One of the trees
The Scary Trees are seven trees which appear in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.
Description[]
Background[]
The Scary Trees are anthropomorphic trees with figures which resemble tall gaunt humanoids. They have faces with large wailing expressions but empty sockets and their branches outstretched to resemble arms.
History[]
The trees resemble similar scary anthropomorphic trees which appear both in the Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and its park attraction Snow White's Scary Adventures. The ride features a scene in which guests traverse the scary woods from the movie which was fittingly enough designed by imagineer Claude Coats who was a predominate force behind the Haunted Mansion. Also one of the major animators behind Snow White was Ken Anderson, another power player in the creation of the Haunted Mansion. In the original blueprints for the attraction they were referred to as "Mechanical Trees" and were intended to turn and face the guests in their Doom Buggies as they passed by similar to the trees in the attraction Snow White's Scary Adventure. It is unknown why this effect was abandoned.[1]
Appearances[]
The face of one of the trees
The Haunted Mansion[]
The trees appear in the ride during the descent from the Attic balcony. They are static and loom over the guests as the Raven caws overhead.
Disneyland Fun/Let’s Go to Disneyland Paris[]
The trees appear in the “Grim Grinning Ghosts” segment of the Disney Sing Along video, Disneyland Fun alongside several Disney Villains and Donald Duck. Here they dance to the song and are scared by Donald.
Haunted Mansion (2023 film)[]
The scary trees appear to try and stop Ben, Travis and Kent from leaving the Mansion grounds to go to Crump Manor and find the Hatbox Ghost's original hat.
Trivia[]
- It is unknown whether the trees are sentient or merely corrupted by the twisted nature of the Mansion to resemble dark figures. If they are sentient it is unknown if they are their own independent beings or possessed by spirits.
- The scary trees in the Disneyland Fun version of Grim Grinning Ghosts were actually reused costumes from the celebration of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Walt Disney adoption of Snow White in 1987.
- This implies that the trees featured in the said segment are a combination between the ones from the Snow White and The Haunted Mansion franchises respectively.