There’s a special place in my heart for both The Muppets and Disney World/Disneyland. And both of them are because of two of the absolute most important women in my life. The Muppets is important because my mom and I used to watch it together all the time. She taught me the joys of Jim Henson’s world. Then my wife is the first person to get me to Disney World, which introduced me to the entire universe that is Disney. I became a huge fan of all things related to the parks, movies, history, pretty much anything related to Disney was on my radar from that point on (if you don’t believe me, go check out my Instagram and look at all the pictures of airplanes and Disney!).
Let’s just say, I was beyond ecstatic when Disney+ got the rights to stream all the episodes and movies of The Muppets. A lot of people like to complain about Disney buying up all the properties and then mistreating them (namely, the Star Wars movies here). But The Muppets has been a property that Disney has always done right! They’ve done a great job making consistently entertaining movies and, now, the new series streaming on Disney+ alongside the Jim Henson classics, it’s just awesome work. Well, Disney is at it again! They announced back in May that they had a Haunted Mansion Special in the works for The Muppets. It’s quite literally the best case of marrying their properties.
The Muppets Haunted Mansion is expected to release this Fall. Check out the announcement here:
Story Behind the Park Ride
The Haunted Mansion is one of the most popular rides in all of Disney history. It’s so popular that it has crossed multiple parks and even multiple continents! What I think is the coolest part about this is that although the ride is the same, in that you sit in a cart and get moved throughout the haunted building, the backstory can’t be nailed down. The Haunted Mansion in Tokyo is very different from the one in Disneyland in California or Disney World in Florida. The one that is most relevant here though is the one in America. Both the rides in California and Florida are so similar that they are almost the same. The craziest part is that they both are kind of fan-made storylines.
When it comes to Disney attractions, every single detail is incredibly thought out. But when it comes to The Haunted Mansion, there was never a true story. Walt assigned two Imagineers, Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey, (Disney’s version of engineers) to work on it. He gave them the assignment in the same way he would for the animations. Walt assigned them a topic and told them to figure out a story. They never could decide on anything, so they used a bunch of different ideas and ran with it. Thus, we have the Haunted Mansion ride of today. The current storyline is best described as truly the tale of a haunted building that causes residents to die in some way so that they become attached to the location as one of the ghosts there. There are literally 999 “happy haunts” that are residents in the ride. Each with its own backstory. Plus, they have room for another…if you’re willing…
What’s The Muppets Haunted Mansion About?
Believe it or not, there is absolutely zero confirmed information on what The Muppets Haunted Mansion is going to be about. I know, that’s the whole reason you came here. I’m sorry to disappoint you with that, but I do have some cool stuff to show you and give an idea about what’s going on with it. To start off, EW has the “First Look” pictures of the film that features Gonzo the Great and Pepe the King Prawn all dressed up fancy, almost as though they are guests to a fancy dinner at the mansion perhaps? There are also pictures of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. The twist here is that they are dressed as each other. That’s right, Kermit is rocking a drag outfit and Miss Piggy is wearing a Kermit hat and green dress. They both look hilarious and amazing.
Gonzo and Pepe are dressed like potential guests to something fancy, and Kermit and Piggy are dressed like it’s Halloween and they decided to be each other. These two facts lead me to wonder if they will be following the storyline from the 2004 iteration of The Haunted Mansion starring Eddie Murphy (A terrible movie, but a seriously guilty pleasure of mine. I literally watch it every Halloween season.) or if there will be a brand new mystery that the group will solve. The Eddie Murphy version took on the topic of Master Gracey (a character that was fan-created to pay homage to Yale Gracey the designer of the ride) and his goal of finally marrying his bride. In that movie though, Murphy’s wife looked exactly like Gracey’s former bride so he lured them to the haunted mansion so he could marry her.
It would be pretty funny to have this scenario play out with a gender-bender twist of Miss Piggy saving Kermit, but I kind of feel like they will go a different route. There are 999 different storylines they could follow, so I think it would be limiting for them to go this route. I guess the only way to get answers is to wait until Fall when the movie releases on Disney+. Geeze, I hate being patient though…
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