New Details Shared on Disney's Unproduced HAUNTED MANSION Animated Series
Several years ago it was announced that Disney would be developing an animated series based on its popular Haunted Mansion theme park attraction. Unfortunately, the series never got the greenlight.
The series was being developed by the creator of Kubo and the Two Strings, Shannon Tindle, and there was actually a teaser trailer produced for the series, which you can watch below.
During a recent interview with CinemaBlend, Tindle shared some new details on the project, and how it was inspired by one of Walt Disney’s original Nine Old Men animators, Mark Davis, who became one of the primary designers of the Disneyland and Disney World attraction.
When talking about how the project came together, Tindle said: “I'm a huge fan. I love Mark Davis. I love his work and his transition from one of the Nine Old Men in animation to working at WED.
“So yeah, it was one of those things where I was on an overall at Disney and I said, 'I've got an idea for Haunted Mansion.' And so we developed it first as an ongoing series, then we pivoted and said, what if we did it as a mini-series? The teaser is out there somewhere. The teaser is out there. I would love to make it.”
All that was previously revealed about the series is that it would have focused on a young girl dealing with the grief of a lost loved one. But, we now have some additional info regarding some other ideas that the show would’ve incorporated.
Tindle explains that the series would have brought together multiple characters from throughout Disney’s history into a sort of cinematic universe. One of them was Herbie the Love Bug.
He said: “And I will say this one idea that I had for it was you go to all these wild, haunted locations, and I went to a parking lot at a mall, and you see these ghostly lights come through the fog.
“And the little girl, who's the main character, is like, 'Oh my gosh, what kind of spirit am I going to encounter here?' And it's Herbie the Love Bug, and that was my explanation for Herbie, is Herbie’s haunted.
“Lou Romano did great paintings for it, and so like that just gives you an idea. I wanted to pull in. I was like ‘Disney has all these great characters, let's use them.’ But you know, it was not to be. Hey, maybe, they'll come back to the table with that. I'd love to do it.”
When previously talking about the series, Tindle said: "My goal was to take inspiration from all the backstories created by the artists at WED (Disney's Imagineering division) and stitch it into one, giant narrative. The story would span several years and focus on different characters, but add up to one big, interconnected story."
He went on to talk about the tone of the series saying that it would have had "a lot of fun and silly elements to it." It's explained that "it would be contained within a larger story in which viewers entered the show through the eyes of a character struggling with grief over a recently-lost loved one."
It’s a shame that Disney passed on the series because it would’ve been a lot of fun to see!