Perhaps no ride is as indelibly linked to Walt Disney as Pirates of the Caribbean, which is bittersweet since he didn’t quite live to see its park opening. He died only a few months prior to the debut of what would become a defining Disney attraction. Thankfully, the Imagineers that Uncle Walt had trained were dutiful in honoring his memory. They worked diligently to craft a masterpiece worthy of the everlasting reputation of their beloved boss. And the ride they built has stood the test of time.
The Walt Disney Company even unearthed other ways to expand the reach of the concept. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has earned $3.73 billion in worldwide box office and counting. It’s the wildly popular film adaptation of the even more popular Disneyland attraction. People love both so much that they sometimes forget that the ride pre-dates the movie by almost 40 years.
Image: Disney
Pirates of the Caribbean’s roots go back so far that future film star Johnny Depp was only four years old when Disneyland introduced the ride to the public, while Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom wouldn’t be born until 10 and 18 years later. It’s that old, which makes its sustained excellence all the more impressive. You’ve almost certainly jumped in a boat and headed through pirate country at some point. Let’s take this opportunity to go Behind the Ride, explaining all the brilliant, eternal aspects of one of the greatest theme park attractions of all-time.
The Experience: Wandering through pirate territory without having to walk the plank
The Trick: A boat ride that started in New York City
When you board your hardy vessel and cross the narrow sea to Disney’s recreation of the Louisiana Bayou, you’re effectively entering a Disney movie set. Uncle Walt loved to frame his attractions in this way, and he realized toward the end of his life that Pirates of the Caribbean might be his swan song. Disney suddenly learned that he was in the final days of cancer as his Imagineers worked on the ride. Its quality was so important to him that he asked for one last contraption from his Imagineers. They built a gurney system so that he could easily move from set to set at Pirates of the Caribbean. He micromanaged more than usual on the ride, but he didn’t live to see the result. The attraction opened at Disneyland three months and 11 days after his death.
The work that Walt Disney surveyed existed across several sets. To orchestrate seamless guest movement from one location to the next, he had to throw out the initial plans for the ride. As originally discussed, Pirates of the Caribbean was intended as a museum celebrating pirate life, especially as told by Robert Louis Stevenson. The author’s seminal work, Treasure Island, was a source of inspiration for the attraction.
Image: Disney
In order to tell stories akin to those of Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins, Imagineers settled on a few iconic images from pirate lore. They chose many unforgettable visuals such as a cannonball attack from a buccaneering vessel against a well-defended island fortress, a series of imprisoned brigands trying to retrieve a key from an unaware (or too-aware) dog, a pooped pirate clutching a pirate map, and an auction involving justifiably unhappy wenches.
The trick the park planners faced was in getting theme park tourists to the proper locations at the correct times. Early stages of their plan didn’t require this kind of precision. With a museum design, guests could travel from location to location on their own terms. Once Pirates of the Caribbean changed to a ride, they needed a new strategy. Fortunately, some Imagineers were inventing the technology that would dramatically increase the throughput of the ride. In the preparation phase of the 1964 New York World’s Fair, Disney employees faced this issue for multiple pavilions. They eventually realized that a track-based system could provide the rails that guaranteed riders stayed on the correct path AND moved at an acceptable speed.
Image: Disney
Pirates of the Caribbean isn’t a true omnimover in that the boats don’t all connect to one another, but the underlying premise is similar. If anything, it’s closest in nature to It’s a Small World, and I mean the original version from the World’s Fair. Sure, you ride a seaworthy pirate boat that sails from scene to scene, but Disney has your boat on tracks throughout the ride. This innovation is one we take for granted today. It was historic in the 1960s, though. The fake open-ended nature of the ship allows the guest to feel like they’re on open sea with navigational charts that can lead to anywhere, but the actual path is finite. Your destination on the watery bayou is fixed. That’s also why Disney asks that you keep your hands inside the boat at all times. You could easily catch a finger in the machinery beneath the boat.
The boat ride’s quality is due to Disney’s diligence. While on the gurney, Disney would go from location to location, demanding to see the set pieces from the same perspective of a future guest. Everything from the original version of the ride that remains is exactly as Uncle Walt intended you to watch it. You’re a guest on his movie set when you board Pirates of the Caribbean, and the boat track assures you of experiencing it the precise way that he wanted.
The Experience: Meeting dastardly pirates but living to tell the tale
The Trick: One of the first implementations of Audio-Animatronics (AAs)
Another invention from the 1964 New York World’s Fair was the audio animatronic (AA). The robotic version of Abraham Lincoln was capable of so many movements that critics expressed amazement at its realism. That was the first generation of the software. After the fair ended, Imagineers devoted lots of resources to improving the nascent technology. They understood that Pirates of the Caribbean was a perfect attraction for this style of storytelling.
The purpose of AAs is to mimic human behavior repeatedly during the course of a day. A single AA will have a handful of actions that they perform. Giving one too many mannerisms would require guests to ride multiple times to see the full suite of an AA’s programming. With their new attraction, Imagineers wanted a bunch of pirates who would look and act the part without overwhelming audiences. Disney didn’t want to scare its guests too much. As silly as that statement sounds, it was a legitimate concern in the early days of the attraction. That’s part of the reason why 53 AA birds and animals (such as an adorable key-holding dog) join approximately 70 humans, many of whom are pirates. These creatures provide a soothing backdrop to reassure guests that they’re safe.
Image: Disney
What Disney has always loved about AAs is that they’re like actors that the company doesn’t have to pay. Sure, there’s the installation cost and related maintenance fees, but AAs are basically robotic slaves. Each one at Pirates of the Caribbean tells the same story several times every hour. They’ve done this so well that a few of them have taken on a life of their own. Everyone knows the Pooped Pirate, the husband dunked in water, and the prisoners trying to escape a fire. The technology for these AAs is more than half a century old. The reason why they’ve maintained popularity is that Imagineers built them so lifelike in the first place. Of course, the most famous AA at Pirates of the Caribbean today is much newer…
The Experience: Watching Captain Jack Sparrow bask in the golden glow of treasures
The Trick: Updating a storied ride to reflect a wildly popular movie franchise
Perhaps no attraction at a Disney theme park better exemplifies the timeless but sometimes circular nature of Disney storytelling. At the start of the new millennium, Walt Disney Pictures attempted to evolve several popular attractions into films. Their goal was to enhance the reputations of rides by adding a movie presence.
Two of the attempts didn’t go so well. The Haunted Mansion, an Eddie Murphy movie, exited theaters with only $76 million in domestic box office against a $90 million budget. And you probably don’t even remember the other film. The Country Bears, based on Country Bear Jamboree, grossed only $18 million, barely half of its $35 million budget. The middle film’s popularity makes up for those two disappointments, though. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise became a huge hit, with The Curse of the Black Pearl becoming the third most popular movie of 2003. Then, Dead Man’s Chest shattered the opening weekend box office record on its way to becoming the number one movie of 2006.
Image: Disney
To celebrate the hallmark box office achievements, Disney decided to introduce characters from the film franchise into the ride. In other words, the movie based on the ride became the inspiration for parts of the ride that were now based on the movie. I get a headache just thinking about it. Anyway, Disney added Captain Barbossa to the deck of the Wicked Wench and Davy Jones and Blackbeard in the opening mists of the attraction.
More importantly, they added a new scene where everyone’s favorite miscreant, Captain Jack Sparrow, lives the dream of every pirate. He discovers a room full of gold and jewels that Disney fans suspect is the proverbial Treasure Vault that the Pooped Pirate mentions. The entire set piece is the end of the ride, meaning that a character who didn’t exist when Imagineers first created Pirates of the Caribbean is now the showstopper that sends theme park tourists off with a huge smile on their faces. Sparrow is arguably the most iconic new Disney character of the 21st century, and the new version of the ride befits that status.
The Experience: Enjoying a spirited sea shanty
The Trick: Teaching an old dog that he was capable of a new trick
Image: Disney
When Disney adds atmosphere for a ride, they understand that music sets the tone better than almost anything. That’s why so many of your favorite Disney stories include memorable musical accompaniments. They believe in manipulating all five senses as much as possible, and a singalong song is one of their most proven methods to achieve this goal. Even by Disney standards, the backstory for the most memorable song from Pirates of the Caribbean is weird, though.
Xavier Atencio, the Disney Legend, wasn’t a music man by trade. He was an illustrator and writer who had started with the company when he was still in his teens. Something Walt Disney loved to do with his employees was challenge them. He felt that forcing someone outside their comfort zone helped them expand their horizons. He would move employees around like pieces on a Chess board, and that’s how a writer without a musical background wound up as the lyricist for one of the best loved Disney songs.
Image: Disney
At Uncle Walt’s request (really, a demand) the man known as X moved to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. There, he discovered that the project was mostly finished. His boss wanted someone to tie the seemingly disparate pirate stories together, and he believed that X was the man for the job. In a moment of inspiration, the fledgling lyricist determined that a sea shanty was the missing ingredient for this otherwise impeccable attraction. He quickly wrote Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me), relying heavily on Disney musician George Bruns for the tune. The song was an instant Disney classic that virtually everyone in the free world can hum, even if they don’t fully appreciate what they’re doing. The lyrics and music are that catchy.
In an odd bit of trivia, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl wasn’t the first instance when a Disney movie used Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me). That honor belonged to Treasure Planet, a different Disney film honoring the writings of Robert Louis Stevenson. So, two Disney features used the same song in an eight-month period in 2002/2003 after none had in the prior 35 years.
Pirates of the Caribbean is the crème de la crème of theme park tourism. It has name value that far exceeds regular attractions, even ones with sturdier reputations inside the industry. That’s because it was the first of its kind, a boat ride through several fictional pirate scenes, all of which earned Walt Disney’s personal seal of approval. More than any other attraction, this ride is his legacy, and its impeccable design quality speaks to the work ethic and vision of the man who built the Happiest Place on Earth.
