[Dog barks]
Quiet! Har har, fooled him, I did, by gum! I tell you once, Cap’n Jack Sparrow—you’ll never find the treasure without a look at this here map…and this lovely key to the treasure room. Hahahaha!
[Dog barks]
Easy, boy. Here I be—holdin’ the treasure map, and the key as well. What I wouldn’t give to see the look on Cap’n Jack Sparrow’s face when he hears tell tale ’tis only me what’s got the goods, haha!
[Dog barks.]
Keep still! I’m studyin’ me map!
Two women chase pirates on the lower levels in this scene, one of which carries a broom. Up above, a woman waiving a rolling pin on a balcony chases away a creeping pirate. To the right, guests see one of the fan-favorite audio-animatronic characters in the attraction: Old Bill. Bill wears a patch over his right eye and is, not surprisingly, very drunk. Not wanting to drink alone, Bill attempts to convince one of the town’s stray cats to join him:
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty! Hehehe, have a little ‘ol tot of rum with Old Bill, eh? Hehehe…Come on, now—be a nice little pussycat! Oh, you be a feisty one, you be.
A City in Flames
After passing underneath another bridge, guests encounter three pirates to the left-hand side of the boat singing in tandem with a donkey and dog. One pirate plays an accordion while another plays a guitar. The booming voice of Thurl Ravenscroft leads the three in a hilarious rendition of the attraction’s theme song: “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life For Me).” Ravenscroft has a long list of Disney credits to his name, including voicing one of the singing busts in the Haunted Mansion, the German macaw Fritz in Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, and Buff the singing Buffalo head from the Country Bear Jamboree. Ravenscroft is most famous for voicing Tony the Tiger in old commercials for Frosted Flakes cereal and for singing “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” in the popular Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas television special.
Several intoxicated pirates dance to the music, completely oblivious to the fact that the entire town behind them is engulfed in flames. Two pirates in particular lean on each other for support, as one grasps a torch...perhaps the source of the fire. This scene is one of the most visually spectacular in any Walt Disney World attraction, during which guests should keep an eye out for the following amusing sights:
A pirate is absconding with treasure stacked high in his hands. He even has several stolen hats piled on his head. This pirate’s escape is not a foregone conclusion, however, as he has one foot in a boat and one foot still on land. The pirate, the treasure he is carrying, and the escape boat all sway perilously back and forth.
One of the most hilarious characters in the entire attraction lays in the mud to the right-hand side of the waterway just before guests pass underneath a bridge. This scoundrel is heavily intoxicated and is covered in mud. This is for good reason, as the pirate sits in a pigpen surrounded by three oinking pigs, one of whom is laying on his lap.
Another drunk pirate sits atop a bridge that guests pass underneath. That pirate holds a large jug that is presumably filled with rum. Francis Xavier (“X.”) Atencio voiced the drunken mumbling and laughing of this pirate. X. Atencio wrote the scripts for both Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, as well as the lyrics for their respective theme songs, “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” and “Grim Grinning Ghosts.”
A parrot sits nearby, making fun of the “hairy-legged” pirate’s rendition of the attraction’s theme song.
Although the burning town is one of the most visually stunning scenes of any Disney attraction, Imaginers used a very simple special effects technique to create it:
[Imagineers] took sheets of Mylar, a strong polyester film commonly used in packing, insulation, and recording tape, and cut them into flame-shaped pieces, lighting them from below with red and orange gelled lights. When [Imagineers] aimed a strategically placed fan at them, the Mylar would dance in the breeze like the flickering fingers of hungry flames. Under the controlled lighting conditions of the show building, the resulting effect was almost indistinguishable from real fire.
—Jason Surrell, Pirates of the Caribbean, From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies (2005), p. 102.
Those mylar sheets were later replaced with white satin cloth, which better reflected the colored lighting and created an even more realistic appearance of live flames.
Disney Imagineer Yale Gracey is the man responsible for the burning-town effect. Gracey was known in Disney Imagineering as an effects genius. His career with Disney spanned 36 years. Gracey is best known for his work on many special effects for the Haunted Mansion, most notably use of the “Pepper’s Ghost” technique used to bring ghosts to life in the Grand Hall scene.
The Dungeon / Jail
Upon departing the burning town, guests cross into the underworld of the Caribbean town where they encounter the popular jail scene. A total of six pirates are jailed in two separate prison cells that are located on the right-hand side of the waterway. Because the entire town is now in flames, the pirates are desperate to escape. The background for this scene makes clear that those flames are getting closer and closer to the interior of the jail.
The solution to the pirates’ problem literally hangs from the mouth of a stray dog. This cute canine holds the keys (literally and figuratively) to the pirates’ freedom. The dialogue in this scene is hilarious, as the pirates try in vain to tempt the dog to come closer. A few of my favorite lines include:
“Grab his tail! Go on, grab it!”
“Oooh, steady now. Steady, steady. Here, that’s it. Take the keys off his ruddy neck.”
“Here, give us the keys, you scrawny little beast!”
“Walk him over to the noose. Come on, now! Hold it higher. Higher, I say! Higher!”
“Ugh, mangy mutt! Hit him with a soup bone!”
“Can’t you reach any further, you stub-winged bilge rat?”
Unfortunately for the pirates, the dog is amused by all of the attention, and simply nods back and forth and wags his tail. This pup has tormented the pirates in the Magic Kingdom for almost 50 years.
Treasure Room and Exit
Walt Disney World’s version of Pirates of the Caribbean has one distinct advantage over its Disneyland counterpart: a definitive ending. After passing through the jail scene, guests enter a treasure room that is filled from floor to ceiling with gold coins, jewels, and other treasures. Sitting in the middle of this scene in a large throne is none other than Captain Jack Sparrow, who celebrates while intermittently singing the Pirate’s theme song. Jack tells guests to, “Drink up, lads! There’s treasure enough for all. I shall take this paltry sum as a stipend to cover my expenses…and the chest of jewels.”
Jack holds a large golden goblet as he celebrates his victory. Observant guests will notice that the key of the “pooped pirate” seen earlier in the attraction is now inserted into the door of the treasure room. After passing Captain Jack and his spoils of plunder, the boats finally come to the exit point of the attraction.
“Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life For Me)”
Music plays a critical role in many Walt Disney World attractions. As John Hench once said, “people don’t walk out of the attraction whistling the architecture.” No song is more closely linked with the attraction in which it is played than the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song, “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life For Me).” The comical lyrics for the song, which are set forth in their entirety below, help set a light-hearted tone for an attraction that, based on the subject matter alone, caused many Imagineers a great deal of concern: “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me) helped the Imagineers turn their band of bloodthirsty brigands into more family-friendly rapscallions just out to have a little innocent fun.” [Jason Surrell, Pirates of the Caribbean, From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies (2005), p. 33.]
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot,
Drink up, me ’earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage
and don’t give a hoot,
Drink up me ’earties, yo ho.
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We extort and pilfer, we filch and sack,
Drink up, me ’earties, yo ho.
Maraud and embezzle, and even highjack,
Drink up, me ’earties, yo ho.
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We kindle and char, and inflame and ignite,
Drink up, me ’earties, yo ho.
We burn up the city, we’re really a fright,
Drink up, me ’earties, yo ho.
We’re rascals and scoundrels, villains and knaves,
Drink up, me ’earties, yo ho.
We’re devils and black sheep, we’re really bad eggs,
Drink up, me ’earties, yo ho.
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We’re beggars and blighters, ne’er-do-well cads,
Drink up, me ’earties, yo ho.
Aye, but we’re loved by our mommies and dads,
Drink up, me ’earties, yo ho.
The song was created by X. Atencio and George Bruns. Atencio wrote the lyrics for the song, Bruns set them to music.
Atencio began work as an animator with Disney in 1938 at the age of 18. He transitioned to WED Enterprises (the predecessor to Walt Disney Imagineering) in 1965 at the request of Walt Disney himself. Atencio’s very first job in that role was writing the script for Disneyland’s version of Pirates of the Caribbean. He would continue to make contributions to the Disney parks in the decades that followed, including writing the script for the Haunted Mansion and creating, along with Buddy Baker, the mansion’s theme song, “Grim Grinning Ghosts.” Atencio retired in 1984 after almost 50 years of service to Disney.
Although Atencio had an idea for what would become the unforgettable Pirates theme song, he never thought that Walt Disney would actually want him to write it:
“I had an idea for the lyrics and a kind of a little melody for a song for the ride, but I thought Walt would probably get the Sherman brothers [“It’s a Small World (After All),” “Chim Chim Cher-ee”] to do it,” X declares. “So after one meeting I said, ‘I’ve got a little idea for a song for the pirate ride, Walt.’ He said, ‘Let’s hear it.’ I half recited and half sang it and he said, ‘Hey, that’s great! Get George [Bruns] to do the music.’ That was my first attempt at writing lyrics and that’s how I became a songwriter.”
—Jason Surrell, Pirates of the Caribbean, From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies (2005), p. 32-33.
In writing “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life For Me),” Atencio drew inspiration from many of the same source materials he used to create the attraction’s script, including the classic pirate films Treasure Island (1950), Captain Blood (1935), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), and The Buccaneer (1958). He also drew inspiration from Robert Lois Stevenson’s classic 1883 novel Treasure Island. The phrase “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum” is from the “Dead Man’s Chest” song chorus in Treasure Island.
George Bruns began work with Disney in 1953. He made a number of musical contributions to Disney films including The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), The Jungle Book (1967), and The Love Bug (1968). Bruns received three academy award nominations for his work on Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Sword in the Stone (1963), and Babes in Toyland (1961). Bruns is perhaps best known as the composer of The Ballad of Davy Crockett from the ultra popular Davy Crocket television series from the 1950s.
Two other famous Disney “voices” assisted in the performance of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. Paul Frees, who also voiced the auctioneer and Old Bill in the attraction itself, contributed to the vocals of “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me).” The song was recorded by the Mellomen, a famous group of singers that included the aforementioned Thurl Ravenscroft. The Mellomen performed work on several Disney animated films, including Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Lady and the Tramp (1955).
A Pirates Politically Correct Life for Me!
Pirates of the Caribbean was never considered a “politically correct” attraction. Disney Imagineers, and even Walt Disney himself, struggled with the concept of a pirate-based attraction from the very beginning:
The [original auction] scene seemed to bear out Marc Davis’s initial, overall concern about the project: the distinct possibility that “None of this is ‘Disney.’” The Imagineers were convinced that guests might perceive them essentially to be celebrating violent criminals dedicated to the pursuit of wine, women and song. “The thing we had to do was get across the fact there here are some pretty raunchy old pirates chasing these ladies around, and we couldn’t come out and blatantly say that they were doing bad things to these ladies,” X [Atencio] related in an episode of Disney Family Album. “They were having fun; they were just a bunch of fun-loving pirates.”
—Jason Surrell, Pirates of the Caribbean, From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies (2005), p. 32.
Disney used a combination of the above referenced backstory, storytelling props, a carefully written script, and a light-hearted theme song in order to convey the intended “fun-loving” message. However, the public’s perception of women’s rights in particular has morphed and evolved over the course of the approximately 45 years since Pirates first opened. Because of this, the attraction has changed over time to specifically address the treatment of women:
The barrel in the “chase” scene where Captain Jack Sparrow now hides was previously occupied by a scantily clad woman. In that version of the attraction, a drunken pirate walked past the barrel holding the woman’s petticoat and asking, “Say, have you set your eyes on the bewitched maiden in your travels? Oh, a lively lassie she be.” The pirate would then express his wish to “hoist me colors on the likes of that shy little wench, I be willin’ to share I be!”
In 1997, Disney Imagineers replaced the petticoat with a treasure map. The drunken pirate’s dialogue was also changed to “this map says X marks the spot, but I be seein’ no X’s afore me.” Disney also, not surprisingly, dressed the maiden in more clothes and gave her a treasure chest. The intent was clear: Disney wanted to convey that the maiden in distress was protecting treasure, not her chastity.
This scene was completely overhauled in 2006 when Captain Jack Sparrow took the maiden’s place in the barrel and the dialogue was once again changed to make clear that the drunken pirate was indeed looking for treasure.
Another part of the “chase” scene was changed in the mid-1990s. The attraction previously depicted a series of pirates chasing several women in a circle as the women giggled. As modified, the pirates are the ones who are now chased by women with brooms and rolling pins.
These alterations reflected the changing sensitivities of the day. Disney purists, however, did not agree with these changes, including X. Atencio, who said, “The show’s called Pirates of the Caribbean, not Boy Scouts of the Caribbean.”
Perhaps the most controversial scene of the original version of Pirates of the Caribbean was the auction scene. Guests would previously sail through the town’s market and see a large banner that read “AUCTION—TAKE A WENCH FOR A BRIDE.” That’s right, instead of auctioning off clocks, art, and chickens, the auctioneer was selling…wenches. The first “wench” in the auction scene was extremely happy, and could not wait to be sold. The auctioneer asked “what be I offered for this winsome wench?” He described her as “stout-hearted and corn fed.” A wisecracking pirate would then ask, “are you selling her by the pound?” The most famous wench for sale was, of course, the “Redhead.” Clearly the crowd favorite, the drunken pirate gallery would yell: “We wants the Redhead! We wants the Redhead!”
On June 30, 2017, Disney announced that it would be changing the auction scene in its Pirates of the Caribbean attractions to move away from the wench auction. As you can imagine, many die-hard Disney purists were both sad and angered by this decision because the auction scene is one of the most well-known scenes in any Disney World attraction, and one that has been in place since the o
riginal Pirates of the Caribbean opened in Disneyland in 1967. Suzi Brown, a spokeswoman for the Disneyland Resort, explained, “We believe the time is right to turn the page to a new story in this scene consistent with the humorous, adventurous spirit of the attraction.” The Pirates attraction in the Magic Kingdom closed for refurbishment in February 2018, and re-opened with the revised auction scene discussed above on March 19, 2018. Fans of the original iteration can now only complain that “we wants the original redhead!”
More Magical Secrets of Pirates of the Caribbean
The attraction’s sole drop, a 14-foot high, 52-foot long plunge following the Hurricane Lagoon scene, actually takes guests below the Walt Disney World railroad tracks and into a separate show building on the other side of those tracks. That’s right, the main part of the attraction takes place in a massive show building on the outside of the Walt Disney World Railroad tracks.
A fantastic hidden tribute to Imagineer Marc Davis can be found in the Treasure Room scene in the attraction’s finale. If guests look on the wall above the treasure room, they will see a coat of arms that reads “Marci Daviso.”
The audio-animatronic characters in Pirates were created by a Disney subsidiary known as MAPO, the Manufacturing and Production Organization. The name was also a tribute to the 1964 Disney classic film Mary Poppins, because the profits from that film were used to initially fund the organization.
Blaine Gibson was the man principally responsible for brining Marc Davis’ brilliant artistic renderings to life via audio-animatronics. Gibson spent approximately 45 years with Disney before retiring in 1983. Gibson began in Disney animation and worked on such animated classics as Bambi (1942), Peter Pan (1953), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). Gibson’s duties transitioned to work on Disneyland in 1954, where be began to grow his sculpting abilities. Gibson’s resume includes creating the beloved Partners statue, a life-size bronze statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse standing hand-in-hand in in the central hub of the Magic Kingdom. He later crated the Sharing the Magic statue, a life-size bronze statue of Walt’s brother Roy O. Disney and Minnie Mouse that sits in Main Street, U.SA.’s Town Square. Gibson also sculpted the presidents in Hall of Presidents, the bears in Country Bear Jamboree, and numerous figures in the Haunted Mansion. He died in 2015 at the age of 97.
Adventureland, Tomorrowland, and Fantasyland Page 6