Report: Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Evening
Page 9 of 18

Panel Discussion - Page 7

Steve explains what happens "when holidays collide".
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The idea for the overlay began years ago during a conversation with Tony Baxter and developed through meetings into the Nightmare concept. "We thought, art direction wise, it really, really fits. Because when you do kind of a classic overdressing the Mansion is so mysterious and so dark it really takes something like Nightmare to come in and really explode it to life. And the team that we put together here at Disney was amazing because they took all the brilliant work developed through the movie and started to transform it. And what would the sleigh be? And what would the stretching portraits be? How would we start to incorporate the two pieces together? And it’s pretty amazing how it layers itself in."

He added, "We also kind of took some liberties, as some of you have seen we’re doing a whole thing, what happens if Jack brought along the whole man-eating plant choir to sing in the whole deck the halls scene. There are some really cool new fun things all inspired by the film, because the art direction of the film is phenomenal. And, really what we did was, try to marry those two pieces together and basically create something pretty wild. It’s one of the wildest things we’ve ever done." Steve mentioned that Chris was in the studio and recorded the soundtrack for the AA figure in the attraction. "Jack comes to life in real 3-D."

Frank asked about the Internet game that Steve wrote. "There are a lot of people who like to play games on the Internet and we hid a lot of stuff in this attraction - a lot of stuff - so I sat down and wrote 27 riddles that begin this Friday (the 5th). So if you go to www.disneyland.com , and go to the Haunted Mansion Holiday page, starting this Friday you can get a different riddle every day, and you get to get inside my brain and try to figure it out… There is really a lot of stuff hidden in that attraction that you’ll never see unless you know what you’re for."

As the panel ended, Frank then asked Eric for a personal story that happened to him during the production of the film, "I found my wife, and we had a baby… during the production." There was also a pitch from the panel for a sequel Nightmare Before Christmas 2.

As the panel ended the citizens of Halloween Town waited for their ride to the Mansion.
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Jack then took the stage again as he - dressed as Sandy Claws - offered the cast a ride to the Mansion in his Black Christmas sleigh. It was at this point that those wearing red and those wearing green parted company. While those with green hangtags were welcomed to walk from the Fantasyland Theater to the Haunted Mansion for their preview, those wearing red were ushered to the Toon Town train Station for their ride into Frontierland for their dinner at the Blue Bayou.