Phantom Manor (attraction)

Phantom Manor is a theme park dark ride and ghost train in Disneyland Paris. It features (or has, in the past, featured) the Phantom, Melanie Ravenswood, Jake, Goliath, the Ticket Seller, the Phantom Mayor, Madame Leota, Martha Ravenswood, Henry Ravenswood's Son, the Singing Busts (minus Cousin Algernon), Medusa, and a number of other ghosts not yet indexed on this Wiki. The 2019 updates added at least four characters to the cast, Ignatius Knight, Rowan D. Falls, Barry Claude and Sawyer Bottom.
==Description==
Guests are invited to visit the titular haunted house, one of the curosities the Wild West town of Thunder Mesa. As they explore the cobweb-covered interiors of the humongous residence, guided by the voice of an ethereal host, they come to discover the spirits of the house are restless and tortured by unknown past tragedies, particularly the ghost bride Melanie Ravenswood — and the Phantom, their very own ghostly tour guide, appears to be at the center of the misfortune that has befallen Ravenswood Manor!
===Continuity===
* The short story Family Secrets (2012) purports to reveal the backstory of the Manor, as do the unlicensed films Phantom Manor Short Film (2018) and The Raven (2019).
* The duration of the 2019 refurbishment was mirrored with an in-universe storyline of the Manor being closed down by the Sheriff of Thunder Mesa. Begun in the webcast live-action short Phantom Manor Closing: Strange Phenomena Observed (2018), it was followed by the ride Spirit Photography (2018) and accompanying false newspaper The Mysterious Chronicle (2018), before being concluded by the webcast Phantom Manor Reopening Date (2019), which saw the first glimpse of the redesigned mortal Henry Ravenswood, and another fictional newspaper, Phantom Manor Unveiled (2019), depicted an issue of the in-universe Thunder Mesa Daily Messenger.
* The 2019 updates feature an allusion to Dead Man's Chest (2006), as the Flying Dutchman depicted in the Changing Portrait is now that from the film rather than the prime version. How the Phantom might have come to own a depiction of a Flying Dutchman from a parallel universe is unclear.
==Behind the scenes==
Opened in 1992, Phantom Manor is one of Disney's most popular original attractions. It serves as Disneyland Paris's counterpart to The Haunted Mansion, and has numerous similarities to the earlier story. Some characters, such as Madame Leota, are even shared between the two.
===Changes===
In its original form, the Manor made use of Gérard Chevalier as the voice of the Phantom, though voice work by Vincent Price had originally been recorded.
Between April of 2018 and May of 2019, the ride underwent significant revisions, and was closed for the duration (with the photolocation attraction Spirit Photography keeping its legacy alive in the meantime). In the new version of the attraction, Price's voice was added back in, replacing Chevalier's. The English lines now alternate between Price's and a new French version with Bernard Alane as the Phantom.
The May of 2019 refurbishment also made a number of alterations to the ride, revealing more of its backstory, not all of it congruent with previous accounts such as Family Secrets (2012). A portrait of Henry Ravenswood (flashing back and forth between his mortal self and his Phantom self) was added to the ride, as was one where Henry Ravenswood stands first by Martha Ravenswood, and then by Melanie; meanwhile, the Stretching Portraits, originally depicting four different (fictional) horrible situations Melanie Ravenswood found herself in, now instead depict the grim fates of four suitors of hers, who were not mentioned in the original version (where only Jake featured in the role of betrothed). A variation of the Mansion’s Duelists haunted portrait now features Henry shooting a man in the back during a duel.
The end of the ride also replaced the Phantom with Melanie as the ghost who "hitchhikes" a ride on the Doombuggy in the manner of the Hitchhiking Ghosts of the original Mansion; this Melanie was depicted as having gone crazy from the trauma of her life, demanding that guests marry her as a way for her to escape the hell of the Manor.
Beyond those major alterations, some effects were updated, such as the replacement of numerous animatronics throughout the ride. The soundtrack also received some (badly-received) alterations, such as the replacement of the original John Debney ballroom score with the organ music from the Haunted Mansion. So widely panned was this particular soundtrack out-switching that it was cancelled just a few days after the reopening. 
Category:Stories
Category:Theme Park Rides
Category:Disneyland Paris rides
Category:Craig Fleming stories
Category:Jeff Burke stories
Category:1992 stories
Category:Phantom stories
Category:Melanie Ravenswood stories
Category:Jake stories
Category:Goliath the Dog stories
Category:Ticket Seller stories
Category:Phantom Mayor stories
Category:Madame Leota stories
Category:Milo Jones stories
Category:Barry Claude stories
Category:Rowan D. Falls stories
Category:Ignatius Knight stories
Category:Sawyer Bottom stories
Category:Henry Ravenswood's Son stories
Category:Medusa stories
Category:Singing Busts stories
Category:Rollo Rumkin stories
Category:Uncle Theodore stories
Category:Ned Nub stories
Category:Phineas P. Pock stories