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Rick
01-03-2004, 10:37 AM
I was reading Jason Surrel's excellent Haunted Mansion book and came across the "Museum of the Weird" sketches Rolly Crump did for the Haunted Mansion. I can't believe Disney has done almost nothing with some of these imaginative designs. I think that Disney should make a museum of the weird walkthrough ride for the park based on Crump's artwork.

Does anyone else feel like this or am I the only one?

Not Afraid
01-03-2004, 10:47 AM
I'm not sure DIsney still owns these drawings or if they are in the hands of Rolly Crump. (I need to look at the collections notes in the book.) Crump still exhibits his non-disney artwork (which is a bit on the racy side) at local galleries now and then. E-Ticket Magazine had an issue with more info on Crump.

Rick
01-16-2004, 12:10 PM
My concept ideas for a Museum of the Weird. ( I think Disney still owns the rights to the Museum sketchs or they wouldn't be able to use the pictures in Surrel's book.)

Guests enter into a grand foyer. Roaring flames burn in a fireplace. A gourgeous chandelier hangs overhead. Stone statues of griffins sit pearched on a ledge. "Family portriats" depicting such established souls as Sir Crump the Crazy, Sir Davis the Daffy, Sir Walter the Weird, and Sir Richard the Ridiculous. ;) Torches hang, attached to the walls.

Suddenly the flames in the hearth stop and the Museum's curator walks out from a secret passageway in the fireplace.

"Welcome." s/he adresses us "what are things of great beauty? Most people consider beauty to be something normal and familiar, similar to things they have already seen. Anything out of the ordinary is reacted to with fear, misunderstanding and violence. However, I have always seen the beauty in these things so I have created this sanctum so these things of great beauty shall be preserved."
As our guide speaks, this room begins to change. The subjects of the paintings begin to blink as if watching us. The chandeleir reveals itself to be hoisted into the air by bats. The griffin statues begin to come to life, opening up their eyes and roaring. The flames from the tourches rise in the shapes of wispy spirits.
Here's how these effects would be accomplished:
The blinking portraits would incorperate the changing portriat technology utilized in the Haunted Mansion.
The bats and the griffins would be audio-anamatronics.
The flame spirits would be a projection on a scrim.

Our guide now directs us into the next chamber.

In this room named "The Zoo of the Weird" the museum's guests come face to face with many strange audio animatronic animals. As the guide puts it "The first stop on our tour of the supernatural is the Zoo of the Weird. Here we have collected specimens from the four corners of the earth... and beyond
Now it's important to keep an open mind while veiwing these specimen. You might not think them pretty, but they were somebody's little girl once.
Some of the AA beasts are
A dog and a cat attached by the tail.
A grey ape with three eyes, four arms, and three legs
A two headed sea serpent.
A six-winged bird of many vibrant colors
Living rocks
A skeleton fish still swimming in a tank.
"Skippy", a gray dog with three legs and two tails.
And a few I cant even decribe no matter how hard I try!
These would all be anamatronics

We shall now proceed to the next room.

We enter a dark chamber with many identical " Demon-Head" mirrors. However, none of them reflect!
Guide: "Next on our tour are these phenominal hand-crafted soul mirrors. These mirrors can reflect your very soul! Observe." An errie glow fills the room. Suddenly, you see your reflection walk out of the mirror!
This would be accomplished by use of Pepper's Ghost.

I'll post more tommorrow. What does everyone think so far?

innerSpaceman
01-16-2004, 03:13 PM
Cool. Contact Crump at once and let's put this together for some theme park that will appreciate its greatness.

If Disney still owns the name "Museum of the Weird," we'll just have to dose all incoming guests with methamphetamines and call it "Museum of the Wired."

Tref
01-17-2004, 12:01 AM
Originally posted by Rick
My concept ideas for a Museum of the Weird ... I'll post more tommorrow. What does everyone think so far?

It's a fine idea. I look forward to the second part.

respectively,

Rick
01-17-2004, 09:27 AM
Here's part two...

Guests walk past a glass windowed conservatory with all manner of twisted and overgrown plants.

Guide: "In this chamber we have specimeins of vegitation imported from all around the world. However, caring for them has become increasingly difficult recently. Seven gardeners have left the estate saying these were the most 'unmanageable' plants they've ever seen. *sigh* I guess you just can't find good help anymore."

Some of the AA plants are:
Tentacles coming out of flowerpots
Those odd "living mushrooms" Crump drew coming out of the fireplace
A "living tree."
Fa-la plants and evil wreath given year round home.
Moss growing forms the shape of a skull.

At the end there would be an agressive plant. He would lunge at the guests, cracking the glass a little each time he lunges.

We shall now proceed to the next chamber.

We enter a gourgeous room. A painting hangs overhead. A vase full of flowers sits on a ledge. A bookcase is lined up against the wall full of old scrolls and volumes each doubtlessly containing some ancient black magic secrets. A grandfather clock lies on the other side of the room. A gourgeous statue of a man stands in one corner, a fountian stands in the other. But our attention is drawn to a black box on a pedastal in the center of the room. "This box was found in some ruins in the ancient city of Greece. It is believed to be the legendary Pandora's box which was the holding place for all the evil in the world. None of the museum's staff have dared to open it. But I know you're dying to see what's inside. Why don't you take a peak?"
Hopefully, one of the guests will open the box, If not then the guide will.
A woman's scream comes out of the box. Flowers will shrivil up and die. The painting is slashed as if by some invisible claw. The statue starts to crumble. The fountian starts to go out of control spurting water everywhere. The books on the shelf start to rearrange. If you look out the window you can see a storm brewing using the Tiki Room rain effect. Projected flames rise out of the clock. Stone pillars in the room start to crumble and the ceiling drops a foot. The guide reches out and closes the box. "Tsk. Tsk. Most museums have do not touch signs for a reason."
Guests enter the final chamber.
We see peices of furniture scattered around the room. (Chair, vase, bed, candelabra, etc.) "In this seemingly normal chamber," the host speaks " We hold the remmnants of souls gone past. You see, whenever a soul is reluctant to let go when his time comes, traces of his soul are left behind. Observe." Suddenly, a face appears in the chair and begins to speak. Flames and melted candlewax rise in the shape of a man. Faces appear on beds, doors, books, and vases. These effects would be accomplished by projecting an image of a face onto the objects.
"And now," speaks the host leading you to a passage to the outside world, "I am afraid our tour has come to an end. But I hope you never forget the things of great beauty you have seen in our Museum of the Weird."
Guests now leave the museum. Parked outside there would be a gypsy cart that would spring to life every few minutes. (I didn't know where else to put it.)

So, what do you think?

Tigertail777
01-17-2004, 09:53 PM
very very cool ideas... something in me rebels about the "zoo" part of the tour not quite fitting the mood of the rest, but cant put my finger on what. Perhaps I am thinking in a museum, they shouldnt be live beasts, but more skeletons and taxidermy type things... dunno.

But I love the rest of it, the conservatory, and final rooms are particularly inspired. I love the pandoras box finale, that would be truly awesome to see... sort of a beasts library kicked up a few notches, and utilizing some of the original crump ideas. Love it!

A few additional ideas, if you dont mind me adding on to your wonderful tour... the pandoras box would be cool if it had creepy looking carved human figures all over it, and during some point of the show, have their eyes light up red using fiber optics.. a subtle effect, but creepy.

For the gypsy cart, have the head in the crystal ball be triggered by an electric eye beam somehow and have it give out predictions as each person leaves using a very very long audio loop that would therefor rarely repeat sayings. Plus have tarot cards in front of the crystal ball that move around of their own accord (magnetic devices under the table, with the cards having thin strips of metal in them). What would be really neat is to have this whole cart be a "fortune red" type fortune machine, where you get a fortune tarot card "your fortune from the musuem of the weird".

Something that I think would also add to the over all musuem, is have interactive things, kind of like toontown... like if you step on a bear rug, it shivers under your feet and roars. So basically a lot of little devices in the show that are only activated if you interact with them somehow.

I would love to see this musuem, it sounds truly nifty!!! It would be one of the definate high-lights to a Disneyland trip!

Rick
01-18-2004, 11:13 AM
Originally posted by Tigertail777


A few additional ideas, if you dont mind me adding on to your wonderful tour... the pandoras box would be cool if it had creepy looking carved human figures all over it, and during some point of the show, have their eyes light up red using fiber optics.. a subtle effect, but creepy.

For the gypsy cart, have the head in the crystal ball be triggered by an electric eye beam somehow and have it give out predictions as each person leaves using a very very long audio loop that would therefor rarely repeat sayings. Plus have tarot cards in front of the crystal ball that move around of their own accord (magnetic devices under the table, with the cards having thin strips of metal in them). What would be really neat is to have this whole cart be a "fortune red" type fortune machine, where you get a fortune tarot card "your fortune from the musuem of the weird".

Something that I think would also add to the over all musuem, is have interactive things, kind of like toontown... like if you step on a bear rug, it shivers under your feet and roars. So basically a lot of little devices in the show that are only activated if you interact with them somehow.


Neat ideas Tigertail. Thanks. :D

MrTomMorrow
01-18-2004, 09:18 PM
Yes, wonderful ideas. It'd be great to have a couple more of these atmospheric walk-through attractions mixed in with the big rides.

Doodle Duck
01-19-2004, 07:12 AM
Having actually owned a couple of Weird Themed Museums (traveling and hardtop) as well as having created exhibits for many others...you might get a kick out of my OLD website that feature a few of them (the 'Zibits that is)...

http://209.150.104.203

:fez:

Tigertail777
01-19-2004, 10:10 PM
very nice stuff doodle.. very convincing, and ummm disturbing. ugh I just ate too...