Foolish Mortals Can “Ride” The Haunted Mansion With No Fastpass

in Artwork, Disney, Walt Disney World

Drawn of man and dog entering The Haunted Mansion

Credit: Vince Dorse

The Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World is steeped in mystery and history.

The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World
Credit: Becky Burkett/Inside the Magic Reporter

Related: Disney Announces Major Change For ‘Haunted Mansion’

Its popularity reaches beyond the sometimes lengthy waits in the ride queue. Over the years, the attraction has become a piece of classic Disneyana and even a part of pop culture, to the point that the abode of the grim grinning ghosts even serves as the theme for many young couples’ weddings.

The cleverly-crafted experience designed by Disney’s Imagineers, background painter Claude Coates and character designer Marc Davis (who created the look of villains like Cruella de Vil and Maleficent, among others) has also been the subject of many present-day artists’ paintings, drawings, and other works.

Such is the case of illustrator and cartoonist Vince Dorse, creator of the award-winning comic, “Untold Tales of Bigfoot.” Dorse has a knack for drawing cute animals and monsters kids don’t mind finding under their beds in their closets, and he used his talents to create what he calls a “rideable” poster of the Haunted Mansion attraction.

Attractions designed during the same period as the Haunted Mansion–such as the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction–have a specific “flow” to them that you won’t find in the spooky homestead of the 999 happy haunts. In the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, one room flows into the next, and it makes sense as far as time and space are concerned. But in the Haunted Mansion attraction, you may have noticed that the “flow” from room to room just isn’t there, which isn’t a problem if you’re traveling by Doom Buggy.

But Dorse wanted to create a 2-D poster of the ride that found that missing flow. As Dorse states on his blog, “The [Haunted] Mansion is a kooky collection of spooky rooms, linked together through a series of twists, turns, ramps, and drops. It’s difficult to reconcile the interior experience with the exterior facade.”

Dorse explains that the most challenging task in this project was determining the best way to link those rooms together in his artwork so that they followed the same sequence as the ride in the parks–all in an easy-to-follow 2-D print that made sense. But apparently, Dorse was up for such a challenge as he was able to do precisely that, as you can see in the entire print here:

The Haunted Mansion drawn map
Credit: Vince Dorse

Related: Disney’s Haunted Mansion Was Inspired by Harry Packer’s Historic Home

What began as just a doodle-a-day exercise for Dorse–one in which he hoped to draw a ghost a day with ink on paper until he created a cross-section of the attraction that fans could “ride through” with their eyes–morphed into so much more.

The Haunted Mansion drawn black and white poster
Credit: Vince Dorse
The Haunted Mansion drawn black and white poster
Credit: Vince Dorse
The Haunted Mansion drawn black and white poster
Credit: Vince Dorse
Staircase and piano at The Haunted Mansion drawn poster
Credit: Vince Dorse

What materialized, however, was a project that Dorse longed to see in color–muted colors, mind you, that would reverberate a bit of a 1970s feel.

Drawn of dog and man entering The Haunted Mansion
Credit: Vince Dorse
Drawn of the cemetery at The Hunted Mansion
Credit: Vince Dorse

Dorse’s friends wanted prints of their own, but that wasn’t the illustrator’s goal, so he dismissed their requests . . . until he took a look at the final inked illustration. Then, he decided his “nosy” friends might be on to something.

Drawn map of The Haunted Mansion
Credit: Vince Dorse

Dorse decided to create 18″ x 24″ prints of his experiment-turned-masterpiece, and now his friends that hang out at his studio and look over his shoulder are happy to have the Happy Haunts hanging on their walls. (We think it’s pretty cool ourselves!) If you like it and want more,  contact Vince Dorse to ask questions about the project and the prints.

Would you be ready for a ride on the Haunted Mansion attraction with no wait time in the queue? Check out this “ride” video put together by Dorse. You don’t even need a FastPass!

What do you think is the draw for Disney fans to the Haunted Mansion? What makes it so popular? Let us know in the comments section below.

Source: Boing Boing

 

in Artwork, Disney, Walt Disney World

View Comments (9)