Reopening of the Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris !

A pre-premiere evening was held on April 30th at Disneyland Park for the Phantom Manor ride. This great evening welcoming more than 3500 guests was the perfect opportunity to discover the mansion in preview before its official reopening on 3 May. Attention this article should be avoided if you want to keep the surprise until the end of the changes made during the 16 months of closures.

You have seen and heard in the videos above where significant changes have been made.

Visually the new version is superb, whether it be lighting or audio-animatronics (robots) that have never been so fluid, some of them have even been reprogrammed and their movements improved. However, the new audio arrangements in the attraction do not work except for the voiceover. What goes wrong is to have removed the soundtrack exclusive to the attraction created by John Debney on the scenes of Loeta and the ballroom. That is one of the worst decisions that could be made. Instead the music of the haunted mansion resonates, causing a sense of rupture in the rhythm of the attraction but also in the sound quality. Lovers of attraction say themselves in comments, it’s “the major mistake in the new version”. Why did you remove original music even though these two scenes corresponded to the climax of the original and musical theme of the attraction? We sincerely hope to go back and find the original theme. This simple action would make the attraction perfect!

EDIT: after 3 days of pre-opening to visitors, Disney listened to the criticisms made. The original music is back in the scenes of Leota and the ball on this day of reopening. The responsiveness of Disney is remarkable and will be appreciated by visitors. Thank you to them for this wise and good decision. The attraction is therefore perfect!

With regard to the new voices of the Narrator, nothing to complain, with the return of the voice of the great Vincent Price! The mixture of his voice with the French speaking is well, one can simply note a mounted in less powerful power in the scene “stretching” to the discovery of the four suitors of the bride.

Now let’s talk about the Visual changes that have been made in some scenes. What you need to know first is that from the moment you enter the foyer of the mansion, a flashbach arrives. The painting of Melanie and her father, as well as the lighting change and show how life was before. This flashback will accompany the visitors in the corridors of the Manor, advancing in time and discovering the tragic story of the suers of the groom Melanie before returning to the “doom buggies” (vehicles) to explore the places.

In the streching room Mélanie, the bride, has now four contants who will each have a tragic destiny. There are very good visual effect with Mélanie disappearing from the paintings before the elevator starts to go down, leaving her boy friends alone facing their fate. Meaning that Mélanie who in each painting looked to be really painted was in fact a projection effect. But it’s so well done that you can’t notice it. Note that, in one of the paintings there is also a subtle effect of smoke coming out of chimneys.

Exiting the stretching room guests enter the portraits room, where they’ll discover three new portraits, including the one of Henry Ravenswood, Mélanie’s father, who magically transform in the Phantom. All others portraits also change with a clap of thunder, and the effect is very well done. The other two new portraits show in fact the fate of Mélanie’s previous contants, on one where the character seems to be struck by lightning we can see Big Thunder mountain in the background, and on the other – a duel in front of the manor where a man is shot by the father.

The painting with the boat has changed too. Previously its sails were torned because of the storm, and now the boat catch fire. In the same room, note that the original bride portrait by Imagineer Julie Svendsen is still there.

In the next scene we find the bride is at the top of the staircase in the boarding room. This novelty works very well. It introduces the visitor into the present and the flashback thus ends. The presence of the groom at this site led the designers to put a weave where Melanie welcomed visitors since 1992 in the first scene of the attraction. Armor that was there, five meters farther to the right of the endless corridor scene. Note that the bride at the top of the staircase does not move strangely. She’s just looking out. Too bad, a simple arm movement clinging gently to the window sill would have sufficed.

Moving inside the House, we arrive at the scene of the endless corridor in which Melanie always seems to hold a candelabra but now there is the ghost of her father, Henry Ravenswood also appears behind her. Her grip is strong on her.

The piano scene now has two portraits, one of Mélanie and its dad. The piano was play by the dad. We can listen the notes of Haunted Mansion and it’s also more or less from that point that the change of music happen, and the one we can hear for the piano sequence is bad, really. That said, there is a very good new small effect with the shadows of the fingers of the Phantom when he touch the piano keys.

Not many changes in the session of Leota, except the lighting and smoke effects (projections) on the walls between the gargoyles are back After more than 15 years of absences. But we don’t have the masterlike effects of the musical instrument projections and the crystal ball floating in the air as Disney theme parks in the United States. Leota’s face and hair have changed, the result is better, she is more “Mystic ” than before.

In the ballroom scene, the Phantom of Henry is now placed in a new location close to the bride, again to understand that he haunt its girl. The ballroom scene is unchanged, all is clean, and the color are better.

The boudoir scene with the effect of the Phantom appearing behind Mélanie in the mirror is fine.

In the next scene supposedly outdoor with the Phantom of Henry, seems to now have red eyes and the dog has green eyes.

The rest of the ride when the Doom Buggies go underground is quite the same with a very different lighting, including the Thunder Mesa ghost town where all Audio-Animatronics have been restored to their original glory.The last Phantom Manor Audio-Animatronic have been reprogrammed, for the better. The new lighting is much better and int the room with the ghost town some star and lighting effects on the ceiling succeed to cancel the sight of a square box room. But why all unhabitants of the ghost town have a green face? May be to make sure that guests understand that they’re a kind of zombies?

One of the big modification is the final Phantom of Henry and the next scene mausoleum of the four Man from where escape the skeleton hand of one of Melanie’s lovers. The latter holding a wedding ring, always hopeful that Mélanie will finally marry him.

But just two meters after, in the scene facing the mirrors before unload. The effect works perfectly. Its tragic history show the hold of the phantom on Mélanie is so strong that the latter is simply invaded by madness and solitude that she appears in the middle of the guests with a demented voice, asking guests to marry her.

You’ll understand, this update of the attraction is visually perfect, just like its storyline which is now very clear to visitors with enhanced audio-animatronics (robots) while retaining the original music of the attraction. But one thing is for sure, more than 16 months of closure for this apparent level of changes, that’s a lot, while occasional visitors will not notice any changes to this very technical rehabilitation.

For those wishing to see the differences with the original version – and the original music – here a video including side-by-side the two versions. Watch it full screen mode …but, warning! If you’ve not watched yet the video of the new version, it’s better you watch it first above.