I Talked With a Disney Imagineer About Those New Haunted Mansion Illusions
In the 1960s, a legendary Disney Imagineer dreamed up a ghost fish aquarium where ghostly skeletal fish would swim alongside live sea creatures. In 2024, Disney finally has the technology to make this vision a reality.
Entertainment companies like Disney are always looking for ways to make their experiences so immersive that they influence our spending/vacation decisions. One of the opportunities arose Disney’s newest cruise shipthis disney treasureswhere Imagineers designed the new Haunted Mansion Living Room, an environment that envelops guests in another realm entirely—an eerie ghost ship that is now part of haunted house lore The beloved Disney attraction “The Haunted Mansion”.
While it’s not a full ride, Disney didn’t skimp on the details: An eight-chapter saga unfolds as you sip themed cocktails (like the Sparkling Purple Ghoul Delight) and watch ghosts dance around you . It’s modeled after the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney Resort Park, with scenes including a tarot card reading by Madame Leota, a ballroom filled with dancing ghosts and a graveyard show by the Ghostly Five Minstrels.
But what sets it apart from traditional haunted houses is that guests get up close and personal with the ghosts, being able to sit next to them, view some of them from a 360-degree angle, and even touch them.
my colleague bridget kelly Experience the haunted house living room The cruise ship docked in New York last month. “You have to pay attention to everything on the wall—the whole room changes and tells a story,” Carey said of the space. “And you can study it all up close, which is a lot different than riding a ride. The best way to do that is to try and find that giant fish tank full of ghost fish.”
Look at this: Inside the living room of Disney’s Treasure Haunted Mansion
A few weeks later, I Imagineer Daniel Joseph About its founding. While he adheres to the mantra “A magician never reveals his secrets,” he does provide insight into the technology, science, and engineering that create Disney’s greatest illusions.
“My team basically figures out and sometimes invents new technologies to create illusions for our theme parks around the world,” Joseph told me. “It was like the ultimate call to action, like, ‘You guys have to find a way to do something that couldn’t be done in the 1960s in a brand new haunted house venue.'”
The Haunted Mansion was one of the last attractions designed by Walt Disney himself. Debuted at Disneyland in 1969after his death in 1966. Also found at: Orlando, Walt Disney WorldThere are similar rides in Florida and Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris (Phantom Manor) and Hong Kong Disneyland (Mystic Manor). The ride was so popular that it spawned two movies 2003 and 2023, and Muppets Halloween Special 2021.
this disney treasuresAccording to Disney, The Haunted Mansion Parlor is “the next chapter in the Haunted Mansion saga.”
It took Imagineers five years to build the haunted living room, as well as the ghost fish tank that Imagineers originally envisioned Raleigh Crumphas already left a deep impression. There are real fish inside, as well as “ghost” fish swimming back and forth, ghostly sea creatures that stand up to scrutiny with noses pressed against the aquarium glass.
For this, knowledge of science and new technologies is required.
“We tried some different materials — real liquids in there — and tried some things with refractive index, liquids and water, and how light bends and travels through liquids,” Joseph said.
A skeleton fish swims with real fish in the ghost aquarium.
Read more: Every Disneyland and Disney World ride and land planned for 2025 and beyond
Another noteworthy scene in the living room is the portrait gallery, which displays paintings in the artistic style of another original imagineer, Mark Davis. The portraits appear to be melting, or dripping, revealing eerie new images. The first “altering portrait” debuted in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion and was invented by another original Disney Imagineer, Yale Graciewho has one haunted house characters Named after him.
I asked Joseph if similar techniques were used for the melted “paintings” samsung frame tvwhich has a matte anti-reflective screen that can be used to display digital copies of paintings and photography. When you’re not using it as a regular TV, a framed TV looks like a real piece of art hanging on your wall. Joseph laughs and denies that it’s the same concept, but won’t reveal the new advances in technology that brought the portraits to life, saying that, for all intents and purposes, they are real paintings.
“We wanted to do something where you could get so close to it, with the authentic feel and texture of an oil painting,” he said. “You can see the actual brushstrokes in this thing, you can see the different material changes, some areas are just canvas and other areas still have matte mediums and gesso and oil textures and actual paint on them. When you look around As you move, you see them change, like in a museum with overhead lights.”
Melting busts and changing portraits are part of the haunted house living room decoration.
Technology and science create magic
While technology may be the last thing on your mind when experiencing Disney magic, for Imagineers, it’s the most important thing. Joseph said he attends technology fairs, e.g. International Consumer Electronics Show Find out what’s being developed and how Disney is “abusing” it.
“As an inventor and Illusion developer at Imagineering, I absolutely have my finger on the pulse of consumer technology as well as professional technology in the world because it changes so quickly,” Joseph said.
But while most companies use CES to showcase the latest advancements in technology and electronics, Joseph said he “looks at it all through the lens of: ‘How can I abuse this and make it do something, A. The inventor’. “This technology may not have been thought of which one would give Disney a new advantage with this technology, but B, how can I do something with this technology that wouldn’t normally be done if someone else looked at it?” Woolen cloth? ”
High ISO high-resolution footage of actual audio animatronics from Disneyland’s original Haunted Mansion attraction is displayed on a mirror behind the bar.
But it’s not always about using the latest and greatest technology. Joseph said that for the scene that plays in the mirror behind the living room bar, Imagineers chose not to use “some super game engine, high-tech stuff, and the characters in the back are CGI and look simulated and primitive in an animation style.”
Instead, they shot high-resolution, high-ISO footage of the original audio animatronics used in the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland.
“There was a 1969 aesthetic there and we wanted to keep that rich in the living room…(so) why not just shoot real people in our mansion? I thought it would be really cool to have them back there It’s of such high quality, but it also keeps us somewhat rooted in the original mansion legend.”
While Imagineers have their finger on the pulse of technology, one thing they haven’t touched is AI.
“We don’t actually use any artificial intelligence in anything we do,” he said. “I don’t know what the future of artificial intelligence will be, but I don’t know yet.”
