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Today, The haunted mansion of the Muppets hits Disney +, and although not exactly like scary for us as it is for Pepe and Gonzo, it sure is delicious. For the first time in a long time he looks like some kind of collaboration Disney and the Henson Company sought to make the Muppets truly feel at home in the Mouse House.
Haunted house– apparently a collaboration that sees Gonzo and Pepe ditch Kermit’s annual Halloween Party in place spend a night in the Haunted Mansion of Disney Park Fame is the latest in a long line of more recent Disney attempts to align the Muppets with their own TV plans. The random repeat at ABC tried to cram a Muppets show ambiance in a contemporary comedy show setting, and while parts of his daring experiment to delve into the messy life of the Muppets beyond their show was intriguing, this ultimately went unrecognized. The first Muppets project for Disney + during this time, Muppets now, traded in the drama of characters from the previous renaissance for celebrity skits and cameos, and while it was even better received, that something special was missing as well. If only because its bite-sized anthology format didn’t quite allow it.
To be fair, it is difficult to compete with eThe Muppets’ long televised history—The puppet show specifically– which is such a special thing and so rich in history. The Muppets‘peculiar mix of antics, serious character work and celebrity metatexes best when each of these elements has time to breathe and intermingle. Yeah, it’s great to mess around, but The Muppets show was more than gags, it was about the interplay between the Muppets as characters that we saw develop as people working to a show, but also as the personalities who exist to stand alongside their famous guests like, well, the Muppets.
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Haunted Mansion of the Muppets then, finally, it seems, really understands this. Primarily focused on storytelling, even with its cast of celebrity appearances, walking a wickedly funny tightrope. Will Arnett, Taraji P. Henson, Darren Criss, and Yvette Nicole Brown will get the meatiest roles, but they’re mostly there as characters rather than themselves, alongside a truly intimidating list of celebrity cameos to boot. The special is clever enough not to focus on the classic theme park metatext – for fans, it’s chock-full of on-sight gags, jokes, and Easter eggs – and never forget that beyond the Muppets’ cheerful sense of humor, there is a ton of heart.
Haunted Mansion of the Muppets does it by largely peeling down the number Muppets he needs to focus on. Pepe is largely left to roam the mansion looking for celebrities and a love life, play directly in the spectral and bloody hands of one of the famous characters of the merry-go-round, Constance Hatchaway. So really the the spotlight is on Gonzo, who avoided attending Kermit’s traditional Halloween party in an attempt to survive for a night in the Haunted Mansion, the next big waterfall for the thrill-seeking Gonzo the Great who claims to have no fear. Nothing in the mansion really bothers him, mainly because there are a lot of singing ghosts and an occasional floating candlestick, as Arnett’s ghost host guides him through his hallways. But when he comes across the dreaded room 999 (which, of course, reverses his sign as soon as he closes his door behind him), Gonzo doesn’t face any ghosts or ghouls, no great horror, not even an ax murderer trying to marry him: but a mirror.
The mirror – and an old, decrepit Gonzo’s version reflected to him– shows him a preview at Kermit’s party, where all his friends are have a good time while he’s silently trapped on the other side. Gonzo’s quest to constantly prove that he’s Gonzo the pushed him away from his friends, even as Kermit tells him (and reminds Scooter just in time for the mirror-Gonzo to hear) that he doesn’t need to to be “Gonzo the Great” for being great in the eyes of the people who care about him the most. The critical situation of Haunted house is not that Gonzo and Pepe have to survive the night and make it before dawn, but that Gonzo just has to learn that his friends care about him? This it is true that there are Muppets show spirit, alive and well, no matter how many celebrity ghosts Gonzo and Pepe have to go through to learn it.
This is what makes Haunted house really sing along, alongside the usual gags and, thanks to Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, a cute killer blanket of Dancing in the moonlight. Feels like Disney is letting The Henson Company do what they do best with the Muppets: bring the heart along the fourth wall, celeb-jokes, and leave them play in the world of Disney, rather than the other way around. It might not be the scariest stage of the season, but it will likely be one of the best.
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