Count Dracula, also known as the Vampire or the Count, is one of the ghosts haunting the Haunted Mansion. He appears as a portrait, one of the Sinister 11.
Description[]
Background[]
Count Dracula is the ghost of a Transylvanian count who turned himself into a vampire before his mortal death. Eventually his material vampire form was killed and his ghost retired to the Haunted Mansion.
His painting portrays him as a pale man with dark slicked back hair and rodent-like facial features. He wears a black tuxedo and cloak (which the color blends together making it look like a long black robe) and holds a lantern in front of a stone chamber which contains his black coffin and a lit candle.
Origins[]
Count Dracula[]
Count Dracula is a famous literary villain from Bram Stoker's Dracula. In the novel, Dracula is said to be a centuries old vampire who was believed to be descended from Attila the Hun who is skilled in black magic who preys on the people of the villages below his home in the Carpathian Mountains.
By the end of the novel, Dracula successfully turned a young woman named Lucy Westenra into a vampire (although her vampire form is eventually destroyed) and had begun the process of turning Lucy’s friend Mina Harker into a vampire as well. Before she gets fully turned, Mina travels to Transylvania in order to kill the count. She is accompanied by her husband Jonathan Harker, Lucy’s fiancé Lord Godalming/Arthur Holmwood, asylum owner Dr. John Seward, Texan Quincey P. Morris, and Dr. Seward’s old professor, Prof. Abraham van Helsing. Dracula is killed by both Jonathan Harker and Quincey Morris, who slit his throat and stab his heart respectively.
Vlad the Impaler[]
It is also commonly believed that the character of Dracula was once the historic warlord prince Vladislav III Tepes of Wallachia aka. Vlad the Impaler. This is because during his lifetime Vlad the Impaler was known as "Dracula" which meant "Son of Dracul/The Dragon" due to his father Vladislav II having been known as Dracul as he ran The Order of the Dragon.
Vlad the Impaler is infamous in history due to his habit of killing enemies by having them impaled on large spikes sticking out from the ground and some historians suggest that he used the blood which dripped down from the spikes to wash his hands before a feast.
Notable Disney Appearances[]
- The Lugosi version of Dracula appeared in the 1933 Mickey Mouse cartoon, "Mickey's Gala Premier". He is seen alongside Frankenstein's monster and the Mister Hyde.
- Marvel comics had its own version of Dracula who most notably served as an enemy to the characters of Blade and Morbius the Living Vampire. This version of the character has appeared in several Disney produced Marvel cartoons.
- The Phantom Blot portrayed Dracula in an Italian Disney comics parody of the novel, with a costume based on the Francis Ford Coppola version. The comic would inspire several picture book versions retaining the Blot in the role.
Appearances[]
Disney Parks[]
The Haunted Mansion[]
Much like the other Sinister 11 portraits, Dracula's portrait features the "staring-eyes" effect which was accomplished by painting pupils on ping-pong balls cut in half. The eyes were cut out and the balls were set behind the portrait and lit, giving guests the impression that they are moving.
Originally, the portrait appeared with the rest of the, "Sinister 11" within a corridor near the beginning of the ride. In the Florida version, this portrait was moved from the corridor to the loading area, where its eyes no longer glow nor follow guests. The portrait remains in its original location in the Tokyo Mansion.
Deleted Scripts[]
In a script by Ken Anderson, Dracula would have attended the wedding of the Mansion's owners "Monsieur Bogyman" and "Mlle. Vampire" where the Count would have been a guest alongside the Headless Horseman, Great Caesar's Ghost and Frankenstein (likely the Monster rather than the Doctor due to a piece of Ken Anderson concept art showing a figure resembling the Boris Karloff monster). Of the previously mentioned wedding guests, the Headless Horseman and Frankenstein are the only ones to have not appeared in the final attraction.
Concept art shows that Tokyo Disneyland's version of the Mansion was going to include a "Burial Crypt of Famous Villains" where his tomb would be seen next to Nero, Jack the Ripper, Bluebeard, Medusa, and Attila's. In the end, this was decided against.
Printed Material[]
The Ghost Gallery[]
In the unnoficial Ghost Gallery storyline he was implied to have been a mortal English man named Nicholas Crown who was the secret lover of Little Leota. Nicholas convinced his lover's fiancee Jamie (who would later become the Coffin Occupant) that he was in fact a vampire and he than proceeded to bite his neck as to convince Jamie that he was now a vampire as well. Jamie then willingly hid from the sunlight inside of a coffin which his fiancee then nailed him alive inside so that she could be with Nicholas.
Haunted Mansion (SLG Comics)[]
Dracula's wolf form makes a cameo in the audience of Baronessa Elda's performance in Doom of the Diva
Tales from the Haunted Mansion[]
The Count appears in the second volume of Tales from the Haunted Mansion: Midnight at Madame Leota's, in the story "Blood Relatives". Here, he isn't Count Dracula, but a vampire called Count Lupescu from Romania. He laid dormant for five hundred years until being awoken by his descendant, Ernie Looper, when he bleeds on his bones. When he woke up, he fed on people in his towns, not out of maliciousness but out of necessity. He resented his vampirism, seeing it as a curse and asking Ernie to kill him. Instead, Ernie brought him to the Haunted Mansion, where he could live without hurting anyone else.
Amicus Arcane and William, the main character, come across his portrait, when he tells him his story. He still resides at the mansion, but can't come inside. He can transform into both a bat and a wolf, and the mansion has a strict 'no pets' policy. He lives in the graveyard and howls at the moon.
Trivia[]
Marc Davis's original concept painting for a Dracula changing portrait
- Dracula's visual appearance seems to be a hybrid of the Bela Lugosi incarnation of the character from the 1931 Dracula film, and Max Schreck's portrayal of Count Orlok from the 1922 film Nosferatu which was based on Bram Stoker's Dracula. The Haunted Mansion's Count Dracula combines Lugosi's civilized gentleman aesthetic and wardrobe with Schreck's off-putting rodential features. In the updated portrait, it has been put forth that he somewhat resembles the Christopher Lee, Hammer Horror incarnation of the character with his emphasized greying widow's peak and black draping coat. This all makes the Haunted Mansion Dracula one roughly anachronistic to specific adaptations and portrayals of the character.
- Like the Witch of Walpurgis, the Ogre, and the arsonist he was originally going to be a changing portrait but instead he wound up as one of the Sinister 11.
- Along with being a famous Supernatural Fictional Figure (Similar to Medusa or the Flying Dutchman) it also very possible that he is also a historic figure (similar to Jack the Ripper or Great Caesar's Ghost) as in real life history Dracula was a 15th Century Wallachian Warlord named Prince Vladislav III Dracula or "Vlad the Impaler".
- While the Vampire was clearly identified as Dracula in the concept art, a MPC Zap/Action model kit produced in the 1970s would portray him as a cowardly vampire named Morris. The name Morris is possibly a reference to Quincey P. Morris, one of the two men who kill Dracula in the original novel.
- There used to be a life-performed vampire character who appeared for special-appearances who was referred to as, Lord Ravenscroft as an allusion to singer Thurl Ravenscroft. This character would be removed and retrofitted into the Phantom of the Haunted Mansion.
- Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Quasimodo, the Phantom of the Opera and Mister Hyde are the only classic Universal movie monsters known to have been proposed to appear in the Haunted Mansion. Of them, only Count Dracula and an alternate version of Mr. Hyde would appear.
- It should be noted that the arsonist portrait was originally planned to be a werewolf, a mummy appears in the attraction, and a Creature from the Black Lagoon inspired monster once was depicted in Phantom Manor.