It’s early September, so naturally Halloween Time has returned to Disneyland Resort. With only so much time before the entire area succumbs to tinsel and decorative fur trees, Disney Imagineers are flexing their seasonal creative muscle in every corner of every park and property. The crowning achievement, once again, has to be the Gingerbread House in the Haunted Mansion Holiday Grand Hall.
Halloween Time stretches from Friday, September 7, through October 31, at Disneyland Resort. Guests may continue to enjoy the Haunted Mansion Holiday, again featuring “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas,” through the end of the year. The familiar influence of Tim Wollweber, associate art director for Disney Parks, is again felt in another brilliantly conceived and delivered masterpiece. Wollweber has had a hand in the last seventeen signature displays, in the eighteen year run. Every year he seems to outdo himself. This year is another noteworthy example.
The unexpected addition of the 5-foot spider is rather an eye catcher; arguably as impressive as the house structure itself. The independently moving monstrosity appears intent upon stealing the house, and is indeed in the process of doing so as the ballroom comes into view. The coloring and decorative additions compliment the familiar scene so completely, it can be easy to envision that this is the way it has always been. Therein lies another incomparable element of Haunted Mansion Holiday. An overlay of a beloved, classic attraction runs the risk of offending purists and progressives alike. No impression is universal, though the popularity of this seasonal attraction speaks for ans sustains its success.
The overall overlay continues to impress. Those who come to the attraction specifically to see the latest gingerbread incantation, you will not be disappointed. Unless you are understandably afraid of spiders.
This year marks the 25th anniversary for “The Nightmare before Christmas.” Halloween Time now fills the void left by the recently concluded Pixar Fest, and, again, will run up until that other holiday season Disney is so keen to commemorate. The exceedingly appropriate and masterfully presented–in this guest’s opinion–Haunted Mansion Holiday shall be around through early January, 2019.