The Haunted Mansion is a full-length Disney feature film based on a theme park ride. So you might presume the place to see more would be the longstanding Haunted Mansion ride in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
Not exactly. In a case of art imitating art imitating art, Walt Disney Co. has reconstructed the elaborate sets used to make the Eddie Murphy movie at its Disney-MGM Studios park in Lake Buena Vista.
The "Making of The Haunted Mansion Movie" exhibit, in the park's Soundstage 4, becomes the latest promotion of a Disney film. Included in the guided tour, which runs through March, are sets, props, costumes, blueprints and designer sketches from the film. There's also a 10-minute recorded narrative by the film's producer, director and other artisans explaining how they made the comedy-adventure.
Or you could go to the source: the original Haunted Mansion ride. Or wait for the special features section of the DVD to come out. Or buy the $19.95 book The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies, a new Disney Press publication written by one of the Disney Imagineers who put together the exhibit at Soundstage 4.
Movie critics scoffed when Disney started making movies based on the story-telling in its theme park rides. Then Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which cost $125-million to make, grossed $302-million last summer.
"Actually, when Walt Disney created the original Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland, he used filmmakers for the job," Disney spokesman Gary Buchanan said. "So it's come full circle."
Business professors today call this synergy. Others call it wringing every last nickel from an asset.
