With Disney’s Haunted Mansion arriving in theaters this weekend, I’ve decided to look at other Disney theme park attractions that could be adapted into films. The studio’s already had great success with Pirates of the Caribbean – and to a lesser extent Jungle Cruise.
If Haunted Mansion does well, hopefully the studio can continue its trend and use other attractions to create entertaining films.
The Country Bear Jamboree
This could be cheating a little because The Country Bears already had a movie (but so did Haunted Mansion). But to me the biggest problem with the original Country Bears movie was that it was live-action. The characters looked…creepy, for a lack of a better word. Also, because the story was about the group reuniting meant that audiences didn’t really get the feeling of the attraction until the very end. Just making an animated movie with the characters and writing a story where they’re already together would’ve been way better in my opinion. Dreamworks’ Trolls franchise is doing something similar with their next installment, proving this could easily make for a fun animated film for families.
Mad Tea Party
This could be a killing two birds with one stone situation. Giving Disney’s interest in remaking their classic animated films, this could be a chance to have a new version of Alice in Wonderland. Yes, we already had Tim Burton’s more dreary-looking films, but the sequel in 2016 underperformed and given Burton disinterest in working with the studio again. Couple that with Disney’s disinterest in working with Johnny Depp again, it would probably be better to just start fresh and do an Alice-themed movie with brighter and trippier visuals. Honestly, it’s kind of surprising that Burton didn’t try to incorporate Mad Tea Party’s ride at all in his films because it seemed like something that would be right up his alley. It could make for a fun sequence in a live action film.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
This goes back to my desire of seeing Disney finally make a Mickey Mouse movie. Not only would I like to see a film that utilizes the Paul Rudish style that harkens back to the classic look of the character, but one that also has an adventurous feel to it. This could be done with the simple setup of a train ride that goes out of control just like Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. A film could be a fun way to experiment with both 2D and 3D animation like the ride does too.
Space Mountain
Now, not only is this the most obvious attraction to adapt into a film, but it’s also the one ride that Disney has actively been trying to adapt for years. For whatever reason it seems like they just haven’t been able to crack the code. If done correctly, however, a Space Mountain movie could be a massive success that leads to a whole new major franchise the way Pirates of the Caribbean did. The same way Pirates brought back the swashbuckling genre, Space Mountain could either be a fun throwback to old science fiction B-movies, or it could be played straight as a genuine space opera adventure like Star Wars.
Those are just some of my suggestions for attractions that could be made into films. Which ones would you like to see get the big screen treatment though? Sound off with some of your ideas down below!
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