Phantom Manor: The Portraits of Melanie Ravenswood

This article was originally published by me in October 2018 and has been republished with minor changes. It is not about scents (my primary focus on this website), but it is relevant to storytelling in themed attractions, and I wanted to publish it here to preserve the history it shares. Scent must often be applied in synergy with other storytelling elements, so we should take the time to explore how these other elements can work effectively.

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When it opened in 1992, Disneyland Paris' Phantom Manor stood out as a truly unique attraction. To this day, it is perhaps the only family ride in the world based on a tale of tragedy and grief. With the Disney Imagineers' skill for creating wonder and humour, this heavy subject matter is translated into an emotive, theatrical and memorable experience for young and old to enjoy.

Portraiture plays a vital role in the storytelling at Phantom Manor, particularly by offering glimpses into the past of its fateful protagonist, the bride Melanie Ravenswood. This article focuses on Melanie's portraits, their creation and how their influence on the story changed after Phantom Manor's 2018 refurbishment, for better or for worse.

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Vestibule (1992–​2018)

Concept art by Christian Hope

When it opened, Phantom Manor's vestibule was overlooked by a mirror, accompanied by enchanting music. Now and again, the face of Melanie Ravenswood would appear behind the glass, a narrator explaining how “beauty once lived in this house, and beauty lives here still ... Show yourself!” This was an elegantly haunting introduction to what promised to be a profound ghost story; certainly no fairground haunted house. As a child, I found the glimpses of Melanie's low-lit face, appearing in the mirror, mesmerising, especially because of the accompanying music. The narrator would continue: “Lovely, isn't she? Come. I have more beauty to show you....”

The illusion of Melanie appearing and disappearing behind the mirror was achieved with a light behind the glass. When it lit up, the outside reflections would be overpowered, giving a fleeting view of the portrait.​

A glimpse of Melanie through the mirror in the dark vestibule

The mirror in daylight when the front door was open

Concept art by Julie Svendsen (left) and the final portrait (centre and right)

From Christian Hope's initial drawings, Julie Svendsen was in charge of developing Melanie's final appearance in portraits. Julie created designs with acrylic paints at her WED office in Glendale, around the late 1980s. The man in charge of the Phantom Manor project, Jeff Burke, explains how Julie's art was developed for the next stage:​

​“The Phantom Manor show sets and many of its furnishings were produced by a British company by the name of Ackland-Snow. They are located just outside of London and also produce sets for the BBC. Among the furnishings that they provided were the portraits and stretch paintings based on Julie Svendsen's original artwork. Ackland-Snow has a huge art department and many different artists worked on the Phantom Manor project.”

Some artists from this group, including Jeff Burke, are named on a gravestone outside of Phantom Manor. For this article, Monica and Keith Ackland-Snow, who are also mentioned on the gravestone, provided the names the artists responsible for the final portraits of Melanie Ravenswood: Gerry Wilcox, Julie Noyce and Peter Gold.

Melanie's mirror portrait in the vestibule was almost timeless in its traditional style. However, its aesthetic details, such as the red lips and thick eyelashes, slightly out-of-place on a Victorian woman, reflected the time it was painted. Regardless, this was a mesmerising portrait to encounter, creating intrigue in this character who used to live in the house guests had just entered.

Vestibule (2019–present)

Melanie's mirror portrait was replaced during the 2018 refurbishment, and intrigue is now sparked in a different way.

The new vestibule portrait in its two stages of transformation

Today, guests encounter a morose portrait of Melanie and the Phantom, surrounded by torn wallpaper. The mirror that was there before the refurbishment was framed by elaborate drapery, making it a clear focal point, while this painting is more discreet. A clever detail in the image is the four hearts carved into a tree, foreshadowing the story to come. Mysteriously, as the ride pre-show happens, the portrait and wallpaper transform to reveal their former vibrancy and happier times, accompanied by an audio narration. When these happier times appear, Melanie's singing begins to echo alongside the music, which is successfully atmospheric.

A closeup of the portrait in its morose form, by Greg Pro

We can infer from this portrait that Melanie's father is the Phantom, recognisable later in the ride. This identity was a detail not revealed before the refurbishment. The Phantom's presence as a main character has become level with the prominence that Melanie always had, brought on by this portrait, his increased presence through animatronic figures and two new changing portraits in the ride boarding area. Notably, the refurbishment's addition of more pictures showing the ride's characters was a wish of Jeff Burke in 2017 (as per my interview with him), although this wish was based on the story as it was at the time.

The torn wallpaper in the vestibule is printed on a translucent material (scrim), and the vibrant wallpaper is printed behind it. When the main lights go down, UV lights illuminate the vibrant wallpaper, making it visible through the outside scrim. The portrait's change is a digital illusion, like with the paintings in the loading area. The texture of the portrait screen's surface gives it a painterly appearance.

The top image shows the vestibule with its original portrait, and the bottom image shows the new portrait and wallpaper.

Melanie in the new portraiture maintains the slightly cross-eyed look from her original foyer depiction!

A Mystic Manor portrait by Chris Turner

The new portraiture is by Greg Pro, a concept designer and illustrator at Walt Disney Imagineering. The digitally-painted aesthetic is reflective of Chris Turner's portraits for Mystic Manor, creating a modern consistency between the Disney park manors. However, having digital paintings on bright screens in the 1800s Phantom Manor, and blue lighting against green wallpaper, does weaken the sense of immersion for me. I refer to it as 'disco lighting'. Despite this, an immediate feeling of awe and fascination are created by the new effects.

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Stretching Room (1992–2018)

In the original version of Phantom Manor, guests would leave the vestibule to enter a room with a further four portraits of Melanie. As the room (an elaborate lift) 'stretched' and the bottoms of the picture frames lowered, it looked like the portraits were stretching too. Unfortunate scenarios were revealed at the bottoms of the paintings, and guests would realise that Melanie was a doomed soul. These hand-painted images were lit by low, flickering lights, creating a stirring ambience.

Julie Svendsen's acrylic concept portraits were, as she recalls, “approximately 20 inches tall, more or less.” Images of this concept art are widely circulated by fans, and as of September 2026, Disneyland Paris' Unlucky Nugget Saloon (a Halloween overlay for The Lucky Nugget Saloon) features two framed prints from this concept art and a larger concept portrait of Melanie as a bride by Svendsen. The frequent use of Svendsen's concept art could be due to the fact that high quality digital copies exist, while the final pieces by Ackland-Snow were not properly photographed or scanned. Svendsen's concept art remains the most recognisable version of the stretching portrait set.

A scan of Julie Svendsen's concept art (left) and a lower quality copy of one of the less impressive Ackland-Snow versions (right)

As with the vestibule's portrait, writer Craig Fleming and designer Christian Hope came up with the ideas for the stretching portraits' content. These were based on Marc Davis' original designs for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion (seen being reproduced below).

Christian Hope produced sketches for Svendsen to work with, following advice from project lead Jeff Burke to achieve “the right balance of innocence and macabre”. The final products by Ackland-Snow were never the most exquisite pieces of artwork, but they were designed to be viewed from a distance in a dark room. The most important aspect was for them to be clear in their storytelling.

For the purposes of throughput, there were two identical stretching rooms, each with four portaits of Melanie (meaning there were two sets of the same paintings). I remember the room on with an entrance to the left in the vestibule having the most lifelike portraits, while the room with an entrance to the right had slightly less impressive pieces.

Julie Svenden's concept art on the left, with two of Ackland-Snow's final portraits centre and right, showing Melanie with more lifelike, personable facial features. The smiling face on the right was especially compelling to me as a child when I viewed it high above me, under the dim, flickering lights.

​Notice the friendliness in Melanie's smiling expression. This innocent demeanour helped guests to feel sorry for her as fate revealed itself. Also notice the front parting in Melanie's hair; Svendsen designed a simple parting, and Ackland-Snow introduced more shape to it in some versions of their paintings. In the new stretching portraits for the 2019 refurbishment, the ringlets hang more naturally, but the shape of Melanie's parting remains consistent with the Ackland-Snow design. This parting is also consistent on the animatronic figures of Melanie later in the ride, as well as actors who have played her around Disneyland Paris.

As mentioned, the stretching portraits created an early sense of empathy for Melanie. In one painting, she was shown with her lover Jake, and in the ride, this same man was suggested to have perished at the hands of the Phantom, causing Melanie's life-long anguish. The storytelling was not rich in detail, but it was clear, and guests had all the information they needed to feel sympathetic towards the protagonist.

Stretching Room (2019–present)

In the updated room, we see Melanie with four different suitors. She then disappears via scrim effect, before the portraits stretch and reveal the fates of the men.

Again, Greg Pro created this artwork digitally. The portraits have scrims over them; the back prints feature Melanie, and these are illuminated from behind the front scrims (so the scrims are not visible). When the inner-lights go down, the scrims in front of the prints are illuminated from the front and are visible instead. Visitors can see the same images are before, except Melanie has disappeared from them. Only the suitors are visible before they are revealed to meet their ends. 

If they look closely, guests can tell that there is an image on top of the other, because Melanie appears slightly translucent when compared to her suitors. When Melanie disappears, the suitors also seem to change position by about a centimetre, due to the two images being apart from each other. Despite these barely-noticeable details, the illusion is impressive, and the necessary changing lighting, accompanied by the sounds of wind, create a mysterious atmosphere. Once more, the blue 'disco lighting' and digital artwork, brightly lit from behind, is not as captivating as the tangible, hand-painted artwork under flickering light from before.

There is a new reference to the Haunted Mansion in the character Ignatius Knight's portrait, as he stands on a pile of explosives like the 'dynamite man' in one of the Mansion's pictures. Ignatius resembles the artist Greg Pro himself, and the other suitors were based on Greg's colleagues. The original Phantom Manor waterfall portrait is also reflected in a new stretching picture: Rowan D. Falls sits in a boat soon to plummet.

Like in the vestibule, it seems as though spectacle has taken favour over emotive storytelling with the new portraits. Melanie now stands rigid, barely smiling and less personable. Whether guests are to feel sympathy for her is unclear. She has four different suitors, appearing at least two decades older than her, quite serious-looking and each supposedly wealthy. The sheer number of fiancés now involved in the story, their wealth, their stern expressions and their ages throw Melanie's intentions into question. Did she really love each of these men, or was she marrying for their wealth and status? Even if she did love them, the fact that she found new fiancés relatively soon after others died suggests that she may have been more excited by the thought of marriage than of true love. This cacophony of new plot details removes much of the pure emotional connection guests could feel for innocent Melanie in the old portraits, who was shown to be happy with a jolly, guitar-playing lover (who we learned disappeared). The emotional journey in the rest of the ride is weakened by the new questions raised—​particularly the scene where we see an animatronic of our protagonist crying in her boudoir—​because we no longer know what to feel about her, nor why she is sad that her suitors are dead. Is she simply a desperate, malicious bride obsessed with marriage, as suggested by her ghost who laughs “will you marry me?” to each guest by the exit, or is she sincerely feeling grief over the loss of multiple wealthy, older men? Emotive poignancy has been lost.

The U.S. Imagineers leading the refurbishment seemed enthusiastic to introduce more Haunted Mansion similarities, especially evident in the controversial introduction of two pieces of Haunted Mansion music during the soft opening, which were quickly removed following negative feedback, and the replacement of beautiful music in the hall of doors with a racket of screams recorded in the 1960s for the Haunted Mansion. This enthusiasm for Haunted Mansion references was perhaps driven by the Imagineers' own nostalgia for the American Mansions, and their lack of familiarity with what made Phantom Manor such a moving, dramatic experience for European fans. It is worth noting that the possibly ill-meaning Melanie of today bears similarities to the Haunted Mansion's Constance Hatchaway, whose portraits imply that she murdered her multiple husbands. It is unclear as to whether Imagineers intended for humour and spectacle to trump the dark tragedy that once drove Phantom Manor's appeal, but they were vocal about their hopes to strengthen the storytelling. Ironically, while the new portraits are impressive and offer a clearer story, their details simultaneously make Melanie's motives more ambiguous than before, compromising the opportunities for empathy that were once important to the storytelling. To me, while the story is now more obvious, the emotional impact is significantly weakened.

This said, new guests will probably not question the story as much as I am doing, and if they like the updated experience more than they would have liked the original version, this is a good thing. Perhaps they will even connect with the ride in new ways.

Jeff Burke comments on the changes: “Honestly, I haven't yet made up my mind about the new portraiture in Phantom Manor, but if it helps the guests understand the storyline more clearly, then I respect their opinions. Overall, I feel the renovation of the Manor was extremely successful, particularly in the areas of show lighting, special effects and figure animation.” Other members of the original team politely refrained from sharing their opinions.

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Melanie as a Bride (1992​–present)

At the end of the gallery by the ride loading area and in the boudoir scene are hand-painted portraits of Melanie in her bridal gown. These are the only original pictures of her remaining after the 2018 refurbishment.

Concept art by Fernando Tenedora (left) and Julie Svendsen (right)

The portrait of Melanie as a bride, created by Ackland-Snow, by the ride loading area

The loading area bride portrait by Ackland-Snow, lit by a camera flash

Before the refurbishment, there was an atmospheric spotlight over Melanie's face, but this lighting is now slightly broader, and Melanie's figure is illuminated in the dark by a glossy varnish. Mysteriously, as of the refurbishment, some guests have spotted dark brushstrokes over Melanie's shoulder that resemble the Phantom.

Sentimental fans can appreciate that this original piece, portraying the original Melanie, remains on display. Aesthetically, its presence is also beneficial for guests' sense of immersion, because this portrait is now the first one they encounter that was not painted digitally and which is not lit from within the frame like a computer screen.

Concept art by Fernando Tenedora (left) and a final portrait by Ackland-Snow (right)

More concept art by Tenedora introduced another version of the bridal portrait in Melanie's boudoir, and Ackland-Snow created it accordingly, again referencing Julie Svendsen's concept. The final portrait is spotlit above a fireplace, offering a sense of times past, before we encounter Melanie in the present day (an animatronic figure sat by a mirror). Tenedora's art suggests that, as guests passed Melanie, they would have seen her skeletal reflection in the mirror, which is not dissimilar to the aged version of Melanie who appeared in the boudoir in 1992. The portrait once served to remind guests of Melanie's former beauty, before they saw how she had deteriorated over time, still wearing her wedding dress. Today, Melanie's figure by the mirror maintains her youth, so the portrait no longer provides a contrast, but rather emphasises an obsession with marriage.

Post-refurbishment Melanie looking youthful

Concept art by Fernando Tenedora

Tenedora also proposed a similar portrait for the ballroom wedding party, prior to the boudoir scene. It would not have been necessary for storytelling, so a picture of the manor in its prime hangs there instead. Again, Julie Svendsen provided concept art for the manor painting before Ackland-Snow created the final version.

The ballroom's manor painting

"Hurry back..."

Phantom Manor's portraits play a strong role in telling the tale of Melanie Ravenswood. They have hinted at her personality, explained her motivations and influenced guests' emotions as they have witnessed Melanie's story. It will be intriguing to see what changes are made in the next few decades, whether the current plot perseveres or whether pre-refurbishment influences help to clear up new questions. While the refurbished version of the ride is generally well-received, almost ten years later, fans still lament that quality of storytelling that was lost. Whatever changes Phantom Manor has in the future, we can be confident that portraits will continue to play an important role.