It's November 26th, 2003, and die hard fans of their favorite classic Disneyland attraction are lining up outside movie theaters with great anticipation. While director Rob Minkoff's 2003 film adaptation of The Haunted Mansion was a box office success (making a worldwide total of $182,290,266 on a $90 million budget), it failed to strike a cord with critics, audiences and die hard fans of the attraction. Many saying the film wasn't enough like the original attraction, others saying it paid too much homage with constant, random references. Another criticism from many people was the casting of Eddie Murphy, or that the tone didn't have the right balance of comedy and scares. Many felt that the film shouldn't have been a comedy in the first place. With all these criticisms, it seemed that the majority consensus review for the film was highly negative. But even within all the negative reviews, a few elements of the film were deemed positive. Many felt that the architecture and set design were superb, while also praising the costume design by Mona May. But one of the highlights, and the most positively reviewed element of the film was the fantastic film score by composer Mark Mancina.
