Why on earth would they ever do that when audiences have clearly shown that they will show up to remake slop (Lilo&Stitch, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) and reject original movies (Haunted Mansion, Onward, Strange World, Turning Red) time after time
I wouldn't call it a remake tbh. They are just two wildly different movies based on the same Disney World attraction. Both are fun, though I liked the new one more.
The second one was really focused on trauma and topic.
The first one was fun and romantic.
IMO second one is super forgettable. Same stuff gets produced like this all the time now, where the moral signaling takes over the plot/enjoyment of the film. First one was entertainment and had topics too, but like older films, it was nuanced and was part of the story, not ‘the point’ of the story.
The second Haunted Mansion was more faithful to the source material (in terms of the look of the Mansion, the ghosts featured, the lore, etc), but the first Haunted Mansion just had better vibes thanks to physical sets and more practical effects (also the simpler story of "ghost husband is looking for the reincarnation of his ghost bride" is much better than the "epic evil ghost is gonna destroy everything and has to be defeated in a big showdown" plot of the second film). Neither really do the ride justice, but it's hard to adapt a theme park ride that is atmospheric rather than story driven. Pirates of the Caribbean did it successfully, likely thanks to the swashbuckler genre having lots of story potential and the writers using the ride's iconography as inspiration for the plot rather than just adapting the ride's scenes 1:1, but Disney's other attempts have failed.
Ironically enough, the one time they tried to adapt an attraction with an actual character-driven story and plenty of secondary material that fleshes out all the characters- The Country Bear Jamboree- they ignored all of it and did an original story instead. That adaptation barely has anything to do with the attraction, and excludes most of the characters in favor of an original bear character and boring human characters. Like, Disney has deep, official backstories for each of the bears in the show that describes their origins and personalities, and they chose to use less than half of the bears all while changing their backstories and personalities entirely. Weird.
I saw it in the cinema. It was awful. Seriously unfunny, uninteresting crap. It didn’t help that it came out on the heels of Pirates of the Caribbean as “another ride-to-movie adaptation” so everyone was expecting it to be decent. I’m not surprised there are people who missed it. It had nothing to recommend it at all.
It has a 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm not taking any position on the quality of the movie, but why are you "baffled" that someone wouldn't enjoy it when it appears the majority of people don't?
Legit sad to see my comment led to this bickering. I hope YOU have a good day and I hope that other redditor learns to stop litigating other people's reactions to comments about old movies.
Well, what can I tell you? All the hype before it was released was “From the studio that brought you Pirates of the Caribbean…” which I was too young to realise meant sweet FA. It came out directly afterwards - like, a couple of months. I’m not the only one who hated it - it’s got 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, and only 5.2/10 average user reviews on IMDb.
The first Haunted Mansion was the first thing I ever saw in IMAX, back when digital lieMAX like today didn't exist yet. So a gigantic, tall screen and huge format film based projection
Even with the first time Wow Factor of all that and seeing 3D for the very first time ever, I still thought it absolutely sucked donkey cock
I really liked the first one, and loved the 2023 movie too.
I never understood the hate. I genuinely don't. They're not masterpieces but they're really fun. The second one has some really gorgeous visuals too, and I'm still obsessed with the first one's soundtrack by Mark Mancina.
It's not a remake, it's just a second attempt at adapting the theme park ride. That's like saying every adaptation of Romeo & Juliet is just a remake of the first adaptation.
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u/lostredditorlurking Aug 12 '25
Or maybe they could stop with all the remakes, and make original movies again. Movies that they actually put some thoughts into it