Muppets Haunted Mansion

Release Date: October 8, 2021

Watch Date: October 12 – October 13, 2023

“The Great Gonzo – world-famous daredevil – has done it all, seen it all, and narrowly survived it all. But on Halloween night, the fearless Gonzo takes on the greatest challenge of his life by spending the night in the scariest place on Earth – the Haunted Mansion. Teamed with his friend Pepe the King Prawn, this musical comedy reunites Kermit and the entire Muppets gang, who portray the beloved grim grinning ghosts of the Haunted Mansion in this star-studded, frightfully funny Muppets adventure.”

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    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love the Muppets, and I love the Haunted Mansion, so the Muppets and the Haunted Mansion together should be an instant classic, right?

    Not really.

    Now don’t get me wrong. I enjoy this film. The celebrity appearances are well done. The tributes to the Haunted Mansion ride are great. The little references and ghost jokes are funny and timed well. But the songs are kind of bleh. Gonzo and Pepe are not my favorite of the Muppet cast, and there’s no real plot line.

    The Haunted Mansion starring Eddie Murphy was a love letter to the ride, which I do, well then you’ll be shocked to find that that’s all this is. Again, there is no aspect of horror. It’s just the Muppets running rampant in a Muppet themed Haunted Mansion. And that’s a joy to watch, but a great movie? Not so much.

    I think my biggest gripe is that the showpiece song, the one about Gonzo dying and how great it is to live in the Haunted Mansion is a weird reference to Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast. That makes no sense in this film, and the little lyrical nods to a song from a completely different type of movie just confuse me.

    But it’s short, you don’t have to invest a lot of time in it, and it’ll definitely make you smile, if not chuckle, a few times. It’s like going through the ride. There’s a little something different you notice every time, and while not everything is perfect, none of it is awful. Taken as a whole it might fall a little short of the mark, but as a cute, short, Halloween themed Disney+ Original, well…you can’t really complain now can you?