Disney PhotoPass is testing a new Haunted Mansion Magic Shot at Magic Kingdom that turns guests into stone busts in front of the Mansion, and the images appear to be made with generative AI. Guests began sharing their results over the weekend, and Haunted Mansion fans are split between people asking how to get one and people who see it as one more step toward AI in the parks.
Guests are photographed outside the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square. The finished Magic Shot places each person as a gray stone bust on an ivy-covered pedestal in front of a moonlit Mansion glowing blue, with Minnie ears, sunglasses and caps carried over into the stone. At least one family also received a version showing them as see-through blue ghosts. It follows last week’s debut of new Frozen and Toy Story storybook sets at the Disney PhotoPass Studio at Disney Springs.
Travel planner Amanda Wilding of Second Story Travel shared one of the first posts, which has pulled in about 1,500 reactions. Dustin Smith, who took part in the test, posted his family’s photos in the Walt Disney World Tips and Tricks Facebook group and said there is little to no chance it replaces regular photos, calling it an expanded Magic Shot. Kim Everlith shared a bust photo in the comments to confirm the test was real. On X, user @Themountainkin1 was the first to share the test. Disney has not announced it or said how the images are made.
Most of the Facebook comments are pure excitement. The photos are also making the rounds on X, including this post from Drew Smith. Reaction there has been sharper overall, with some fans calling it a shortcut that disrespects the Mansion’s history.
The Mansion has been at the center of this debate before. In January 2025, Disney quietly pulled an apparently AI-generated bride portrait from Madame Leota’s Somewhere Beyond, the Haunted Mansion shop at Disneyland, after fans called it out.
The test also lands as Disney leans harder into AI. CEO Josh D’Amaro said in May that Disney wants AI that “keeps human creativity at the center of everything that we do,” and we reported in July that Walt Disney World resumed AI-powered search testing for Cast Members. This test is different because the AI-style image is the souvenir itself.
The singing busts in the graveyard scene are animated with projected film of the real singers, including Thurl Ravenscroft, whose bust has been mistaken for Walt Disney for decades. Putting a real face on a Mansion bust is how the original effect works. The debate is about the method, not the idea.
Our take is simple. Disney should stop this test now. The Haunted Mansion was built by artists like Marc Davis, X Atencio, and Claude Coats, and fans love it because every detail was made by a person. Handing the Mansion’s look to an AI generator, even for a souvenir photo, sends the wrong message about the attraction and the Imagineers who still care for it. This is not a knock on the families in these photos. A company that says it is reinvesting in its classic attractions should protect one of the attractions fans care about most.
