Speaker 1: Hello and welcome officially to Spooktober. I am one half
Speaker 1: of your host, Danny Fernandez, and sitting across from me
Speaker 1: as always is if He, if he, what are you well?
Speaker 1: Are You're introducing me to s and now and your
Speaker 1: whole Jacob Marley. Uh, this is nerdificent. It is October Weirds,
Speaker 1: our happiest time of the year. It's the most wonderful
Speaker 1: time of the year because we have jam packed Halloween
Speaker 1: based episodes for all of you horror babies, which if
Speaker 1: he is now an honorary horror baby because he was
Speaker 1: forced to now that he has to watch horror movies.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, Who Shot You? Has put me through
Speaker 1: too so far, which has both been scary stories to
Speaker 1: tell in the dark and it chapter two which you
Speaker 1: know you all had their spooks. The Paul Bunyan really
Speaker 1: got me because the teeth were real creepy. They gotta
Speaker 1: get you some real scary, real scary ones should come
Speaker 1: over and do that. Uh. Sitting with us today is
Speaker 1: filmmaker pop culture journalists and our good friends being the Graves. Hey, everyone,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be here. Vers Spooktober. You are a
Speaker 1: very horror baby. Yes, I'm a very horror baby. I
Speaker 1: like to joke that because I was born in June,
Speaker 1: I was made during October. You know, you know, kudos
Speaker 1: for doing the math. Um. Yeah, you you write a
Speaker 1: lot about horror for a lot of your pop culture stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: what is your favorite scary movie? Oh my gosh, that's
Speaker 1: like right now, right now, my most favorite scary movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so good. If you have not seen that, have you?
Speaker 1: I think you can hang with it. Uh, Sabina. We've
Speaker 1: been starting our podcast with what people are seeking out about.
Speaker 1: What are you getting out about this week? I'm actually
Speaker 1: geeking out about Hadestown. It's a Broadway musical that is
Speaker 1: supremely my jam. It's basically a retelling of the Orpheus
Speaker 1: and you were to see myth uh if it wasn't
Speaker 1: like the post apocalyptic dust bowl. And it's a very
Speaker 1: awesomely diverse cast Under the Shield's Place Hermes you known
Speaker 1: him from The Whiz and Reeve Carney is the lead
Speaker 1: in that. He plays Orpheus and it's pretty awesome. Music
Speaker 1: is amazing. It was originally a concept album um by
Speaker 1: an Ace read her last name Mitchell, Yes, and he's
Speaker 1: Mitchell and it like took years and years for to like,
Speaker 1: uh you know, be developed into musical and it actually
Speaker 1: is the only Broadway musical right now that has a
Speaker 1: female director. And she won the Tony d Also that's
Speaker 1: kind of sad. Yeah, oh she called it out when
Speaker 1: she went okay, good, Yeah, I love when they do that.
Speaker 1: If you what are you speaking out about? Oh man, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's uh October one and last weekend was
Speaker 1: Twitch Con, so I'm probably still recovering, reeling from all
Speaker 1: the fun meeting all the people in my community, uh
Speaker 1: you know, nerd Fam, Salt Squad, all like who came
Speaker 1: down to San Diego to turn up and meeting other creators.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm speaking out about. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: definitely look forward to any recaps that I may be
Speaker 1: posting or talking about. But yeah, real stoked. Fresh Doc
Speaker 1: finale went down without a hitch. I'm sure of it.
Speaker 1: And now it's you know, now it's time to see
Speaker 1: what's next going to Hunted House? Well, yeah, yeah I do,
Speaker 1: because I did see you, uh you know, Chris and Risco,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I didn't you want to
Speaker 1: ask a play? Did not ask you? Because I've asked
Speaker 1: you every Oh, well, you always asked me before my
Speaker 1: body marinates and gets ready to be scared, you know,
Speaker 1: like no, I needed to be October to fully let
Speaker 1: the scary juices get inside me, you know. Okay, but
Speaker 1: the free tickets are for September, so I got away
Speaker 1: from the scary juices. Um. The thing that I'm geeking
Speaker 1: out about is I got to do a storyboard animation
Speaker 1: class at six point Harness, which is an animation studio.
Speaker 1: You will recognize their work. They did hair Love, which
Speaker 1: was the short that was before that was directed by
Speaker 1: Matthew Cherry. That was a short that was before Angry Birds.
Speaker 1: Uh to. They also have done animation for Cartoon Network,
Speaker 1: Powerpuff Girls, Peanuts, super Dope. And they had a lot
Speaker 1: of cool directors come in. They had a lot of
Speaker 1: cool directors come in, and one of them was Matt
Speaker 1: Danner who is the director for Muppet Babies. He is
Speaker 1: also the voice of Little Kermit. It was so cute
Speaker 1: and he sounds just like them. Um. And they had
Speaker 1: a lot of cool a lot of cool people there.
Speaker 1: Noel Raphael l who is a She was a storyboard
Speaker 1: artist now a director. UM who has gotten to work
Speaker 1: on amazing things and Mario Diana who is the director
Speaker 1: for Bob's Burgers and also working on other things, and
Speaker 1: so it was really cool. It was so dope. I'm
Speaker 1: not an animator or I'm like everybody could draw a
Speaker 1: lot better than me, But I was more just wanted
Speaker 1: to see the storyboard process as a writer and someone
Speaker 1: that's going into animation, and so really really cool. Check
Speaker 1: out their work. They also do you know these workshops
Speaker 1: for free? I think like a hundred and fifty people applied.
Speaker 1: They only they had spots for thirties, so I was
Speaker 1: really honored to be in there. But follow them on
Speaker 1: Instagram so that you can pop in and if it's
Speaker 1: something that you're interested in breaking into. They are a
Speaker 1: great resource. That's what I'm geeking out about today. We
Speaker 1: are talking about the Hunted Mansion. That music is so iconic.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's just I actually have I know
Speaker 1: you and I have talked about this. UM. I have
Speaker 1: a party version that I want to play the sun Spotify.
Speaker 1: It's under spooky, spooky scary skeletons. Yes, this is me
Speaker 1: and this is me when I'm getting ready, like in
Speaker 1: my kitchen. UM that makes it sound like I get
Speaker 1: changed in my kitchen and the like when I'm getting
Speaker 1: ready for my morning. Um, Sabina, what is your first
Speaker 1: memory of the Hunted Mansion at Disneyland or disney World. Disneyland,
Speaker 1: for sure, I grew up in l A. So kind
Speaker 1: of like going to Disneyland every year was a big thing.
Speaker 1: And honestly, the growing up, I just know that I
Speaker 1: was scared and I had like my my face covered
Speaker 1: with my face covered with eyes and my face covered
Speaker 1: with my hands and trying to like peek through. And
Speaker 1: it was definitely like a gradual love as I got
Speaker 1: older with Haunted Mansion. So definitely like scared, you know,
Speaker 1: like honestly starting out scared, but then like why hitting
Speaker 1: the graveyard you know and having all the ghosts come
Speaker 1: out and being silly and fun, getting comfortable and loving
Speaker 1: it and being just completely love. What about you if
Speaker 1: because you are a former cast member, Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: know the same way I grew up in l A.
Speaker 1: Same thing was a little scary when I was younger,
Speaker 1: but yeah, as especially when I was in cast member,
Speaker 1: uh the cast member years, when I was going to
Speaker 1: Disneyland almost once a day, Haunt imagine was like a
Speaker 1: half like I had to hit it once a day.
Speaker 1: It's just such a fun especially it's from my era
Speaker 1: of Disney. Disneyland rides that are like super immersive, like
Speaker 1: Pirates of the Caribbean. If you look at Peter Pan Mr.
Speaker 1: Toad's Wild Ride, like those are dark rides that kind
Speaker 1: of take you in this world and you kind of escape,
Speaker 1: and the imagineers just kind of went all out, you know,
Speaker 1: and it was what was real creepy, even though I
Speaker 1: think they toned it down now, was that room with
Speaker 1: the lady who cut all our husband's head off? Like
Speaker 1: that was very scary and and uh but and that's
Speaker 1: that's my big argument that I'm gonna just go ahead
Speaker 1: off the top, just start is the fact that I
Speaker 1: do not like that they switch over to the Nightmare
Speaker 1: before Christmas, because the Nightmare before Christmas is not scary,
Speaker 1: it's very fun. Also, it's Christmas, it's a Christmas theme
Speaker 1: were but they keep it up until Chris After, they
Speaker 1: keep it till New Year's Yeah, I mean it's it's
Speaker 1: it's silly. But the reason they do it is because
Speaker 1: the ride has to be down for almost two weeks
Speaker 1: to do the transition. So if you think of that
Speaker 1: if you think of it that way, there's really no
Speaker 1: way to transition because especially Disney, right after Halloween fully
Speaker 1: starts to pivot into their holiday stuff, so they have
Speaker 1: it's the trade off where they're just trying to beg
Speaker 1: us to uh accept it. Because I've sat down with
Speaker 1: another like disney Head, and we like talked about how
Speaker 1: we both think it's lame. But then I think it
Speaker 1: was with the podcast the Ride, because we were talking
Speaker 1: about and I was talking about how I hated it,
Speaker 1: and then we did uh once once we did get
Speaker 1: to the fact that, like it has to be down
Speaker 1: for two weeks, It's like, do you take the two
Speaker 1: weeks that would have it be before you know, um
Speaker 1: be be essentially block out Halloween. No, you don't want
Speaker 1: to do that, or do you take it the first
Speaker 1: two weeks of November, which, no, you don't want to
Speaker 1: do it, even though I think you should. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't need the first two weeks of November. But
Speaker 1: I mean, in a perfect world, if the changeover was
Speaker 1: could be quicker, I would love it if you had
Speaker 1: it happened the night of of um Halloween, because since
Speaker 1: the movie starts the night of Halloween, like that would
Speaker 1: be fun, but that's is impossible just because they have
Speaker 1: to add so much stuff. I uh, yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: I'm in a different camp. I love it. And also
Speaker 1: I you've made that apparent. What I will say is that, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not it's not scary, and the Haunted Mansion Ride itself,
Speaker 1: I would say, isn't unless you are a young person.
Speaker 1: I can see someone around the age of like five
Speaker 1: or six. You know, they're they're starting y you know
Speaker 1: when you and I think this is why, because you
Speaker 1: know how something. So if you don't know how the
Speaker 1: Haunted Mansion ride works, it's in constant motion. It's a
Speaker 1: conveyor belt throughout the omni mover. So if you have
Speaker 1: these people who are not paying attention and they're not
Speaker 1: getting in the Omni mover at the speed, they have
Speaker 1: to stop it. And they really do not want to
Speaker 1: do this because it stops the whole ride. But you
Speaker 1: will always get in, you know. Sometimes people have you know,
Speaker 1: a disability or you know, and maybe like an old person,
Speaker 1: you can't because it does move, It moves out a pace.
Speaker 1: It definitely isn't like the slowest, but it's it'll stop.
Speaker 1: And I remember as a kid being stuck in front
Speaker 1: of one of the scarier door knobs, and just I
Speaker 1: was so sure that door was going to open. I
Speaker 1: was so I think I've had to be like eight
Speaker 1: or nine, and I was like, this is how a die.
Speaker 1: I've definitely gone. I get stuck every time I go there. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so let's just hop right into it. You
Speaker 1: they're right about it being a conveyor belt. You get
Speaker 1: into a doom buggy that closes on its own. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the haunted manner itself has happy haunts, but there's
Speaker 1: always room for one more. I'm way too excited about
Speaker 1: this episode. So the idea for the mansion actually proceeds.
Speaker 1: Disneyland and W E. D Enterprises to win. Walt Disney
Speaker 1: hired the first of his imagineers, as if he was saying, uh,
Speaker 1: those were essentially like research and development people that we're
Speaker 1: looking into the creation, design, and construction of the Disney parks.
Speaker 1: So Disney assigned imagineer Ken Anderson to create a story
Speaker 1: using uh Disney legend. Harper Job's idea, which was to
Speaker 1: build a New Orleans theme land in a small transition
Speaker 1: area between Frontier Land and adventure Land. UH and so
Speaker 1: New Orleans also has parts of the Caribbean, right, and
Speaker 1: this old antebellum manner overgrown with weeds, dead trees, you
Speaker 1: walk through a cemetery. Yeah, originally, Uh, it has always
Speaker 1: been in different points of development since before Disneyland and
Speaker 1: um Walt had basically so many hands touched this project. Honestly,
Speaker 1: UM they were thinking that it would be at one
Speaker 1: point a museum of the weird, where you'd go into
Speaker 1: the mansion and there'd be like alternate route you could
Speaker 1: exit through, but you'd be going in and experiencing just
Speaker 1: like a haunted house walk through, and you'd encounter like
Speaker 1: scary optical illusions or just crazy designs that all of
Speaker 1: the different team members had planned out. And this was
Speaker 1: while while was still alive. I guess, let's just go
Speaker 1: through the actual mansion. So you get in, UM, and
Speaker 1: we have the elevator, which if you're a small child
Speaker 1: or I guess maybe Iffy, maybe you didn't know. I think,
Speaker 1: like you know, you have the growing portraits, the famed
Speaker 1: growing portraits, UM, and that is actually an elevator that's
Speaker 1: taking you below. That's what you know below the actual park.
Speaker 1: So so all of the haunted mansion is actually underground,
Speaker 1: underground and like to the side for sure. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: like after the whole Museum of the Weird thing, it
Speaker 1: kind of turned into a like they brought in different
Speaker 1: imagineers who kind of decided to go a more just
Speaker 1: dark ride um angle for it, and you know you
Speaker 1: have like the stretching portraits. They brought in Extensio, who
Speaker 1: is latin X, which really awesome. You know, like one
Speaker 1: of the early Latino X engineers over at Disney. He
Speaker 1: worked on Priors of the Caribbean. He was a lyricist
Speaker 1: and the scriptwriter for that, and he was also brought
Speaker 1: on board to write the story for the Haunted Mansion,
Speaker 1: so he all of his like dialogues, the first stuff
Speaker 1: that we hear when we go in and meet the
Speaker 1: ghost hosts like welcome foolish Mortals. Yeah. Can you talk
Speaker 1: about the Um some of the stories in the mansion,
Speaker 1: So are there any particular ones behind the growing the
Speaker 1: people in the growing Um portraits? So they were all
Speaker 1: like different characters that were sort of invented as a
Speaker 1: part of the mythology. There was never a like coherent
Speaker 1: story to begin with um just because of all those
Speaker 1: different evolutions and definitely it's one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: it's such an intriguing place because you go in and
Speaker 1: there's like, you know, Sally silt Walker, and like, um,
Speaker 1: who's like the type of lady and he's still Walker.
Speaker 1: It's Sally something in my head, I'm like still Walker. Um.
Speaker 1: You also have you know, like the you have well
Speaker 1: you have constants, so you see her as an older
Speaker 1: woman on the gravestone of her husband and she's the bride,
Speaker 1: so she is still pretty much incorporated throughout the whole
Speaker 1: right itself. Um, And basically when you're in there, you
Speaker 1: have this you know, mansion of different spirits, some good,
Speaker 1: some maybe a little malevolin um. And you encounter you know,
Speaker 1: the hat box ghost, who is a recent edition even
Speaker 1: though um he wasn't been around. He was originally on
Speaker 1: the ride for a short while, but I guess that
Speaker 1: people weren't happening with like the effect back then didn't
Speaker 1: uh work as well as you know now we're able
Speaker 1: to do it, um with his disappearing head. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. But but since then, like he was always
Speaker 1: a part of like a lot of the marketing uh
Speaker 1: sort of advertisement and became like this cult legend um
Speaker 1: who finally has found his place back in. Yeah, speaking
Speaker 1: of people making their place and making their place not
Speaker 1: back in, I don't know if you have the crow,
Speaker 1: the little crow around there. If you're on the ride,
Speaker 1: you'll see like a little crow at different portions of
Speaker 1: the of the ride. Originally that was supposed to be
Speaker 1: the narrator and then that was scrapped and they're like,
Speaker 1: no talking crow. Um. There's also one thing I always
Speaker 1: have to mention as an ex cast member. It's imperative
Speaker 1: that I mentioned this one because you were talking about
Speaker 1: how this was done where when Walt was still alive.
Speaker 1: Walt Disney has only ever step foot in Disneyland, which
Speaker 1: means Disneyland is the only park with Walt spirit inside it.
Speaker 1: Walt passed away before disney World was created, so as
Speaker 1: a as, although it maybe bigger and have all the
Speaker 1: different parks, doesn't feel the same, doesn't feel the same,
Speaker 1: It doesn't have a spirit inside of it. I know
Speaker 1: that because I my friend was in the Disney College program.
Speaker 1: He was a cast member at and cast member. By
Speaker 1: the way, if you don't know, is anyone that works
Speaker 1: at the Disney parks, Um, they're called cast members, and um,
Speaker 1: he was at Disney World. I can't say what he
Speaker 1: did off to tell you off the things. I don't
Speaker 1: want to get him in trouble because he's one of
Speaker 1: the characters. But he finally he worked at disney World,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, dude, you have to go to Disneyland.
Speaker 1: I love Disneyland. There's just something like extra magical about it.
Speaker 1: And he went and he was like, I see what
Speaker 1: you mean. I think it's because all of the care
Speaker 1: that was put into it. Like I love disney World.
Speaker 1: Disneyland is like the originals. You know. It's like these
Speaker 1: were not replicas, Like this was the original rides. This
Speaker 1: was the like the down to, like the little painting
Speaker 1: details in the rides. It's just so Yeah, it has
Speaker 1: like a more quaint, familial magic to it. Um other
Speaker 1: speaking of, like a really eerie coincidence that kind of
Speaker 1: does give Disney or a little bit of Disneyland's heart
Speaker 1: is that the Hunted mansion at disney World was built
Speaker 1: at the same time as a haunted mansion at Disneyland. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like they kind of have like those at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Disney is real real into that, which is why there's
Speaker 1: a ride that's just sitting waiting for Galaxy's Edge because
Speaker 1: they want to make sure that Disney World gets at first.
Speaker 1: Be a shame if Disneyland had something before Disney World
Speaker 1: and everything has to be he cool, um Disney as
Speaker 1: as if as a cast member, Disney really does put
Speaker 1: sometimes almost too much thought into everything they do. They're
Speaker 1: very into the immersion of the idea you're as a
Speaker 1: cast member, as a former castmer, you're not able to
Speaker 1: discuss like things that are going on outside of the park.
Speaker 1: Like I remember I was working during the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: and they're like, you are to not give any scores.
Speaker 1: You can't can't give any scores. You can ask for
Speaker 1: scores because they and that's why, like if you notice
Speaker 1: certain portions of the park that will be fake sky,
Speaker 1: it's because Walt never wanted you to see outside of
Speaker 1: the park. He wanted you to be fully immersed in Disneyland.
Speaker 1: And and and that's why I like, you know, and
Speaker 1: um something that was really pushed on us as cast members.
Speaker 1: And once you when you work there, you you feel
Speaker 1: the magic. It's not like it's forced, but it's the
Speaker 1: idea of a magical moment. You can create a magical
Speaker 1: moment for a kid or a family just by doing
Speaker 1: something sweet that you're trying to create moments that they
Speaker 1: will remember forever. And that's how you interacted. So and
Speaker 1: that's why anytime you see these people going viral, you
Speaker 1: know online of like, oh they did this, is like
Speaker 1: that's that's that's part of that's you know, it's not
Speaker 1: to diminish it in any way, but that's part of
Speaker 1: the job. As you're looking for those moments, um and
Speaker 1: when and if you do see something, do not ask, uh,
Speaker 1: who is the Like, don't say what's the actress that
Speaker 1: plays X y Z, say who is the friend of that? Yes,
Speaker 1: because that is the way because like you know, like
Speaker 1: Danny said, the guest, if you are it's like you
Speaker 1: don't play Cinderella, you're Cinderella's friend. You're a friend of Cinderella.
Speaker 1: You're a friend of Belle. That's like the Santa the
Speaker 1: mall Santa's So this is kind of cool. Two of
Speaker 1: the mansion's main designers, Mark Davis and Claude Coats, disagreed
Speaker 1: on whether the right should be frightening or enjoyable. Um
Speaker 1: Claude originally was a background artist wanted a scary Adventure
Speaker 1: in produced renditions of moody surroundings like endless hallways, corridors
Speaker 1: of doors, and numerous characterists environments. This is also fascinating
Speaker 1: because it says that Walt Disney actually visited UM the
Speaker 1: Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, and then inspired
Speaker 1: him for he never wanted the mansion to be like
Speaker 1: scary and decrepit on the outside. He was like he
Speaker 1: loved the aesthetic of like the Winchester Mystery House being
Speaker 1: like pristine and gorgeous, but once you go into the
Speaker 1: haunted mansion, it's the ghosts that kind of take care of. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and just for anyone that doesn't know, the Winchester Mystery
Speaker 1: House has a bunch of like stairs that lead to nowhere,
Speaker 1: doors that open two walls. It's we should go ify.
Speaker 1: I actually never been there, for I was in a
Speaker 1: pilot for Fangoria where we had to spend the night
Speaker 1: at haunted places, and that was the next place that
Speaker 1: we were going to spend the night. Well, we'll hit
Speaker 1: them up for this podcast. We'll get it sponsored by
Speaker 1: the Winchester Mystery House. UM, And so they kind of
Speaker 1: both got their wish of having it, you know, be
Speaker 1: silly and full of gags, but also areas that it's
Speaker 1: super dark. The ride narration was performed by Paul Freeze
Speaker 1: and the role of our ghost host uh and the
Speaker 1: Tractions theme song is grim Grinning Ghosts, which was composed
Speaker 1: by Buddy Baker, with the lyrics as Sabina said by Extensio. Yes,
Speaker 1: and one of the cool things are at about exit
Speaker 1: ten TiAl is that he was saying that like in
Speaker 1: the midst of everyone kind of like being like should
Speaker 1: be scarier, it should be funnier. Um, he kind of
Speaker 1: like helped everyone get real back in because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day and this is all happening, as
Speaker 1: you know, wal was certain to get sick. And you know,
Speaker 1: Walt's whole thing with it is that he wanted it
Speaker 1: to be inviting, you know, and something that could be
Speaker 1: inviting can also still be spooky and fun, you know.
Speaker 1: And I like how it kind of even harkins too.
Speaker 1: You know. What we love about Coco that came out
Speaker 1: recently is that like ghosts and like life in all
Speaker 1: of its forms, can be something to not be afraid
Speaker 1: of and to kind of like accept in, you know,
Speaker 1: be a part of the Swinging Wake if he um,
Speaker 1: I know you're not gonna want to hear this, but
Speaker 1: the first time that I played with Auigi board was
Speaker 1: for that pilot. We spent the night at Bob Baker's
Speaker 1: Marionette Theater. I can't remember if I told you this,
Speaker 1: but we Jamie Loftus, myself and a couple of other hosts.
Speaker 1: We use a Luigi board, and I like none of
Speaker 1: us were moved, like we would not be able to
Speaker 1: have been answered these questions. It was like, we're like,
Speaker 1: what's your favorite puppet? And it would like name something
Speaker 1: that we didn't even know. Um. But one of the
Speaker 1: things that when we asked it like how about the afterlife?
Speaker 1: And it just seemed like cool, like everyone was hanging
Speaker 1: out in the afterlife. So anyways, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: tell you that, um story, if you ever want to.
Speaker 1: I've messed her. I've messed That's what It's like. Everyone's
Speaker 1: just hanging Yeah. So so uh Before the opening, this
Speaker 1: is actually real cool to see. They had employee previews
Speaker 1: of the mansion on August six, seven, and eight, followed
Speaker 1: by the soft openings on the ninth and tenth, where
Speaker 1: a limited number of part guests were allowed to ride,
Speaker 1: uh and then a midnight press event was held on
Speaker 1: the evening of the eleven. And the reason that this
Speaker 1: is kind of cool is because that's something they do
Speaker 1: till this day. When they did those Star Toars redesign,
Speaker 1: I was able to uh go on a cast member
Speaker 1: only you know, night and try it. So it's it's
Speaker 1: it seems like it's just a tradition held as old
Speaker 1: a time. But the mansion open to all guests on
Speaker 1: August twelve, nineteen six nine. So, oh my gosh, we
Speaker 1: almost it was the we passed the anniversary. Yes, fifty
Speaker 1: years this year, Yeah, fifty years this year. How they're
Speaker 1: celebrating it all year? Oh wow, that's wild. Which speaking
Speaker 1: of you know, we mentioned earlier the Haunted Mansion holiday,
Speaker 1: the Gingerbread house that they do every year in the
Speaker 1: dining room scene. This year is actually the Haunted Mansion
Speaker 1: for the fiftieth birthday as Yeah, so when they flip
Speaker 1: it over to holiday times, they also have like it
Speaker 1: smells like gingerbread in that area. We too have to
Speaker 1: go to Disney because last time I went was this
Speaker 1: time last year, and they have all they have so
Speaker 1: many different Halloween flavored. I had the pumpkin spice which
Speaker 1: was solid. They have a sour apple solid. Okay. They
Speaker 1: one of my favorite people in there's Madam Leota. Do
Speaker 1: you want to talk a little bit about her, Sabina,
Speaker 1: Madam Leota is everything? Does she have a story behind her?
Speaker 1: Her placement there? They had like all these different elements
Speaker 1: and definitely she was one of those things that you
Speaker 1: know that you have to have the psychic in there,
Speaker 1: and like having her be a disembodied head is amazing.
Speaker 1: And I think it was the voice of Maleficent, right,
Speaker 1: who does the voice of Leota? Oh? Really, that's super cool.
Speaker 1: She also appears, I think in other areas of the mansion.
Speaker 1: There's a two there's a tombstone of her dear sweet Leota,
Speaker 1: beloved by all in regions beyond now. But having a
Speaker 1: ball uh yeah, so her head appears. I always thought
Speaker 1: that was really super cool in that like seance scene.
Speaker 1: What is some of your favorite parts of the of
Speaker 1: the mansion? Some of my favorite parts of the mansion. Um.
Speaker 1: I would definitely have to say that the ballroom scene
Speaker 1: is one of my favorites. I I like to this day,
Speaker 1: I avoid watching those like behind the scenes videos that
Speaker 1: tells you how like the magic happens, they don't want
Speaker 1: to break that illusion even though like a vaguely like
Speaker 1: sort of no old like Peppers ghost stuff. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I just but it's so cool, so cool, like the dueling,
Speaker 1: the dueling yeah, ghosts, the dueling ghosts. And it also
Speaker 1: like during how during the Christmas switch over for Nightmare,
Speaker 1: it has my favorite room of all time, which is
Speaker 1: the floating book room. It's like off to the corner,
Speaker 1: to the left corner. Um, so between the organist and
Speaker 1: the dining room table, they opened up a curtain and
Speaker 1: you see floating books and it kind of looks like
Speaker 1: a Christmas tree. But I, I just I loved that.
Speaker 1: Like visual, it's definitely my favorite. What about you? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, as a dog person, I always love the
Speaker 1: graveyard digger and his dog. I also always get stuck
Speaker 1: there for some reason, So I love that. I love
Speaker 1: that area. What else? I love the singing ghosts. I
Speaker 1: love the Actually I do love the changing portraits. So
Speaker 1: you go in, you see the stretch, you're in the
Speaker 1: stretching room. You have your your host ghost that talks
Speaker 1: to you. Uh, there is this is a little dark.
Speaker 1: There's a hanging that has taking place, has hung themselves
Speaker 1: um and you hear a scream and a crash, and
Speaker 1: then you're let out of the elevator. Before you get
Speaker 1: to your doom buggy, you encounter six changing portraits. One
Speaker 1: is April December. It's a young lady April who morphs
Speaker 1: into a decrepit old woman December. The next is the
Speaker 1: Flying Dutchman. It's a clipper ship which becomes a ghost
Speaker 1: ship with tattered sales on a stormy sea. Medusa, who's
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. My mom actually went as her
Speaker 1: for Halloween. I have to send it you a picture
Speaker 1: of it morphying from a young woman into a stony gorgon.
Speaker 1: The Black Prince, which is a night on horseback named
Speaker 1: on concept art as the Black Prince, where both horse
Speaker 1: and the writer morphed into glowing skeletons. The Weird Cat
Speaker 1: Lady is my favorite. It's a beautiful woman reclining on
Speaker 1: a sofa and then she transforms into a panther or
Speaker 1: after the renovation, it was like a white tiger. And
Speaker 1: then the Aging Man, a handsome nobleman who flashes into
Speaker 1: a skeleton in a rotting suit. So those are are
Speaker 1: I really think those are cool. The um Bus stones,
Speaker 1: though the bus of the Singing Ghosts are some of
Speaker 1: my favorites. Yeah, I was the singing ghost is great,
Speaker 1: but I was even thinking back to UM when you
Speaker 1: first arrive out of the elevator and you have that
Speaker 1: one bus that follows you, like those are like the
Speaker 1: fun illusions and then the ones of like there's the
Speaker 1: paintings and then the lightning will strike and then it
Speaker 1: is a dark version of the painting. So though that's
Speaker 1: always super, I spend way too much time looking at
Speaker 1: that anytime I go in, even though I've seen it
Speaker 1: a million times. Yes, so they have an homage to
Speaker 1: those singing bus In Hercules during I Don't Say I'm
Speaker 1: in love Um, the five muses appear as the bush
Speaker 1: uh and then one of them is broken. Uncle Theodore
Speaker 1: is the broken one. There was originally planned to be
Speaker 1: a six female singing bust and lou Krushia I think,
Speaker 1: but this was never used, although it should be. It
Speaker 1: should be, let's add it in. I'm like not opposed
Speaker 1: to them making changes, honestly. Yeah, but there, I mean
Speaker 1: they added in the Hapox ghost once that effect was
Speaker 1: like actually possible, and at a panel this past summer
Speaker 1: Midsummer Scream, you know, they're kind of saying that they
Speaker 1: want to take on the tradition of every year after
Speaker 1: Haunted Mansion Holiday adding something different to the mansion itself
Speaker 1: and kind of trying to ease fans into like sort
Speaker 1: of effects and things that are beloved being changed in
Speaker 1: updated to allow for a new technology to make it
Speaker 1: even more like crazy awesome, And they basically like dropped
Speaker 1: hints that Madam Leota would be done a lot better
Speaker 1: with new technology than with the technology that they're cool.
Speaker 1: I like, but maybe because I remember her from the
Speaker 1: old one, Like I just remember, you know, I've been
Speaker 1: around long enough also growing up in southern California, that
Speaker 1: I remember these things before they were how they are now.
Speaker 1: I'm very fascinated to hear more about our famous bride
Speaker 1: at the Haunted Mansion. But we have to take a
Speaker 1: really quick break. We'll hop back into that right after this. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we are back and are bleeding heart bride Constance Hatchaway,
Speaker 1: can you tell the audience a little bit about her? Yeah.
Speaker 1: So one of the things a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: notice when they're on the ride is that every portrait
Speaker 1: that you pass on the way to her. In the
Speaker 1: attic scene, she is with a different husband and a
Speaker 1: new strand of pearls appears around her neck like seven necklaces. Basically,
Speaker 1: I thought she was a jilted wouldn't Wasn't she a
Speaker 1: jilted lover? Like, wasn't she left? I thought that's what
Speaker 1: happened to her, That that's a phantom manner so in France,
Speaker 1: which actually sees what I'm saying. So like, so earlier
Speaker 1: we're talking about like Leota, and I was like trying
Speaker 1: to figure out like what her backstory was. But literally
Speaker 1: recently between a backstory, I've created variety as I have,
Speaker 1: but also just in general a lot of the Haunted
Speaker 1: Mansion characters that were just thrown in, you know, like
Speaker 1: when it was a big mishmash of everyone kind of
Speaker 1: adding characters. They all have a lot of backstories that
Speaker 1: are currently being expanded through books and comic books and
Speaker 1: like a lot of um rpging components on the Disney
Speaker 1: play app and um so Leota and like Constance and
Speaker 1: Sally the Stn't Walker, um they all now have stories
Speaker 1: that you can kind of like dive into and it's
Speaker 1: really cool because, Um, if you go back to phantom
Speaker 1: manner before the recent redo of that storyline, she was
Speaker 1: a jilted bride and this is a phantom manner in France,
Speaker 1: uh Disneyland, Paris. Um. She she was a jilted bride
Speaker 1: whose father I believe goes on a revenge spree because
Speaker 1: she gets left at the altar, or it's that her father.
Speaker 1: Like there's like a like day leaned into the horror
Speaker 1: for sure with that one, because France did not get
Speaker 1: doing both scary and funny, so they were like, no,
Speaker 1: it has to be a scary thing. And basically I
Speaker 1: think the storyline for that one was that she thinks
Speaker 1: she gets left at the altar, but her father murders
Speaker 1: her husband and it's her just like waiting and mourning
Speaker 1: and just like becoming old. And it's one of the
Speaker 1: rids that I wish I had gone on before the
Speaker 1: refurb But in the new story for a Phantom manner,
Speaker 1: it kind of has this idea that kind of makes
Speaker 1: the bride evil again. I would say, so she and
Speaker 1: her father, I guess team up two like con men
Speaker 1: out of their fortunes. Um and yeah, they just added
Speaker 1: a new bride animatronics, so they updated her similarly to
Speaker 1: the bride that you remember with like the heart um,
Speaker 1: and she's now like different and it's a it should
Speaker 1: be really interesting, Like there's like now a whole book
Speaker 1: about the phantom manner because that one has a lot
Speaker 1: of history that also went into it. Yeah. It says
Speaker 1: that she married several rich men, including bankers, businessman, farmers,
Speaker 1: and barons, and she was dubbed by the public the
Speaker 1: black widow bride. So her husband's were Ambrose Harper. Gosh,
Speaker 1: these names, the naive but good intentions, son of successful farmers.
Speaker 1: They married in eighteen sixty nine. Her next husband was
Speaker 1: Frank Banks. I love that they're just named after Frank Banks,
Speaker 1: an Eastern banker and community pillar. Married in eighteen seventy two. Oh,
Speaker 1: she's not taken any time. Seventy two. That's that's no
Speaker 1: time at all. The Marquis day Doom, a foreign diplomat
Speaker 1: with a military pass. They married in eighteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: two years later. Who's marrying her? Wow, I mean she's
Speaker 1: she's I mean good for her. Reginald Caine, a celebrated
Speaker 1: railroad baron gambler in world renowned gormant. I love that
Speaker 1: they have this much backstory for her. Married in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy five, one year later, and then this year finally
Speaker 1: George high Tower, a possible relative of the wealthy hotel
Speaker 1: owner explorer Harrison high Tower, the third They got married
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy seven, and that was her final husband,
Speaker 1: who was one of the main who was one of
Speaker 1: the many owners of the mansion. So after murder, after
Speaker 1: murdering high Tower, Constance decides that she was satisfied with
Speaker 1: the wealth she has accumulated and settled down in her mansion.
Speaker 1: She later died of unknown causes, but people think it's
Speaker 1: old age. And then she became a permanent resident of
Speaker 1: the mansion's attic, standing up there. And she also the
Speaker 1: one that says, um come back, carry back. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: also speaking of the high Tower family. So you know
Speaker 1: how like Orlando and Anaheim's haunted mansion is like funny
Speaker 1: spooky Frances is like terrifying Hong Kong, Disneyland has a
Speaker 1: um haunted mansion that is not actually haunted. It's called
Speaker 1: Mystic Manner and it's owned by I believe Henry high Tower,
Speaker 1: who you mentioned as like the relative of the high
Speaker 1: tower here that got beheaded. Probably Um, he has this
Speaker 1: house and a pet monkey who gets into his artifact
Speaker 1: room and he's like a collector of like crazy artifacts,
Speaker 1: Indiana Jones style things. And the monkey gets into this
Speaker 1: box that basically unleashes, um some powers that make the
Speaker 1: house really sentient. So like you follow the monkey on
Speaker 1: like a whimsical adventure through the halls of this mansion,
Speaker 1: and like certain things that are haunted mansion like happened
Speaker 1: to like a the armor of a soldier comes to life,
Speaker 1: a room completely morphs into a fantastical landscape. But it's
Speaker 1: like a cute little adventure and not scary at all. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then we would be remiss if we didn't talk
Speaker 1: about the Haunted Mansion. Two thousand and three American Supernatural
Speaker 1: have to if he please take it away? Do we
Speaker 1: have to talk about this film? Okay, my throat, My
Speaker 1: throat closed up, you want to talk about? Haunted Mansion
Speaker 1: is as a two thousand three American supernatural horror comedy
Speaker 1: film based on the Disney theme park attraction of the
Speaker 1: same name. Directed by Rob Minkoff, The film is written
Speaker 1: by David Baron Baum and stars ed T Murphy, Terrence Stamp,
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Parker, Marcia Thomason, Jennifer Tilly, and Dina spy Bay.
Speaker 1: Film was theatrically released in the United States on November
Speaker 1: twenty six, of two thousand three, some would say almost
Speaker 1: twenty six days too late, and is Disney's fifth film
Speaker 1: based on an attraction at one of its theme parks.
Speaker 1: The following film UH, the following the television film Tower
Speaker 1: of Terror, Mission to Mars, The Country Bears, and The
Speaker 1: Pirates of the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Speaker 1: The film grossed a hundred and eight one eighty two
Speaker 1: point three million worldwide on a ninety million budget UH,
Speaker 1: which means it was a success, but it received negative
Speaker 1: reviews from critics, citing a lack of scares and humor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like it was like, which is which you know, as
Speaker 1: someone who has seen it on TV, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you weren't sure if that movie was going to be
Speaker 1: scary or funny, and then uh, it was neither. That
Speaker 1: was something because I was so excited after seeing Pirates
Speaker 1: of the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl. The
Speaker 1: best sequence in that film to me is that moment
Speaker 1: where Elizabeth Swan realizes that the pirate ship she's on
Speaker 1: is filled with ghosts, like you know, like the whole
Speaker 1: of your Nightmare's Miss Turner, you're living one scene with
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Rush who just living one yes, um, Like that
Speaker 1: was like hilarious and terrifying, and so I thought that
Speaker 1: was the tone that we were going to get for
Speaker 1: the Haunted Mansion movie. And they're so different. They both
Speaker 1: came out in the same year and they could not
Speaker 1: be more different. Success Well, it's funny because they took
Speaker 1: two different approaches. Where Parts of the Caribbean took the
Speaker 1: theme of the ride and made its own story. This
Speaker 1: film very obviously tried to make a story out of
Speaker 1: different points of the ride, which it's if you've been
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast Episod to this point is just
Speaker 1: a hodgepodge, a bunch of stories, so you can't make
Speaker 1: one cohesive story out of it, like I remember they tried.
Speaker 1: They they have the scene with the floating like head
Speaker 1: in the glass, like it was like no, no, like
Speaker 1: you you should have did the parts of the Caribbean thing,
Speaker 1: which is just using those themes and then you can
Speaker 1: have different knots to the stuff in the ride, but
Speaker 1: creating its own story. Uh, mostly because and it's and
Speaker 1: I don't think it's I don't necessarily think it's the
Speaker 1: fault of anyone. When you really think of like a big,
Speaker 1: big budget movie like this and the fact that it's
Speaker 1: connected to a ride, I can imagine like, you know,
Speaker 1: probably dealing with the studios being like, this isn't like
Speaker 1: the ride, but I think, you know, it seems like
Speaker 1: it's rumored that we're going to get another shot at this.
Speaker 1: I hope so. And I well, that was supposed to
Speaker 1: be general do Toro's um would ended up being, um,
Speaker 1: what am I thinking of the p Crimson peak? Crimson
Speaker 1: Peak by the way, if you watch, I literally was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the Haunted Mansion, like you can you don't know,
Speaker 1: but like the scenery, the decoration, like the wall, people,
Speaker 1: like everything. I was like, oh, this start this movie
Speaker 1: started out like they were trying to film the Haunted Mansion. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then you know, whatever fell through there, I don't
Speaker 1: know fell through there, um, which was fascinating becomes Crimson peak.
Speaker 1: He kept trying to tell people, this is not a
Speaker 1: horror story, this is a love story, and I think
Speaker 1: it was. Um, I think it was marketed. Not his fault,
Speaker 1: but that's typically what they do, is they'll market those
Speaker 1: stories as like scary, and he just kept trying to
Speaker 1: tell people this isn't scary, this is like a love story,
Speaker 1: which fascinating enough. I think they could have done with
Speaker 1: the haunted mansion. Uh is have like this, you know,
Speaker 1: jilted lover or type of haunted love story, background of
Speaker 1: why the person doesn't leave and yeah, so maybe we'll
Speaker 1: get it again. I hope. So. I think, I honestly
Speaker 1: think that like with shows that are really popular right now,
Speaker 1: if you think about Hunting on Hill House, or if
Speaker 1: you think about Stranger Things or Downtown Abbey, even um,
Speaker 1: if you have it as like a series on Disney
Speaker 1: Plus that is literally you know, like aesthetically and creepily
Speaker 1: like Counting of Hill House, but you know, with the
Speaker 1: scare factor of maybe Stranger Things, you know, to still everyone,
Speaker 1: I think that you could get away with creating different
Speaker 1: seasons in an anthology form where people can bring their
Speaker 1: own creative ideas and storytelling points of view into it,
Speaker 1: but also sprinkling, sprinkling all like the Little Crazy nods
Speaker 1: that people want to see and going back to Gamao
Speaker 1: Toro thing. So before he did Crimson Peak and he
Speaker 1: did that like announcement at Comic Con where he revealed
Speaker 1: the hat Box Ghost key art that was actually something
Speaker 1: that Tony Baxter, one of the imagineers, like killed as
Speaker 1: like a big moment for imagineering that made everyone kind
Speaker 1: of work on the hat Box Ghost that was put
Speaker 1: in a ride around that time. Yeah, because he was gone.
Speaker 1: He was gone for like forty five years. I don't
Speaker 1: know how I remember him. Maybe just an art, I guess. Yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: One thing that we didn't mention was that the design
Speaker 1: was actually inspired by a real house. It's called the
Speaker 1: Shipley Leedaker House. It's in Baltimore and it was demolished
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven, but not before Ken Anderson, who
Speaker 1: is one of the imagineers, saw an image of it
Speaker 1: in a book called Decorative Art of Victoria's Era and
Speaker 1: loved the design. Um, let me see if we can
Speaker 1: pull this up and see how close it is. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it. Look at this iffy oh Man. That's not inspired.
Speaker 1: That is literally super cool. We'll have to link that
Speaker 1: in tweet that out for you all to see. Here's
Speaker 1: a little known fact. There was almost a water ride
Speaker 1: version of it. Uh Claude Coats, who again was one
Speaker 1: of the imagineers, thought of it as to play a
Speaker 1: boat ride. Now I think that they vetoed that due
Speaker 1: to uh pirates being right there. But that's actually really creepy.
Speaker 1: I could see that. You know, it's still in New Orleans,
Speaker 1: like being in a swamp kind of territory. That would
Speaker 1: have been kind of tight. Yes, one of the ideas
Speaker 1: with like the Museum of the Weird thing is to
Speaker 1: like literally going with the line of your left to
Speaker 1: find a way out. Um they had originally planned like
Speaker 1: and even in the construction of it itself now like,
Speaker 1: um so the graveyard area um to the if you're
Speaker 1: like so between Splash Mountain and the mansion where you exit,
Speaker 1: that was gonna be its own area with like two
Speaker 1: different exits you need to like find your way out
Speaker 1: literally through a labyrinth. And then the other side also
Speaker 1: had that originally. So if you look down at where
Speaker 1: all of the mausoleum sort of places are, there are
Speaker 1: like different doors there that we're supposed to be a
Speaker 1: part of that as well. Yeah, so while abandoned, they're
Speaker 1: not quite completely abandoned. Yeah, this is just some more
Speaker 1: cool facts. The original organ and that you hear for
Speaker 1: the grim grinning ghost tune was actually in the nine
Speaker 1: film adaptation of Leagues under the Sea. A few of
Speaker 1: the parts, including the headboard, were swapped out, but the
Speaker 1: body of the organ is the same. Um. Yeah, gosh,
Speaker 1: there's some nerdy Disney things about different tunes. Like I
Speaker 1: think one of the rumors was that the Space Mountain
Speaker 1: theme is the Haunted Mansion themes sped up. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think that. I think that might
Speaker 1: have been disproven. But there's like little stuff like like
Speaker 1: that that I just totally forgot. Oh. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to bring up a little bit about like awesome imagineering
Speaker 1: history there. You know, we hear about like the general
Speaker 1: players of like the Bob gir and you know, the
Speaker 1: Claude and stuff. But um, recently, one of the female
Speaker 1: imagineers who worked on the ride started started to do
Speaker 1: more appearances at things. Her name is Tania Morris, and
Speaker 1: she was the interior designer for the ride. U She
Speaker 1: had literally come to America and got into work, you know,
Speaker 1: in antiquing and stuff like that, and like the Disney family,
Speaker 1: like UM hired her to basically create the interiors for
Speaker 1: New Orleans Square for the Haunted Mansion in Club thirty three,
Speaker 1: and she was involved, you know, like in those early
Speaker 1: days of the early six season, they were doing a
Speaker 1: lot of extensive research, you know, because they had that
Speaker 1: announcement of the Haunted Mansion like on The Wonderful World
Speaker 1: of Walt Disney, you know the show, and then it
Speaker 1: took like basically tanyas to happen. Um. But in those
Speaker 1: research trips, like Walt would take her and the rest
Speaker 1: of the team to New Orleans and they would literally
Speaker 1: just um visit like every little store, look at little
Speaker 1: nooks and crannies by Like she was like I was
Speaker 1: paid to like literally grab junk that I can put
Speaker 1: in the attic and Um, back then, like people didn't
Speaker 1: put their name on things like whenever they'd like collaborate
Speaker 1: on it, she was like, I did doodles of the wallpaper,
Speaker 1: and when I did do with the wallpaper, it was
Speaker 1: the same color and everything, but instead of little owls,
Speaker 1: it was little bats, and like that's like I want
Speaker 1: to see that design. I also want that design from
Speaker 1: my wallpaper, So yeah, I know, and like and what
Speaker 1: was someone who you know, like whenever he'd go on
Speaker 1: trips with people, if he knew that you came from
Speaker 1: like a background where you didn't have like that much
Speaker 1: opportunity and stuff, like, he would help you like kind
Speaker 1: of get to know a space. Like she said that
Speaker 1: like every day they go to a different restaurant and
Speaker 1: like they tried different foods, and then they would go
Speaker 1: work on the World's Fair stuff at the same time
Speaker 1: and go to like New York. And if he knew
Speaker 1: that you'd never seen New York, he'd have the driver
Speaker 1: take different paths to wherever you were going. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: it was it was crazy y yeah, no, uh and
Speaker 1: uh something because we keep talking about the imagineers and
Speaker 1: you know, Danny said, you know, a light kind of
Speaker 1: done on them. But yeah, imagineers are basically all the
Speaker 1: engineers of not only just like the rides themselves and
Speaker 1: the way they work, but like the kind of the
Speaker 1: atmosphere and the theme of different parts of the parks,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's it's a very esteemed position there.
Speaker 1: It's you know, without trying to blow up in any uh,
Speaker 1: anyone's spot. A large media company I worked for had
Speaker 1: someone who wasn't imagine who was an imagineer, and they
Speaker 1: weren't even able to say that they wasn't that they
Speaker 1: were an imagineer for the video because it's that like
Speaker 1: like that kind of esteem where it's like you have
Speaker 1: to earn I think you kind of have to earn
Speaker 1: the right to say that you were one. You know.
Speaker 1: So that was really cool, you know. Um, and then
Speaker 1: Club thirty three we talked about, but I definitely have
Speaker 1: to we have to sidebar. Club thirty three is a
Speaker 1: super exclusive club. I have not been, uh there. I
Speaker 1: I used to be like when I was real in
Speaker 1: the Disney Life. There's a whole I freak at the
Speaker 1: name of the website, but you know that one where
Speaker 1: they it used to like it's before the app came out,
Speaker 1: and you used to get all the weight times from
Speaker 1: that website and then they would raffle off people. Members
Speaker 1: of Club thirty three would raffle off a chance to
Speaker 1: go to Club thirty three with them. Um. But Club
Speaker 1: thirty three, uh used to be the only place in
Speaker 1: Disneyland where you can drink alcohol. It was an exclusive club,
Speaker 1: hidden club in the New Orleans Square. It has a
Speaker 1: thirty three on the wall. You like use a special
Speaker 1: card to get in, and it's a last time I
Speaker 1: checked the thirty year long waiting list, it's like like
Speaker 1: almost ten racks to be even get in there. And
Speaker 1: yeah you can, and they can give it to if
Speaker 1: they can bring anyone they want there. But to get
Speaker 1: to be a card carrying member of Club thirty three,
Speaker 1: you got to know people, and it's still hard. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, or be an ABC star. Yeah, even then,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure they get invited because I I know
Speaker 1: certain uh uh large celebs who weren't able to get
Speaker 1: in really really bad about Yeah I knew. My friend
Speaker 1: was really good friends with um Sarah Highland, so in
Speaker 1: Vanessa Hudgens, so they all together, you know. If you're
Speaker 1: a Disney star, yeah, I don't know if they necessarily
Speaker 1: give them a member. You can go anything, can go
Speaker 1: any time, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Still my goal is
Speaker 1: Club thirty three by age thirty three. Oh you haven't
Speaker 1: been yet. I have not been yet. I mean, like
Speaker 1: it's it's the weird thing of like knowing but like
Speaker 1: I know of because because every time I know, it's
Speaker 1: because someone for their birthday. Knew whom to ask, and
Speaker 1: so you have to ask that person and then that person.
Speaker 1: So I'll get I think I have a few people
Speaker 1: I can ask to, like get too close to that.
Speaker 1: Let's go, Danny, let's get with me. We have to
Speaker 1: take another really quick break. We're gonna hop back into
Speaker 1: more of the haunted Merchant right after this, and we're back.
Speaker 1: I did want to So we touched on the ghosts
Speaker 1: in the ballroom scene, but it's actually created using an
Speaker 1: illusion called Pepper's Ghosts. It's name for scientists. Well, actually,
Speaker 1: do you want to go over it? Do you have it?
Speaker 1: I don't worry about it. I don't watch the videos.
Speaker 1: I don't know the truth. So it's name for scientists
Speaker 1: John Henry Pepper. The illusion actually uses mirrors and likes
Speaker 1: to create a ghostly visual effect. So as visitors passed
Speaker 1: through the ballroom scene, they're actually looking through a large
Speaker 1: you're actually through a large pane of glass reflection. Just so. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then there's also the cemetery we talked about. There's
Speaker 1: a pet cemetery. Yeah. In the pet cemetery you can
Speaker 1: find a very famous toad who has a wild ride
Speaker 1: the thing about that ride if he is that you
Speaker 1: dye and go to Hell. It's it's wild that nobody
Speaker 1: that people have complained about so many things, but not that,
Speaker 1: like that's the end of the ride. You drunk, drive,
Speaker 1: you die, you go to hell, and then you pull
Speaker 1: them out and then you just come out on the
Speaker 1: other end and that's it. It is the wildest thing that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, no one has complained about it, and it's
Speaker 1: so funny. Yeah, it's jarring. Yeah, that's what makes it
Speaker 1: such a good ride to it's like, yeah, actions have
Speaker 1: consequences the end by then don't drink and drive by Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then and they've never updated it, Oh my gosh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a solid one. Peter Pan is really good too. Um,
Speaker 1: just that one part of the ride where you're flying
Speaker 1: over London was so good. Yeah. And that's and that's
Speaker 1: the thing where it's like as much as they try
Speaker 1: and add new stuff, nothing's going to beat the innovation
Speaker 1: of like that old school technology of basically building these dioramas.
Speaker 1: Like even when they made Little Mermaid, that was another
Speaker 1: ride I got to cast member trial first. That one
Speaker 1: was cool because you can tell they were trying to
Speaker 1: do the same thing, but it just it doesn't hit
Speaker 1: the same because because there's a lot of things they
Speaker 1: have the technology to do now that they're just going
Speaker 1: to lean on versus just the because like that probably
Speaker 1: took a lot of effort, like to sit there and
Speaker 1: paint all of those tiny little London houses. No one
Speaker 1: wants to do that anymore. But it just really does
Speaker 1: look so much better for sure. Oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: remember that the Little Mermaid ride when it opened, how
Speaker 1: Ariel had the swirling cone ice cream hair. Do you
Speaker 1: remember that up? Oh? Yeah, because they're trying to like
Speaker 1: imitate the water swirling, yet we are not in water.
Speaker 1: I forgot to mention that one of the bus whose
Speaker 1: Thorough Ravens. Yeah, he also did the he's a voice
Speaker 1: of Tony the Tiger. He does the they're great and
Speaker 1: he also saying you're a mean one, Mr Grant. You
Speaker 1: could definitely hear that deep voice, and how the Grinch
Speaker 1: stole Christmas your main one. And of course we can't
Speaker 1: leave out our wonderful friends that we take along with
Speaker 1: us at the end of the ride. It is the
Speaker 1: hitchhiking ghosts, so that's also used. It's pretty fascinating if
Speaker 1: you haven't been on the ride, because you get assigned
Speaker 1: a ghost that sits in the middle of your doom
Speaker 1: Buggy and then he follows you in each of the
Speaker 1: different mirrors. So that's cool to me. That's again using
Speaker 1: Pepper's ghost illusion or it's a real ghost. In Sabina's mind,
Speaker 1: it is a real ghost. Although actually in Orlando they
Speaker 1: now have that sort of digitally. So now the ghosts
Speaker 1: that appear you see them like a pear, like in
Speaker 1: the mirrors and it's animated, and they like, I feel like, we, oh,
Speaker 1: do we not have that? No, Orlando has awesome stuff.
Speaker 1: Orlando also has. So the tombstones were updated to reflect
Speaker 1: the imagineers, so a lot of them are are paying
Speaker 1: homage to them. They also have, like during their Mickey's
Speaker 1: Not So Scary Halloween Party, a parade that features um.
Speaker 1: It features it features the hitchhiking ghosts, and it features
Speaker 1: most recently Constant Statchaway. She's on this like wicked crazy
Speaker 1: like vehicle dress kind of spins and it goes quickly. UM.
Speaker 1: And there's also like grave diggers that like like sparks
Speaker 1: on the ground. I call them my children because they
Speaker 1: have like resting vampire face, but also they have my
Speaker 1: husband's gray hair. So every time we go we take
Speaker 1: pictures with them and it's like my children. I'm so proud. Um.
Speaker 1: And the really cool thing I love about Orlando's that
Speaker 1: during Halloween time they have improverbs outside of the mansion
Speaker 1: who are ghost characters and they'll interact with the crowds
Speaker 1: during the Halloween party nights, and they have really great
Speaker 1: set pieces and they create like their own backstories. Like
Speaker 1: on the fly, there's Carlotta and her servant Broom. He's
Speaker 1: like this dead faced sort of like, um ah, what
Speaker 1: was the Adams family Lurch Lurch? Lurch was the servant, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so something similar to that, but more of a speaking role. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's so much. I'm sure that there's some ghosts that
Speaker 1: we probably left out. I mean we definitely are at
Speaker 1: least fifty. Yeah, I was gonna say there's nine hundred.
Speaker 1: We left on a hundred and fifty of them. But
Speaker 1: you know those ones are the ones inside your heart.
Speaker 1: Where can people find? People can find me? Antissaneyland all
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, we are, we are totally there a
Speaker 1: lot to me And I went the day before Valentine's
Speaker 1: together and it was rainy, and I was like, perfect,
Speaker 1: we like we like walked on we yeah, we like
Speaker 1: specifically went when it rained a good rainy day. Like
Speaker 1: that's the thing. Just get yourself an umbrella. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have the best time at Disneyland on a rainy day. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Speaking of being at disney On all the time and
Speaker 1: going to Orlando, my husband and I were inspired by
Speaker 1: our last trip there, which we went during Halloween. That
Speaker 1: we started a theme park flog called park Goer and
Speaker 1: can find that on YouTube on the pop Culture Geek channel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, subscribe to that channel. Yeah, pop culture Geek,
Speaker 1: and you can also find me on Instagram at that
Speaker 1: Lady Graves very bady back, very bad. Yeah that one.
Speaker 1: Like at first that used to be scary and then
Speaker 1: I was like, she kind of be sure to bring
Speaker 1: your death certificate. Yeah she's she's been a little too
Speaker 1: long on that de sound. But wow, No, this is
Speaker 1: this is podcast for everybody. If you look, yeah, you
Speaker 1: can make that head appear and reappear interesting places. Look,
Speaker 1: this really took a turn. Uh. You can find me
Speaker 1: at if you wide away on Twitter and Instagram, if
Speaker 1: d's on Twitch, you know, you know, what I always say,
Speaker 1: come through, drop that Twitch Prime sub. If you have
Speaker 1: Amazon Prime. Guess what, you have a Twitch Prime account.
Speaker 1: You just need to create a Twitch account, connect to
Speaker 1: your Amazon account, and you can give me a free
Speaker 1: sub every month. I'd love your support, and you can
Speaker 1: just sit around and chat with me. Lots of times.
Speaker 1: Folks will come in and you know, we'll we'll extend
Speaker 1: the conversation on there, or you can extend the conversation
Speaker 1: in the discord that's at discord dot g g slash
Speaker 1: Salt Squad. We have a hold a different section. Fleckery
Speaker 1: is always dropping the footnotes down and Draco was always
Speaker 1: saying some ridiculous bad take that causes an argument with
Speaker 1: everyone in the discord. So you know, if like arguing,
Speaker 1: go go find Drake open there and uh and then
Speaker 1: tell him how he's wilding. I'm at Miss Danny Fernanez.
Speaker 1: I'm at New York Comic Con this weekend. I have
Speaker 1: panels on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Super cool um. I
Speaker 1: will also be at New York Comedy Club Thursday night
Speaker 1: at ten fifteen with my friend Mark Ellis. But yeah,
Speaker 1: dope panels, come out and see them and then again,
Speaker 1: if you love the Disney princesses. My panel on Sunday
Speaker 1: is with a couple of them. It's gonna be really cool.
Speaker 1: I kind of want to ask them to sing. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm allowed to have that figured out
Speaker 1: by now. Uh And, like we always say, stay nerdy.