What Everyone Misses in Phantom Manor

Описание: I couldn’t resist throwing in a few Disneyland and WDW Haunted Mansion things for you to look for as well 😉

The griffins were sculpted by Cuban artist Ciro Rolando Santana y Arrite who started working at WED in 1969. He also sculpted many other griffin faces in the Mansion, like the corbels on top of the poles in the grand hall near the doom buggies, the birthday girl and Caesar’s elaborate chairs, and of course our beloved bat stanchions. There’s some evidence that shows the griffins (located at the bottom of the staircase in the load area in Disneyland) were slated to be removed possibly for lack of time before Roland was hired.

There are four different colors of griffins for the four doom-buggy versions of the Mansion: Disneyland’s are grey/black, the Magic Kingdom in WDW has green-tinged copper ones (not located in the load area but later on in the attraction), the ones in Paris’s Phantom Manor are gold, and Tokyo Disneyland has red ones. Only WDW and Disneyland have the line for their heads to turn. I’ve read that the effect was in operation briefly when the Haunted Mansion opened, but it hasn’t been operational since, likely because the doom buggies go by so fast you’d either see the effect before you were supposed to (spoiling it) or miss it entirely.

As for the oak tree in Phantom Manor, I believe budget cuts and dim lighting account for why we don’t notice this massive tree’s presence more. It clearly was meant to be something that tied together the plot, reresenting the Phantom’s looming presence and power over Melanie. I sometimes wonder if they pulled that concept right from the lyrics of Grim Grinning Ghosts: “As the moon climbs high o’er the dead oak tree…” 🤔

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