For Headscratchers about the 2003 film, see here.
The Ride
- I have always asked myself since I visited the ride, but...how the Ghost Host managed to hang himself from the ceiling of the room with no doors nor windows if the ceiling is very high? There are no stairs and it's impossible that he could have jumped too high and especially with a rope to hang himself, as to do so, he would have needed time to tie the rope to the ceiling and then hang himself, which he couldn't given the lack of stairs...
- It's a stretching chamber. The ceiling and floor were probably a lot closer together before the Mansion became so heavily haunted, so at most he'd have needed a stepladder. After his demise, somebody (probably a ghost, possibly even his ghost) tidied the ladder away.
- In the ride, what is Constance doing? She's the only malevolent spirit in the house, but she's just hanging out in the attic showing off her axe and saying wedding vows? It's a really nice addition to the ride, but it honestly makes no sense. And why did the Imagineers decide to make one of her husbands "George" from the stretching portrait tombstone? They knew that it made no sense to have them be the same man (since Constance died young, and the portrait shows an old woman).
- What makes you think that the creators of Constance intended her to die young ? As "Long-Forgotten" pointed out, it could be that her spectral form is the one she had when she committed the crime(s) that make her a ghost, not the form she had when she died.
- What will they do with the Hatbox Ghost for the Haunted Mansion Holiday? Will they give him a festive hat? Turn his box into a present? Do nothing? Or deactivate him and block his area off?
- The present would be a good idea !
- 32 minutes into this interview panel, they explain they do intend to do something with him during the holiday season, but offer no details as to what.
- I can report that Hatbox Ghost is still there during the "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme. All they did was add a small Christmas decor to his top hat, and that's it.
- For the 2016 holiday setup, "Hattie" now has a bow on his hatbox. Someone must have seen that "present" idea.
- Who is the Hatbox Ghost? All we knew from his original conception was that he was supposed to be a suitor of the heartbroken Bride, and his head trick would occur in time with her heartbeat. But why does his head disappear? This is only made more confusing since this is now essentially Retconned by Constance, and he's clearly not one of her axed husbands. For now, the only explanation seems to be that Hatty was an interesting visual gag (and much more so upon his return).
- There are literally THOUSANDS of fanons about him. The theory displayed in the fanfics "Haunted Mansion and the Hatbox Ghost" is that he is related to the Mournful Bride Emily, was a hatter when he was alive, and was beheaded upon discovering some criminal secret related to Madame Leota. In the spin-offs authorized but considered to be non-canonical Haunted Mansion comics, he is Randall Pace, a sea captain who was beheaded by a mutinying second-in-command Gracey who later used the boat for pirate activity, and used the money to build the Mansion at the end of his life, becoming Master Gracey and by the same way the Ghost Host. There is a theory that he was a suitor for Constance that discovered Constance's axe before the wedding and that she beheaded him to be safe. There is yet another one that she was Constance's father or partner. Hey, there are even people who assume that he's George Hightower himself!
