Disney’s ‘Haunted Mansion’ DVD and Blu-Ray Takes Fans Behind the Scenes of Jamie Lee Curtis’ Madame Leota (Exclusive Clip)

Haunted Mansion is haunting more than just Disney+ this spooky season. Following its streaming debut on Wednesday, Oct. 4, Haunted Mansion will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday, Oct. 17, featuring never-before-seen bonus features including deleted scenes, an extended gag reel, and exclusive featurettes. PopCulture.com has an exclusive clip at the making of Jamie Lee Curtis’ Madame Leota.

Bringing the iconic psychic, who for most of the film appears simply as a floating head inside a crystal ball, to life on the big screen was no easy feat, with costume and character designer Jeffrey Kurland sharing that it was “such an incredible project as far as design is concerned, and creativity.” According to director Justin Simion, the process for each character that appears on screen, including Madame Leota, Kurland “would have these research sheets – what time period they might have come from, what people dress like in that time period,” but for Kurland, Madame Leota “was the most difficult…Before you can put her in the crystal ball, you have to flesh out the entire character.” 

The lengthy process of creating the newest iteration of the character included extended measurements, with Curtis quipping that she “even had measurements like thus. Finger to wrist. Wrist to elbow. Why,” but she understood the moment she saw “the drawings for the costumes. Ohhhhh. That informed everything.”

Arriving in theaters two decades after Disney first brought its famed ride to the big screen in 2003’s The Haunted Mansion, the 2023 Haunted Mansion movie is based on the Disney parks ride. The film stars Rosario Dawson as Gabbie, a single mother who buys a surprisingly affordable mansion in New Orleans. She soon learns it was cheap because the mansion is haunted. The movie, directed by Simien from a screenplay by Katie Dippold, also stars Owen Wilson as a priest, Tiffany Haddish as a psychic, and Danny DeVito as a historian, as well as LaKeith Stanfield, Dan Levy, and Jared Leto. The movie is produced by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, with Nick Reynolds and Tom Peitzman serving as executive producers.

Fans can delve deeper into the story and see how it was brought to the big screen with the Haunted Mansion DVD and Blu-ray, which includes a variety of bonus features. Among the featurettes is “Making Haunted Mansion,” which features interviews from the cast and crew of the movie as they discuss creating the movie, how the ghosts were brought to life, and the role new technology played. The second featurette, “999 Happy Haunts,” details the Easter eggs hidden throughout the movie. The physical editions of Haunted Mansion also include eight deleted scenes, as well as a gag reel.

Haunted Mansion arrives on Disney+ on Oct. 4, followed by its release on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on Oct. 17. The 2003 Rob Minkoff-directed and Eddie Murphy-starring film is currently available to stream on Disney+.