Black Thunder is an unused character that was planned to appear in the Phantom Manor of Disneyland Paris.
History[]
Background[]
Black Thunder was a horse in Thunder Mesa during the 1850s-1860s which belonged to Henry Ravenswood and was kept in a carriage-house outside his estate of Ravenswood Manor. Through unknown events, the horse would die and its disembodied spirit would haunt the carriage-house along with the phantom of its master.
Development History[]
Black Thunder would have appeared in a Carriage House that was originally planned to serve as the queue for Phantom Manor. Throughout the queue would be plaques referencing Black Thunder with the horse's stable stall appearing at the end of the Carriage House's line. The horse would have been invisible but be heard from within the stall, whinnying and banging its hooves as the laughing of the Phantom could be heard from the distance.[1]
Trivia[]
- The name Black Thunder likely comes by combining, "Big Thunder" which comes from the fictional mountain of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with, "Black Beauty" which is a famous 1877 Anna Sewell novel about a horse.
- The horse's planned appearance was likely inspired by the invisible horse strapped to the hearse in the queues for the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland and the Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World. Both of these were partly developed by imagineer Tony Baxter who was a significant creative-force in Disneyland Paris and Phantom Manor.