Doombuggies, the world’s awesomest Haunted Mansion fan-site, has dredged up the original storyline for the Haunted Mansion, produced during the planning stages of the ride. They got Kat Cressida, the voice-over artist who plays the “Black Widow bride” in the newest revision to the Mansion’s attic scene, to narrate it. The file goes live on Hallowe’en, but I just heard a preview of it and it’s fantastic.
The mythic, haunting history of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion will finally be told by voice talent Kat Cressida, the artist whose performance as the gothic “Black Widow Bride” was added in early 2006 to the Disneyland version of the Haunted Mansion attraction as part of park-wide enhancements made to the attractions during Disneyland’s 50th anniversary festivities.
Disney aficionados will be pleased to hear that this is the first time that a telling of the “backstory” from the Haunted Mansion is presented being based on the story as it was told by the WED Enterprises “Imagineers” themselves back in the earliest days of the attraction’s existence. For decades, Haunted Mansion fans have told tales and myths of the Mansion’s storied history, with little more than anecdotal evidence to back their claims. Cressida’s telling of the story will be pulled directly from her childhood conversations with her father, who worked with Disneyland’s PR Department, and also worked directly with the original Imagineers who created this famed attraction.
(Thanks, Jeff!)