Pirates of the Caribbean
| Pirates of the Caribbean | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disneyland Park and others |
| Land / area | New Orleans Square (Disneyland) · Adventureland (Magic Kingdom) |
| Type | Dark ride (boat) |
| Opened | March 18, 1967 (Disneyland) |
| Designer | WED Enterprises
|
| Status | Operating |
Pirates of the Caribbean is a dark ride at Disney theme parks, first opened at Disneyland Park in California on March 18, 1967. Guests board boats that drift from a Louisiana bayou into caverns of pirate skeletons, through a naval battle, and into a Caribbean port town being sacked by pirates, populated by dozens of Audio-Animatronic figures. It is regarded as one of the finest themed rides ever built, and its theme song, "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)", is among the best known in any theme park.
The Disneyland original was the last attraction whose construction Walt Disney personally oversaw; it opened three months after his death. Versions followed at Magic Kingdom in Florida (1973), Tokyo Disneyland (1983), Disneyland Paris (1992) and Shanghai Disneyland (2016), where the concept was wholly redesigned as Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure.
Development
The attraction began in the late 1950s as a walk-through museum of pirate wax figures in a cellar beneath the planned New Orleans Square. Two developments changed it: the Audio-Animatronics breakthroughs of the 1964 New York World's Fair (notably Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln), which made lifelike figures practical, and Walt Disney's decision that the figures deserved a full ride. The museum basement became the ride's grotto, and the boats of "it's a small world" — another Fair project — provided its transport.
The creative team included Marc Davis, whose character sketches define the ride's comic rogues; Claude Coats, who designed its environments; X Atencio, who wrote the dialogue and the "Yo Ho" lyric; and composer George Bruns. The celebrated burning-town finale, with its convincing fire effect, was made so realistic that the Anaheim fire department reportedly required a fail-safe to cut the effect if a real fire alarm sounded.
Versions
- Disneyland (1967) — the longest and most complete original version: a bayou prologue past the Blue Bayou Restaurant, two drops, and the full treasure-cave sequence.
- Magic Kingdom (1973) — built after Florida guests demanded the ride the park had opened without; a shorter version with one drop, reached through the Spanish fort of El Castillo in Adventureland, with the queue passing through its dungeons.
- Tokyo (1983) and Paris (1992) — close adaptations of the California ride, Paris reordering scenes so the story builds to the skeleton caverns at the end.
- Shanghai (2016) — a new ride system and story built around the film characters, using huge projected sets and boats that can move sideways and backwards.
The films, and their return to the ride
In 2003 the attraction's name and settings became a film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which launched a franchise of five films. Influence then reversed: in 2006 the rides at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom received Audio-Animatronic figures of Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa woven into the original scenes. A 2018 revision at several parks recast the famous bride-auction scene, turning its redheaded captive into a pirate auctioning the town's goods herself.