The Nightmare Experiment was an exclusive walkthrough attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland for the Disney Halloween Time Event, located in The Pavilion in 2016.[1] The maze returned in September 14, 2017 as Maze of Madness: The Nightmare Experiment Continues (Traditional Chinese: 詭迷宮：詭夢實驗室新篇), located in Plaza Grounds in 2017.

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Summary

The Pavilion was commandeered for the Nightmare Experiment in 2016. It's a mind-bending dreamscape journey through a laboratory, tunnel, and labyrinth that leads to Dr. Facilier's dark realm from The Princess and the Frog, a jail from Pirates of the Caribbean, an encounter with Sid Phillips's Mutant Toys from Toy Story, and Tarrant Hightopp’s lunatic asylum from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Ominously, there is only “The Professor” to guide dreamers out of the nightmare.

In 2017, The Nightmare Experiment continued as Maze of Madness, but it was located in the new “Black Box” space in Main Street, U.S.A. known as "Plaza Grounds", also the former home of "Graves Academy", an exclusive walk-through attraction for the Haunted Halloween event from 2012-2014. This time one of his assistants will open the new nightmares to find the missing Professor Wu, such as Pinocchio becoming a slave in Stromboli's Caravan from Pinocchio, an encounter with CDA in Scare Floor F from Monsters, Inc., Hightopp's Hat Shoppe from Alice Through the Looking Glass, Beast's Castle from Beauty and the Beast and finally Hades' Underworld from Hercules.

Plot

Original

At the loading area, guests wait outside the Royal Laboratory For The Scientific Study of Phantasmagorian Phenomena. Once inside, guests enter the dusty, bookshelf-lined office of Professor J.T. Wu, head of the Nightmare Experiment project. Wu's attendant, dressed like a surgeon, orders the guests to wait outside Wu's laboratory, before opening the door and letting them enter. The outside of the office features numerous steampunk eyepieces and goggles, seemingly related to the experiment.

Once inside, Professor Wu, a cyborg clanking with steampunk parts and an artificial arm, welcomes guests inside his lab. Inside the lab, bronze cogs and machinery whir and turn, while two humans, wearing steampunk eyepieces, float silently in green tanks. A large circular door, similar to the one used by bank vaults, remains shut.

Wu announces that he has found a portal into an unknown dreamscape that will transport guests into some of Disney's most nightmarish realms. The guests are to be used as test subjects to see what they can find in the realm, and Wu will monitor their progress throughout the journey. With an ominous laugh, Wu activates a console and the door swings open, white fog filling the room.

The Princess and the Frog

Once they step through the door, guests are transported into a Louisiana bayou, walking across a bridge to a small hut, where Dr. Facilier is hosting a Voodoo performance. Before the guests enter, an elegantly dressed woman in a Mardi-Gras mask walks outside with a lantern, checking to see if they have anything that might interfere with the shadow man's rituals. After examining the third guest, she quickly removes her mask, revealing that she is bald, with red veins across her head in place of hair. With a smile, she swings the door open and guests enter the hut.

The small hut is filled with various voodoo artifacts and tribal masks hang on the walls. At the center of the room is a small stage, where Dr. Facilier struts about, welcoming guests to his show. As his audience assembles, Facilier grandly announces that he will introduce them to his 'friends'. With a flourish, a hidden door swings open and one of Facilier's 'friends' enters the room, a faceless voodoo demon dressed in black evening clothes and a top hat. Facilier hands a large cloth to the demon, who holds it in front of the shadow man as the doctor begins to work his magic. The demon then quickly pulls back the curtain to reveal Facilier has disappeared.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Before the show can go on, Jack Sparrow, now an undead skeleton, interrupts by kicking the hidden door open. As white fog fills the hut again and the demon leaves, Jack silently gestures for the audience to follow him.

The guests follow Jack into a dimly lit cell block within Fort Charles Prison. Instead of holding multiple pirates, though, this cell block features the skeletal remains of a single pirate in each cell. All the prisoners seem to have died screaming in agony and one appears to have hanged himself in despair. However, one skeleton is now haunted and jumps out at the guests, roaring and shaking the bars of his cell. Jack continues to lead the guests into the end of the prison before opening a door into another realm and finally leaving them.

Toy Story

The guests now find themselves in Sid Phillips' room, surrounded by his mutant toys. Inside the room are Hand-in-the-box, Jingle Joe, Legs, Ducky, and Babyface, fenced off from the riders. Also in the room are a headless Green Army Man and a mutated baby doll, with six arms and mismatched eyes. Suddenly, flashing lights fill the room and the baby doll jumps up and starts dancing, occasionally shaking hands or high-fiving the guests. Slowly, the rest of the toys come to life, with Jingle Joe nodding his head, Hand-in-the-box rising to greet the guests and Babyface rotating its head round with a cheerful chirp.

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

The exit opens, and the guests file into a dark forest, overrun by ivy and vines. Waiting for them is Nivins McTwisp, who furiously gestures at the guests to follow him. The guests then find themselves in an asylum within The Red Queen's Castle, with an Armoured Card standing outside a padded cell.

Surprisingly, the occupant of the padded cell is Tarrant Hightopp, dressed in white and banging at the windows to gleefully stare at the guests. Inside the cell is a tea party, and various stuffed toys are seated in the chairs. Interestingly, each toy has a red scarf wrapped around its neck and is headless.

A cast member disguised as one of the guests is randomly selected and allowed inside the padded cell. Once inside, Hightopp seats them at the head of the table and serves them tea, madly cackling to himself as he ties a red scarf around their neck. Before the "guest" can take another sip of tea, Hightopp yells he can hear voices whispering to him. Announcing that the voices say that the "guest" would look wonderful without a head, Hightopp picks up a knife and prepares to decapitate the "guest." Thankfully, curtains close over the windows as the room turns an ominous red and alarm bells start ringing.

Eager to lead the guests away before Hightopp murders someone else, the Armoured Card leads them into a garden maze. As the guests journey through the maze, moving gargoyles and ghosts jump out at them, including Jack Sparrow, who has somehow found a way into Underland. When the maze ends, guests step into the white fog once again and enter the final area.

Final

The final room is not another world, but the internal workings of the Royal Laboratory, where clockwork machinery pounds and clangs as smoke rises from below. Walking across a metal catwalk, the guests can see on a screen the villains Professor Wu has observed, such as The Witch preparing to roll a boulder down on the seven dwarves, Chernabog wreathed in flames, Lady Tremaine marching down a hallway, Maleficent in her dragon form, Shere Khan furiously battling and nearly killing Baloo, The Horned King using his cauldron, Ursula magically altering herself to become gigantic, Jafar transforming into his genie form and Shan Yu. Before the guests can see more, the door swings open and Wu’s assistant rushes in, yelling that the guests need to exit quickly as a fire has broken out due to the machinery overheating. As the guests hurry back into his laboratory, Wu quickly thanks them as he works on his console, trying to cool down the machinery as the guests exit the attraction.

Maze of Madness

A year later, the police have arrested Professor Wu for making the Nightmare Experiment project, in which it lead's "innocent" guests into horrific nightmares, but Wu got lost after entering another unknown dreamscape.

Once inside again, guests enter the dusty, bookshelf-lined office of the professor. His attendant, dressed like a surgeon, orders the guests to wait outside Wu's laboratory, before opening the door and letting them enter. As they do, the attendant wonders if the professor is really a devil in disguise.

Once inside, one of his assistants welcomes guests inside the lab. He announces that he has found a portal into an unknown dreamscape to find the professor. With an ominous laugh, he activates a console and the door swings open, white fog filling the room.

Pinocchio

Once they step through the door, guests are transported into Stromboli's Caravan. Before the guests enter, a clown who is working for Stromboli "welcomes" them to see a show.

The small hut is filled with decaying puppets on the walls. At the center of the room is a small stage, where a miserable Pinocchio, locked in chains, has become a performing slave. He tries to ask the guests for help, but the clown stops him, and tells them go to the next room.







Monsters, Inc.

The guests now find themselves in Monsters, Inc.'s Scare Floor F. Before the show can go on, the CDA tells the guests to get into Boo's door, but the alarm starts to sound. Guests hear Roz's voice and tells the CDA that "humans" have appeared in Monstropolis, and she is "always watching" them. Once the CDA finds them, they lead the "humans" to the next room.







Alice Through the Looking Glass

The exit opens, and the guests file into Hightopp's Hat Shoppe. Waiting for them are Tarrant Hightopp and Nivins McTwisp. One of the guests once again is randomly selected and allowed inside the hat shoppe, where Hightopp seats them in a chair that looks rather like a dentist's, and puts a hat on their head. Before the guest can try on another hat, Hightopp yells he can hear voices whispering to him. Announcing that the voices say that the guest would look wonderful without a head, Hightopp picks up a knife and prepares to decapitate the guest. Thankfully, curtains close over the windows as the room turns an ominous red and alarm bells start ringing.

Beauty and the Beast

Later, guests are transported into Beast's Castle, and hear the enchantress's voice, narrating the prologue of the story. Suddenly, a suit of armor becomes alive and tells them to find The Enchanted Rose before the last petal falls but it was too late, and the armor has become completely inanimate. Later, a chimney opens into a new realm and lead the guests to the last room.

Hercules / Final

The final room is the Underworld, where Hades appears and informs the guests that he had caught Professor Wu. Once Hades persuades the guests that the professor is guilty for what he did, he transforms into a demon and tries to hold the guests prisoner in the Underworld forever, but Hades releases them and restrains the professor. A dead woman will randomly jump out at guests as a final scare before they exit the attraction.

Trivia

The design of the large circular door at the beginning is a reference to the original map of the park.

Hand-in-the-Box, one of Sid's mutant toys featured in "The Nightmare Experiment" in 2016, became a display outside the entrance of Toy Story Land in 2017, replacing Ducky.

Gallery

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