The Haunted Mansion Blu-ray Disc Review

Buy This Blu-ray Disc Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!

Title: The Haunted Mansion

Region: A

Media: Blu-ray Disc

Genre: Supernatural Comedy

Stars: Eddie Murphy, Terence Stamp, Nathaniel Parker, Dina Waters, Marc John Jefferies, Aree Davis, Jim Doughan, Rachel Harris, Steve Hytner, Heather Juergensen, Wallace Shawn, Marsha Thomason, and Jennifer Tilly

Writer: David Berenbaum

Based On Walt Disney’s Haunted Mansion

Director: Rob Minkoff

Feature length: 88 minutes

Extras: Audio Commentaries, History Of The Haunted Mansion Attraction, Grave Spirits Blu-scape Film Short, Movie Showcase Feature, Anatomy Of A Scene: “Ghost In The Graveyeard”

Languages: English PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound and English, French, and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Blue BD Case

Chapter Stops: 24

Sound: PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2003/Blu-ray Disc Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Eddie Murphy plays a well-to-do real estate salesman/entrepreneur whose partner in life and business, his wife, gets a call to visit a vast mansion the owner wishes to sell. The family is supposed to go on a vacation getaway together, but Murphy’s character can’t resist the prospect of selling such a giant estate. So they take a detour on their trip and soon find themselves trapped for the night in a haunted mansion where nothing is quite what it seems.

“The Haunted Mansion” has a lot of problems in it, which is a shame since the prospect of seeing Eddie Murphy in a supernatural comedy sounds enticing. Unfortunately the only people who will probably enjoy this are little kids who find watching the grass grow exciting. The biggest problem with “The Haunted Mansion” is nothing happens for the first 28 minutes and then whatever does happen doesn’t even have any sort of logic or comic timing to make one suspend their disbelief while being amused. I was watching the time go by in the player and kept thinking to myself, where’s the action? If a movie is going to draw one’s interest it either has to open on some sort of action that thrusts the viewer into the story or skillfully build the tension so that we are immediately engaged.

The pacing of the film is completely off. While it is understandable that a few deaths related to occupants of a house might create a ghostly infestation, the reasoning behind why the house is so filled with so many ghosts is never made clear. I mean there is a graveyard on the property, but why would the suicide of one person wake the dead? It is not like the house itself is portrayed as having any sort of character of it’s own. I mean I can believe a house might posses a malevolent nature and thus attract all sorts of otherworldly entities if the setup at the beginning makes that clear. Instead what we get is a mansion that looks as though it was recycled from the opening title sequence from the HBO horror anthology series Tales From The Crypt and a bunch of haunted objects based on the theme park attraction that have no place in the film from a story point of view other than that one is supposed to look at it and say, “Oh I remember that!” Unfortunately not even the clichés are cleverly revisited here and Eddie Murphy’s comedic talents are all but wasted. This should have been something akin to Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein. In that film there is a nice balance of the classic Universal monster icons along with Bud Abbott’s disbelieving straight man to contrast Lou Costello’s comedic cowardly antics that to this day generations of adults and kids can watch and enjoy.

Even if you hate Abbott and Costello or disagree with my analogy, I don’t think anyone who watches this film will disagree that it makes no sense, wastes the talents of nearly everyone involved, and simply becomes boring. When I think of Eddie Murphy’s standup routine in Delirious where he was joking about The Amityville Horror and haunted houses in general, I think to myself sure this is supposed to be a PG-rated family film, but would it have hurt to let Murphy loosen up a bit and throw in some adlibs? Murphy still has a natural charisma that makes him both likeable and also makes one want to laugh with him. The Haunted Mansion is not nearly as funny, scary, or entertaining as it should have been. It is just a bunch of eye candy without a story.

The Blu-ray Disc edition has been released in a native widescreen version that presents the film in a (2.35:1) aspect ratio preserving the manner in which the film was exhibited theatrically for home video users. While the film itself leaves much to be desired, this is a great looking example of what Buena Vista Blu-ray Discs can do with a sharp picture and fluorescent colors mixed in with some more gothic tones. The film is presented in a 1080p high definition maximum resolution that is accessible depending on what kind of HDTV one uses but even if you scale the image down from say 1080i to 720p, the experience is still amazing. Things just jump out at the viewer and level of detail far surpasses the DVD edition released in 2004. The English PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Soundtrack is impressive and direct comparison between the PCM and Dolby Digital Soundtracks through audio switching throughout the film in sequences that are normally quiet to the more uproarious scenes, one can see the vast superiority and fedility 48khz/24 bit PCM 5.1 Surround Sound has over traditional Dolby Digital found on ordinary DVDs. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack benefits greatly from the three-dimensional use of the effects. So while the movie might not be fun to watch, the picture and sound actually make The Haunted Mansion one of those titles that you can showcase your home theater system with and even demonstrate the exciting options Blu-ray Disc offers the consumer, but that’s about it. French and Spanish Language Soundtracks and English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as French and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded onto the Blu-ray Disc as options too.

There are two feature length audio commentaries carried over from the DVD release. One features Producer Don Hahn, Visual Effects Supervisor Jay Redd, and Writer David Berenbaum while the other features Director Rob Minkoff and Costume Designer Mona May. Both commentaries are screen specific and on there own they are actually quite good, but I think it says a lot when the audio commentaries are better than the actual film. A deconstruction of the “Ghosts In The Graveyard “scene (11:03) as well as the “History Of The Haunted Mansion” attraction (12:10), which was previously available only as a DVD-ROM feature are included on the Blu-ray Disc, but the bloopers, deleted scenes and music video that were on the DVD version are not included on the Blu-ray Disc. The above-mentioned segments are presented in a (1.33:1) aspect ratio with 5.1 Surround Sound. Two exclusive features on the Blu-ray Disc release is a Movie Showcase option that allows the viewer to see the best scenes from the film. In the case of The Haunted Mansion these segments, which can be viewed individually or as one reel (4:04), are made up of three scenes labeled on the menu as “Madam Leota”, The Graveyard”, and “The Ceremony Is Interrupted.” This selection is actually perfect if you want to use The Haunted Mansion as a demo disc to wow your friends without having the go scene searching. I was disappointed by the BLU-SCAPE HD film short entitled Grave Spirits (4:04). It just seemed like a bunch of statues and tombstones with quick lightning like flashes or something that makes one think they might have seen something supernatural among the grave statues and so forth. The HD quality on this short is rather grainy too and overall I found the film to be dull. The seamless interactive menus that can be activated while the film is in progress are easy to navigate and are made to look like little gravestones. Another aspect of the Blu-ray Disc that I did not like was that it automatically loops the feature film so conceivably if you let the film go beyond the ending credits, it will start over again from the beginning instead of stopping. There is also a Buena Vista Blu-ray Disc spot that comes on before the film (1:22) with clips from various upcoming releases including Pirates Of The Caribbean and Chicken Little.

In terms of picture and sound quality, “The Haunted Mansion” is a well-produced Blu-ray Disc that demonstrates the potential for the format. Something that I’m sure consumers will appreciate even more as Buena Vista Home Entertainment continues to release additional films on Blu-ray Disc, which I’m sure will only get better. The Haunted Mansion is available on Blu-ray Disc now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

Return To The Previous Page

Buy This Blu-ray Disc Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!