| Phantom Theater | |
| Location: | Kings Island |
| Section: | Hanna-Barbera Land |
| Status: | Removed |
| Year: | 1992 |
| Previousattraction: | Smurf's Enchanted Voyage |
| Replacement: | Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle |
| Type: | Dark ride / Haunted attraction |
| Manufacturer: | D. H. Morgan Manufacturing |
| Model: | Omnimover |
| Vehicles: | 55 |
| Riders Per Vehicle: | 3 |
| Duration: | 5 minutes |
Phantom Theater was a dark ride located at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, United States. Manufactured by Morgan Manufacturing, the ride opened to the public on April 11, 1992. Its design incorporated a continuously moving chain of vehicles similar to Disney's Omnimover ride system.[1] The attraction was furnished with sets and characters created by R&R Creative Amusement Designs, Inc., and it was themed as a haunted, abandoned theater.[2]
Phantom Theater replaced Smurf's Enchanted Voyage (1984–1991), which in turn was a re-skin of the original Enchanted Voyage (1972–1983). The attraction operated through July 2002 and was overhauled in the offseason, reopening as Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle in 2003. The original ride system remains intact, even in the latest iteration of the ride known as Boo Blasters on Boo Hill.
Taft Broadcasting, interested in finding a way to promote its recently acquired Hanna-Barbera division, purchased Cincinnati's Coney Island in 1969 with the intent of expanding and moving the park. Construction of Kings Island began in 1970, and the most expensive attraction erected for the park's inaugural year was a dark ride called Enchanted Voyage, which cost approximately $2 million to construct. The ride was manufactured by Arrow Development and opened with the park in 1972.
Enchanted Voyage was located in a building shaped like a giant TV set, taking guests through several rooms featuring animatronic versions of new and old Hanna-Barbera characters. Its theme song was composed by well-known Hanna-Barbera music producer Paul De Korte, and the lyrics were written by William Hanna and former Coney Island executive Dennis Speigel.[3] It played throughout the ride, reciting themes from familiar characters such as Fred Flintstone, Scooby-Doo, and Yogi Bear. Less common shows such as Wacky Races and The Banana Splits were also alluded to.[4] The first room introduced the song while the second room changed to a western accent, the third utilized a Caribbean flavor and the fourth had a "spooky" theme. The fifth and final room reverted to the original music with a circus-like ambiance. The rides final exit was at the "mouth" of a giant clown as each boat would travel a few feet up an inclined lift hill before splashing down the drop into the water on the other side.
For the 1984 season, Kings Island updated the ride's theme to Hanna-Barbera's The Smurfs, and it was renamed Smurf's Enchanted Voyage. New animatronics were used for various characters and decorations, and the song playing throughout the ride was changed to coincide with the cartoon. Smurf's Enchanted Voyage consisted of several rooms, each themed to a different season of the year focusing on holidays such as Christmas and Halloween.
At the end of the 1991 season, the building housing the attraction was gutted, and the water transportation system was removed. Installed in its place was an Omnimover-type dark ride created by D.H. Morgan Manufacturing, similar in style to The Haunted Mansion attractions at various Disney parks around the world. An Anaheim-based theming company, R&R Creative Amusement Designs, Inc., developed the concept of the ride including its sets, props, animatronics, and music. The original boat loading area used on previous versions of the ride was retained and converted into a queue area for a kiddie roller coaster named Scooby Zoom, which later became Great Pumpkin Coaster. A new entrance was constructed for Phantom Theater at the opposite corner of the building, and a small, unused section of the building was converted into a children's theater called the "Enchanted Theater".
Phantom Theater officially opened to the public on April 11, 1992.[5] It was themed as a behind-the-scenes tour of an abandoned theater haunted by the ghosts of vaudevillian-era performers, staff, and theatergoers who frequented the venue long ago. The exterior of the building was stylized as a dilapidated and crumbling opera theater. The queue area was dimly lit with a pair of electrical chandeliers above. The ride featured 17 separate scenes, some of which utilized a Pepper's ghost trick – a famous and widely used dark ride trick – to display ghostly illusions.
Phantom Theater closed on July 14, 2002. Nearly all thematic elements were removed and replaced with new scenes created by Sally Dark Rides. 28 of the 55 ride vehicles were also removed, while the remaining were retrofitted with laser light guns that riders would use to point and shoot at various targets throughout the ride. The attraction reopened in 2003 as Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle. Due to a licensing concern, the ride was slightly altered in 2010 and renamed Boo Blasters on Boo Hill.[6]
In the years following Phantom Theater's removal, leftover ride components have been used as props during the park's annual Halloween Haunt event. Ride vehicles, characters, and other items were occasionally displayed at various attractions and locations across the park.
Guests walk under an archway displaying the ride's logo into a short outdoor queue area before entering what appears to be an very run-down, dilapidated old theater building. The large velvet rope-lined lobby queue serves as the main queue room for the attraction. In the lobby, two chandeliers hung from the ceiling and the walls were decorated with posters of the theater's headlining performers:
Lightning flashed from behind the curtains of two windows accompanied by the sound of thunder. On a balcony between the two windows, the theater's ghostly organist, Maestro (voiced by Richard Doyle), played away on a pipe organ, sitting with his back turned to the guests. Between concertos, Maestro would turn around and address the guests below. Maestro would then sinisterly invite the guests to take a tour of the theater and taunt them, before returning to his organ with a maniacal laugh.
Leaving the lobby, guests climbed a short staircase into a long hallway lined with marble busts on either side. Through the use of a hollow-face illusion, the busts would appear to turn their heads to "watch" the guests as they passed by. Guests the entered the loading station and boarded the black, 3-passenger ride vehicles.
The ride cars depart the station and make a left turn. The cars turn to face Maestro, who's seen pulling back a curtain leading backstage and taunting the riders once more. Passing under the curtain, riders faced a row of portraits of the theater performers. Using a scrim effect, the portraits would disappear when lit from behind, revealing the ghostly versions of each performer. Down the hall, a legless ghost usher floats in front of riders and directs them toward the performers' dressing rooms. The doors of each room swing open to show the performers preparing for the show. The final dressing room in the hallway belongs to the Mighty Bosco, a strongman, whose door is stuck and he is shown (ironically) struggling to open it.
Entering the next scene, the cars face an electrician who flips a switch on a lighting board causing the lights in the room to flicker on and off. He shines a flashlight on the riders, telling them to move along. Moving to the next room, riders see a pair of stagehands. One stagehand pulls on a rigging rope, while the other is tangled up by his feet on the other end of the rope and hanging upside-down. Entering the rehearsal rooms, the riders turn toward Houdelini, who pulls a demonic rabbit out of his top hat that roars at the riders as they pass by. In the next room, Hilda Bovine sings a high note, which causes a mirror on the right side of the room to shatter.
The riders encounter the usher again who guides them into the auditorium where the show is about to begin. In the auditorium, riders view a large Pepper's ghost display of the performers doing their respective acts. Maestro plays music on an organ in the orchestra pit, Houdelini levitates high above the stage, Hilda Bovine sings on top of a castle tower, and the Great Garbanzo launches himself out of a cannon across the room and crashes into a wall. The cars move out of the auditorium where they are greeted by Maestro, who forbids to let the riders leave the theater. The riders enter the prop room where they are welcomed by a talking gargoyle. The cars pass by many bizarre sights such as an Egyptian sarcophagus which opens to reveal a wailing mummy inside, a giant mouse that pops up from behind a stack of crates in front of a terrified cat, and a talking Roman centurion statue with projected face. The riders are then taken into the theater's boiler room, where they come face-to-face with a coal-burning furnace. One of the two boilermen opens the doors of the furnace as the cars pass by and the riders are blasted with hot air. The cars then return to the loading station where the guests disembark their vehicles and exit down a hallway. As guests leave the ride building, Maestro is heard one more time, telling the riders that even though they've escaped the theater, "[they'll] be back".[7]
In celebration of the park's 50th anniversary in 2022, Kings Island introduced a new live stage show based on Phantom Theater called Phantom Theater Encore, which plays at Kings Island Theater. The show debuted on June 4, 2022, and combines elements such as musical numbers, acrobatics, and puppetry.[8] There's also an exhibit in the lobby displaying props from the attraction, concept art from R&R Creative, and a scale model of the ride's layout.[9]