The Alligator is an animal seen in a portrait in the Haunted Mansion.
Appearances[]
In the Stretching Room, the alligator appears in the portrait of the Tightrope Walker after the painting elongates itself. The alligator is shown in the painting to be eagerly awaiting the tightrope walker to fall into its jaws while her tightrope line is about to snap.
In the queue of the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion, the alligator was mentioned in a poem made by the undead poetess, Prudence Pock. One of the ghost's poems read, "In the swamp, poor Sally Slater / Was eaten by an alligator" with Sally Slater later being confirmed as the name of the tightrope walker.
Background[]
The animal is an American Alligator (Alligator Mississippiensis) which is most notable for having killed the tightrope walker, possibly on the grounds of the Haunted Mansion itself. If taken as true this would mean that in the Disneyland variant of the ride, it would have been an inhabitant of the Louisiana bayou in New Orleans (where alligators are fairly common in nature).
Within the Walt Disney World variant, it would have lived in upstate New York, along the Hudson River. As alligators are not native to this region whatsoever, the animal would have likely been imported to this swampland in some way or part of a family of alligator which were. It could be possibly explained by the alligator being an archetypal "Sewer Alligator" from the history and contemporary-mythology of baby alligators having been imported to New York from Louisiana to be sold as pets then dumped in the sewer when they grow too old. This is still a stretch however as it would have had to travel up the Hudson River to the Upstate New York region and have been dumped following the 1920s/1930s when the trend started which is unlikely as the Tightrope Walker appears to be a late 19th - early 20th century character.
It should be noted though that along the Rivers of America is an, "Alligator Swamp" being run by an old man called Beacon Joe (himself a recycled character from Pirates of the Caribbean's Blue Bayou locale). So there may be a connection here between the alligator and the Rivers of America swamps. However, given its vicinity to Tom Sawyer's Island, Joe was likely stationed somewhere along the Mississippi River and not the Hudson.
Other Appearances[]
Ghost Gallery[]
In the cast-member created Ghost Gallery, the alligator was summoned by Madame Leota in 1937 as part of her plot to kill off Master Gracey's bride, Lillian O'Malley Gracey.
The gators of the comics
SLG Comics[]
In the first line of Haunted Mansion comics, there are shown to be several alligators (at least nine) potentially responsible for the death of the tightrope walker. In these stories it is elaborated that the tightrope walker was a witch named Daisy de la Cruz who seduced men only to use magic to transform them into alligators, with a Creole widower named Papa de Janeiro being the latest addition to the collection. She kept these alligators on her swampland and would walk over their water with her tightrope until her eventual death at their hands.
Haunted Mansion (2023 film)[]
When the Hatbox Ghost springs a trap in the Stretching Room to seal the mortals in the house, the perils seen in the various stretching paintings come to life with a group of alligators chasing Ben Matthias and Travis and climbing up the walls after them.
Trivia[]
- In the original stretching-room of Phantom Manor, the alligator's portrait was homaged in one of Mélanie Ravenswood. Here however, the looming threat comes from a crocodilian humanoid river creature instead.
- In the Stretching Room promotional and merchandising art made to feature other characters, the alligator has been portrayed by the Neverland Crocodile from Peter Pan (1953) on two separate occasions. In the Disney Villains variant it is looming under the jaws of Captain Hook from the film, in the Mickey Mouse & Friends variant it is hungrily awaiting for Minnie Mouse.
