Muppets Haunted Mansion Special Review

When you think of halloween specials the one group of characters that you don't expect to have one is The Muppets. Yet in 2021 that's exactly what Disney and The Muppets Studios released on Disney+ with those few years being spent really pushing The Haunted Mansion as just a few years later we got another film version of the ride and so then join me as I review the special that is to date the last special that The Muppets have ever done with the special in question being called simply just "Muppets Haunted Mansion" enjoy.

The plot of this special is when Gonzo and Pepe are invited to take part in a halloween challenge in the worlds most haunted mansion they have to conquer there fears before they become the mansions newest inhabitants. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special was in all honesty really good as it's a plot that takes itself seriously enough to be considered epic but also not to seriously that it stops The Muppets from being there usual charming selves with this specials plot doing a good job of including elements from both franchises and making the crossover aspect seem seamless and yet in saying that tho this specials plot is one that isn't as good as it really could have been as while focusing the special on just two characters is a good idea it's also one that limits just how fun that this films plot could have been as it would have been all the more fun if the special had more of the muppet characters in main roles and not just in supporting roles like they are in this special with the plot of this special not really getting alot of focus as they do ham fist in another plot near the end with Gonzo trying to save Pepe from marrying an evil bride that kills all of her husbands which is a decent plot but at the same time it adds pointless stakes to the special and comes into play far to little to late for it to have any real effect on the plot as a whole with the plot of this special also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.  

Starring in this special is Dave Goelz as The Great Gonzo , Dr. Bunsen Honeydew , Waldorf , Beauregard , Randy Pig , Chip and Zoot and this specials co-writer Bill Barretta as Pepe The King Prawn , Rowlf The Dog , Dr. Teeth , Johnny Fiama , Howard Tubman , Bobo The Bear , Big Mean Carl , Swedish Chef , Andy Pig , Bubba The Rat , Beautiful Day Monster , Clean Gene The Behemoth and Party Tomato. Also starring in this special is Eric Jacobson as Miss Piggy , Fozzie Bear , Sam Eagle and Animal , Matt Vogel as Kermit The Frog , Floyd Pepper , Pops as a Duelist , Crazy Harry , Lew Zealand , Uncle Deadly as the Justice of the Peace and Sweetums , Peter Linz as Walter, Robin The Frog , Statler , Joe The Legal Weasel , Lips and The Ghosts , David Rudman as , Scooter , Janice , Beaker , Wayne and Squid Ghost , Brian Henson as Sal Minella , Julianne Buescher as Yolanda Rat , Beverly Plume , Wanda as a Happy Haunt and Screaming Goat , Alice Dinnean as Miss Cartier , Mummy , Caretaker's Dog and Pee Wee , Bruce Lanoil as Duddy , Ballroom Rat and Mo Frackle , Nicolette Santino as Party Tomato , Alex Villa as Pumpkin , Will Arnett as The Host / The Great MacGuffin , Yvette Nicole Brown as The Hearse Driver , Darren Criss as The Caretaker , Kim Irvine as Haunted Mansion Maid , Quinn McPherson as Hallway Knight , John Stamos as Famous Person , Ed Asner as Claude , Jeannie Mai as Maude , Chrissy Metz as Harriet , Alfonso Ribeiro as Fred , Danny Trejo as Huet , Sasheer Zamata as Mary and Taraji P. Henson as The Bride.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special was in all honesty really good. With this being something that's not really all that surprising as alot of the actors that are playing the muppet characters have been playing them for decades at this point in time and so they would of course know how there characters would act in any given situation with this being helped by the fact that the special director and co-writer Kirk Thatcher has directed these muppet actors in other Muppet productions and even wrote the film Muppet Treasure Island so he would have an idea of how these characters would also act in any given situation as well with the acting from the specials human actors being where the acting does take a slight dip in quality as you can tell that alot of them are just playing up to the fact that there in a Muppets special and therefor aren't going to be taking it as seriously as they would aby other film or TV show and that is something that really does shine through with the best example of this being Will Arnett who spends alot of the special just over acting in alot of the scenes that he's in with the best actor in the whole special really being hard to tell as it could be either Dave Goelz or Bill Barretta as they both get to show off new sides to there characters be it the fact that Gonzo does have fears or the fact that Pepe just wants a girlfriend and yet they both make them work so well for there respective characters and yet if push did come to shove i'd have to say that the best actor in this film is Dave Goelz just because of the fact that Gonzo does have an arc in the special with the acting that's in this special really being helped by the fact that this specials script is just so good that all this specials actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very special.

Whilst this isn't the first time that we've seen The Muppets take on ghosts as they did appear in The Muppet Christmas Carol this is the first time that they've been featured in something that's meant to be seen as kid friendly horror. As you don't really expect The Muppets to not only do a halloween horror special in the first place and yet at the same time embrace it as much as they could possibly do by having ghosts and other scary things in it in the first place with those things being something that does oddly work for this special as they keep them scary enough for kids as that's who this special is primarily aimed but at the same time tho they also add in enough of The Muppets to make them feel like something that could belong in the world of these characters be it by having several well known muppet characters openly play ghosts in this special as well as there regular selves or just having newly introduced characters appear as ghosts or even having a pair of ghosts whose sole purpose in the special is to get laughs out of you these are all small things but they all add up to the fact that The Muppets aren't really afraid to add in these things that could potentially be seen as being two scary for kids and all because of the fact that they put there own Muppet twist on them and while the special doesn't have any blood and guts or anything that you might find in a Terrifier movie for example the fact they did at least try to have these spooky things in this special does say that the makers of this special knew how to include elements from The Haunted Mansion ride and do them in a way that won't scare kids two much but will also feel true to the muppet brand as a whole.

Incase you didn't know this special came out after Muppets Now and my god does the special really want you to know that. As they include not one but two characters from that special in slightly big cameo roles as we have both Beverly Plume who hosted a cooking segment on Muppets Now with Swedish Chef and Joe The Legal Weasel who is meant to be The Muppets new lawyer but just comes of as being a less funny Sam Eagle those two characters really didn't need to be in this special as they very easily could have used characters from other Muppet shows , movies or specials in those roles and it would work out just the same and while I might be one of the few people that actually enjoyed Muppets Now that doesn't mean that I want to see those new characters in everything that The Muppets do as they very easily could have had Clifford who hosted Muppets Tonight or even Deise from the 2015 version of The Muppets for example come in and play the roles that both Joe and Beverly play in this special as while those characters would have been very deep cut characters there also characters that alot more people would know as Muppets Now barely got any views and so not alot of people are going to know about those characters despite the fact that those characters in this special were alot more funnier then they were in that show just due to the roles that they played on the show itself with it feeling like that those characters were only included because of the fact that Disney wanted to make sure that the special had characters that only kids would know and not really for them to have any deep cut kind of characters appearing in the special.

This special dies also do something that really doesn't work for the special in that instead of pairing up Gonzo with Rizzo they instead pair him up with Pepe which granted there was a reason for this as Disney not The Muppet Studios but Disney fired Rizzo and Kermit actor Steve Whitmire all because of the fact that he dared to fight to keep Kermit in character during the production of the 2015 The Muppets TV Series. With this being the first time since Muppets From Space that Gonzo plays a leading role in any Muppets productions as he is usually more of a recurring character and while it was nice to see him taking the leading role in a Muppets production again it's his pairing with Pepe that doesn't really work as with Rizzo Gonzo could be more of the funny man of the duo with Rizzo acting more of the straight man of the two thus giving the duo someone to bounce off of when something crazy needs to happen but here with Pepe they are both being the funny man and the straight man with neither character committing fully to either role as both characters had previously been established being more of the funny man in whatever duo they were apart of and so having them team up doesn't really work as they both need someone who can be that straight man to bounce off of and while both character do indeed have the potential to work well together that would mean having to completely change alot of who those characters are just to make it work when it would be much more better to have had have another Muppet who is usually the straight man be the third man in this duo like for example both of them would have worked really well with some one like Rowlf or Scooter.   

To give this special a bit more credit they do try infuse the special with as much horror as they possibly could do. Be it by having Ghosts and skeletons appearing in the special but perhaps the best example of this is the fact that they have the character of The Bride in this special and not only that we get to see her openly try to kill Pepe several times during all of their scenes together which is something that you just wouldn't get to see in a lot of Disney horror films or specials as they'd be more focused on trying to remain as kid friendly as possible and while of course we the audience know full well that she's never going to kill him it's the fact that she trys to do that makes it worth while but in saying that tho he storyline with Pepe gets introduced far to late into the special and so it does come across as the makers of the special trying to force in what might be another Haunted Mansion character just for the sake of doing it where as having the characters confront there fears head on was a more solid plot for them to have in this special and feels more true to the ride and while it was nice seeing Taraji P. Henson play the role in this special it would have been more funny if they got Uma Thurman to play the role but then instead of having her act straight up evil like she does in this special she has like a yellow stripe down her wedding dress and is trying to kill Pepe because she thinks his name is Bill and just make there whole plot line one big Kill Bill joke as that storyline is more of a B plot anyway it wouldn't have hurt to make it more comical and just go nuts with it but in saying that tho the Bride's plan in this special does work for the more horror based tone that the special was going for with her trying to kill Pepe and have him join the ghosts of all of her other dead husbands which is perfect horror plot and to be fair it is something that does work for this special as well.

Now then this special has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly forty nine minuets and fifty one seconds. Which is a perfectly solid running time for a kid friendly horror special like this one to have with this special even having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time and while the special doesn't fully use it's running time all that wisely as it does have to squeeze in a few songs and therefor it doesn't really have the time that it really did need to further develop it's plot for something that was never really mean to by adults and was clearly made with kids in mind it is something that does work really well even taking into account that this special is pretty much just there just to promote both The Muppets and the Haunted Mansion ride and therefor it really didn't need to have a plot that that's well developed in the first place as all it needed was the basic set up which in this case was just simple enough to make the whole special work in the first place and while Gonzo does get some character development as he gets over his fear of never being able to see his friends which is something that does no doubt stem from the 2011 The Muppets movie it still would have been to see Pepe get some character development as even tho he's a popular character so much so that just last year he officially became a meme he gets nothing in terms of character and still remains the exact same character coming out of the special that he was going into the special when it would have helped the character out a little bit if he was given some form of character development as that could mean that more people would get to like him as a character but I really will admit that this special really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special was in all honesty not that bad. As we do get to see alot of the typical mayhem that these characters are known for including a ghost version of Fozzie getting heckled by ghost versions of Statler and Waldorf but at the same time tho this special really isn't all that funny with it being made clear that the makers of this special put alot more effort into the films horror aspect then they did it's comedy when the balance really should have been more fifty fifty with this being a Muppets production afterall people would expect it to have alot of jokes in it something which doesn't happen in this special as the comedy does at several points take the backseat to the specials horror element that's not to say that there isn't some funny moments to be found in this special it's just that there alot more hard to find with the best joke in this special being one of the specials more cutest moments as we get to see Kermit dressed as Miss Piggy and Miss Piggy dressed as Kermit something that was Piggy's own idea and seeing Kermit just absolutely hate his costume let alone the poorly written sketch that Piggy has written purely to feed her own ego is a good solid joke and is a good example of just how funny that this specials can be alot of the time it's just that the special has alot more unfunny jokes then it does have some actually funny jokes in it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall it's clear as day that this project is the better Gonzo lead Muppets project as it's miles better then Muppets From Space but with that being said tho this is a special that could have been alot more better then what it was as the special does have alot of things wrong with it and that keep it from being one of the more memorable Muppets projects but it is still a really enjoyable special all the same in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very special in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very special really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Disney fandom wiki page and the official The Muppets fandom wiki page. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very special that I used in this very review being the really great the official The Muppets fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very special with alot of them really being better quality then what you'd really think of and really all of the images are really of course up and really on the official The Muppets fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.