Taking inspiration straight from the ride! The 2023 Haunted Mansion movie will have Disney fans feeling some major nostalgia.
“You really do meet the mansion the way you would as a guest at the park,” the film’s director, Justin Simien, told Entertainment Weekly in May 2023. “You meet it through the eyes of a new cast exploring the lore along with you.”
From the 999 happy haunts to the infamous stretching room, so many scenes in the movie are taken straight from the fan-favorite attraction. Keep reading for all the details.
Is the 2023 ‘Haunted Mansion’ Movie Based on the Disney Ride?
Yes! When the film was first announced in August 2020, it was reported that it would more closely follow the source material — meaning the Haunted Mansion ride, which debuted in 1969. The original movie, released in 2003, had a few nods to the ride, but not quite as many as the remake.
Perhaps the most obvious similarity was the house’s exterior and interior, which includes a “direct influence” from the ride.
“We got down to the point where we were obsessing over the angle you first see the mansion when you walk onto the ride in Disneyland, wanting to get just the angle right, when we see it through the gates and we see the pillars, that angle has to hit,” Justin explained during the same EW interview. “That’s how specific we were. When you first glide through the dining hall and you see the waltzing dancers, that angle had to be right, because that’s the one where you gasp on the ride.”
Not to mention, the stretching room does make its film appearance. Justin explained why this was a key moment from the ride to include.
“As we all know, there’s 999 haunts in this house, and they have slightly different objectives,” the director teased. “As the cast figures out if the hauntings are for good or for ill, who’s working for who, and who’s helping us and who wants us to stay here, the stretching room becomes a missing piece of that puzzle. They start to figure out exactly who it is that’s after them and who’s with them.”
Which ‘Haunted Mansion’ Ghosts Are In the 2023 Movie?
Various familiar faces are included within the film, like the Hitchhiking Ghosts, Madame Leota (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) and the terrifying Hatbox Ghost (played by Jared Leto). While the latter is only in the Disneyland version of the ride, he acts as the main antagonist throughout the film.
Similarly, the musical ghosts can be heard creating various renditions of the “Grim Grinning Ghosts” song that’s played throughout the ride.
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