Extra Credit Blog- Disneyland- Tasha Spear

Over the weekend, I went to Disneyland, and although the park wasn’t too decorated for Halloween, the Haunted Mansion ride was all decked out with a complete Halloween makeover. It was difficult to get a picture of the overall atmosphere, but what I did do was take a picture of the “grand finale” area inside of the ride that I felt encapsulated the vast majority of the ride’s atmosphere. The picture above shows a very brightly lit moon, with mostly white light. There are lights surrounding the set that look like torches, which illuminate the set pieces in this giant sculpture- type piece. The “Scary Christmas” sign in the front is lit by a lot of footlights, but not too much that they are overpowering the moon. There is also a lot of purple and lavender color throughout this area. By having the cobwebs in the back not illuminated by light, or at least specific light (only the moonlight helps you to see them), it makes the scene even creepier. Because this is toward the end of the ride, I think the designer was going for a mix between Christmas and Halloween (hence the Scary Christmas sign, the skulls, and the Nightmare Before Christmas characters scattered throughout). To be honest, I think if there would have been deeper greens and oranges used, I would have been able to get both the Christmas feel and the Halloween feel. I found the colors used to be a bit bland and I think the yellow torchlights are really overpowering in a sense. You have to really look closely to see all the detail in the set piece and I think if it had lit better, the characters would be pushed forward more. If there was more backlight, with some dark oranges and greens, this might have been achieved. The designer definitely did achieve a sense of nighttime with the moon. It is so bright and overpowering that it constantly reminds the rider that it is late at night, even if it isn’t. The full moon has many implications, one of which is bad luck. I feel like full moons are often associated with Halloween and Friday the 13^th, as well. This choice to have a full moon be so prominently placed and lit shows how important the time of day is to evoking a sense of scare in the rider.  

This was one of my favorite sections of the ride because of the lights. The deep orange lights inside the pumpkins really help to illuminate the faces carved into the pumpkins. In addition, the snowy, white mountain is a good contrast to the orange/ yellow light as well. The light really makes the pumpkins pop out and brings your focus right to them. I think, in this case, the designer was probably trying to achieve just that. The pumpkins are clearly the focal point of this part of the ride and the light helps to bring your eye to their faces. Also, the contrast of bright, blinding yellow/ orange light and the white with the blackness in the background is really nice. The black void also helps with the pumpkins popping out at the viewer. The only part of this section that I wasn’t sure about were the red, twinkle lights in the background. I almost feel like taking those away would have made this section even more powerful because of the orange, white and black contrasts. The red definitely brightens up the scene, but I don’t think it’s necessary. I really liked the blackness in contrast with the mountain and the red ultimately takes away from that. The theme of this area is clearly Halloween- other sections focused on Christmas, or specific characters from the Nightmare Before Christmas. I definitely think this theme comes through because the focus is on the pumpkins and not the snow on the mountain, which to me would be more Christmas related. The designer chose to keep the focus on the pumpkins, making this section all about Halloween.

This next part of the ride is the part inside of the mansion, where the dinner table is set up with the Christmas tree and the ghost dancers. The tree is in the corner and is difficult to see in the first picture, but much clearer in the second picture. The scene is very dimly lit, except for the myriad of small bulb lights and twinkle lights on the tree and the banisters. There were a lot of purple string lights around the room, but the majority of the lights were multicolored and I found because there was no color scheme, all the lights kind of blended together. I think I would have preferred the tree to be all one color. I suppose the designer could argue that the jumble of light color is supposed to indicate the chaos that happens inside the haunted mansion, but with the ghosts dancing and the scene seeming more peaceful than other parts of the ride, it would have been nice to have less of a jumble and much more uniformity with the color of the lights. Also, as far as function is concerned, it was difficult to see all of the details of this section because of how dim the lights were. I think the Christmas tree could have had a very bright, white light atop the tree and it would have helped with allowing the viewer to really see the whole scene play out. The theme of this area is definitely “Creepy Christmas Family Dinner.” I guess the jumbled lights add to the chaos of family coming together, but I still wasn’t sold on how many colors were present. It just didn’t set well with my eyes. I felt like because the scene was so dimly lit that it was almost a secretive scene, rather than a joyous one with friends and family, which is what I think of when I think of Christmas dinner. 

Other things I noticed throughout the ride were that certain presents were lit up when there were clusters of presents, which I found really interesting. There was a lot of light, specifically on the bright green presents, possibly because I think the paint was glow-in-the-dark paint and popped more, but I also felt like there was often more footlight on these presents. I found it interesting, however, that the lighting really directed your eye to specific presents by deciding which ones to focus on. I’m not sure if there were hidden Mickeys or why certain presents were lit up more than others, but I did find myself more drawn to the ones lit up than the ones that weren’t because those seemed duller. Also, I suspect that a lot of LED lights were used throughout the ride because there were so many and it would be really difficult to change them frequently since the park has such long hours.

Lastly, I took this picture outside and think it contrasts well with the inside of the ride. I especially love the clouds in this picture because the sky is extra blue and the clouds are very puffy. That blueness evokes a sense of early morning and happiness for me, which is interestingly contrasted by the overall aesthetic of the building, which is more downtrodden and supposed to be haunting.