The Voodoo Queen was a proposed character for the Haunted Mansion created by Ken Anderson.
History[]
The Voodoo Queen was a malevolent incarnation of the bride character who would have been planned to be a voodoo practitioner and villain in the Haunted Mansion. The idea was developed by Anderson and fellow imagineer Bill Cottrell who began studying Haitian Voodoo practices and superstition for the Haunted Mansion due to its affiliation with the state of Louisiana.
She would have been a New Orleans woman who married a wealthy man, oblivious to her practices. One night she would have partaken in an effigy which her husband would have stumbled onto and became horrified by. In his terror, the husband would have commit suicide and haunted their mansion as a ghost. The Voodoo Queen would have been the antagonist in this incarnation of the attraction and would have had monstrous followers.
Based off of notes of voodoo practices taken by Cottrell and Anderson, it is possible that she would have used a love-powder to seduce the man. The listed ingredients for such being made from the crushed, dried-out guts of hummingbirds and having it be sprinkled on the beloved. This would be followed by placing a frog in an ants nest until the frog has been eaten by the ends and removing the frog bones closest resembling a heart and a hook. Followed by placing the hook in the garments of the beloved while keeping the heart with the catch that if you lose the heart the lover will hate you as much as they once loved you.[1]
Legacy[]
- Artwork for the Voodoo Queen's bayou might have influenced the development of the Blue Bayou in Pirates of the Caribbean and the Blue Bayou Restaurant of New Orleans Square. Voodoo is frequently affiliated with variants of this setting and events held in the restaurant which featured characters such
- In the Mystic Spirits of the Blue Bayou show, Dr. Facilier is a voodoo bokor who summoned the ghosts of the ballroom ghosts, Constance Hatchaway and Sally Slater.
- The Pirates of the Caribbean film-series features a voodoo priestess named Tia Dalma operating out of a shack in the Pantamano River of Cuba, its representation in the film being heavily based on the Blue Bayou.
- In Shanghai Disneyland, their Blue Bayou analogue is accessed from a location known as Voodoo Alley.
- In the Ghost Gallery storyline, Madame Leota is identified as being the daughter of a voodoo bokor and as being skilled in voodoo herself.
- Voodoo was planed to be featured in Rolly Crump's Museum of the Weird attraction.
Trivia[]
- "The Voodoo Queen" is a title traditionally affiliated with the historic Marie Catherine Laveau.
- The title was recycled by Disney in the film The Princess and the Frog (2008) for the character of Mama Odie.
- The Voodoo Queen's story is a sort of role-reversal of the traditional Gore Manor stories written by Ken Anderson for the mansion. Typically the bride would be the victim who discovers the dark secret while the groom would be the villain, here it was the reversed.