The Haunted Mansion was released in November 2003. The film did decently but made substantially less than Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl which was a huge hit in the summer of 2003. Disney’s movies based on theme park rides have been hit and miss. The Haunted Mansion did better than some of the others including The Country Bears which bombed. The Haunted Mansion wound up with about 75 million in the U.S. Pirates of the Caribbean made over 300 million earlier that year.

The Haunted Mansion starred Eddie Murphy, Marsha Thomason, Aree Davis, Marc John Jefferies, Jennifer Tilly, Terence Stamp, Nathaniel Parker, Wallace Shawn, and Dina Waters. I was 13 when the movie came out. I did not like the movie at the time. I found it disappointing. I am excited to see the new movie that is out in theaters now. I thought it would be fun to revisit the original one and see if my opinion would have changed since I’m older.  

My opinion remains the same as it was the first time around. The cast does a good job and Eddie Murphy is fine. I found the movie boring. The movie clocks in at around 90 minutes. I thought the movie was a little too long and most movies now a days are longer than 90 minutes. I would have liked to have seen more ghosts. I have never been to Disney World or Disney Land, but I am aware The Haunted Mansion attraction has a lot of ghosts. There were not that many in the film. There was one scene later in the movie that had a lot of ghosts and that was it. The new movie seems to have more ghosts throughout the movie based on the marketing. I will know once I see the movie if that is actually the case. I felt the movie lacked some heart and was not that fun. Hocus Pocus is a great Halloween movie that is a lot of fun. One thing that is appealing about the new Haunted Mansion is that it looks to be darker and spookier. That is something I wish the original was.

The Haunted Mansion is alright. It’s not a horrible movie but it is not the greatest. I am not that surprised that my opinion didn’t change. The Haunted Mansion lacked heart and lacked the fun. I am still looking forward to seeing the new movie and I hope it will be spooky and fun.