ANAHEIM, Calif. — Disneyland fans watching the new “Haunted Mansion” movie will be treated to a few extra laughs from the supernatural horror comedy when they spot Easter egg tributes to the classic dark ride hidden in plain sight throughout the film.
Movie trailers and preview screenings offered a host of hints about the visual nods and character references the “Haunted Mansion” film makes to the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, released by Walt Disney Studios on Friday.
The new movie stars Rosario Dawson as a single mom who moves into a haunted mansion with her son and engages a psychic (Tiffany Haddish), priest (Owen Wilson), paranormal specialist (LaKeith Stanfield), New Orleans tour guide (Winona Ryder) and historian (Danny DeVito) to rid the house of 999 ghosts. Along the way they encounter Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis), the Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto) and Constance Hatchaway (Lindsay Lamb).
Consider this your spoiler alert if you don’t want to read about any plot and character details before seeing the film.
Let’s take a closer look at the 10 Easter eggs in the new movie that make reference to the ride.
1. Disneyland facade
The film’s mansion is a replica of the Disneyland attraction facade.
Walt Disney asked artist Ken Anderson to develop a haunted house experience for Disneyland. Anderson’s rendering of a dilapidated mansion in an overgrown New Orleans bayou was originally rejected by the boss. The “Ghost House” drawing, based on the Shipley-Lydecker House in Baltimore, eventually became the design used for the attraction.
Each of the five Haunted Mansion-style attractions at Disney theme parks around the world have a distinct architectural style.
2. Haunted armor
Moving suits of armor terrorize the living and try to chase them out of the mansion in the film.
An armored knight with a shield and spear flanks the endless hallway with a floating candelabra in the Disneyland ride. The haunted armor makes slight movements as riders pass in their Doom Buggy ride vehicles.
3. Hatbox Ghost
The Hatbox Ghost plays a central role in the film as he searches for the elusive 1,000th soul to go with the other 999 happy haunts.
The Hatbox Ghost — whose head disappears from his shoulders and appears in a hatbox — returned to the Disneyland ride in 2015 after remaining out of sight for more than four decades.
The original Hatbox Ghost was removed from the attic scene a few months after the attraction’s 1969 debut because the effect wasn’t effective. Despite his short stint, the beloved character soon developed a cult following among hardcore fans.
4. Stretching Room
The windows and doors disappear in a stretching room that traps the living during a scene in the film.
Barrels of explosives, quicksand and crocodiles from the stretching portraits terrorize the living in the film as the characters in the portraits try to offer advice about how to escape the stretching room.
The Stretching Room in the Disneyland attraction serves as an elevator that takes riders down to the load area of the ride.
The octagonal room with no windows or doors features four paintings of previous Haunted Mansion guests in their “corruptible mortal states” flanked by candle-wielding gargoyles. The stretching room reveals the comically dreadful fates of the subjects in the portraits.
5. Grandfather clock
A grandfather clock with a 13th hour makes a prominent appearance in the film’s trailer.
An identical Gothic clock with a 13th hour appears in the Corridor of Doors in the Disneyland ride. The crooked hands on the clock spin backwards as the shadow of a clawed hand passes over the fanged demonic clock face.
6. Madame Leota
The psychic medium Madame Leota helps connect the living and the dead using her crystal ball in the film.
Madame Leota’s spirit head appears in a crystal ball in the Seance Circle scene of the Haunted Mansion ride. She uses “sympathetic vibrations” to summon ghosts for a “swinging wake” in the mansion.
7. Grand Hall
The Grand Hall serves as a central location in the film during a fight scene.
Riders on the Disneyland attraction travel along a balcony overlooking the marquee ballroom scene where ghosts waltz in endless circles, fly in through the windows, emerge from the pipes of an organ and swing from chandeliers.
8. Portrait Corridor
Portraits change from shot to shot and a pair of busts follow the living in the film.
Riders at Disneyland pass through the Portrait Corridor as they exit the Stretching Room and walk to the Doom Buggy loading station. Lightning flashes in the windows on one side of the hall as portraits on the other wall transform into macabre figures. At the end of the hallway, Watchful Busts in twin alcoves stare at riders as they pass.
9. Attic bride
A bride emerges from the attic with an ax and chases the living in the film’s trailer.
Constance Hatchway, the Black Widow Bride, shows up in wedding portraits in the attic scene of the Disneyland attraction with a series of husbands who lose their heads.
10. Mariner ghost
Returning a mariner ghost to the sea serves as a plot point in the film.
An early script for the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland created by Anderson that ultimately went unused involved a character known as Captain Gore or Captain Blood whose family met their demise in the mansion.
The sea captain storyline would have created a narrative link between the ride and Pirates of the Caribbean attractions at Disneyland.
