Film / Muppets Haunted Mansion

It's time to play the organ
It's time to fright the frights
It's time to meet your maker
On the Mansion Show tonight!

Muppets Haunted Mansion is a Disney+ original special, released on October 8, 2021. The special is notably The Muppets’ very first Halloween special and a crossover with The Haunted Mansion franchise, marking the second live-action adaptation of the ride following the 2003 film.

On Halloween night, Gonzo and Pepe the King Prawn are challenged to spend the night in a mysterious mansion where a famed magician disappeared centuries ago. During their stay, the duo encounter ghosts, monsters, and their Muppet friends taking on various roles from the attraction (such as Miss Piggy as Madame Pigota and Fozzie as Gauzey, the Hatbox Bear).

As usual with Muppet productions, the special features many celebrity cameos, including Will Arnett, Taraji P. Henson, Yvette Nicole Brown, Darren Criss, John Stamos, Kim Irvine, Edward Asner (in one of his final roles), Pat Sajak, Geoff Keighley, Craig Robinson, Skai Jackson, Justina Machado, Jeannie Mai, Danny Trejo, Chrissy Metz, Sasheer Zamata, and Alfonso Ribeiro.

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Includes examples of

• Adaptational Attractiveness: The Caretaker is much younger and more handsome than his ride counterpart.
• And You Were There: The Mansion's residents taking on the forms of all the various Muppet characters is the result of them responding to Gonzo and Pepe's sympathetic vibrations and taking on A Form You Are Comfortable With.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Many ghosts in the Mansion look similar to Muppet characters to Gonzo and Pepe because "the spirits are responding to their sympathetic vibrations".^note This wouldn't be a question in other Muppet adaptions, but the "real" Kermit, Piggy and so on appear elsewhere in the movie, presumably justifying the need for this Hand Wave of why certain ghosts in the Mansion look so similar to them.
• Armor-Piercing Response: In Room 999, Gonzo comes face to face with his reflection in a mirror, and tries to deny that he has a fear, given all the dangerous stunts he's done over the years.
  Gonzo: I've been shot out of a cannon, strapped to a rocket, gone skydiving without a parachute, I've done it all! And lived to tell.
  Gonzo's Reflection: Tell who? Looks to me like you're all alone. (the word "alone" begins echoing)
• Bedsheet Ghost: A few muppet versions of these appear as extras.
• Black Widow: Constance Hatchaway, just as she was in the ride. The ghosts of her ex-husbands are trapped in the attic with her, and she intends to do the same to Pepe.
• Bowdlerise: The stretching room is noticeably missing one corpse hanging from the ceiling.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In keeping with Muppet tradition:
  • Dr. Honeydew and Beaker lampshade their brief cameo (as busts) being caused by budget issues.
  • Miss Piggy, as Madame Pigota, complains about her small role and being stuck in a crystal ball.
  • After Pepe explains a joke Gonzo made, a ghost appears and promises the audience it won’t happen again.
  • At the end, Statler and Waldorf tell the viewer to go home before realizing they are at home.
• The Bus Came Back: A number of long-absent Muppet characters, including Johnny Fiama, Sal Minella, Dr. Phil Van Neuter, and Mulch return as ghosts. Doubles for the performers as well, as this is Brian Henson's first performance in a Muppet production since The Muppets' Wizard of Oz in 2005, and he gets a special mention in the closing credits.
• Call-Back:
  • The screaming goat Gonzo and Pepe encounter throughout the special originally appeared in Muppets Now, as did Joe from Legal, who pops up as a ghost in an 18th century judge's wig.
  • Danny Trejo appears as ghostly prisoner Huet, having previously appeared as a prisoner in Muppets Most Wanted (and a deleted scene from The Muppets (2011)).
  • In the party scenes, the dancers make jokes between themselves in a manner reminiscent of the At the Dance sketches from The Muppet Show.
  • Kermit's ghost persona in the Mansion hosts "The Mansion Show", a clear take-off on The Muppet Show.
  • The Electric Mayhem and Robin the Frog wear their same costumes from The Muppet Christmas Carol. Muppet projects don't typically have continuity between films, but if there was, some saddening possibilities for Robin's portrayal of Tiny Tim Cratchit emerge.
  • In the denouement, Kermit mutters in sympathy when Pepe says that he was nearly tricked into getting married, referencing events in The Muppets Take Manhattan and the Marisa Berenson episode of The Muppet Show.
• Cameo Cluster: A majority of the celebrity cameos occur during the "Rest in Peace" song (as ghosts and singing busts).
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Mary, the mystery writer, is the only one of the graveyard ghosts in the Rest in Peace song number not to correspond to an actual tombstone in the ride's Family Plot. (There is a female writer in the interactive queue of the Walt Disney World Mansion, but she's called Prudence.)
  • Zig-zagged with the Great MacGuffin, a character unique to the special, is Gonzo's idol and inspiration - a magician who had apparently vanished inside the mansion walls a century ago. He turns out to be the Ghost Host's mortal identity in this continuity, though, and may thus be a renamed version of Phineas J. Pock, also a magician and the Ghost Host's persona as the narrator of the 1970s tie-in book, Magic from the Haunted Mansion.
• Carnivore Confusion: A classic Muppets bit that pops up in the Halloween party scenes. First the Swedish Chef chases after a runaway pumpkin for carving, and then two talking tomatoes mutter in annoyance about last year's game of "bobbing for tomatoes".
  • During the ballroom dance scene, a ghostly turkey is asked about her Thanksgiving plans and replies that her friends are having her for dinner.
• Censored for Comedy: The penguin's verse in "Tie The Knot Tango" is sung entirely in penguin noises, but at the end of it, the other grooms react in shock, telling him "You can't say things like that, this is a family show!"
• Chekhov's Skill: Gonzo's daredevil skills prove vital to saving Pepe and escaping the mansion before sunrise.
• Clothing Switch: Piggy and Kermit dress as each other at the costume party. Judging from Kermit’s reaction, this was all Piggy's idea.
• Company Cross References: Several lyrics in "Life Hereafter" resemble those from Beauty and the Beast's "Be Our Guest". It's lampshaded with Yolanda's line about a "beastly cartoon".
• Composite Character: Constance Hatchaway gains the glowing eyes and (in her first scene) the iconic red beating heart of her predecessor as the Attic Bride in the original ride, The Beating Heart Bride.
• Cradling Your Kill: During the wedding scene, one of Constance's ghost husbands gets disturbingly teary-eyed over how gently she broke his neck on their wedding night.
• Crossover: Between The Muppets and The Haunted Mansion, with the Muppets and their usual round of celebrity cameos portraying the mansion's famous spirits.
• Curse Cut Short: From the trailer:
  Narrator (Corey Burton): All lucky souls will live to tell, and those who don't... will rot in—
  (cut to Muppets as ghosts)
  Sal Minella: What's the matter with you?! You can't say that! This is a family show!
  Johnny Fiama: What are you doing?
• Dance Party Ending: During the credits, the Muppets and the human cast sing and dance to the Electric Mayhem's cover of King Harvest's "Dancing in the Moonlight".
• Darker and Edgier: Ranks with The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island as one of the darker works to feature the Muppet characters, being loaded with Black Comedy, a Serial Killer and her victims, and dire consequences for Gonzo and Pepe, should they fail to escape the mansion before sunrise.
• A Day in the Limelight: The film is largely centered on Gonzo and Pepe, with the other Muppets largely taking a backseat for most of the special.
• The Dead Can Dance: If "Life Hereafter" proves anything, it's that Muppet ghosts can still cut a rug.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: 4 of Constance's husbands died in ways other than being beheaded here.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Early on, a Muppet ghost assures viewers that they're not going to lampshade every joke.
• Elvis Impersonator: Scooter dresses as Elvis Presley for Halloween.
• Face Your Fears: Gonzo is told he has to face his fears, which confuses him as he doesn't believe he has any. It turns out to be growing old and forgotten without his friends.
• Follow the Bouncing Ball: Briefly during "Life Hereafter".
• Funny Background Event: At Kermit's Halloween party, various Muppets appear in their own Halloween costumes. Fozzie is dressed as a banana, Clean Gene is a bunny, Chip is a robot, Floyd Pepper is a clown, and a pair of cacti wear Santa hats.
• Freudian Slip: In her clumsy attempts to flirt with Pepe in Spanish, Constance tries to say "gamba" (prawn) and instead says "gumbo"(a stew from Louisiana that includes shellfish… which prawns like Pepe are). Later in the attic, the ghosts of Constance's husbands compare the various ways she killed them and speculate that she plans to literally eat Pepe alive.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Appears as a running gag with how the human ghosts talk to Pepe. The Host speaks Spanish quite well and claims to have grown up in Málaga, but when asked "¿Hablas español?", he gives a firm, English-language "No." Constance Hatchaway, on the other hand, answers "Sí", but her Spanish is considerably weaker, mainly just using it to pique Pepe's interest in her. She also foreshadows her true nature to the lovesick prawn by calling him "gumbo" (a stew from Louisiana that includes shellfish such as prawns) instead of "gamba", the real word.
• Halloween Episode: Billed as one for The Muppets, being set on Halloween as Gonzo and Pepe skip out on a costume party with their friends to take on the Mansion's challenge.
• Here We Go Again!: Uncle Deadly's reaction to officiating Constance's wedding.
• Hidden Depths: The special reveals Gonzo's three biggest fears: 1, being trapped alone, 2, that no one will care about him if he doesn’t do his crazy stunts, and 3, that he’ll never see his friends again because he blew them off to take the challenge.

• Insistent Terminology: Pepe is repeatedly offended when other characters fail to recognize him as a king prawn. Not only does Constance seduce him by calling him by his actual species, but he's so snubbed by the Caretaker calling him a "shrimp" in his gravestone's inscription that he doesn't even notice his name is also carved in error (Pepper).
• Late to the Realization: Early on in the film, Pepe assumes that the challenge at the Mansion is a celebrity party, despite Gonzo repeatedly telling him otherwise. He only truly realizes what he's gotten himself into after John Stamos suddenly transforms into a purple Frackle and roars in his face, promptly resulting in him freaking and wanting a way out.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At the end of the movie, Pepe wonders why he agreed to go to a party with Gonzo. This is in reference to the fact that normally Rizzo would go along with those antics.
• Leave No Witnesses: Implied to be the reason why Sal Minella is among the group of Constance's husbands given how inseparable he is from Johnny Fiama.
• MacGuffin: Lampshaded. Gonzo's Halloween costume is that of famed magician the Great MacGuffin and the titular mansion is where he was last seen before mysteriously disappearing. In fact, MacGuffin is ultimately revealed to be the Ghost Host himself.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Ghost Host's design, while very different from the lanky "Hatchet Man" design of his canonical ride counterpart, wears similar clothes — and appears to be based on Paul Frees, give or take a mustache.
  • Much is made of stage magic throughout the special, and Pepe mistakenly thinks the ghosts he meets are "animatronics". Many of the ghosts in the actual ride are (of course) animatronics, and for other special effects, Imagineer Yale Gracey drew extensively on classic stage magic. The very first tie-in book based on the Haunted Mansion was a handbook of magic illustrated with Mansion character, entitled Magic from the Haunted Mansion, which also already featured the Ghost Host as a magician, albeit under the name of Phineas J. Pock rather than MacGuffin, and with a design closer to the "Hatchet Man" as seen above.
  • Kim Irvine, a Walt Disney Imagineer and daughter of the original Madame Leota (Leota Toombs), appears as the Mansion maid. Fittingly, she's the one tending to Madam Pigota's crystal ball. Her maid costume is patterned after the costumes female Cast Members wear at the attraction in Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
  • The song "Rest in Peace" ends with a verse from "Grim Grinning Ghosts".
  • Several shots and ideas are reminiscent of unused concept art for the ride:
    • The exterior of the mansion resembles Ken Anderson and Sam McKim's original sketches for the mansion, before they settled with the antebellum look seen at Disneyland.
    • The scene of a floating candlelabra rising through the middle of a spiral staircase to the Attic is based on an unused Ken Anderson sketch.
    • At the Ballroom, a ghostly octopus and a ghostly Frankenstein's Monster (Mulch from Muppets Tonight) are used. Both were featured in Ken Anderson concept art but later abandoned.
    • Constance's look in her first scene, with a dark blue dress, decayed-looking hands, and a beating red heart, resembles the iconic photograph of an early test photo of the Attic Bride in the ride. She is introduced gliding down a flight of stairs, which was also how the Bride was depicted in one of the oldest pieces of concept art depicting her, by Marc Davis◊.
    • Sweetums's appearance may be an allusion to how the Endless Hallway originally didn't have a candelabra, with his headlamp creating a glowing haze like the mirror at the back of the hallway creating the infinite effect. This candle-free version of the scene used gusts of cold air and increasingly loud sounds to imply something invisible was rushing towards guests, which Sweetums's fast moving cart essentially does when it picks up Gonzo and Pepe.
  • Upon their arrival, the Ghost Host warns that flash photography is prohibited, as "the spirits are sensitive to bright lights". This is a word-for-word quote from the ride's "No Talking or Phones" Warning.
  • The portraits (and their twists) in the stretching room are all accurate to those in the ride, with the exceptions of Muppet characters being their subjects.
  • The Ghost Host instructs Gonzo to go to Room 999 to face his fears - 999 being the number of ghosts residing in the mansion.
  • The scene with old Gonzo in room 999 may be a reference to the Aging Man/Dorian Gracey changing portrait in Magic Kingdom
  • The Oner revealing the mansion's ballroom displays the Muppet ghosts dancing and making bad puns and jokes, not unlike the "At the Dance" segments from The Muppet Show.
  • A pull-back shot of singing ghost Muppets, framed by a series of arches overlooking the ballroom, recapitulates the wall-of-balconies sequence in The Muppet Show's opening song.
  • The final verses of "Life Hereafter" use the melody of the The Muppet Show theme.
  • Statler and Waldorf appear as ghostly tourists riding Doom Buggies from the ride itself. At one point, the 'ride' even breaks down with the emergency announcement playing overhead.
  • In the ride, while going through the Attic, you see a photo from each of Constance Hatchaway's weddings; one by one their heads disappear, and Constance adds another strand of pearls to her necklace. When she brings Pepe back to the Attic, she's wearing not only the same wedding dress but a five strand pearl necklace.
  • At the climax, Gonzo saves Pepe from Constance by jumping through her top floor window, much like how the riders leave the mansion and enter the graveyard in the ride.
  • As Gonzo and Pepe flee the mansion, Hatchaway calls out to them to "Hurry Back...", referencing Little Leota's parting words to guests exiting the ride.
  • The Hitchhiking Ghosts cameo at the end, sneaking into the taxi behind Gonzo and Pepe. Noticeably, they are animated using the CG models from the Walt Disney World version's updated scene and not played by any humans or muppets.
  • The Mansion's house number is 924, a reference to Jim Henson's birthday, September 24.
  • What appears behind the title card before the end credits? A rainbow!
  • One of the "famous peoples" Pepe hopes to meet at the big Hollywood Halloween party he thinks is happening at the Mansion is Ryan Gosling, who was attached to the cancelled Guillermo del Toro Haunted Mansion film.
  • When Gonzo and Pepe get swept up by Sweetums's trolley, Gonzo says he knew the building had a ride.
  • "Sympathetic vibrations" are also referenced by the Ghost Host as ride vehicles enter the Grand Hall.
• Number of the Beast: Appears once Gonzo enters room 999. The number plate flips upside-down to reveal "666".
• Painful Rhyme: When Pepe asks for a way out, Madame Pigota replies, "Pumpkin spice lattes and a vampire bat / You must find a door with the glowing 'Exat'." When called out for this, she says they should try rhyming things with "bat". Pepe immediately lists "fat", "rat", and "hat", at which point Bubba the Rat wearing a top hat appears and points them towards a glowing sign that reads "EXAT".
  Bubba: I prefer husky.
• Portrait Painting Peephole: The eyes on the portrait of the Great MacGuffin are seen moving once Gonzo and Pepe leave the room.
• Prematurely Marked Grave: When Gonzo and Pepe succeeded in getting out of the mansion before sunrise, the Groundskeeper is surprised, having just set up their tombstones. Pepe is annoyed that he's referred to as a shrimp.
• Race Lift: Like Elizabeth Henshaw from the 2003 film, the bride, Constance Hatchaway in this version, is played by African-American actress Taraji P. Henson.
• Rapid Aging: Gonzo is hit with an extreme case of this in room 999. It is so severe, his hands are reduced to skeletons.
• Red Herring: The Great MacGuffin is accompanied by his Red Herring, Pee Wee, who is French for some reason. Double subverted with the trope itself in that The words "red herring" on the Great MacGuffin's poster were referring to Pee Wee rather than either of them possibly not being involved.
• The Reveal: The Ghost Host, at the end, reveals himself to be Gonzo’s idol, The Great MacGuffin, a magician who had vanished inside the mansion a century prior.
• Same Character, But Different: Since Rizzo the Rat has yet to be recast following the firing of his performer Steve Whitmire, Pepe takes over the role of Gonzo's second banana. Still, the Rizzo puppet appears in the special for one line in "Life Hereafter", listed in the credits simply as "Ballroom Rat". Rizzo himself appears briefly as a blackjack dealer throwing poker chips.
• Secret Test of Character: You can only survive the Mansion by doing two things: Face Your Fears and know when to leave. Most people don't know that you have to stay until dawn breaks, and they usually succumb to their fears or temptations well before then. Gonzo is able to not only face his fears but use his death-defying stunts to rescue Pepe from being trapped forever. MacGuffin tells Gonzo that it was brave of him to risk his life for his friend, and that's why he's letting them go a few seconds past dawn.
• Shout-Out:
  • Kermit's ghost persona riffs on the "friends, Romans, and countrymen" lines from Julius Caesar in the lead-up to "Life Hereafter".
  • "Life Hereafter" contains a number of lyrical references to "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast, with the Ghost Host and Kermit trading off the "Lumiere" role. The most direct reference comes from Yolanda: "We did that in a beastly cartoon!"
    • "We now will invite you to sit back, and relax, as our 999 residents proudly present: Your funeral!"
  • In the climax, Gonzo races by Andy and Randy Pig as creepy twin ghosts inviting him to play a la The Shining.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Uncle Deadly. You would think that his previous reputation as the Phantom of the Muppet Show would be prime fodder to show him in marketing materials. Alas, he only shows up in the Disney Parks Blog's "Halfway to Halloween" video tour. In the special itself he officiates Hatchaway and Pepe's wedding.
• The Stinger: When the credits end, in a carryover from The Muppet Show, Statler and Waldorf provide their traditional last heckle.
• Unseen No More: On the rides, the Ghost Host almost always presents himself to the guests as a disembodied voice (with maybe a corpse hanging from the ceiling). Here, he’s fully visible and played by Will Arnett.
• Vanity License Plate: The car dropping Gonzo and Pepe off at the mansion has one that fittingly reads "2-DIE-4". It changes to "D-END" when it picks them up the following morning.
• Villain Song: Hatchaway gets one in the form of "The Tie The Knot Tango", with Pepe and her husbands/victims.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Normally, Pepe is confused for a shrimp. When they correctly identify him as a prawn, the audience knows something is up (whereas Pepe is just happy people are getting it right). Only once is he mistaken for a shrimp, on the Caretaker's gravestone.

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Statler: (shudders) That was so upsetting. My whole life just passed before my eyes.
Waldorf: How was it?
Statler: Better than what we just watched!
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-ho-hoh!
Statler: Go home! Wait, they are home.