Raven

*This is an article about the character from the Haunted Mansion. For the location from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), see The Raven.*

**The Raven** (sometimes given the name of **Lucifer**) is a character from the *Haunted Mansion*.

## History

The Raven is a supernatural entity which resides in the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is distinguished by its shiny, red eyes and seems to have a close affiliation with the 999 spirits of the Haunted Mansion. It is unknown if the raven is living, dead or neither however it is believed the raven is very old and would have been around since the 1800s at the latest.

### Alternate versions

#### Ghost Gallery

The Ghost Gallery is a non-canonical backstory for the Haunted Mansion which was created by cast-members of the attraction in Walt Disney World. While not in the attraction's main continuity it has been responsible for many elements of the Haunted Mansion's lore in official materials and spin-offs.

In the Ghost Gallery, the raven is inferred to be possessed by the spirit of a deceased man named Richard Belle. In life Richard was married to Gracey family member Elma Belle who later kept the bird as a pet and spoke to it as if it were her husband. She painted all of the portraits in the manor before dying of mysterious circumstances with her finger pointed at the bird.

## Appearances and allusions

### Haunted Mansion

The raven makes repeated appearances throughout the Haunted Mansion.

#### Disneyland

Outside of the mansion is a three-story birdhouse inferred to be used by the raven. The raven directly appears five times, first being in the conservatory where it caws at the guests who disturbed a corpse sealed in a coffin. It is later seen in Madame Leota's séance chamber when she is performing her dark rituals and immediately after this in the ballroom overlooking its ghostly party-goers. After this it caws at guests after they fall from the attic balcony while perched on a humanoid tree and then later sits atop the mausoleum which guests enter.

#### Walt Disney World

The raven only makes four appearances in this version of the attraction, not appearing in the ballroom. It is however featured in the queue as a statue mounted atop the crypt of the manor's resident organist, "Ravenscroft".

### Phantom Manor

The raven makes several appearances in Phantom Manor although it is unclear if it is supposed to be the same exact bird or not though both share red glowing eyes. It first appears in the music room of Ravenswood Manor nearby the Phantom when he plays music on the piano. The bird later appears in the séance chamber over Madame Leota then again in Phantom Canyon, perched on a gallows tree as the Phantom attempts to murder guests.

## Trivia

* Unused audio would have had the raven speaking English while voiced by actress Eleanor Audley who also voiced Madame Leota.
* The figure of the raven on the composer's crypt highly resembles the raven *Diablo* from the film Sleeping Beauty. The raven's original actress Eleanor Audley played Maleficent in that film and the Haunted Mansion's character-designer Marc Davis designed many characters including the raven.

## References

1. ↑ https://insidethemagic.net/2017/03/mysterious-haunted-birdhouse-materializes-disneyland-haunted-mansion/v