Things You're Just Supposed to Know

Most of the time, Long-Forgotten assumes that readers are already familiar with basic facts
about the Haunted Mansion. If you wanna keep up with the big boys, I suggest you check out
first of all the website, Doombuggies.com. After that, the best place to go is Jason Surrell's book,
The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic (NY: Disney Editions; 2015). That's the
re-named third edition of The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies (NY:
Disney Editions, 2003; 2nd ed. 2009). Also essential reading is Jeff Baham's The Unauthorized
Story of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion (USA: Theme Park Press, 2014; 2nd ed. 2016).

This site is not affiliated in any way with any Walt Disney company. It is an independent
fan site dedicated to critical examination and historical review of the Haunted Mansions.
All images that are © Disney are posted under commonly understood guidelines of Fair Use.

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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Hitchhikers in the Mirror, Part Two



I did a photoshop to give y'all some visual idea of what the original backup effect looked like.  From the relevant blueprints you can tell for sure that there was some kind of projected effect involving objects moving from mirror to mirror, and that they undulated, thanks to a curved screen.  What you can't tell from the blueprint is what the content of the projection was.  One of them says "Ghost Images," but that's all.  For anything more detailed than that, we have no other source right now than my memory (and that of a few others I've encounter over the years).

So...is this re-creation accurate?  Can you take it to the bank?  You can, but you'll need three forms of ID, a blood sample, and a notarized statement from your mother.


It is quite possible that Marc Davis did this concept art work for the backup
HHG-in-mirror effect. If so, it was rejected in favor of faceless, anonymous wraiths.

©DISNEY


5 comments:

  1. It's too bad that The Haunted Mansion doesn't provide both effects at the same time. Or, would that be ghost-overload?

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  2. It would be pretty tough to do both, even if you wanted to. The track-bound HHGs would get in the way of the projections.

    What amazes me most is that this effect was so utterly forgotten. I remember being very impressed by it and utterly at a loss to figure out how it was done. It looked mahvelous.

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  3. It's too bad that both these effects plus others could not coexist and bring twice the effects combined in random sequence making the ride almost infinitely different every time through.
    Just saying.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know I'm eight years late, but is this effect still present in the ride, just not turned on? Like, if they chose to, could they flip a switch and bring it back?

    ReplyDelete