic in order to make it unique. In fact the less-is-more approach worked wonders for the new animatronic.

A few years prior, in 2013 Disney had shown off an animatronic during the D23 Expo in Anaheim modeled after the Hatbox Ghost. This figure was hyper-detailed. It had a complete wardrobe and physical head sculpt. The Imagineers did not mean for this figure to ever be used in the Haunted Mansion. They just wanted to show off the most advanced animatronics the company had to offer. The basis of this figure was known as the A100 model, it was the type featured in Abraham Lincoln and the Pirates of the Caribbean auctioneer, making it very fluid and lifelike. If just so happened that Disney wanted to dress up the robot for the Expo in an iconic costume.

 

Audiences interpreted the gesture as a confirmation that he was returning. Thankfully the version in the ride was nowhere near as garish as the D23 one. The hyper-detailed look detracted from all of the other ghosts in the attraction. That level of costuming would have worked well in the Pirates ride but simply stuck out on the Haunted Mansion. But I digress, I was mentioning that the face animation was very reminiscent of the designs created by Ragnar. The head inside the hatbox was a projection as well and it preserved the same qualities that Ragnar had done years earlier.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into the updated look and maybe it is all a coincidence. But I'll let you Disney fans check out the ride and tell me what you think. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!