“You gotta be kidding me.”
That was honestly my reaction, folks, when this e-mail first appeared in my in-box a few days ago:
“Tell your readers to enjoy ‘Haunted Mansion Holiday’ while they can. There’s a rumor flying around TDA that Tim Burton wants Disney to pull the plug on “The Nightmare Before Christmas” -themed overlay of ‘The Haunted Mansion.’ Supposedly because Burton feels that this seasonal retheming cheapens & commercializes his 1994 film.
If Tim gets his way, 2006 could be the farewell season for this holiday favorite. So be sure and get the word out.”
Me personally, I was shocked when I read this. Disney being forced to pull the plug on what may be the most popular (and profitable) seasonal attraction to ever appear at the Anaheim theme park? How is this possible?
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And yet — the more I poked at this story, the more phone calls I made, the more e-mails that I sent out — the scarier this tale got. For it seems that there may be a kernel of truth ‘way down deep inside this rumor. That Jack Skellington & friends may indeed be forced to vacate Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion in January of 2006 … possibly never to return again.
“What exactly is the problem here?,” you ask. Well, the problem appears to lie in the deal that the Walt Disney Company cut with Tim Burton in order to get “The Nightmare Before Christmas” made back in the early 1990s. Evidently, Tim retained certain rights to the “Nightmare” characters. Which is why — whenever Disney wants to do something that’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” – related — they have to first consult with Burton.
The way I hear it, this was actually pretty easy to do back in the mid-to-late 1990s. Right after “Nightmare Before Christmas” had first come out and there honestly wasn’t that much demand for merchandise featuring Jack Skellington & friends. Which is why Tim would usually say “Yes” whenever Disney consumer products reps came around and said “We want to do a ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ cookie jar, statue and/or Christmas ornament …”
But then — starting in the late 1990s — “Nightmare” slowly shifted from being a cult classic which was loved by just a handful of fans to (thanks to video & DVD sales) becoming this mainstream hit. A film that was now loved by millions of people worldwide, who all eagerly snapped up “Nightmare”-themed merchandise.
This development reportedly concerned Burton. Who had allegedly become increasingly protective of Jack & Sally as the years went by.
About this same time, Disneyland’s Entertainment Office came up with creating a “Nightmare Before Christmas” -themed overlay for the Haunted Mansion. Tim supposedly gave his approval to the project with the understanding that “Haunted Mansion Holiday” would only be a one-time-thing. As in: This season overlay would only be in place for a single holiday season.
Well, who knew that “Haunted Mansion Holiday” would become such a huge hit with Disneyland visitors? From the day this radically revamped version of this New Orleans Square attraction first opened in October of 2001, theme park guests would line up around the block to see ” … what happens when two holidays collide.” And then — once they exited this Disneyland attraction — they’d get right back in line again. Eager to get another glimpse of the “adorned and deranged” mansion.
Disneyland managers were truly shocked by how popular “Haunted Mansion Holiday” was. They marveled at the large number of guests who supposedly made special trips to the Anaheim theme park just to experience the rethemed attraction. They thrilled at the huge amount of HMH merchandise that flew off of store shelves. Which is why these managers then said: “Well, we’ve obviously got to bring ‘Haunted Mansion Holiday’ back next year.”
The only problem was … Disneyland reportedly still needed Tim Burton’s permission to bring the “Nightmare” -themed overlay back in 2002. So, with the hope that this one gesture might make Tim that much more amenable to the idea of allowing “Haunted Mansion Holiday” to return to the Anaheim theme park for another year, Disneyland officials offered to toss out Gordy Goodwin’s perfect good score for this seasonal attraction. And then (at considerable expense, mind you) hire Burton’s longtime collaborator Danny Elfman to come write a brand new score for HMH.
That one gesture reportedly pleased Burton greatly. Who then agreed to allow “Haunted Mansion Holiday” to come back in 2002.
Pretty much the same thing happened in 2003, when Disneyland offered to freshen up this seasonal overlay by more prominently featuring the villainous Oogie Boogie (Who — not so co-incidentally — just happens to be Tim’s favorite character from “Nightmare’). And then — knowing full well that Burton’s films are huge in Japan — Disney officials supposedly knew that it would be a slam-dunk to get “Haunted Mansion Holiday” renewed for 2004 if they just offered to create a second version of the seasonal attraction for Tokyo Disneyland.
And given that Burton had said “Yes” to virtually everything that they’d suggested so far, Walt Disney Company reps reportedly thought that it would be a piece of cake to get Tim to agree to the creation of a third version of “Haunted Mansion Holiday.” Which was supposed to have opened at WDW’s Magic Kingdom on October 1, 2006. Just in time for Disney World’s annual press event, which was to have kicked off that resort’s 35th anniversary celebration.
Which is why Disney officials were allegedly shocked when Burton said “No.” That he wouldn’t allow a third version of “Haunted Mansion Holiday” to be built. That — in fact — Tim supposedly felt that this “Nightmare” -retheming idea (as fun as it once might have been) had pretty much run its course. Which is why he wouldn’t allow the WDW edition of HMH to go forward.
But then Burton reportedly compounded these Disney officials’ exasperation by suggesting that it might now be time to shut down the Anaheim & Tokyo versions of “Haunted Mansion Holiday” as well. So that people wouldn’t grow bored with seeing Jack & Sally in a theme park setting.
Given what a huge success HMH has been at both TDL as well as the original Disneyland (Not to mention the enormous amount of money that the Mouse allegedly makes annually off of these two attractions), these Disney Company reps were supposedly flabbergasted at Tim’s suggestion that the 2006 holiday season be “Haunted Mansion Holiday” ‘s farewell season.
I mean, given the concessions that the Disney Company has already made in an effort to make Burton happy (Reportedly one of the main reasons that there is no “Haunted Mansion Holiday” merchandise event scheduled for this year at the Disneyland Resort was that Tim had expressed his displeasure at how commercial this seasonal attraction had become), I’m sure that they felt this fan favorite would run forever. Or at least until Disneyland guests eventually lost interest in the rethemed ride.
But now — supposedly at Tim Burton’s own insistence — HMH may become DOA as of January 2007.
Of course, that’s still more than 15 months away. And who knows? Given the amount of time that we’re talking about here, maybe the Mouse will be able to come to some new sort of understanding with Burton. Maybe get Tim to change his mind , which will allow “Haunted Mansion Holiday” to run at Disneyland & Tokyo Disneyland for many, many years yet to come.
But — for now — the future doesn’t look all that promising for Jack & Sally. At least based on the info that I’ve been able to pull together so far.
Mind you, given how much I personally enjoy “Haunted Mansion Holiday” (Particularly the original version of this seasonal attraction which featured Gordy Goodwin’s great score), I really hope that this rumor is wrong. Which is why I’m kind of hoping that Steve Davison (I.E. HMH’s Creative Director) gets in touch with me ASAP and totally disputes this story.
But what are your thoughts, folks? Is Tim Burton really doing the right thing (I.E. Supposedly trying to keep the “Nightmare Before Christmas” characters from becoming over-exposed) by trying to get Disneyland to shut down “Haunted Mansion Holiday”?