Re-imagining Phantom Manor and Pirates of the Caribbean

[Mtlchuck]

Hello everyone,

I had to share this post after the Shanghai Disneyland hype that has been circulating around. As you might have seen, Shanghai Disneyland features a state-of-the-art version of Pirates, and while no Haunted-Mansion type attraction, many of the rides seem to be as ground-breaking.

We also know that regrettably Disneyland Parc has not received the love it deserves attraction-wise pretty much since Space Mountain (1995). I think however, that with reasonable investment, the Phantom Manor and Pirates in Paris could be plussed and updated to make them more exciting than ever and bring some fresh air to DLP.

Here are some of my ideas:

Phantom Manor:

1. Change the effect of the appearing bride in the foyer. This effect is honestly quite quite simplistic, even WDW's Haunted Mansion premiered in the 70's with a much better foyer changing portrait (Man to Skull). My idea is a similar one, a portrait of Melanie who ages until becoming a skelleton. This would connect the story a bit more to imply that she also is a ghost, even if she appears to be alvie throughout the first parts of the ride.

2. Overhaul the Stretching Rooms. New speakers, sound effects and lightning as in WDW. Also, the hanging man effect is so old (the screen is dusty) that it is impossible to see what is hanging up in there. I suggest changing the effect to what they do in California during Haunted Mansion Holiday - An animated digital projection. It would start as the Phantom in the action of hanging the groom, then swiftly jumping out of the rafter and vanishing.



3. Portrait hall: New portraits that also connect a bit more to the story.

4. Piano - New shadow projection that doesn't look like a balancing cut-out.

4. Bride's welcome: New realistic figure with a ghostly spiel in english and french. I am actually very happy they've covered her face with a veil, as she looks like a plastic manequin.

5. Leota: Gut the scene and put something new. Leota in this mansion uses not only a horrible 90's technology that cheapens the whole effect, but she connects in no way with the story. Either make it more evident to tie the story that she was a witch that helped Mr. Ravenswood struck gold in Big Thunder Mountain, or come up with a totally new scene. I can imagine something using the technology from the last room of Mystic Manor



6. Ballroom: Add some action to the Phantom, instead of having him as a static figure watching. Perhaps some projection of him jumping into the window, or moving from one location to another while Melanie follows him with her stare.

7. Boudoir: New mirror effect- Transforms from normal to broken/school.

8. Descent into underworld: Darken the scene, improve the animatronic (back-projected face such as with the Dwarves in the Diamond Mine Train Coaster:), projection map a stormy sky into the building ceiling.



9: Ghost town: Projection back the backgrounds and the sky, improve some effects, bring back the original mad scientist effect. Back-projected animatronic faces.

10. Final bride: Re-do scene to something less vague.

11. Phantom following you: Re-do it to a digital effect as with the WDW scene, except just with the Phantom looming over and grabbing the doombuggy.

More ideas for the Pirates soon!

[seraphelle]

Hello everyone,

I had to share this post after the Shanghai Disneyland hype that has been circulating around. As you might have seen, Shanghai Disneyland features a state-of-the-art version of Pirates, and while no Haunted-Mansion type attraction, many of the rides seem to be as ground-breaking.

We also know that regrettably Disneyland Parc has not received the love it deserves attraction-wise pretty much since Space Mountain (1995). I think however, that with reasonable investment, the Phantom Manor and Pirates in Paris could be plussed and updated to make them more exciting than ever and bring some fresh air to DLP.

Here are some of my ideas:

Phantom Manor:

1. Change the effect of the appearing bride in the foyer. This effect is honestly quite quite simplistic, even WDW's Haunted Mansion premiered in the 70's with a much better foyer changing portrait (Man to Skull). My idea is a similar one, a portrait of Melanie who ages until becoming a skelleton. This would connect the story a bit more to imply that she also is a ghost, even if she appears to be alvie throughout the first parts of the ride.

2. Overhaul the Stretching Rooms. New speakers, sound effects and lightning as in WDW. Also, the hanging man effect is so old (the screen is dusty) that it is impossible to see what is hanging up in there. I suggest changing the effect to what they do in California during Haunted Mansion Holiday - An animated digital projection. It would start as the Phantom in the action of hanging the groom, then swiftly jumping out of the rafter and vanishing.



3. Portrait hall: New portraits that also connect a bit more to the story.

4. Piano - New shadow projection that doesn't look like a balancing cut-out.

4. Bride's welcome: New realistic figure with a ghostly spiel in english and french. I am actually very happy they've covered her face with a veil, as she looks like a plastic manequin.

5. Leota: Gut the scene and put something new. Leota in this mansion uses not only a horrible 90's technology that cheapens the whole effect, but she connects in no way with the story. Either make it more evident to tie the story that she was a witch that helped Mr. Ravenswood struck gold in Big Thunder Mountain, or come up with a totally new scene. I can imagine something using the technology from the last room of Mystic Manor



6. Ballroom: Add some action to the Phantom, instead of having him as a static figure watching. Perhaps some projection of him jumping into the window, or moving from one location to another while Melanie follows him with her stare.

7. Boudoir: New mirror effect- Transforms from normal to broken/school.

8. Descent into underworld: Darken the scene, improve the animatronic (back-projected face such as with the Dwarves in the Diamond Mine Train Coaster:), projection map a stormy sky into the building ceiling.



9: Ghost town: Projection back the backgrounds and the sky, improve some effects, bring back the original mad scientist effect. Back-projected animatronic faces.

10. Final bride: Re-do scene to something less vague.

11. Phantom following you: Re-do it to a digital effect as with the WDW scene, except just with the Phantom looming over and grabbing the doombuggy.

More ideas for the Pirates soon!

I hear what you're saying, but I have to say I feel pretty sad at the thought of anything changing on Phantom Manor. I love it so much just the way it is.

[Mtlchuck]

I feel the same way, I just feel that the effect upgrades would be much welcome (I might have gone too far with replacing Leota). If we can't have Indiana Jones' Adventure, we can have an upgraded PM

[MickeyAteMyCap]

They're making changes to Pirates of the Caribbean. At the very least they'll add Captain Jack.

[mickey1980]

I would love to see some subtile updated effects in both attractions. Now with video mapping effects, there are so many mind-blowing things they can do for little money. But seeing they (probably) didn't bother to install these in Peter Pan (like in other Disney parks), we probably won't get them anytime soon in Paris.

[msRavenswood]

I agree with most of your suggestions, but the things I would do differently are the stretching room where I wouldn't like to see a digital projection of the Phantom hanging Melanie's groom. New speakers, sound effects and lighting are certainly welcome, as well as new scrims that would allow the scene to be visible. I wouldn't change the portraits in the hallway either, I know they don't connect with the story but they don't have to, they could simply be portraits found in Ravenswood Manor, bought by Henry to decorate his home, that became haunted after his demise. Finally, I wouldn't like to see the Leota scene scrapped, they should update her projection technology and bring back the spirit projections on the walls between the griffins.

A cool effect would be to make Melanie appearing and disappearing from window to window holding her canderabra, this effect would be awesome at night. They should also replace the Phantom that is peeking out the window with an animatroning one which actually has a face and some cool effects.

Boot Hill could also have some new effects, maybe some new interactive tombs and sounds. They could also use subtle projections at night to make it look as if the cemetary is haunted.

Unfortunately, I don't see any of these updates happening soon with all the money issues the park is having. They would probably prefer to spend the funds on something else, despite the fact that Phantom Manor screams for some attention.

There IS a thing they could do that would cost them nothing and this is to bring back the original Vincent Price spiel. I know the park is in France and people couldn't understand what his was saying that's why they had Gérard Chevalier record a new one, but come on, Vincent Price is a legend and Phantom Manor is the ideal place for his voice to be heard at. They could at least do altenate versions of english and french spiels, keeping just his laughter is simply not enough!