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On Halloween MousePlanet has a little treat in store for you, a thorough description of Jack Skellilngton’s attempt to redecorate the Haunted Mansion.

Earlier this month we had the pleasure of attending a press event for Haunted Mansion Holiday. In the course of that most delightful evening, we were treated a spectacular view of the Haunted Mansion (which I don’t think has ever been more beautifully lit for the night). We were serenaded by some rather cadaverous, but oh so dapper, vampires and learned that the Behemoth cannot read, but he knows what a bunny is.

We rode through the Mansion in a solitary fashion and since there was no one else along for the ride, were allowed to take flash pictures. And best of all, we had a chance to chat to the man whose vision and creativity brought this all to Disneyland. No, not Steve Davison, who’d like you to think he’s responsible for Haunted Mansion Holiday (although I do believe he had something to do with it and we did ask him a question or two). No, I’m speaking of none other than Sandy Claws himself, Jack Skellington, who graciously invited us to have a look inside and challenged us to try to find his little dog, Zero.

In a moment, we’ll take an extensive look at the attraction, but first let’s hear what Steve Davison (above), Creative Director of Haunted Mansion Holiday had to say.

Before we could even get a question out, Steve wanted to know if we were having a good time, and the answer to that was a resounding yes! Now, I personally have been on the attraction more times than I can count and have developed a soft spot for one particular part so, after managing to get Steve to stand still for a few pictures (everyone wanted to talk to him) I asked if he has a favorite.

"Yes," he said, "I love the finale and the singing, man-eating plants. I love what snow did to the end. My goal, as I was saying to someone earlier this evening, was…when I used to come out of the attic, you kind of get out and you go, what is there? The ghosts would fly by and you never really had a sense of depth to that scene that Marc (Davis) had created years ago. What I wanted to try to do, was give you that sense of spaciousness that the finale really has. And, I think we’ve succeeded with all the snow and the lights and everything that we brought to life.

I commented that I love immerging from the attic to see the Jack’s curly hill packed in snow and covered from top to bottom in Jack-O-Lanterns (above).

"Yeah, that was fun, the other thing too is, I’m glad you caught that, because there’s so many subtle Nightmare hints in the ride. We again, didn’t want to come in and just do the hill from the movie, so we created it out of snow. You know, like Jack came in and packed it to remind himself of home and stuffed it with pumpkins and brought it here to the Haunted Mansion. That was a fun thing to create."

Always curious to know what’s coming next, we asked if there’d be additions to Haunted Mansion Holiday next year.

"You know, you never know. Vacation!" Steve laughed, "That’s what I’ve got planned. You know, I do one thing at a time. That’s kind of my thing. We’ll see how this goes and what we’re going to do. There are some other things I’d love to do that we didn’t have time to do this year. There are some effects I won’t tell you about in case we put them in."

When asked where they came up with the extra room that now appears in the ballroom scene Steve said, "I made it. I was walking through the ballroom one day and I go... What’s that? I went up the thing and I opened it and it literally was a maintenance bay. I said, ‘You know, why don’t we open this and create a kind of mini-library?’ So we went in and put that in. I was hoping the tree would cover it more because it was one of the final internet clues we were doing, but you know it’s just fun to do."

Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix pointed out that that was the clue of the day (October 18th), which led to a brief discussion of the clues listed on MousePlanet and the answers posted there. It seems Steve keeps an eye on what folks are guessing. He said that clues need to be read carefully (answers to all the clues will be posted on Disney.com October 31st) and then pointed out that there are three hidden Mickeys in the elevator room, "There are two in the elevator that no one has discovered yet."

One’s easy to spot, but can you find the other two?

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Now boys and ghouls follow me if you dare

And watch for a plant that might grab at your hair

The sights you’ll behold are wondrous and gay

To see them…

Climb into a black Christmas sleigh

Should you be of the squeamish sort

May I suggest you don’t read this report

In other words, Dear Readers, if you think there were spoilers in MousePlanet’s previous Mansion reports, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Read no further if you don’t want to know every little detail.

Let’s begin at the queue, shall we? The gates to the Mansion are completely transformed. A ribbon banner topped with Jack’s bat tie floats like a garland between the two brick columns that hold the iron gates. The usual Haunted Mansion plaques that hang on the brick columns have been gobbled up by Man-eating Plant wreaths festively sporting red ribbon bows and skeleton heads. There are urns filled with "dead" foliage and Sandy Claws sits atop a large Jack-O-Lantern contemplating the wonder that is a snow flake. On the right side of the column a tiny snowman, Halloween-style, sits on top of the lantern and candles flicker at its base.

Proceeding onward through the queue, you come upon the hearse. It’s filled with Jack-O-Lanterns, some with Sandy Claws hats. Looking up at the Mansion’s façade you can see Jack has place a Christmas count down clock. Bat wing arms fly around the clock pointing to the months and the counter proclaims 000 days to Xmas.

Wrapped around every conceivable place and hung from every corner are black Christmas garlands adorned with spider webs, skulls, and fall berries and, of course, black and white-striped bows that look like a certain Pumpkin King’s bow tie. Several of the stone effigies in the pet cemetery have even gotten into the act and donned Christmas finery.

As you round the bend from the pet cemetery into the crypt area of the queue, the first thing you notice is the hill behind the crypt. A fine mist of fog clings to the hill, slowly slithering down the slope, spilling into the crypt. Hundreds of Jack-O-Lanterns smile menacingly as they peek through their fog-covered shroud.

As you stand in the queue, you are entertained by the tinny tunes of a long-forgotten music box. It slowly, elegantly, plinks out an ethereal, dirge-like melody that is strangely hypnotic. Suddenly the music box tune is interrupted by the voice of the Ghost Host instructing you in the proper art of the scream. You have something to learn while you wait in line.

Insert music from It’s A Small World here and you get the picture.

Insert Grim Grinning Ghosts here and you will get this picture.

Everybody Scream!

You do that frightfully well! Now, don’t forget what you learned and remember to scream during the tour. I’ll see you all a little later. Mwah ha ha ha hhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

At length, you make it to the foyer of the old house. The cobwebs are still there, but in amongst the beloved old dust are a few new adornments. The room is decked in black garland decorated with twigs and berries and bows and skulls. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, do take care to listen to the spiel in this room. Don’t be in a hurry to jump into the stretching room. It’s not always easy to hear with all the bodies nosily filling the room.

The entrance to the stretching room reveals itself as the spiel beckons

The stretching room has taken on a festive look. Gone are the framed portraits to be replaced by four stained glass oval panels. Each panel is surrounded by an ornate gold frame topped with black Christmas garland and skeleton heads that wear Sandy Claws hats. The glass portraits depict tranquil Christmas scenes, children asleep in their quilt-covered bed, a Christmas tree, a fireplace with neatly hung stockings, and the Mansion, itself.

But all is not quite as it seems.

Your castmember host will still admonish you to drag your dead body to the center of the room, but if you are lucky, you will take your journey with a clever castmember who will ask you to behave and not try to escape or you will end up stuck to the wall with masking tape.

The doors silently glide shut and you are now in the room with no windows and no doors.

The lights go out with a flicker and the sound of glass loudly shattering startles you.

The glass has broken to reveal new stretching portraits and as this happens, it suddenly becomes apparent that the frames are not frames at all, but strange frame-like creatures that guard the portraits underneath. One by one they open their eyes, which cast an eerie glow into the room.

The portraits tell of what is to come, a large striped snake, maniacal toys, Sandy Claws against the silhouette of ghosts and Zero leading the skeleton reindeers and the ghostly sleigh. In the second stretching room, the Zero portrait is replaced by one of the Man-eating Plant wreath.

Now normally, this is the point in the trip where you would look up and see a dead body swinging in the rafters, but there is something a little more delightful there now, a gigantic Sandy Claws head looks down into the room. The lights go out completely skeleton heads float to the ceiling and as he shouts…

Sandy Claws presence is revealed.

The room hits bottom, you hear a thud, and if you are still looking skyward, you see Jack’s eyes flicker, then nothing, complete darkness. If you are lucky, the room is silent, no one screaming or making noise. You will then hear a disturbing refrain. A child sings fa la la la la la la laaaaaa in a creepy and completely wonderful tone. It’s both unsettling and fabulous at the same time.

The doors open to the newly decorated Portrait Hall only, the portraits seem a little different than the last time you saw them.

The first changing portrait shows Santa Clause flying through the night sky with his eight tiny reindeer. But if you look closely, you will see Sandy Claws take his place, driving a bat-adorned sleigh led by Zero and the skeleton reindeer.

The next portrait is of Jack, himself, looking elegant as ever in his black pin-striped suit and holding a pumpkin in his left hand. He suddenly changes into Sandy Claws holding a Christmas present.

Moving on is a snowman, that morphs into a stack of pumpkins and next, a portrait of the Mansion itself. It always changes too fast for my taste, I want it to linger on the Halloween state that shows it with candles flickering and stacks of pumpkins, and….is that a gigantic cat against the window or just shutters?

Lastly, there’s Sally holding a tiny Christmas tree. It looks very pretty with shiny bright decorations and a shimmering star. But if you look long enough the tree fizzles away, and all that is left is a burnt twig tree with broken glass balls.

At the end of the hall spiders have been busy. One of them must be named Charlotte because Christmas greetings (and a hidden Mickey) have been spun into the webs covering the busts that follow you everywhere.

You are almost ready for your journey into the Mansion.

The walkway to board the black Christmas sleighs is illuminated with dozens of candelabras fitted with flickering candles and cobwebs, lots of cobwebs.

The room is a giant Christmas card, Halloween-style. The Mayor of Halloween town holds one end of a greeting that reads Merry Christmas. Of course this is Halloween we’re talking about so the greeting quickly changes to Scary Christmas and the Mayor’s worried face spins around. Lock and Barrel, Oogie Boogie’s Halloween pranksters float from a balloon as Shock looks on. In the center of all this, Sandy Claws stands proudly.

CONTINUED

Sue Kruse on the event show

Adrienne Krock with the $65 perspective

Adrienne Vincent- Phoenix with the $200 perspective

Return to Contents

The Ghost Host was portrayed by a true Paul Frees aficionado...  it’s a "dead on" imitation and tribute to the original genius

Over one hundred Jack- O- Lanterns were carved for the Mansion.

Counting both the interior and exterior, approximately 450 candles flicker in the night.

Zero gathered over 200 bones to use as décor, garland, and presents.

50 blankets of ghostly white snow helped cover the graveyard.

Madame Leota’s "13 Days of Christmas" are featured in 13 spinning Fortune Cards that tell of the Christmas gift that, according to her, "My Ghoul love gave to me..."

The eerie, edible hand made Gingerbread House featured at the Ballroom dining table weighs over 100 pounds.

27 new animated figures have joined the Haunted Mansion Holiday.

Kim Irvine, daughter of the original "Madame Leota" now makes a spirited performance as the Haunted Mansion’s favorite psychic. Leota Toombs, long-time Imagineer, gave life to the head that for decades has floated inside the Haunted Mansion’s Crystal Ball.