Muppets Haunted Mansion movie has potential

Disney released the Muppets Haunted Mansion, a musical comedy based on the Haunted Mansion October 8. In this movie Gonzo and Pepe travel to Magician McGuffin’s mansion, otherwise known as the most haunted place on Earth, to compete in a fairly simple competition… surviving a single night in Magician McGuffin’s mansion a century after his unexplainable disappearance. His house was the last place Magician McGuffin was seen. 

The Muppets Haunted Mansion was a good, but not great, movie. It had various kinds of jokes for everyone to enjoy, such as sarcasm and puns, but some were dragged out or missing something. The musical bits also could have been better. The beginning of the songs sounded awkward like the actors were warming up, but once you reached the chorus this feeling dissipated. 

I enjoyed the characters in this movie. I mean, who doesn’t love the Muppets? All the Muppet characters from Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy to the Electric Mayhem band members were in this movie, all having their own role that made the movie what it was. One notable character was Miss Piggy as the crystal ball in the original Haunted Mansion movie. The writers of the Muppets Haunted Mansion did a great job at creating a balance between the original Muppets characters and the characters they were supposed to represent in the Haunted Mansion movie. 

Although I do understand that this is a Muppets movie and not a highly acclaimed piece of cinema, I firmly believe that the writers fumbled the ball for a great opportunity to develop our main character, Gonzo. Gonzo believes he is “Gonzo the Great” because of his fearlessness, and there is a scene at the beginning of the movie where Kermit tells Gonzo that he isn’t great just because he is courageous, but that he is also a good person with many great qualities. Gonzo dismisses this at the beginning of the movie and continues his adventure. Later on, Gonzo is forced to face his greatest fears to leave Magician McGuffin’s mansion. His greatest fear could have been about his self-esteem, showing audiences that he has realized that his self-worth does not depend on the intimidating tasks he does, and he could have gained true confidence. Instead, his greatest fear was losing his friends. While you could argue that this does show character development because Gonzo realizes he has a fear of being alone that ties in with his need to be “great”, the realization was one dimensional. 

If I were to rate the Muppets Haunted Mansion out of five stars, I would give it a three out of five. I would not go out of my way to watch it again, but I would recommend it to others if they want to watch a fun, family-friendly Halloween-themed movie this October.