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Argghh!!! Ye mateys. Time to sit yourself down and take a gander at this here documentary.
OK OK, I’m not actually going to talk like that in this episode. So let’s get serious
and move on with the show. No documentary about the Disney Parks would be complete without
a look at one of the most quintessential pieces of Disneyana; Pirates of the Caribbean, the
last attraction to be personally supervised by Walt Disney himself.
It all started in an orange grove in Anaheim, Calif......OK that story is for another time...just
not now....
Walt’s plans for the original attraction called for a walk-through museum with the
pirates being represented by wax figures placed on large, detailed sets.
Walt had one of his veteran animators, Marc Davis, research the history of piracy in the
18th and 19th centuries. As instructed, Davis analyzed individual pirate legends and seafaring
folklore such as Davy Jones, Blackbeard, Long John Silver, Sir Henry Morgan, Jean Lafitte,
and Captain Kidd. From there, Davis drew up conceptual drawings for the attraction’s
characters and scenes. The “walk-through museum” idea had to undergo drastic alterations
until Walt was satisfied with the final look.
As the attraction was revised, Walt and his Imagineers at WED Enterprises turned their
attention to another matter; the 1964 World’s Fair. Walt had made partnerships with other
major corporations such as GE and Ford to develop high quality attractions for the Fair.
Walt’s involvement with the Fair had its own reasons. He wanted to use the funds from
these partnerships to showcase his Audio-animatronic technology. Audio-animatronics or AA’s are
robotic figures used to imitate natural movements. Some say that Walt Disney’s pioneering of
the technology was one of his lasting legacies as AA’s are still being used by Disney today,
in a more advanced way of course. The fair’s Disney designed attractions included “Progressland
”, “Magic Skyway” and the now-iconic “it’s a small world”, all of which have
components that continue to exist today at the Disney Parks, albeit under different names.
Anyone remember Disneyland’s PeopleMover? Ever been on Carousel of Progress at Magic
Kingdom or Ellen’s Energy Adventure at Epcot? There you go. Those attractions are direct
descendents of the original ones from the 1964 World’s Fair.
Anyway, moving on from that....
The most pivotal attraction of all, however, was the “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln”
show which was included in the fair by a personal request to Walt by the fair’s developer,
Robert Moses. The show required an AA of Abraham Lincoln to speak and animate as if he were
giving a speech in front of a live audience. Despite a technical misfortune with the figure
during one of the performances, guests were amazed by the realism of Mr. Lincoln, and
Walt was eager from the praise the attraction was receiving.
But what does this any of this have to do with Pirates of the Caribbean? Well mateys.....
After the success with the Lincoln AA at the World’s Fair and the already implemented
AA’s at the nearby Enchanted Tiki Room and Jungle Cruise attractions, Walt decided that
his Audio-animatronic technology was advanced enough for what the Pirate attraction asked
for. He went back to Anaheim and told Marc Davis of his plans, and after Davis quickly
agreed, the wax museum idea was thrown out the window and the attraction was redesigned
into an indoor boat ride, much like the design Arrow Development had created for “it’s
a small world”.
Construction began in 1961 on a new themed land: New Orleans Square which would be home
to Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. It was the first land to be opened
after Disneyland’s opening and covered only three acres. The cost was around $18 million,
which was more than the original Louisiana Purchase cost the United States government
in 1803. After the first component of the attraction was constructed underneath the
New Orleans Square area, Imagineer Claude Coats discovered a major problem. The passage
of the boat channel was too narrow to allow the ride design to be practical, and that
the only way of fixing the problem would be by drastically reducing the size of the show
area. Walt wanted to maintain the show’s integral sequences thus he figured that a
secondary building would have to be built outside the park’s berm, in order to house
the majority of the attraction. Imagineers then had to re-arrange the designs for the
first building to accommodate the change. And as for the tunnel that would connect both
show buildings? Well that was designed as the dark and mystic Pirate Grotto that guests
encounter today near the start of the ride. Pretty clever, eh?
Construction continued smoothly with the attraction, until the Imagineers had to deal with another
unprecedented and unfortunate event. On December 15, 1966, at the age of 65, Walt Disney died
of lung cancer. The company, not to mention the world, was devastated. Their optimistic
leader was now gone. Walt would never see the attraction in its finished state, nor
would he be able to witness his plans for Disney World come to life in Florida. But
the Imagineers knew they had to press on. Before his passing, Walt had already given
the approval for some of the AA figures and insured Imagineer Roger Broggie that the attraction
would open, regardless of the financial aspect of it. Xavier Atencio and George Bruns wrote
and composed respectively, “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)”, the theme song for the attraction.
On a gloomy day on March 18, 1967, Pirates of the Caribbean opened, much to the delight
of the public. As it is with Disney, the opening was a complete spectacle. Pirates arrived
from the Rivers of America via the sailing ship Columbia. The raiders then pillaged New
Orleans Square and plundered the area leading up to the attraction, rifling and looting
along the way, until finally, without giving a hoot, they broke down the attraction’s
doors to the awaiting public.
The attraction quickly became one of the park’s staples and therefore, when the Magic Kingdom
park at Walt Disney World opened in 1971, it was only fitting to duplicate the attraction.
The second version of the ride opened there on December 15, 1973. The ride received two
subsequent incarnations at Tokyo Disneyland in April 15, 1983 and Disneyland Park Paris
in April 12, 1992.
Then something happened in the 1990s that would change the legacy of the ride forever.
Screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio had an idea of reinventing the pirate genre
for film. In 2001, Disney hired Jay Wolpert to write a script based on a story that was
crafted by several of the studio’s executives. *** Cook, who was chairman of the Walt Disney
Studios at the time, convinced producer Jerry Bruckheimer to join the project, who was then
followed by Elliot, Rossio and Gore Verbinski, the latter of which agreed to direct. Their
idea was to resurrect the pirate genre that had died years ago and to invoke a new story
based on the supernatural element of the attraction. Michael Eisner, CEO of the Walt Disney Company,
was hesitant to greenlight the project, considering that past film adaptations of Disney’s theme
park attractions, such as Mission to Mars and The Country Bears were box office flops.
Eisner argued with the producers about numerous things including the film’s budget, which
at $140 million he believed was too high, the inclusion of obvious references to the
attraction and even expressed disdain on the particular casting of Johnny Depp as the films
protagonist; Jack Sparrow.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was eventually greenlit, produced
and released on July 9 2003. The film was positively received by film critics and audiences
alike, grossed $654 million worldwide and even earned Johnny Depp an Academy Award nomination
for Best Actor, among other awards. Not too bad for a movie that, according to Eisner,
“cost to much” and whose lead actor was “ruining the film”. Not too bad at all.
The success of the film allowed Walt Disney Pictures to greenlight three sequels over
the course of the following years, follow-ups which were even bigger financial triumphs
than the first film. Not too shabby.
The success of the film series not only satisfied movie-going audiences and the pockets of Disney’s
corporate executives, but it also came back around and influenced the attraction it was
based on. The attractions at California, Florida and Tokyo were closed and reopened after an
extensive refurbishment. The Paris version was left alone. The refurbishment included
the addition of characters, music and other thematic elements from the film series, into
the original ride. For example, the old pirate that controlled the Wicked *** ship in the
battle scene was replaced with an AA of Geoffrey Rush’s character; Hector Barbossa. Jack
Sparrow was added throughout the course of the ride, usually in a humorous way. Also
special effects, state-of the art lighting and projections of Davy Jones and Blackbeard
were added integrated into the ride’s waterfall.
The alterations received mixed reactions. On the negative spectrum, some hardcore Disney
fans weren't happy with the transformation, arguing that the change ruined the spirit
that Walt Disney had sought out to create and that the changes were “unnecessary”
and “disrespectful” to a classic attraction. Personally, as a huge fan of both the attraction
and the film series, I think that the changes were actually a smart idea. The new additions
don’t bring down Walt’s original vision, in fact, it compliments it. Seeing the amazingly
realistic Jack Sparrow interact with the original pirate figures is as much fun and exciting,
as seeing him on-screen. It’s a great blend of nostalgia and new ideas. Fans of the movies
are now able to cherish the ride with familiarity and veterans of the classic attraction can
witness the progress that the ride has undergone. Besides, the changes also brought upgrades
to the ride’s overall technology, which for a ride that dates back to the 1960s, is
quite frankly, a form of a much needed facelift.