During the D23 Expo, a new trailer for Justin Simien’s new film, Haunted Mansion, was shown to folks in attendance. He also introduced Jamie Lee Curtis, who arrived on stage via Doom Buggy, as iconic crystal ball denizen Madame Leota in the film. And as if that weren’t enough, there were sly hints that indicated that Jared Leto — this generation’s Crispin Glover — might portray the infamous Hatbox Ghost in the film!
All very exciting!
But this got me thinking about the history, not always smooth as a Doom Buggy ride, of trying to adapt Disneyland’s most beloved attraction to other media.
It’s a theme park attraction with a split personality: having gone through an epic length development process lasting through multiple teams, repeated scrapping of the project as well as the death of Walt Disney. At the end of the road were two men, legends, Marc Davis and Claude Coates, and they couldn’t agree on what the actual Mansion was supposed to accomplish; scare folks, or make them laugh. The decision never got made and yet, inexplicably, it all seemed to gel. It’s funny and a little bit scary and one of the greatest triumphs of the theme park art form.
But this tone, being so unique, and almost accidentally arrived at, has proven difficult to capture in other media. Let’s take a look at a few tries.
The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion (1969 Record)
Treasured by generations, this record was many people’s first encounter with the 999 Happy Haunts that lived in the old house off of New Orleans Square. This record was so influential that it and several pre-opening publicity photos convinced many people that they had, in their childhood, actually encountered things in the ride that had not been there.
The most famous example is the recurring belief that people had that they, in the 70s, had seen the infamous Hatbox Ghost. They hadn’t. Though eventually a new Hatbox Ghost was put in in 2015, the original never made it past cast previews. It is a testament to how powerful this record was for a pre-internet audience that it seemed to implant memories.
The question is, though, is the record a good representation of the attraction? Well… The casting of the great Thurl Ravenscroft, who’s voice appears as a singing statue in the attraction, helps, but today it sounds a lot like a novelty horror sound effects record with very little of Marc Davis’ comic sensibility. Great fun, but not quite the right tone.
Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color “Disneyland Showtime” (1970 Television)
This 1970s episode of Walt Disney’s famous prime-time show featured both a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the attraction as well as an awkward, pseudo-hip, fictionalized narrative where the Osmond kids, Kurt Russell and E.J. Peaker (You know? The famous E.J. Peaker?) end up riding the Haunted Mansion.
It sort of works, though the 70s kid stars exclaiming stuff like, “This is the WILDEST trip I’ve ever been on!” kind of ruins the mood.
The Haunted Mansion (2003 film)
The less said about this the better, but I suppose I need to say something.
Talk about a tale of two concepts. They hadn’t had the courage that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl had in the same year to abandon the source material and carve out something entirely new with only a few nods back to the park attraction. Instead, it tried to stay faithful, but not faithful enough to trigger any sort of nostalgia.
Like a deer caught in the headlights, it was doomed.
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021 Disney+)
This Disney+ special duplicates, scene for scene, the Mansion itself in surprising detail. As a parody piece, it is surprising just how faithful to the source material it turned out to be. In fact, of everything on this list, it is probably the truest to the attraction, which seems almost to trip up The Muppet’s particular kind of anarchic humor.
Again, we have a show operating with a split-personality; too Muppet to be Mansion and too Mansion to be Muppet.
That all said, it isn’t terrible.
Haunted Mansion (2023 film)
We don’t know a lot about this new film other than it is being directed by the extremely promising Justin Simien and that the cast is stacked with big names; Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Winona Ryder, Jared Leto, and Jamie Lee Curtis to name a few. Disney does not seem like they are fooling around on this one. Let’s hope they nail it; and that they give us some chills with our laughs.
Now, where is my Adventures in Inner-Space film?
Kelly McCubbin is a columnist for Boardwalk Times
