Disneyland's "Pirates of the Caribbean" is one of the park's oldest and most
popular attractions. The ride follows the story of a marauding band of pirates
ransacking a Caribbean town. Doing everything from drinking rum, to buying
women, to shooting off their guns and setting things on fire. You know, all the
typical fun stuff. The ride has become extremely iconic since its opening, so
much so that it later spawned a series of films based on it. But the story
behind the ride starts off with something different. In fact, when the
concept was first introduced, it wasn't even a ride at all.
By the late 1950's, Walt Disney was looking to expand Disneyland with a new section of the
park called the "New Orleans Square" that was based off 19th century Louisiana.
Disney and the Imagineers then began to work on some kind of walkthrough
attraction to open alongside the new expansion, allowing it to offer more than
just it's shops and restaurants. Eventually coming up with a pirate-themed
walkthrough. Since pirates were actually a pretty big part of the real New
Orleans' history. The original attraction was intended to be an
underground Wax Museum located under the square itself, with a replication of a
waterside town and various wax figures depicting important moments in pirate
mythology. The plans for this concept actually did get finalized and
construction on what would be the underground wax museum did start in 1961
when a large basement was dug out in the middle of the new land.
However, Disney's Imagineering Department shifted it's focus not too long
after that began working on a few projects for the 1964 World's Fair, where
they'd be creating attractions for a couple different companies and
organizations. Disney's involvement in the fair pretty much halted all progress
on the development of Disneyland so, the walkthrough pirate exhibit was
shelved until their work for the fair was over. While they were working on the fair
the Imagineers managed to create and expand upon loads of new technologies.
The most noteworthy one being the audio-animatronic, as most of you know it
was the development of animatronics that really gave way to a new era of Disney
attractions. Ones that had a much better sense of storytelling, and did so by
having much more immersive scenes. When Disney was finally finished with the
fair and work resumed on Disneyland's upcoming expansion, Walt decided not to
finish construction on the walkthrough pirate attraction and instead, opted to
use that same concept and theming as a way to introduce two of the biggest and
newest technologies from the fair into the park. Those two
being the boat ride-system from "it's a small world", and audio-animatronic
technology from the "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" show so, with that idea in
place, work officially began on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride that we all know
today. Some of the earliest elements of the final ride came from the original
walkthrough attraction concept, like the waterside town setting and of course the
pirates but, some of the other parts the ride did take a little bit of time to
get established or decided upon. Much like the Haunted Mansion, most of the
ideas for the ride scenes can be traced back to Imagineer Marc Davis'
drawings. His concept art really helped set the overall tone for the attraction
and helped everyone working on it get an idea of how it should turn out in its
final form. As a matter of fact, many of these scenes from the finished ride were
actually taken directly from his drawings. Over the next couple of months,
Davis and the other Imagineers came up with different scene ideas that were
then turned into drawings and then either approved or turned down by Walt
Disney, who was pretty heavily involved throughout the entirety of the project.
Imagineers also utilized storyboards to plan out what order the scenes would go
in, similar to the same process they used for making movies. As the rides
development went on and the ideas they had began to grow bigger and bigger they
eventually realized there wasn't anywhere near enough space in the park
for the ride. Even if they did put some of it underneath the square itself, so
the solution they came up with was have a large portion of the rides show
building located outside of the park. You might also remember that another Disney
attraction did the same thing a few years later, that being the Haunted Mansion.
Not too long after that, work began on some of the actual figures that were
going to be used on the ride. The animatronic technology was being tweaked
and optimized, the pirates themselves began to be built and their faces
sculpted, including some of the animatronics animals and all the
characters were given their own custom clothing. By 1965 all the planning for
what they dubbed the "Blue Bayou Lagoon" attraction had just about wrapped up,
with all the bright scenes laid out and models of them created.
Walt Disney: "And then in here, we have a special attraction.
We call it the "Blue Bayou Lagoon" and people
are gonna get on a boat here and ride through the lagoon, and then as they
get around here we're gonna take them down a waterfall, and take them back into the
past into the days of the Pirates, you know, where the whole Caribbean area was
full of pirates and they're always sacking towns and things."
Shortly after that, construction began on the attraction itself. Starting with its
facade, then its show building, followed by the track and then finally the rides
scenes. However, since this was the first time Imagineering had ever made a
large-scale animatronic heavy, dark ride like this construction took quite a
while, as they were constantly tweaking the elements of the attraction to help
with things like the props and sets, the overall pacing, and character dialogue.
They also made a last-minute change in the rides name from the original "Blue
Bayou Lagoon" to the now-famous "Pirates of the Caribbean" but, after all that was
finished the attraction was finally ready to be opened.
Announcer: "Now there's new fun and excitement waiting for you at Disneyland!"
The opening of the Magic Kingdom's most exciting new attraction:
"Pirates of the Caribbean!"
Pirates singing: "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me!"
Pirates of the Caribbean was officially opened on March 18th of 1967. When the
attraction was first opened, the crowds for it were quite large, and only managed
to get bigger as word got out just how impressive the ride actually was.
Something to keep in mind is that audio-animatronics were a brand-new thing at
the time. And even though they were present at the World's Fair about three
years earlier, this was the first time most people were able to see them in
person. The ride continued to impress its guests for decades after its opening,
still being one of the most popular attractions at Disneyland today, more
than 50 years later. However, the rides popularity still couldn't save it from
seeing quite a few changes over the years so, let's talk about what revisions the ride has seen.
For many years, pirates operated almost exactly as it
did on opening day. Prior to late 90's, the ride itself really didn't see any
noteworthy changes aside from a few technological improvements, or some
slight visual changes when it came to a couple of the characters. The first
actually noticeable change came in the form of a new queue in 1987, one of the
biggest problems with the original queue was that it not only filled up way too
quickly because of its small size, but also that its overflow went out into the
square itself and what often caused massive traffic jams in the area. The new
queue extended the original line, and added a bridge on top of it that allowed people
were to pass over that part of the square without having to go around the
people waiting in line. The next change came about a decade later in 1997 when
Disney changed some of the rides actual scenes. Due to increasing complaints from
certain guests there were a few changes made to the "chase scene" where pirates
could originally be seen chasing around the women of the town. This was later
changed and now show the Pirates chasing women holding various different foods
now putting the Pirates focus on the food rather than the women themselves
along with that, one of the Pirates in that scene was also recast and given
some new dialogue to match the whole "pirates chasing food" aspect of it.
Initially dubbed the "pooped pirate" his story was that he was tired from chasing
around one of the ladies who was now hiding in a barrel behind him. He was
then turned into the "gluttonous pirate" in '97 who was now a lot more focused
on getting something to eat. The woman in the barrel behind him was also removed
replaced by a cat. Aside from that relatively small change, the ride
remained mostly untouched. That was until 2006 when the attraction was slated to get a major overhaul.
In 2003, Disney released "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl".
A movie loosely based on the original ride
but with plenty of new settings and characters. Much like the attraction, the
movie was wildly successful and subsequently spawned multiple sequels
over the next couple of years. With the success of the first Pirates film, Disney
was now looking for a way they could tie the movie in with the ride, which they
eventually did by adding a few of the characters from the film. That included
people like Captain Jack Sparrow, Barbosa and Davy Jones. So with that being said,
let's talk about all the changes the 2006 revamp brought about. The addition
of characters from the movies really had a big impact on the rides storyline,
effectively altering the entire thing. Now instead of the Pirates attacking the
town for its rum, loot and other valuables, the town is now being attacked by
Captain Barbossa and his men, who are looking for Jack Sparrow. While Jack, on
the other hand, is looking for the town's treasure.
The rides new storyline was accomplished by repurposing a few of the pre-existing
animatronics, adding a couple new ones and creating a whole new endscene so,
let's delve into that a little bit further. The first new pirate you come
across is Barbosa, attacking a fort from his ship "The
Wicked Wench" the Barbosa animatronic is actually just a regular pirate from
the original ride that was redesigned and given some new dialogue. Barbosa was
also updated in 2015 to now have on his privateer outfit. Next up is the first
scene in the town itself, where some of the Pirates are dunking the mayor in
the well to find out where the town's treasure is, the dialogue in this scene
was also changed so the Pirates were now asking for the whereabouts of Jack
Sparrow. I should also note that the first of the Jack Sparrow animatronic's
can be seen here as well, hiding behind some dresses from the
Pirates who are after him. Unlike Barbosa, all three of the Jack
animatronics are brand new and didn't replace any other characters. The next
time we see Jack is at the chase scene, like I mentioned earlier this scene saw
its first set of changes in the late 90s, however it did get altered again in 2006
when all four of the rotating pirates were all changed and so was the
"gluttonous pirate". Each of the rotating pirates were now doing something
different, like stealing some treasure or getting chased by a woman with a weapon.
As for the gluttonous pirate, he's now busy talking about his map to the town's
treasure room and the key he has to open it, this is also where we see our second
instance of Captain Jack who's now hiding in a barrel behind him.
This of course, leads us to our final chance to see Jack, celebrating his
newfound riches in the treasure room. Surprisingly enough, the treasure room is
actually an entirely new scene from the 2006 refurb. Up until that point the
room was just filled with a bunch of drunken pirates, shooting off guns at
explosive barrels in the middle of the burning building. For whatever reason one
of the drunk pirates was removed from this portion of the ride in the late 90s
and is thought by many who have actually been relocated to the chase where
another pirate can be seen with almost the exact same movements. The actual
reason that pirate was moved was so Disney could better showcase a new
addition they had recently added behind him, that being two new figures who are
trying to take a treasure chest back up the lift hill, and a set of skeletons
behind them who seemed to have died doing the same thing. That of course was
later removed in 2006, and replaced by the treasure room where we see Jack as
we go back up to lift. And finally the lift that brings us back up to the parks
ground level also brings us our last new addition, that being some lines of
dialogue from Davy Jones. This element is very similar to a different effect that
was added towards the beginning of the ride in the refurb where you can see a
misty projection of Davy Jones it was previously just a dark cavern. That
effect was later changed again in 2011 when they added Blackbeard to this
portion as well, who would alternate with Davy Jones. However the effect was
removed altogether in 2018, when Disney he brought back the original "ghostly
dialogue" from the cavern and added a new effect, where you could see an octopus
and the remains of a pirate caught in a booby trap, who will then turn back into a
person as you pass by him. Lastly in June of 2018, the original auction scene
was modified so the Pirates were no longer buying the town's women, and we're
now instead buying other miscellaneous items, like paintings and clocks. Because
I guess pirates are a lot more interested in fancy chandeliers than
women. You know, I mean, who would've guessed? They also changed the redhead
animatronic from that scene as well and replaced her with a new female pirate
who's also auctioning off the town's items and really, that's about it for all
the changes the ride has seen over the years. I should also mention that over
time, it has been upgraded in many different ways so the rides technology
doesn't seem so dated, that includes things like the overall look of the
animatronics and the scene lighting. On top of that they've also managed to add
projections to a few areas on the ride as well and updated some of the older
effects too, like the flames and burnt wood. So it all looks a lot more realistic.
At the end of the day, Pirates of the Caribbean is one of Disney's most
entertaining and memorable dark rides. Only in a ride like Pirates can you have
so many iconic characters that even the average guest will likely have their own
favorite. On top of being a timeless classic, the rides history really
showcases some monumentous advancements when it came to Disney attractions, with
all the new types of technologies being debuted with it.
The ride also managed to show how a bunch of different people, with different
skill sets could come together, and create an experience that guests would
really enjoy. With people like Marc Davis doing the drawings, Blaine Gibson
sculpting the figures, Claude coats designing the sets and X Atencio writing
the music and dialogue. Hopefully at this point, pirates has secured it's spot as an
attraction that won't go anywhere anytime soon and, if it does see any more
updates in the future, hopefully they'll only add to the original sense of fun
and adventure that the ride brought us.
Yo ho, ho ho, pirates life for me! ᕙ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕗ