Review of Haunted Mansion Holiday on Blu-ray DVD

[GothicManor]

I just watched the Haunted Mansion Holiday video on the new out today Nightmare Before Christmas Blu-ray DVD.

I liked it and I recommend it.

It's shot like most Disney attraction videos are, of course the hi def quality of Blu-ray makes it even better.

First off its shot at the Disneyland Mansion.

You hear the isolated audio track of HMH throughout not the actual audio experience from going thru the ride which is probably best.

It starts out at the entrance at night with some nice shots of the front of the mansion, but for some reason more so then in person the HMH decor really looks way over done on the video, they added special efx of lightining with a dark stormy sky at night and added flashes on the facade of the mansion. The entire video was shot when the park was closed so there are no guests and no CM's either which is nice it makes a pure experience you never get in person.

The whole video is a combination of still shots which is nice as the Doom buggies are usually on the move, close ups which are really nice you never get these close up views and zooms in and out. Most of the video is shot by steadicam from a camera operator that is apparently walking alongside the Doombuggy track we see the buggies which is nice sometimes they seem to be moving other times not.

They do actually pretty much show everything and each scene long enough to get most of the soundtrack and action like the stretch room but the video is only 7 mins long about half the actual ride thru time.

What you dont get to see: The light efx in the stretch room, the entire hallway gallery, no changing pics or lighting windows but you do pick it up at the follow you busts. You skip the view going up the stairs, you only see the first part of the hallway and skip the second part and the clock, you only get to see the end of the attick and you do get to look over the graveyard but you do not get the view going down backwards as the camera NEVER rides in a buggy, oddly they shoot the entire left side of the graveyard THEN go back and do the first half of the right side, you see oogie boogie but you DO NOT see the gift windows.

What you get to see that you cant really on the ride:
Close up of Zero at the end of the endless hallway, close up of the gingerbread cake on the dinning table in the Ballroom, still close ups of the animated singing pumpkins.

The pumpkins singing "have a scary christmas" when the HMH opens in mid sept IS really annoying I mean what happened to halloween?!

All in all pretty good, I personally was only looking at the mansion stuff and ignoring the HMH overlay lol if only they had a pure HM version just like this.... oh well.

There is also a added feature of being able to see trivia if you want in popup windows which has info on both the hmh and HM actually mostly HM as it has more info of course, on trivia said the HMH runs from mid Oct to early Jan ? huh? if only.....try mid sept!

As for the rest of course it was awesome to see NBC on Blu-ray now if only they could release the 3D version Blu-ray... if only.....

[kristibaer]

I just watched the Haunted Mansion Holiday video on the new out today Nightmare Before Christmas Blu-ray DVD.

I liked it and I recommend it.

It's shot like most Disney attraction videos are, of course the hi def quality of Blu-ray makes it even better.

First off its shot at the Disneyland Mansion.

You hear the isolated audio track of HMH throughout not the actual audio experience from going thru the ride which is probably best.

It starts out at the entrance at night with some nice shots of the front of the mansion, but for some reason more so then in person the HMH decor really looks way over done on the video, they added special efx of lightining with a dark stormy sky at night and added flashes on the facade of the mansion. The entire video was shot when the park was closed so there are no guests and no CM's either which is nice it makes a pure experience you never get in person.

The whole video is a combination of still shots which is nice as the Doom buggies are usually on the move, close ups which are really nice you never get these close up views and zooms in and out. Most of the video is shot by steadicam from a camera operator that is apparently walking alongside the Doombuggy track we see the buggies which is nice sometimes they seem to be moving other times not.

They do actually pretty much show everything and each scene long enough to get most of the soundtrack and action like the stretch room but the video is only 7 mins long about half the actual ride thru time.

What you dont get to see: The light efx in the stretch room, the entire hallway gallery, no changing pics or lighting windows but you do pick it up at the follow you busts. You skip the view going up the stairs, you only see the first part of the hallway and skip the second part and the clock, you only get to see the end of the attick and you do get to look over the graveyard but you do not get the view going down backwards as the camera NEVER rides in a buggy, oddly they shoot the entire left side of the graveyard THEN go back and do the first half of the right side, you see oogie boogie but you DO NOT see the gift windows.

What you get to see that you cant really on the ride:
Close up of Zero at the end of the endless hallway, close up of the gingerbread cake on the dinning table in the Ballroom, still close ups of the animated singing pumpkins.

The pumpkins singing "have a scary christmas" when the HMH opens in mid sept IS really annoying I mean what happened to halloween?!

All in all pretty good, I personally was only looking at the mansion stuff and ignoring the HMH overlay lol if only they had a pure HM version just like this.... oh well.

There is also a added feature of being able to see trivia if you want in popup windows which has info on both the hmh and HM actually mostly HM as it has more info of course, on trivia said the HMH runs from mid Oct to early Jan ? huh? if only.....try mid sept!

As for the rest of course it was awesome to see NBC on Blu-ray now if only they could release the 3D version Blu-ray... if only.....

It sounds great Goth! The only problem is that I already have 2 "special editions" of the movie already and if I buy a 3rd my husband will flip. Is it me or haven't they been spinning out these special editions a few times now? I have a soundtrack with Patrick Stewart telling the story (the one Marilyn Manson did music for).

[BC_DisneyGeek]

I wasn't going to buy this movie again, but the extras (the HMH ride footage in particular) make the upgrade tempting.

Thanks for the review of the special feature.

[DisneyDude2006]

I just bought it a few hours ago, i'll have to pop it in and check it out.

[mcow1]

Just got back from the store with it. I'll have to try and watch it later.

[Sy-]

It sounds great Goth! The only problem is that I already have 2 "special editions" of the movie already and if I buy a 3rd my husband will flip. Is it me or haven't they been spinning out these special editions a few times now? I have a soundtrack with Patrick Stewart telling the story (the one Marilyn Manson did music for).

Yea but your other 2 "special editions" are not in high definition!!! If there was only 1 reason to re-buy a movie that would be it!!!

[nojarama]

I have the last DVD re-master, but I'm still gonna get this new 2-disc DVD just for the HMH material alone myself. Thanks for a great review BTW!

[RegionsBeyond]

Just got my copy as well, about to watch it and see...thanks for the great review, GM!

[Jordiekins]

how much is it?

[Wreckless Abrandon]

how much is it?

I got the DVD for $24.99 at Best Buy, but I'm sure it's different for Blu-ray... something like $29.99 on sale?

I love this because I missed the two other versions.

But what I do love is that the HMH tour is in three different sections. And it does make sense to me that the entire attraction is based on "Sandy Claws" decorating the mansion to his liking.

[CupcakeTerror]

It sounds great Goth! The only problem is that I already have 2 "special editions" of the movie already and if I buy a 3rd my husband will flip. Is it me or haven't they been spinning out these special editions a few times now? I have a soundtrack with Patrick Stewart telling the story (the one Marilyn Manson did music for).

Buy it anyways!! It's a great show and this is something that won't be out forever.

[Wreckless Abrandon]

Buy it anyways!! It's a great show and this is something that won't be out forever.

And the box is pretty sweet on the DVD! Can't say much for that huge $130 deluxe set... it's a little much... a Bust of Jack Skellington with accessories to make him into Sandy Claws... and a few other things... not really my cup of tea!

[GothicManor]

The dvd also have Vincent and Frankenweenie with an intro by Burton where he says that a feature length stop motion version is half done!

Also there is a reading of the original NBC poem (basically the night before xmas story) read by Christopher Lee. Which is alot like the soundtrack for HMH as it is basically the "night(mare) before xmas" story/poem.

[Kuzcochik]

I'm a Nightmare freak so I bought it cause I'm a crazy collector.
But if you have the last 2 disc that came out it's pretty much exactly the same (sans the Christopher Lee reading of the poem & the HMH walk-thru).
I didn't by Blu-Ray cause I'm not up to speed w/ that tech just yet

As for the HMH walk thru. My feelings are mixed on it.
If you're going to give us a walk-thru/ride-thru give us the whole thing. They skipped several parts of the ride and didn't give all the narration.
Plus the whole thing was shot w/ the work lights on. It helped you see everything, but at the same time it was extremely obvious! It also destroyed the Pepper's Ghost effect. i mean honestly, some of the home movies I've shot look better than this. Plus the transitions they use are tacky. It's very very heavily edited and it's very apparent.

The track w/ the creators actually makes up for it however. I always love hearing how things came to fruition, especially on an attraction I really enjoy. I also loved all the concept art they showed and that they showed things like the Gingerbread Houses from every single year. There was more footage shown of things that were skipped in the straight track
However, I found it odd they totally skipped over the end of the attraction. they stopped every 10 seconds w/in the ride thru to talk about various aspects but they never talked about Oggie or the very end scene. Also I got peeved when they started talking about the scarecrow at the front of the mansion as if it had been there since the beginning (it only showed up 2 or 3 yrs ago!!)

Whatever. I'm glad it was there, but it was definitely not up to my expectations

[BC_DisneyGeek]

I picked it up on Blu-ray. The original DVDs weren't even anamorphic widescreen and this is a huge improvement both video and audio-wise (I suspect even the new DVD would represent a nice upgrade as well).

I watched the HMH feature, which was pretty good. I found it a little odd that they talked about all the elements in great detail, but skipped out on the hitchhiking ghosts section almost completely. Some of it felt like a stretch, such as when they patted themselves on the back rather hard, simply because they decided to throw some of the leftover ribbons on the gravestones.

It's funny, I find the beginning of the movie odd now, because the narration is too quick and too high-pitched. I'm used to the ghost host version.