18 Haunted Mansion Easter Eggs Straight Out Of The Disney Ride

Disney's 2023 "Haunted Mansion" movie boasts 999 ghosts — and nearly that many Easter eggs paying tribute to its source material. Disney first opened the Haunted Mansion theme park attraction in 1969 at Disneyland in California. The ride, which isn't based on any existing Disney story, slowly transports guests through a stately home occupied by hundreds of "happy haunts," as the narrator calls the ghosts who reside there.

Disney artists combined cutting-edge Audio-Animatronics technology, ingenious special effects, and superb music to create what many regard as the greatest theme park attraction of all time. Other versions of Haunted Mansion, some nearly identical to the original and others completely different, opened later at Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

The intellectual property's storied legacy gave director Justin Simien and writer Katie Dippold a lot to work with when bringing their new adaptation to the silver screen. A clean slate from Disney's 2003 "Haunted Mansion" movie starring Eddie Murphy, this "Haunted Mansion" brims with hidden references to the classic Disneyland spectacle and the people who brought it to life. Some of these Easter eggs are in plain sight, as not-so-hidden story elements with untold real-life lore. Other details require a sharper eye. Whether you've ridden the attraction 999 times or you just learned that Disney based the movie on a ride, here are 18 Haunted Mansion Easter eggs straight out of Disneyland.

Spoilers ahead.

Throughout "Haunted Mansion," director Justin Simien coyly guides the camera in ways that mirror the riders' viewpoints onboard the attraction. In one scene, Ben (LaKeith Stanfield) walks down a long, dimly lit hallway. As he does, a side-profile tracking shot follows the actor from right to left. It's a unique angle not often used in films — and brings to mind the experience of traversing a nearly identical hallway, slowly clunking along from right to left, in the ride.

Elsewhere, the camera looks upon the home's dining room/ballroom. The space itself is somewhat of an Easter egg of its own, resembling the ride's blueprints to a tee. In the attraction, the dining room is home to a memorable sequence featuring waltzing ghosts that riders view from an elevated platform. They look down at the action rather than gaze upon it at eye level. Simien utilizes this same perspective on more than one occasion when guiding the audience's eyes toward the ballroom in the movie.

An obligatory line from the ride's safety spiel becomes a major plot point in the film. Just after visitors board their ride vehicles, the narrator, known as the Ghost Host (Paul Frees), instructs, "No flash pictures, please! We ghosts are frightfully sensitive to bright lights." This is, of course, a customary precaution on most indoor rides as a concern for rider safety, a courtesy to others' enjoyment of the experience, and a precaution to preserve the magic, so to speak, as a flash of light would spoil many of the mansion's special effects.

What was perhaps operationally mandated language for the attraction becomes a source of inspiration for the movie. In it, Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) hires Ben to capture photographs of ghosts in her home. When Ben arrives, she warns him against taking flash pictures, as it upsets the ghosts. It turns out that flash photography — with Ben's custom-made camera — is the only way the ghosts will show up in Ben's photos. So, like, the opposite of the ride, then.

The song "Grim Grinning Ghosts" accompanies riders through their tour of the mansion in different musical styles and arrangements. In the ride's first few sequences, the song is instrumental, dulcet, and haunting. By the time we've reached the graveyard, it's a jubilant anthem sung merrily by the 999 happy haunts. The song was written by composer Buddy Baker (whose over 200 projects with Disney spanned 1954-2001) and lyricist X Atencio (who also wrote the ride's script, and had previously penned the "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme song). The lyrics of "Grim Grinning Ghosts" read as linguistic perfection: "When you hear the knell of a requiem bell | weird glows gleam where spirits dwell | restless bones etherealize | rise as spooks of every size | grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize!"

The signature theme song weaves its way into composer Kris Bowers' soundtrack for the 2023 film, both as non-diegetic score and as diegetic music within several scenes. The latter includes a performance by a jazz band parading through a graveyard toward the beginning of the film, its happy sound in a setting associated with grief reflecting the dichotomy of the graveyard celebration in the ride. The ghosts themselves, having been referred to as "souls" instead of "happy haunts" for the duration of the film, finally earn the more positive distinction by the film's conclusion, when they joyfully partake in the party transplanted straight from the ride, albeit in the dining room instead of the graveyard.

The exterior of the mansion is a dead ringer of the facade for Disneyland's version of the ride in California. Its tall, white pillars and accompanying architectural grandeur evoke the aura of its residence in New Orleans. That setting choice comes from Disneyland, too. There, the ride is located in an area called New Orleans Square. The 2023 movie leverages the opportunity to depict the city as almost a character unto itself, its affinity for music and magic influencing the film's sounds and sights.

Meanwhile, Crump's mansion in the film looks similar to the facade for Walt Disney World's version of the ride in Florida. Though the ride inside is pretty much the same as California's, the exterior of the Orlando counterpart couldn't be cloned because its aesthetic wouldn't make sense. In Florida, "Haunted Mansion" is located in a park area themed to Colonial east-coast America. As such, it swaps out the Antebellum flavor for an architectural style known as Hudson River Dutch Gothic.

In Crump's crypt (say that five times fast), Travis discovers the gravestones of everyone killed by the Hatbox Ghost. Each headstone has a morbidly comical couplet written upon it, usually involving a pun. If it feels out of left field that a murderous psychopath would spend his free time writing 999 funny little poems, the hobby isn't as random as it seems.

Before riders enter the mansion at the Disney parks, they walk through the outdoor grounds as part of the queue. This includes a cemetery filled with punny gravestones. The names of the deceased all reference Imagineers whose artistic talents made the mansion possible. "Here lies good old Fred," one tombstone reads, alluding to Imagineer Fred Joerger, "a great big rock fell on his head." Another is inscribed with, "RIP good friend Gordon, now you've crossed the River Jordan." Who said waiting in line couldn't be fun?

The scene in the film that features the dad jokes on the tombstones happens pretty quickly. We might have to wait until the Disney+ drop of "Haunted Mansion" to pause the movie and discover all of the puns, or to notice if any are newly written just for the movie rather than lifted from the ride. For now, keep your eyes peeled in the theater and try to read fast.

As the characters gather around a table to conduct a seance, Harriet's chair seemingly takes on a life of its own. With Harriet still seated, the chair abruptly swivels around and violently swooshes to the other side of the house. Production designer Darren Gilford is smart in his subtle symbolism of this moment. Harriet's chair is the only seat at the table that moves. It's also the only chair of its style among the group. Its wide, round top looks familiar — a resemblance of the attraction's ride vehicles too similar to be a coincidence.

The Haunted Mansion ride vehicles, also known as "doom buggies," can seat two to three riders and travel continuously on a conveyor-like system called an Omnimover. Unique among Disney ride vehicles that came before it, the doom buggy can turn itself in the direction the Imagineers want riders looking toward. At one point, it even tilts backward.

During a heartfelt monologue, Harriet reminisces about her late father, mentioning how "he loved model trains." The sound of a train whistle always reminds her of him and brings a smile to her face.

Walt Disney was famously obsessed with trains, going so far as building an entire model railroad network in his own backyard that he'd hop onboard and ride around. Disney's fascination with trains extended into Disneyland too, where a full-scale train has circled the park since opening day in 1955. If you know to look out for it, you'll see the phrase "Walt loved trains" written commonly in corporate Disney literature (and often meme'd by fans).

With this in mind, Harriet's fond memories of her father and Walt Disney's love of trains could be purely coincidental rather than an intentional Easter egg. Still, in a movie about death — loosely based on one of the last major attractions that Walt Disney worked on before his passing — there are enough connections to warrant speculation.

The marble busts in the mansion eerily turn their heads as characters walk past them. The busts aren't necessarily animated; their facial expressions don't change and they don't speak. Rather, their likenesses subtly turn in sync with the movements of whomever is gazing upon them.

The ride includes the very same busts, who similarly watch riders thanks to an effect accidentally discovered by Imagineer Yale Gracey. The Disney+ series "Behind the Attraction" explains what happened. As Gracey perused models being made for the ride's human figures, he noticed one model positioned in reverse. In other words, the mold of its facial features was pushed inward rather than protruding outward. Gracey observed that with that positioning, the mold's gaze oddly seemed to follow him as he moved, despite there being no mechanical movement involved. It's a simple technique, but one that's just as impressive decades after the ride opened as it was to riders in 1969.

Many of the movie's references to the ride aren't crucial to the story but are scattered throughout the film nonetheless. Outside, a ghostly caretaker and his dog warn Ben not to enter the cemetery. Though the man and his pup are alive in the ride, their likenesses are identical to their deceased counterparts. Speaking of dogs, a quick exterior shot shows a pet cemetery in the foreground. As riders exit the mansion in the Disney parks, they can spot a pet cemetery on the premises. (Florida's even includes the apparently dead Mr. Toad, star of "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride," an attraction still operating in California but long closed, or dead, in Florida.)

Inside the mansion, many of the sights that spook Ben are near-exact replicas of their theme park inspirations. A lone candelabra floats in a deserted hallway. A maze of zigzagging staircases leads to nowhere. The face of a grandfather clock counts to 13, not 12, and its hands spin maniacally. A ghost blows out the candles of a birthday (deathday?) cake. A portrait of a woman lying on a couch transforms the woman into a black cat. (It's one of several of the ride's paintings hanging on the walls in the movie.) Nearly everywhere, there's something to remind the viewer that this mansion's legacy runs deep.