Loading...
Start Date
13-6-2025 12:00 PM
Description
The opening of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion in 1969 brought precedence in the growing field of imagineering through its development of the omni-mover ride vehicle, continued success with animatronics, and use of special effects such as Pepper’s Ghost. While these elements are essential to the ride itself, they were heightened by the composition of “Grim, Grinning, Ghosts” by Buddy Baker. Baker introduced a four-measure theme first played by the piano. Throughout the duration of the ride, he developed this theme into variations, which reflected the mood of each scene. For example, when entering the ballroom, the variation is an
instrumental waltz; in the beginning of the graveyard scene, you see and hear a ghost band playing a quirky instrumental variation.
In 2024, Disneyland began and completed construction on the queue that included the addition of newly composed music by Ego Plum (Ernesto Guerrero). I call these additions “variations of the variations” because 1) Plum preserved the original theme through variations of Baker’s waltz variation and John Debney’s Phantom Manor score from Disneyland Paris, and 2) the variation of how the music is heard: As one continuous loop with no boundaries for the scenes in the queue. In this paper, I reveal the phenomenon of these musical loops set to specific scenes within the attraction versus the continuous forty-minute loop in the queue of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion through an analysis of its form: Theme and variations. With this exciting addition to the queue, the innovative music ties the mansion together with its spacious grounds, as originally intended by Walt Disney himself.
Transcript
Recommended Citation
Hatch, Amy, "Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Transformation: “Queue” the Variations of Theme & Variations" (2025). Theme Park Music and Sound. 5.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/tpms/2025/friday/5
Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Transformation: “Queue” the Variations of Theme & Variations
The opening of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion in 1969 brought precedence in the growing field of imagineering through its development of the omni-mover ride vehicle, continued success with animatronics, and use of special effects such as Pepper’s Ghost. While these elements are essential to the ride itself, they were heightened by the composition of “Grim, Grinning, Ghosts” by Buddy Baker. Baker introduced a four-measure theme first played by the piano. Throughout the duration of the ride, he developed this theme into variations, which reflected the mood of each scene. For example, when entering the ballroom, the variation is an
instrumental waltz; in the beginning of the graveyard scene, you see and hear a ghost band playing a quirky instrumental variation.
In 2024, Disneyland began and completed construction on the queue that included the addition of newly composed music by Ego Plum (Ernesto Guerrero). I call these additions “variations of the variations” because 1) Plum preserved the original theme through variations of Baker’s waltz variation and John Debney’s Phantom Manor score from Disneyland Paris, and 2) the variation of how the music is heard: As one continuous loop with no boundaries for the scenes in the queue. In this paper, I reveal the phenomenon of these musical loops set to specific scenes within the attraction versus the continuous forty-minute loop in the queue of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion through an analysis of its form: Theme and variations. With this exciting addition to the queue, the innovative music ties the mansion together with its spacious grounds, as originally intended by Walt Disney himself.