Holiday Haunted Mansion Ride-Thru (Part 5)

This is the second to the last installment on Tokyo Disneyland's holiday version of the Haunted Mansion....one more post and we'll be done! Once again, these scenes are almost identical to Anaheim's holiday version. Jack Skellington (as Sandy Claws) and his dog Zero replace the graveyard's night watchman and watchdog. This is Tokyo's second fully audio-animatronic Jack Skellington. The first one was seen in part one of this series of posts.

The singing busts are covered up for the season with singing jack o' lanterns.

A flying reindeer skeleton holds a tray of drinks in it's mouth.

Check back tomorrow for the final post in this series featuring the last of the Graveyard scenes as well as the Crypt where we'll see who (or what) replaces the Hitchhiking Ghosts in the Tokyo version. We will then move on to other Christmas happenings in the park.

Holiday Haunted Manison Ride-Thru (Part 4)

Today's photos are from the attic scene of "The Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare" at Tokyo Disneyland.

Tokyo's attic is almost identical to Anaheim's holiday version. The train on the chewed-up track is included, as well as the toy duck with the bloody bullet holes (sorry, I don't have a photo of him). The exception here would be the "naughty and nice" list that the snake is eating. Tokyo's list includes some Japanese names. I am assuming poor little "Eiichi" won't be getting anything from Santa this year since he has a little skull and crossbones next to his name. Or does that mean he is the only one on the list that WILL be getting a present?

Upon exiting the attic, guests encounter Scary Teddy chewing on a string of Christmas lights. As he bites down on it, sparks fly from his mouth. Anaheim has this same scene, but the placement of Scary Teddy is different....he is sitting on a branch over the Doombuggies, instead of off to the side.

As a side note, Tokyo's non-holiday version does not have the updated bride that Anaheim and Florida have.....fortunately! I say that because, while the idea probably looked good on paper, I don't think it works in the finished product. The effect looks too phony. The projection of Madame Leota in the crystal ball works because her face is projected onto a three dimensional head. I noticed the last time that I saw the new bride, that her face is not three dimensional, it's flat. I think this adds to the lack of realism because there is no "depth" to the features of her face. It's the same thing with her arms, they are just a "flat" projection. They may as well be showing her on a television screen!

In tomorrow's post, we'll head on down into the Graveyard scenes!

Holiday Haunted Mansion Ride-Thru (Part 3)

Today we will look at the Seance Room in the holiday version of Tokyo Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. The only real difference between Anaheim's and Tokyo's version is that the wall behind Madame Leota shows Lock, Shock and Barrel peeking into the room through a window. Madame Leota's spiel is identical in both versions. Part of a floating fortune card can be seen in the photo above. This year, Tokyo DL sold replicas of these in the form of playing cards and also as note cards. Below are scans of all the fortune cards that hang in the Seance Room. Sorry, they were scanned out of order.....reading from right to left instead of left to right. I just didn't want to go back and rescan them all again!

-On the thirteenth day of Christmas, my ghoul love gave to me, thirteen rings of power, embracing strength that never ends.

-Twelve signs of the zodiac that rule the future and transcend.

-Eleven candles floating. Their scent of mystery in the air.

-Ten telling tea leaves that (unintelligible) with secrets yet to share.

-Nine magic crystals that sparkle with a force that is pure.

-Eight Balls of knowledge that answer with a truth that is sure.

-Seven pearls of wisdom to keep my love bewitched to me.

-Six mystic mirrors reflecting futures yet to be.

-Five lucky charms to understand the right from wrong.

-Four wheels of fortune to spin their rich and golden song.

-Three life lines extending help to those in need.

-Two passion potions that love and romance may succeed.

-On the first day of Christmas, my ghoul love gave to me, a star, a brilliant star for my fortune card tree!

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Next, the Doombuggies enter the ballroom, which is a very difficult scene to photograph....so I do not have any photos of it. It is virtually identical to Anaheim's version except for the doorway at the top of the stairway on the opposite side of the room (below the dueling paintings). In Tokyo, there is a curtain there and behind that curtain are the silhouettes of Jack and Sally standing under mistletoe and he is handing her a present.

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In my next post, we will venture on into the Mansion's Attic!

Holiday Haunted Mansion Ride-Thru (Part 2)

Continuing with Tokyo Disneyland's Holiday Mansion tour.....after leaving the portrait hallway, the Doombuggies enter the library. This scene is also the same as in Florida's Haunted Mansion. It is here that guests see the busts that turn and watch you. The two familiar busts from Anaheim are here, as well as two additional busts not seen in Anaheim's Mansion. In the holiday version, Jack Skellington's dog Zero is here putting garland onto a tree made up of floating books.

Next comes the music room. In the non-holiday version, the piano plays all by itself, but in the "Nightmare" version, Scary Teddy pounds away on the keys as Sally watches from a nearby chair.

As the Doombuggies leave the music room, they start to ascend a stairway. In Florida, this is where an "endless stairway" scene has recently been added. In Tokyo, this scene still has the three large spiders and webs, but for the holiday version, a projection of Oogie Boogie has been added. His silhouette is seen jumping around in various poses and laughing. In his last pose, he takes on the shape of a Christmas tree. It is a simple projection on a wall, but the effect is done well and it's pretty humorous. Also added to this scene are several cages containing "bugs". The cages have gift tags attached to them that say "For: Oogie Boogie" and the bugs are clinging to the bars of the cages and shaking nervously.

After this scene, the Doombuggies go past the endless hallway, the hands trying to push the lid off of the coffin, the hallway with all the doors (and the man-eating wreath), and the clock that strikes "13". These scenes in Tokyo are all pretty much identical to Anaheim's Holiday version. Tokyo's non-holiday version however, has two things that are different. One of the bulging doors in the hallway is open just slightly with two hands coming out of the top of it and there is a green fog seeping out of the crack. Also, there is a portrait of a man hanging on the wall in this hallway and his flat painted face in the portrait starts to bulge outward into a three-dimensional shape for a few seconds and then goes back to being flat. It is really a great effect....all of the Haunted Mansions should have this effect!

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In the next post, we will venture on into the Seance Room.

Holiday Haunted Mansion Ride-Thru (Part 1 - Continued)

All of the paintings above are framed and hang on the walls on either side of the portrait hallway. The painting below hangs above the doorway at the end of the hallway. The Doombuggies ride underneath it as they exit the hallway and go into the library.

In my next post, we'll take a look at the Mansion's Library and Music Room and see how they are decorated for the holidays.

Holiday Haunted Mansion Ride-Thru (Part 1)

Today we are going to continue our tour of Tokyo Disneyland's "Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare" attraction. (To see how the Mansion's exterior get's decorated for the holiday's, click here: Holiday Mansion exterior. And to see the pre-boarding walk-thru portion of the attraction click here: Stretching Room.)

After boarding a Doombuggy, guests immediately ride underneath a stairway with Jack Skellington and Sally above. This is a fully audio-animatronic Jack Skellington figure. As he talks to the guests passing below, Sally turns her head from side to side and Scary Teddy moves up and down out of the package she is holding. (Florida's Mansion has this same stairway and landing, but they don't decorate their mansion for the holidays. In Tokyo's non-holiday version, as well as Florida's Haunted Mansion, a candelabra floats around above the landing at the top of the stairs.)

Next, the Doombuggies turn and go down the portrait hallway....again, very similar to Florida's Mansion, but for the holiday version in Tokyo, the regular portraits are replaced with paintings of characters from "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

A few years back, Tokyo Disneyland sold sets of postcards of all the paintings that hang in the hallway. To view scans of these postcards, please see my next post entitled "Holiday Haunted Mansion Ride-Thru (Part 1 - Continued)" or just click (here.)

It's Lenticular!

This will hopefully make up for a couple of the poor quality photos from my last post. I still plan on continuing with my Holiday Mansion tour......this is just a quickie post in the meantime. I just found a lenticular postcard of the changing Jack Skellington portrait that I described in my last post.....the one that hangs above the fireplace in the foyer of Tokyo's Haunted Mansion. This scan of the postcard shows the painting in mid-transition.

I will begin the Doombuggy tour through the Mansion in my next post.