I figured -- what
the hell. "Finding Nemo" was good.
"Freaky Friday" was good. "Pirates of
the Caribbean" was good. Disney seems to be on
a roll. Maybe "The Haunted Mansion" would
be good. And -- you know what -- it kind of was.
I don't see why. I don't understand how. But,
nevertheless, it entertained me. Imagine that -- me
being entertained by a would be horror film at the end of
November, almost an entire month after Halloween. Go
figure.
Eddie Murphy stars as Jim Evers, a real estate man who
spends too much time selling houses and not enough time
with his wife Sara (Marsha Thomason) and children, Michael
and Megan (Marc John Jefferies and Aree Davis). He
is suppose to be taking his family on vacation, but is
instead sidetracked to put an old, broken down mansion on
the market. This would be the 'haunted' mansion.
Nathaniel Parkers stars as Master Gracey, the owner of the
mansion, and Terence Stamp is Ramsley the butler.
Wallace Shawn is Ezra and Jennifer Tilly is Madame Leota,
a head in a crystal ball. Once at the house, the
Evers family is assaulted by a plethora of spooky spirits,
though most are funnier than they are spooky -- it is
Disney afterall.
That said, a film like this should be nowhere close to
entertaining. But, it works. The
cinematography and art direction are far superior than
most Disney films, the performances are comedic and finely
tuned (especially Stamp and Shawn), and Eddie Murphy plays
the straight guy, instead of the slapstick. It was
nice to get to watch skilled comedic actors like Wallace
Shawn and Jennifer Tilly play off of Murphy, who is
usually the one doing the playing. And, I liked how
the filmmakers tried to make this film more than just
another movie based on a ride -- they tried to add depth,
and story, and resolution. And they did.
Now, in no way is this film as masterful as "Pirates
of the Caribbean" or "Finding Nemo", but I
think it was well up there in terms of recent Disney
films. It is nice to see this Disney is starting to
get better and better, after a slump of nearly three
years, the low point coming in the form of Haley Joel
Osment and those damned "Country Bears".
As long as Disney keeps churning out adventure films like
this, I will keep paying the eight bucks to keep them in
business. "The Haunted Mansion" is far
better than the trailers would have you believe, and
certainly a fun film for the whole family. Big
surprise here.
