In an age when filmmakers can conjure up almost anything inside a computer, Minkoff felt that having “real” and not computer-generated ghosts would feel much more natural and organic. For that they hired what they considered to be an ace-in-thehole, Special Make-Up Effects Designer Rick Baker.
A true master of his craft, Baker had worked his unique brand of magic on some of the greatest genre films in movie history, including “Star Wars,” “Men in Black” and “An American Werewolf in London” for which he won the first Academy Award® for make-up. Baker had worked with Eddie Murphy before, transforming the comedian into “The Nutty Professor” as well as virtually every other member of the Klump family.
“I love The Haunted Mansion,” says Baker. “We got to walk through it with all the lights on—that was reason enough to do this! Plus I love working with Eddie Murphy even though he’s one of the few characters without makeup.”
Baker signed on and immediately went to work designing makeups for Edward Gracey, the butler Ramsley, and the motley assortment of ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, and zombies who haunt the house and grounds. Throughout the spring and summer, he produced a series of conceptual sketches, paintings, maquettes, and sculptures of all the key characters and supporting players. Baker knew that his designs would have to serve the story of the film and accomplish that without straying too far from the original characters that audiences knew and loved. With that in mind, Baker dotted the walls of his studio with the original sketches for the ride’s spooks and specters by legendary Disney animator Marc Davis. These sketches would serve as inspiration as Baker adapted virtually all of Davis’s creations for leading, supporting, and cameo roles in the film, including Madame Leota, a variety of Grand Hall party guests, the Attic’s pop-up ghosts, Graveyard musicians and revelers, and, of course, the famous Hitchhiking Ghosts.
The film offered a broad canvas on which to paint, so Baker set himself free to play, creating designs for completely original characters to complement the cast from the attraction. “The fun part was coming up with all sorts of creative ways for them to have died,” Baker says with a gleeful grin. He made a conscious attempt to emulate the design intent of his Imagineering predecessors, and many of his new characters honor the original creators.
Filmmaking has always been a collaborative process, but Production Designer John Myhre, Costume Designer Mona May, Special Makeup Effects Artist Rick Baker, Cinematographer Remi Adefarasin and Visual Effects Supervisor Jay Redd enjoyed an especially symbiotic relationship while working on “The Haunted Mansion.” “The biggest challenge was to keep each element working with the others, so it didn’t feel like you were watching separate movies,” says May. “There had to be a common thread so the graveyard didn’t feel separate from the Mardi Gras or the zombies. Even though they change, the mood, the colors and the textures had unity.” It was vital that all of these vastly different entities, from genuinely gruesome reanimated corpses to the spirited inhabitants of the graveyard to purely digital floating phantoms, all feel as though they are part of the same supernatural world. If even one character, or costume, or part of the house felt out of place, the film’s continuity and the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief would both be threatened. Only through constant communication could the artists ensure that those seams would remain invisible. Their work is a testament to the power of collaboration, with traditional art forms joining forces with twenty-first century technology to create the film’s incredible illusions and bring its otherworldly cast of characters to life onscreen.
Movie Database
In Theaters
