The Haunted Mansion at Tokyo Disneyland reopened from refurbishment last week with an update. “Ladies and gentlemen” has been cut from the introduction to be more inclusive of different genders.
‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ Cut From The Haunted Mansion
The Ghost Host of The Haunted Mansion at Tokyo Disneyland used to say (translated from Japanese), “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Haunted Mansion.” This differed from the English versions of the ride that introduced guests with the iconic “Welcome, foolish mortals, to The Haunted Mansion.”
Here is the original narration written in Japanese. The bolded section, “紳士ならびに淑女の諸君,” is what has been removed.
諸君の恐れおののく姿を見て、彼らは喜びの笑みを浮かべているのだ 紳士ならびに淑女の諸君、ホーンテッドマンションへようこそ。私はこの館の主、ゴーストホストである
Listen to the previous version of the narration in the video below.
Hear the new version, which simply jumps to “Welcome to The Haunted Mansion,” in the following video.
Teiichiro Hori, an executive of the Oriental Land Company, voiced the Ghost Host at Tokyo Disneyland. He passed away in 2014, so the narration could not be re-recorded without hiring a completely new actor and re-recording the entire ride.
Disney began removing “ladies and gentlemen” and “boys and girls” from various announcements around 2021. It was removed from fireworks announcements at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In March 2021, Tokyo Disney Resort replaced the gendered terms with “Hello everyone” for regular in-park announcements. Later that year, Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights also switched to “Good evening and welcome, one and all.” As of July 2022, Walt Disney World Cast Members were told to address guests as “friend” instead of “sir” or “ma’am.”
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How dumb.