- For other uses, see "Jake".
Jake the Foreman is a character from the Phantom Manor attraction at Disneyland Paris.
History[]
Background[]
Jake served as a foreman who worked in a mine in Big Thunder Mountain for the Big Thunder Mining Company. During his life, he was in love with Melanie Ravenswood, the daughter of the company's owner and started become a secret, although they kept their relation a secret, despite controlling Jake's wishes. Jake later made a promise to stop the wedding between him and Melanie; however, the wishes were put into an end when he disappeared during an earthquake in 1860.
After Jake's disappearance, he planned to marry Melanie inside the Ravenswood Manor. However, before the marriage, Jake was lured into a secret chamber in the rafters where he encountered a mysterious figure known as the Phantom who attacked him and killed him, resulting in him being hung via hangman noose. Following Jake's death, his fiancée Melanie was left to roam the Ravenswood Manor for the rest of her life, waiting for him to return.
Development history[]
Phantom Manor was an opening day attraction at Disneyland Paris where a portrait of Jake was displayed in the Stretching Room area, which depicts Melanie's relationship with Jake during a picnic while various ants, a scorpion, a rattlesnake, a spider, and a beetle attempt to infest their picnic, followed by what appears to be Jake's corpse on the top of the ceiling. Phantom Manor closed for maintenance in 2018 for a major refurb; the attraction later reopened in 2019, resulting in many references to Jake being removed from the attraction.
Role in the attraction[]
From opening day to 2018, the portrait of Melanie's relationship with Jake was displayed as one of the four stretching portraits in the attraction. The portrait depicts Melanie's relationship with Jake while several ants, a scorpion, a rattlesnake, a spider, and a beetle attempt to infest their picnic while the narration from the Phantom is heard in the background giving guests a challenge of how to escape the Phantom Manor; all of a sudden, a loud thunderclap is heard in the stretching room where Jake's hanging corpse was seen in the top of the ceiling while the Phantom laughs evilly, showing that the Phantom was the one who killed him. After the sequence, guests exit the area and then proceed to the attraction's Doom Buggies.
In the 2019 refurbishment, many references to Jake were removed, although nothing presented with a new storyline contradicts his existence. However, Madame Leota's incantation chant remains since the opening day of the attraction, implying that this is what is left of Jake in the newly-revamped version of the attraction, albeit mentioned indirectly.
Trivia[]
- Jake appears to be the Phantom Manor counterpart of the Ghost Host from the original Haunted Mansion attraction, as both of them are shown to be skeletal corpses hanging in the respective stretching rooms. That said, the scene where Jake's dead body hangs on the ceiling parallels the scene from the original attraction.
- The name "Jake Evans" was used in the Phantom Manor script written by imagineers Jeff Burke and Craig Fleming, suggesting that this was to be his full name; although the name was never made official, it mostly applies to an early storyline focusing on Arthur Ravenswood before it was simplified.[1]
References[]
External links[]
