Muppets Haunted Mansion - La casa stregata

Muppet Christmas Carol is my favourite movie of all time and I absolutely love the Muppets (and the Haunted Mansion is one of my favourite Disneyland rides) so I was both excited and nervous to watch this special.

I really enjoyed the first half -- the songs are fun and quite catchy, there are some pretty good moments and jokes (the goat's appearances made me laugh out loud) but the second half was really strange and creepy -- and not in a fun way. It definitely doesn't deliver the same level of pure joy as Muppet Christmas Carol but, to be fair, that is a high bar to meet.

Also, not enough Rizzo.

(I also miss Steve Whitmire's performances but sounds like they're better off without him, here's a paragraph from Wikipedia on his dismissal: "Brian Henson stated that issues with Whitmire began in the mid-1990s, and said that Whitmire would make "outrageous demands and often played brinkmanship", and additionally stated that Whitmire would "send emails and letters attacking everyone, attacking the writing and attacking the director". He also expressed guilt for not dismissing Whitmire and recasting Kermit before selling the Muppets to Disney in 2004, because "I knew that it was going to be a real problem". Lisa Henson stated that Whitmire was opposed to having an understudy for Kermit and refused to train one, which became problematic when it came to "B-level performances, such as a ribbon-cutting," at some of which she said he was unwilling to appear. She also stated that he "blackballed young performers" by refusing to appear in shows with them.")

Muppets Haunted Mansion isn't a perfect Halloween special but you have to admit it resolves a lot of problems from Muppets Now. The jokes are better, the characters aren't off, the celebrities aren't a waste of time and actually have decent acting, the sets looked neat, and it even references the original Muppet Show. If there is one thing I don't like about this special it's obviously Matt Vogel doing Kermit the Frog's voice but Kermit doesn't have a main role here so it's not very distracting. This special mostly did a solid job. It may not be the Kermit we wanted or the quality of a Muppet movie from the Jim Henson era, but it atleast solves a lot of the problems that Muppets Now had. So I'm fine with it.

Muppets Haunted Mansion: my wife's favorite IP and Disneyland ride blended together; she was happy as a clam throughout. And to an extent, I enjoyed this vicariously through her. I liked it; it's a decent holiday special, good message, it's got plenty of feels.

But I couldn't shake the feeling that this is all that Disney plans to do with the Muppets: advertise other Disney stuff. That vertical integration has already leeched onto The Simpsons (cross-breeding it with Star Wars and Marvel) and that's toxic for these characters.

It's not lost on me that I should be happy we're getting new Muppet content at all, but at what cost? There's a GEICO commercial that features Animal, and it's not bad; and this property absolutely needs more pop culture visibility. But it feels dirty if they're just pimping the Mouse's wares.

I hope I'm wrong.

Not the greatest output by our furry friends but it killed an hour and kept the kids quiet.

I'm aware the voice actor for Kermit has changed but I didn't realise we were now having to just ignore the fact it sounds like Kermy permanently has a cold.

I can actually do the voice better. Disney, if you're reading this, I'm happy to talk....

I was disappointed when I learned they were not going to capitalise on the fact that the parks were closed due to Covid, which would have been the perfect opportunity to film inside of the actual mansion at Disneyland. I was hoping for more of a backstage feel of the actual attraction featuring the muppets.