There's a difference between an attraction having a strict linear story and an attraction having story beats and a logical narrative structure that carry it along,
Do you know what we call 'story beats' that have a 'logical narrative structure that carry it along'?
A story.
And if that narrative/story is 'logical and carries it along' with a direction... that's the definition of a *linear* story.
Story beats happen within a story. If they're disconnected from one another, they're just beats with no story. Just simple vignettes or tableaus. Calling them "story beats" implies a story structure in which each beat beats. But there is no story structure to the HM.
Just like portraits and paintings in a museum. Each portrait may tell a story within the portrait, but there is often no relation to the other portraits such that it forms a 'story.'
The history of the creation of the HM makes it very clear that there was little attempt to create "story beats" that told a continuing narrative. (Actually, some may have tried to tell an overarching story, but the other cooks kept fighting one another's story until there was none.) The Ghost Host attempts to assemble such a story to the unrelated scenes, with varying degrees of success (
and now, you can see ghosts... in addition to Leota which you've already seen!!) Later imagineers may have attempted to add a story. Many fans have tried to create fanfiction stories to create such a story.
There is indeed a ramping up of the ride's gags that culminate... twice! Once in the ballroom scene and again in the graveyard.
It's like a coaster with several hills. But one hill doesn't necessarily follow from the previous hill. It could have just been a corkscrew instead and not changed the coaster's "story."
But in the end, each element is mostly a standalone vignette with no overall story. That's the way it was made -- by committee.
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