Disney/Intrada Records & The Haunted Mansion?

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.

Mark Mancina

Mancina had previously worked with director Rob Minkoff for The Lion King back in 1994, and has composed many other Disney films in the past including: Man of the House (1995), Tarzan (1999), Brother Bear (2003), Planes (2013), Planes: Fire and Rescue (2014), and even the upcoming Walt Disney Animated film Moana. Along with these Disney films he also composed the music for the updated 2006 Walt Disney Studios logo, the Disneynature logo, and the Walt Disney Alumni Resort in Hawaii, so Mancina is no stranger to the Disney family. Other scores of his outside of Disney include Speed (1994), Bad Boys (1995), Assassins (1995), Twister (1996), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), Con Air (1997) Training Day (2001), Shooter (2007) & August Rush (2007). His many different scores have given him the honor of three Grammys, an American Music Award, Britain's Ivor Novello Award and a Tony nomination.

Listen to the cue "Disney Logo/Opening Titles"
(From Mark Mancinca's Website)

Cover Art for The Haunted Mansion: Haunted Hits

Mancina's score for The Haunted Mansion is arguably the best part of the film, and the one aspect people tend to speak positively about. So it's no wonder that die-hard mansion fans would try to get their hands on this wonderful score by any means necessary. Disney released an album entitled "The Haunted Mansion: Haunted Hits" and included songs by various artists with a spooky theme. This album also included Barenaked Ladies cover of "Grim Grinning Ghosts"

Tracklist

1. "Superstition" - Raven
2. "Grim, Grinning Ghosts" - Barenaked Ladies
3. "Somebody's Watching Me" - Morris Day
4. "Spooky" - Conti Bros.
5. "Things That Go Bump In The Night" - JACK
6. "Right Place, Wrong Time" - Brian O'Neal and The BusBoys
7. "Dead Man's Party" - Oingo Boingo
8. "Man with the Hex" - The Atomic Fireballs
9. "Monster Mash" - Brian O'Neal and The BusBoys
10. "The Boogie Man" - The Jackson 5
11. "Tombstone" - Suzanne Vega
12. "I Put a Spell on You" - Calvin Richardson
13. "Grim, Grinning Ghosts" - Singing Busts
14. Overture from The Haunted Mansion
15. "So Long" - Singing Busts

Along with the various songs, Disney included one track that contained Mancina's score. This track labeled "Overture from The Haunted Mansion" was basically a suite utilizing a few cues, but not offering much to fully appreciate the score; leaving fans wanting more.

Listen to the cue "Don't You Remember?"
(From Mark Mancinca's Website)

Cover Art for the FYC

Eventually the For Your Consideration (FYC for short) discs began showing up on eBay and other auction sites. An FYC disc is made by film studios for the intention of sending them out to voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Art's and Sciences for a possible nomination at the Oscars. Many times FYC's usually contain a lot more material than the official Original Soundtracks for their films, sometimes even the complete score. While the FYC for The Haunted Mansion wasn't complete, it still contained more material than the overture from the Haunted Hits album. This FYC in particular contained 8 tracks with multiple cues combined in each track. These cues include: Try Again, Rescue, Sara Runs To Jim, Get Away From Her, Sara Passes Out, Going To Heaven, Vacation At last, Don't You Remember? & Meeting Leota. These FYC's are quite rare and can get expensive when they do finally show up for auction.

Not long after the FYC popped up online, an illegal bootleg of the score had leaked online in MP3 format

. This leak contained the majority of the film score (48 cues in total) and gave fans exactly what they have been looking for.

Tracklist

Mancina at the World Premiere of The Haunted Mansion

1. Disney Logo/Opening Titles
2. Manipulating The Buyers
3. Take Off For The Weekend
4. Whacking A Spider
5. Phone Call
6. Drive To The Mansion
7. Can't Get In
8. Gates Open
9. Dead People In The Backyard
10. Entering The House
11. Meeting Master Gracey
12. This House Haunts Me
13. No Leaving Tonight
14. Ramsley Scare
15. To The Study
16. Confiding In Mr. Evers
17. Secret Passageway
18. Ghost Ball/Chasing Emma
19. Jim In The Passageway
20. So Many Memories
21. Following Ghost Ball
22. Against My Better Judgement
23. Emma Tells Kids The Story
24. Ramsley's Comming
25. Meeting Leota
26. Spinning Table/Chased By A Marching Band
27. Dad We Have A Problem
28. Jim Finds Out What Ed Wants
29. My Way
30. Wedding Dress
31. Passage To The Dead
32. Entering The Passage
33. Sarcophagus Reveal
34. The Crypt Part One
35. The Crypt Part Two
36. Spiders
37. You Got The Key
38. Taking Leota
39. Don't You Remember
40. The Trunk Letter/Jim & Ramsley Fight
41. Jim Locked Out 1A
42. Jim Locked Out 1B
43. Jim Locked Out/Ramsley Threatens The Kids Part Two
44. Never Fail
45. Try Again/Rescue/Sara Runs To Jim
46. Get Away From Her
47. Sara Passes Out/Going To Heaven/Vacation At Last
48. When The Saints Go Marching In

Listen to the cue "Going To Heaven"
(From Mark Mancinca's Website)

While this leak has pleased many fans, this bootleg is considered illegal. Hence why I think Disney has a great opportunity with a recent partnership...

Back in 2011, Disney and Intrada Records reached an agreement to where Intrada would create CD versions of Disney scores that where previously digital downloads only, their first release being the CD premiere of Up (2009) by Michael Giacchino. This agreement also allowed for Intrada to go into the Disney archives and create special CD releases of rare film scores using the original masters. They would be remastered and then assembled as close to the film mix/edit as possible to create a soundtrack that is as complete as possible. These titles include Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) by Johnny Mandel, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) by James Horner, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) & Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Fransisco (1996) both by Bruce Broughton, The Rescuers Down Under (1990) by Bruce Broughton, and most recently The Rocketeer (1991) by James Horner.

With Intrada releasing complete scores to Disney films like with the list above, and the huge fan base on Mancina's score, its surprising to see that Intrada has yet to release the score on CD. Im sure a lot of fans would buy their release and Disney could finally start making money off of it. Plus it would be legal. Well looks like someone else agrees as there is a thread on the official Intrada Records forums where someone brought up this same idea. But it looks like it hasnt gained any traction, not helping our cause. If you guys are like me and would want to see Intrada release Mancina's complete score on CD, then hop in the thread and let your voices be heard! Share this blog post on social media and get the message out there! Hopefully Disney will soon realize the potential they have here and will have Intrada release the score. But until then all we can do is wait.

"I'll see you all a little later..."