Phantom Manor Update?

Scissorsboi · October 17, 2011, 02:31:50 AM

See, I think their actions do fit the final scenes of the Mansions, as their graveyard does take a more cartoony twist. Obviously ours is much more thematic than that, and the hitch hiking ghosts wouldn't fit, so they'd have to do more work to make it into the Phantom and his story then that's the least I'd expect.

I know people dislike the animation of the ghosts, but I think that's just a case of taking it out of context, they do fit the house, they match the quality of new Floating Leona and the Bride, so although they're not the jerky animatronics of old, they're not quite as out there as possible.

I think I'd just like to see some love for the Manor really. It's the best attraction in the park and I don't like that it seems dead on it's feet, it's been ignored in the grand refurb of the park for the 20th. It could be worse, we could get Phantom Manor: Haunting 2...

Josh · October 17, 2011, 04:58:39 PM

Quote from: "Scissorsboi"it's been ignored in the grand refurb of the park for the 20th. It could be worse, we could get Phantom Manor: Haunting 2...

Not exactly. In the recent refurbishment, they fixed the lightning at the end of the sequence in the stretching room. We can finally actually see the groom again, because it's not flashing so quickly.

In terms of improvements, though; yeah, there's nothing. I'm sure there's loads of features in the mansion that could be improved.

DGRavenswood · October 17, 2011, 05:26:08 PM

Quote from: "Scissorsboi"See, I think their actions do fit the final scenes of the Mansions, as their graveyard does take a more cartoony twist.

Ah, but there's a difference between a Marc Davis cartoon and a Tex Avery cartoon...

Anyway, I agree that PM could use some TLC. I think there are other scenes which would require attention more urgently, though. The shadow pianist, the ballroom reflections, Phantom Canyon... And as I've stated elsewhere I'd love to see the original queue concept realized.

There were a few changes made to attraction a few years ago... Not everyone thought they were improvements, but most importantly they perhaps didn't do enough. Apparently they intended to fix that for the 20th...

DopeyDad · October 17, 2011, 06:19:29 PM

They could at least clean the ballroom scene glass, the effect is not so great when you can see dirty great smears making the glass visible. Give me some Mr Sheen and I'll do it myself next time I'm there.

Patrick89 · October 19, 2011, 12:58:31 PM

Quote from: "DopeyDad"They could at least clean the ballroom scene glass, the effect is not so great when you can see dirty great smears making the glass visible. Give me some Mr Sheen and I'll do it myself next time I'm there.

So true...But this year, I thought they were pretty clean, for example last year it was really bad and ruined the ballroom-scence...

Quote from: "Meph"Not exactly. In the recent refurbishment, they fixed the lightning at the end of the sequence in the stretching room. We can finally actually see the groom again, because it's not flashing so quickly.

I've noticed that last week, too. I can't remember of seeing the Phantom and the groom so clearly!
But unfortunately the Phantom at the end of the ride wasn't there and none of the doors right at the beginning worked...

sebassah · January 01, 2012, 11:03:48 PM

Maybe the Canyon scene could be replaced by a scene where we enter the garden and see the bride floating around the leftovers from the party that never was. Maybe a cake, presents, tables al half gone by the age of time. Comparable to the "Attic" scene in the HM at MK WDW. With loads of attributes and such.

What do you guys think of this?

Patrick89 · January 02, 2012, 04:03:35 PM

I think that's a nice idea. Just yesterday I visited the ravenswood manor homepage and again thought that Phantom Canyon doesn't really fit in Phantom Manor. Or at least, I would have preferred a scene more connected to the bride/Phantom story.

By the way, at this website they are talking about a carriage house in the queue that has never been realizied due to high costs. I'd love to see PM with this addition. Instead, the garden pavilion has been built, which isn't too nice in my opinion

sebassah · January 03, 2012, 07:44:37 PM

Quote from: "Patrick89"... Instead, the garden pavilion has been built, which isn't too nice in my opinion

I never thought of it as a pavillion just some que area with a roof... and a sadly, never working fountian... Maybe there is a way to bring more of the interactive que from WDW (Not in the cartoon kinda way they use over there) to Parc Disneyland

Patrick89 · January 04, 2012, 04:10:50 PM

Quoted from the ravenswood-site:

QuoteDid you have to abandon any concepts which you would have liked to include in the attraction?

Fortunately, all the best concepts conceived for the main attraction were incorporated into Phantom Manor as it currently stands. However, the preshow and post-show are nowhere near as elaborate as originally designed. The queue which currently winds through the garden pavillion was initially intended to take the guest inside an ornate Victorian carriage house and stable where lighting, sound and special effects would have created an eerie atmospheric pre-ride experience. The Boot Hill area, which serves as a post-show, features only a few of the animated elements and special effects which were originally designed to provide a disquietingly peculiar atmosphere through which the guest was to exit.

This was part of an interview with show producer Jeff Burke.

QuoteTaking into account the often inclement weather of central Europe, a large part of the queue area would be covered. Imagineers initially developed the concept of a grand carriage-house that would protect those waiting in line from rain, snow or grail. This lavishly themed two-story structure made it all the way into the early model stage...

When the budget was tightened, however, the carriage-house made way for a simpler garden pavillion in order to avoid sacrificing more important elements from the ride itself. Fernando Tenedora created a seperate piece of concept art (below), showing how the garden pavillion would have been used for social get-togethers by the upper class of Thunder Mesa, in order to convey this new idea.

DGRavenswood · January 04, 2012, 04:55:34 PM

Maybe I'll be able to share some more details regarding that carriage house in a future update...

For another project of mine Jeff shared an intriguing account of his ideas. It was to be highly detailed and had a number of "haunted" effects. Pat Burke found a number of antique carriages for the interior... It's definitely high on my wish list for PM though I'm not sure if it could be done that well these days.

Patrick89 · January 05, 2012, 05:16:22 PM

Quote from: "DGRavenswood"Maybe I'll be able to share some more details regarding that carriage house in a future update...

For another project of mine Jeff shared an intriguing account of his ideas. It was to be highly detailed and had a number of "haunted" effects. Pat Burke found a number of antique carriages for the interior... It's definitely high on my wish list for PM though I'm not sure if it could be done that well these days.

That would be great! After reading that, I've become really curious about this carriage house and the cancelled effects of Boot Hill.
Phantom Manor and the whole Frontierland theme are so fascinating, I just can't get enough of it. While the other lands seem to be more like melting pots of different stories, every location in Frontierland fits into the same story (except the playground maybe, but as this wasn't an original attraction, it doesn't count

).

By the way, this ravenswood manor site is my favourite of all Disneyland-websites, it is so detailled and contains so many informations you cannot get elsewhere. So thanks a lot for creating it, Mr. Ravenswood :thumbs:

MrsPirate · January 06, 2012, 11:15:19 AM

Quote from: "Patrick89"By the way, this ravenswood manor site is my favourite of all Disneyland-websites, it is so detailled and contains so many informations you cannot get elsewhere. So thanks a lot for creating it, Mr. Ravenswood :thumbs:

I second that, fantastic site, very informative. PM is my very favourite ride and I love reading about it.

Karen · January 06, 2012, 01:30:15 PM

You probably have already seen it but there's quite a good site called doombuggies.com it's about all of the haunted manions but have trivia on phantom manor also. I love listening to all the samples of each audio track as you go through phantom manor, usually more so when we get back from dlrp and I'm depressed

MrsPirate · January 06, 2012, 01:53:33 PM

Quote from: "Karen"You probably have already seen it but there's quite a good site called doombuggies.com it's about all of the haunted manions but have trivia on phantom manor also. I love listening to all the samples of each audio track as you go through phantom manor, usually more so when we get back from dlrp and I'm depressed

Thank you, I haven't looked at that one yet.

DGRavenswood · January 06, 2012, 09:31:27 PM

Thanks! I'm glad people still appreciate RM even without frequent updates...

I don't want to hijack the topic for self-promotion (though it's not like I make a cent off my site, quite the contrary) but there will be a major overhaul with some new material as soon as I'll have the time to finish it!

And I second the plug for Doombuggies.com. It's one of the sites that inspired me in the first place and after all these years it's still THE site for the Haunted Mansion.