Saturday, September 13, 2014

Disneyland Paris Postcards, Vol. 2: Phantom Manor

Here are some of the postcards depicting one of my favorite attractions in the park over the years.

The first one I'm going to share is one I don't own myself; a friend was so kind to send me a scan. It was among the earliest postcards produced, when the actual buildings weren't quite ready yet. This card uses Dan Goozee's great concept painting of the manor house, albeit flipped and cropped. To the right (left on the original artwork), you would have seen the unbuilt carriage house queue building.


The first photographic postcard featuring the manor was a general Frontierland card, including Big Thunder Mountain and the Geyser Plateau.

In the mid-1990s, the first Phantom Manor-specific picture postcard was released, featuring Mickey Mouse as he appeared (very appropriately) in his animated short "The Haunted House."


The late 1990s produced the following postcard featuring Mickey and Pluto.


In the early 2000s, this was perhaps the first and only time Disneyland Paris featured the cartoon version of a ride-specific character on a postcard, as the Phantom sneaks up on Mickey.


Not long thereafter, we move temporarily away from character artwork and into the territory of cheap Photoshop bevel effects, garish colors, on-ride flash photography and Mickey Mouse head cut-outs. Incredibly this style of postcard is still being used by the resort.


To end on a higher note, the following style appeared in the 2010s, returning to an all-artwork design with Goofy as a Phantom Manor butler.


2 comments:

  1. I love the overall artwork from the most recent postcard, including the Disneyland Paris logo with the little Rocket Jet. Is that a current logo or was it just for Halloween? Thanks for the great pics!

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  2. It's one of several variations they've been using; in this case I believe it was designed for this specific merchandise line.

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