For me The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is one of my favorite rides at the entire park. I put it high on my list along with Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. I even enjoy it more than Pirates of the Carribean. I even have a copy of the limited soundtrack of the entire ride, as well as the other "Haunted" houses at Disney parks worldwide. For me The Haunted Mansion was the ultimate spook house ride, adding thrills, chills, with state of the art special effects. When I saw the movie, my hopes were high considering that the Disney Studio did a decent job of making a ride into a film with PIRATES, but after watching the movie, I was extremely disappointed. The story involves Jim Evers (Eddie Murphy) a successful real estate seller along with his wife/partner Sara (Marsh Thompson). When the Evers advertisement flier was left in front of the mansion, Sara gets a phone call to arrive at the mansion alone for a proposition. Jim who messed up his anniversary, decides to take Sara and their two children, 13 year old Megan (Aree Davis) and 10 year old Michael (Marc John Jefferies) along with them to the lake. But when Jim hears Sara taking the phone call about the mansion, he sees it as a real estate opportunity. When they arrive at the mansion, they are greeted by a emotionless and creepy butler Ramsley (Terence Stamp) who works for Master Gracey (Nathaniel Parker). The mystery about why Ramsley and Gracey invited Sara to the mansion has something to do with Gracey's past, as Jim along with Megan and Michael discover the secrets among the mansion. I will say that when I was watching the movie, at the beginning it looked very promising. The story for the movie was going along with the ride and I was getting pleased with the film. Then after the credits, and opening scene, Eddie Murphy's character appears, and for a few minutes I thought I was watching deleted scenes or a sequel to DADDY DAY CARE. I was sitting there wondering, this movie is "The Haunted Mansion?" This is suppose to be based on the ultimate spook ride on any amusement park, and it seems way too much like a family comedy. Then as the movie progressed, I was pleased with the sets, the costumes, and even the plot involving Ramsley and Master Gracey, but it was the presence of Eddie Murphy that was really bothering me. It felt like that I was riding the Haunted Mansion ride, yet I was sitting next to an obnoxious and chatter mouth man in the "doom buggy," (which is how I felt about Eddie Murphy in this film). Then more things began to bother me, the throw away characters of Ezra (Wallace "Inconceivable!" Shawn) and Emma (Dina Spybey). It's bad enough that Shawn has to keep saying "Unexplainable!" to try to get some laughs out of the adults who recognize him from PRINCESS BRIDE (it doesn't work). Then there is the character of Madame Leota (Jennifer Tilly) who I thought was a great choice for the film and does appear at first to be what I expected, similar to the ride, creepy and mysterous. Then, in order to obtain the "Disney cuteness" they make her a reoccurring character, even having a scene with the crystal ball being fasten in a seatbelt in a car, oh boy. I did enjoy also the references the movie made to the ride (the statues that follow your move before going on the doom buggie). Then there were scenes where some of the ride refrences could have been a little more scarier or just plain better. Like the singing statues, they should have been singing "Grim Grining Ghosts" a song that is used on the ride and even creates that frightening image of their presence. Instead, for yuks they sing "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" or "She'll Be Comimg 'Round the Mountain," ho ho, ha ha. For me it seemed like that director Rob Minkoff was trying to use elements from GHOSTBUSTERS and THE MUMMY in trying to make HAUNTED MANSION successful, he failed. What he should have done was watch PIRATES then possibly rework the film to get the feel of what it takes to make a feature film based on a popular theme park attraction. Also, Eddie Murphy, I felt was a MAJOR casting error. It gets very annoying very fast when a actor has to make a wise-crack with every scary image or object that is being shown. Plus, like all comedians, when the actor is "mugging" the camera thinking the material is funny, it's not funny to the audience. Comedy works with reaction and surprise, by telling a joke and thinking it's funny, the joke turns out to be annoying, and that is what Murphy was in this film. I enjoy Eddie Murphy, TRADING PLACES, 48 HRS., and BEVERLY HILLS COP were great! Even Eddie Murphy "toned down" in NUTTY PROFESSOR, BOWFINGER, SHOWTIME, and DADDY DAY CARE were enjoyable. Then again, Murphy starred in VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN and PLUTO NASH, and we all know how those films turned out. In this film, he comes off more annoying than anything else, similar to his vocal role in SHREK (which I thought was a very overrated film), it seems that Murphy was limited to what he could say and react since Disney wanted this to be "a blockbuster family film." Murphy should have gotten advice from Ramsley (Terence Stamp who also co-starred with Murphy in the hilarious BOWFINGER) with K.I.T. (keep it together) and that is what Murphy really should have done with his performance in this film.
Why did Minkoff try to make HAUNTED MANSION more cute than frightening? Because it carried the Disney logo? That didn't stop other more intellectual and dark films like BLACK HOLE and TRON from being made. It seems that PIRATES director Gore Verbinski didn't set any barriers with tone of violence and fright and made PIRATES a enjoyable picture. With HAUNTED MANSION, Minkoff appeared to try to make the film scary, but not too scary, since I'm sure the Disney executives were saying, "there will be five year olds in the audience, this is our blockbuster Holiday family picture Rob." Overall, I wanted to enjoy THE HAUNTED MANSION but I couldn't, and I'm pretty darn lenient when it comes to liking movies (I enjoyed LEAGUE OF EXTRADONARY GENTLEMEN for pete's sake!) But it felt like I was cheated and robbed of what I wanted this movie to be. The movie had the sets, make-up, and special effects; but that doesn't make it a good movie. I haven't been this disappointed in a anticipated film since MEN IN BLACK II. Go ahead and see it, but... BEWARE! *** (out of five)
Why did Minkoff try to make HAUNTED MANSION more cute than frightening? Because it carried the Disney logo? That didn't stop other more intellectual and dark films like BLACK HOLE and TRON from being made. It seems that PIRATES director Gore Verbinski didn't set any barriers with tone of violence and fright and made PIRATES a enjoyable picture. With HAUNTED MANSION, Minkoff appeared to try to make the film scary, but not too scary, since I'm sure the Disney executives were saying, "there will be five year olds in the audience, this is our blockbuster Holiday family picture Rob." Overall, I wanted to enjoy THE HAUNTED MANSION but I couldn't, and I'm pretty darn lenient when it comes to liking movies (I enjoyed LEAGUE OF EXTRADONARY GENTLEMEN for pete's sake!) But it felt like I was cheated and robbed of what I wanted this movie to be. The movie had the sets, make-up, and special effects; but that doesn't make it a good movie. I haven't been this disappointed in a anticipated film since MEN IN BLACK II. Go ahead and see it, but... BEWARE! *** (out of five)