It’s been done on the internet before, sure, but whenever I watch PotC I try to spot where elements of the Walt Disney World and Disneyland rides are used.
This list is chronological by appearance in the movie, so we have to dart back and forth through the ride. Now in the name of full disclosure I need to say that I’ve only ever ridden the Florida ‘Pirates,’ so that’s what I’m comparing the movie scenes to, and specifically I’m talking about the first two movies of the franchise.
1: Pirates ye be warned.
The first tableau you see in the Orlando Ride, as you go through the caverns from the loading dock is a beach scene where some terrible massacre has taken place. An array of skeletons lie across the sand being picked at by crabs and seagulls … well the crabs and seagulls are there anyway. Here a cold breeze buffets you and ghostly voice calls out from the darkness of an approaching storm, ‘Deaaad men t-e-ll no ta-le-es!’ Then through the howling wind another skeleton reveals itself, lit by a lightning flash, its sharp fingers clutching the helm of a wrecked ship.
In the first movie the first time you see Jack Sparrow is when he is sailing his sinking ship into Port Royal, as he enters the harbour he passes a trio of dangling and decomposing skeletons displayed, as was typical in the 17th and 18th centuries, on an outlying spot where every ship could see what the penalty was for piracy. Vague I know, but the concept of warning people of what lies ahead through skeletons is a pretty vivid motif. Also, the theme of undead pirates is a distinctly important facet of the movie. While it is never really present in the attraction, all this seems to be a nod to the ‘shipwreck skeletons’ in the opening of the ride.
2: The Pirate attack.
The most dramatic set piece of the ride is the pirate ship bombarding and then sacking a Spanish town. Since the ‘Dead Man’s Chest’ refurbishment in the Orlando attraction the pirates, led by Captain Barbossa are looking for Jack Sparrow, previously they just wanted loot. Your boat will take you between the ship and the fort, which exchange gunfire over your head. The cannon-balls splash around you and depending where you are sitting you’ll end up a little wet. The narrative journey next takes you past the fort where the pirates, having successfully silenced the guns of the Spanish defenders, are now looting and pillaging and being downright unpleasant.
This is a theme in the movie rather than a scene, as the Black Pearl is seen in the distance exchanging fire with the fort at Port Royal and there are several amusing and exciting scenes where Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) has to fight through the streets as the pirates storm the town.
3: Bringing down the House.
If you don’t pay attention in the movie you’ll easily miss this bit but when the pirates overcome the garrison of Port Royal and storm the governor’s residence in search of that cursed medallion, a bunch of them go to town pilfering some of the finer things in life from the Swan family’s possessions. Elizabeth Swan (Kiera Knightly) is chased around the house and as she runs down the stairs to try and escape an establishing shot shows some bedlam as servants are pursued this way and that or indeed fight back and chase pirates around the entrance hall.
It happens really quickly but it’s undoubtedly a little detail that was references the scene in the ride where you have pass under the bridge, leaving the torturing and auctioning behind and having been serenaded by three pirates and a donkey as the town burns, action vignettes add interest and movement to the scene. In the windows and entrances of the town you see various comic chases occurring as audio animatronics set on turnstiles pursue each other with violent intent as the inferno worsens.
4: The dungeons.
One of the most famous parts of the ride, and one of the most carefully staged set pieces of the movie is scene in the dungeon with the dog. In the ride it is the part just before the end when you enter the dungeon of the burning town. Turning a corner you see a tableau appearing over the bow of your ride boat. As your boat slowly sweeps by, often bumping into the one in front and stopping if there is a backlog ahead, you see the scene up close on your right hand side. The scene shows two cells of prisoners attempting to rope the jailor’s dog who is obediently sitting holding the keys to their prison doors. They try to coax the dog to come close and take a bone with inviting calls, summoning motions, and whistles, but the dog merely cocks it’s head and wags it’s tail. This is directly mirrored in Curse of the Black Pearl where Jack Sparrow watches some fellow prisoners try in vain to get a vital set of keys from the jailor’s dog much to Sparrow’s amusement only for him to desperately try the same gambit during the pirate attack.
5: Lots of Pigs.
There is a running gag through Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man’s Chest that involves certain characters being found drunk or dissolute or both in the pig pens of Tortuga. In the first movie Mr. Gibbs is found drunk and wallowing with some porcine companions and in the second, ex-commodore Norrington is thrown out of the tavern and deposited amongst them where Elizabeth Swan recognises him.
I suspect this element comes directly from the ride where as you pass into the dungeons, leaving all the pillaging and yo-ho-ho’s behind, you spy a very inebriated pirate on the right hand side by the arch the bridge. He slurs along with the song whilst downing rum, settled on a muddy bed by the riverbank amongst a parcel of very contended sleeping pigs.
6: The caverns of Isla de Muerta.
At the time the movie was made the ride was the product of imagineers imaginations and so this similarity cannot be a coincidence. Right off the bat caverns play a big role in the setting of the ride and in a way this takes us right back to the beginning, but in the movie the skeletons and the caverns are separate. To be honest, the hanging skeletons at the beginning are a downright cheat on my part and tenuous to say the least when compared with what happened next.
The treasure room of the cursed pirates is accessed by sea caverns that the characters row through in boats. In the movie the ships come into the channel of the Isla de Muerta and the parrot literally squawks, ‘dead mean tell no tales.’ This is an obvious allusion to the ghostly voice in the caverns that echoes in a singsong voice the same dour warning. Then when Jack and Will are rowing in, they pass a ledge on which is splayed a human corps with a cutlass protruding from it’s back in exactly the pose of one of the skeletons in the ride … just before the drop.
7: Don’t be chicken Carlos.
My last ‘spot the scene’ comes from the 2nd movie when we return to Tortuga after Elizabeth has fooled the merchants into taking her to the island so she can to find Jack. There is a tracking shot where we see all the usual ruffian types doing ruffian things and the camera moves past a well. Here a bunch of drunks and rascals are being generally antisocial in a social sort of way, and we briefly see an unfortunate fellow in a wig being hauled out of the well by a pulley. He spouts a stream of water from his mouth and almost as soon as we see him it cuts to the interior of the tavern. This echoes a famous part in the ride. Once the ride boats go in past the fort after the battle, we get the first major tableau of looting and it focuses on an unfortunate gentleman called Carlos in exactly the same predicament, being essentially tortured to reveal where Jack Sparrow is. Back before the movies he was being asked to talk about hidden treasure but what hasn’t changed is that his rather unhelpful wife always opens the shutters and calls out to her husband, ‘Don’t tell him, Carlos; Don’t be Chicken!’ Before fleeing from the window as the pirates start shooting.
