One of my haunted mansion boards is looking for a collection of completely unbiased collection of Haunted Mansion movie reviews and is dishing out Dtunes live credits for those who do, so here's my contribution.

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First off, it's important to go into this movie with one thing in mind: it's for the fans.

Pirates of the Caribbean you can walk into without being a fan of the ride. You'll miss a lot of funny inside jokes, but you'll get what's going on.

Haunted Mansion is clearly for the Doombuggy lover. Nothing is explained, it's assumed that you know who everyone is and how they got that way.

That being said, why didn't they CATER TO THE FANS THEN?

I'll be the first to tell you I adore this movie, but it IS bad. But it's a great movie... does that make sense? Only to a fan of the ride.

I suppose the point is that it's a bad movie on its OWN. First timers will be disappointed that not much backstory is given. Long time fans will be disappointed at the complete butchering of the original storyline. Gracey's family background has been completely ignored, Abigail the attic bride is no longer a young white english girl, Leota is no longer the stuffy old gypsy she once was. And Eddi Murphey? 'Nuff said.

Gracey is perhaps the only perfectly cast character in this movie. No one else could have done the job better. I don't know why Meryl Streep is the first name that springs to mind when I think Leota, but the LAST person I think of is Jennifer frikken Tilly.

I just have one question for the creators of this movie: how is it that Pirates of the Caribbean, a ride with no storyline at all, spawns one of the greatest trilogies of all time, and Haunted Mansion, the one ride in Disney with the most defined and prominent storyline in the entire park, completely disregards the story and makes stuff up.

ALL that being said, doombuggy fans will love Haunted Mansion anyway. It's corny, but it has a charm, It's a guilty pleasure.

Pass if you're not a fan. Pass if the butchering of Walt's hand-written story will give you ulcers. Watch it if your a fan who can handle a different view on the story.

-Chi <3