Haunted Castle

Because the transportation to the conference's Boot Scoot didn't have a car seat for our son, we ended up staying at the hotel tonight instead of joining everyone. Barb took a nap and watched the boy while I sauntered over to the IMAX theater nearby to catch Haunted Castle, a 3D animated adventure-movie-slash-music-video.

I was expecting something on the order of R. L. Stine's Haunted Lighthouse, which is a spooky 3D attraction you'll find at the SeaWorld/Busch Gardens parks. But I was pleasantly surprised. The 3D video effects were superb - easily better than even the Disney attractions Honey, I Shrunk the Audience and Muppet Show 3D. It was so immersive, I was able to notice some 3D pebbles on the stairs that had been placed a little above the ground. There were still some places that caused errors, mostly when they tried to put things too close to the camera, but overall, it was very good 3D presentation.

Unfortunately, the story was terrible, but still better than the Haunted Lighthouse storyline. It follows a would-be rock star who is offered the Faustian bargain to sell his soul in exchange for becoming a rock god. His mother, who made the deal before him and now inhabits the Haunted Castle as a ghost, tries to save him. It turns out that "Mister D" doesn't like opera, so our hero does his three tenors Donna Mobile impression at the end, and it causes the Haunted Castle to go down in flames. Somewhere in the middle of all this, we see a music video of a four-piece robot monkey band (no, I'm not kidding).

But really, you don't go see a show called Haunted Castle 3D for the plot, now, do you? The plot is merely a vehicle for some really fun 3D environments. The castle is very well done, as is the Musician's Hell scene (the idea of Hell being a giant run-down theme park over hot lava somehow appeals to me). The scenes don't really mesh well together (again, robot monkeys), but once you've transitioned, each segment starts working on its own. Curiously, one segment (the Opera area) is jarringly more graphic and violent than the rest of the segments, with extended shots of maimed people being subjected to torture. This, when the rest of the show is solidly kid-friendly. This latter phenomenon is perhaps explained when the credits roll, where you discover each segment was done by a different person.

The music, which I expected to be terrible, turned out to be pretty good. Although most of the fan reviews I've read like the guy's songs (performed by a band called Arid), I actually liked the mother's song better (performed by a band called Lunascape), because it had that dreamlike rock/operatic feel of the song from The Fifth Element. Curiously, both bands are Belgium-based, so I assume the production was Belgium-based as well.

All in all, a fun ride. Not a good show, but certainly worth the price of admission for all the eye candy and 3D immersive effects.