E-Ticket: Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean E-Ticket
A few weeks ago I released a post called “E-Ticket: Disneyland’s Ghost House”, and it detailed the history and making of the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland California. The information I gather about it is from the incredible E-Ticket magazines that are sold at the Walt Disney Family Museum. I bought maybe too many of them, but I have a lot to share. This week, here’s a swashbuckling story about the making of Pirates of the Caribbean.
The Designer
Walt was fond of imagineer Marc Davis. Marc had worked on projects before with Walt, with his primary job being to sketch out ideas for attractions. Marc loved sketching out ideas that came to mind to make sure they were documented somewhere. In the early 1960s, Walt approached him and said:
“Marc, I’d like to do some kind of pirate attraction in the park.”
The original idea that Marc thought that Walt was trying to achieve was a walk-through that took place underneath New Orleans Square. It looked a little something like this:
Wax Museum Pirate Walkthrough by Marc Davis
Marc began researching pirates and sketching out what they should look like and some of the scenes they may be in. One of the original sketches is the pirate laying in bed with the magnifying glass that we see today. He researched the history of real life pirates and wanted to incorporate them into the attraction.
Sketch by Marc Davis
Image from: https://pirates.fandom.com/wiki/Pirate_Captain_(skeleton)
Despite doing all of this work to make this vision come to life, him and Walt ended up going a completely different route. Walt scrapped the walkthrough idea because he really wanted a pirate themed ride and felt like it should be grander, and Marc wanted to add humorous elements into it just like he did with the Haunted Mansion. Marc started to work with Claude Coats and Yale Gracey to work on a whole new layout and storyline. This is when the attraction we see today started to come together. Claude was responsible for the chasing scenes, Yale was in charge of the fire scenes, and Marc designed all of the characters and backgrounds to bring it all together.
Developing the Idea
Walt, Marc, and other guys working on the ride did a walkthrough where the boats would be when the building was finally up and running. Every detail wasn’t there yet, but the backgrounds and general settings were there. The auctioneer pirate was one of the first animatronics in the attraction, and they tried to emulate what they did with Lincoln. Walt was happy with all of these ideas and designs, and trusted them that they would make his vision come to life. Unfortunately, Walt was only involved until this point, as he passed away shortly after reviewing all of the designs. The rest of the ride was in the hands of the designers.
Marc and Alice Davis posing with the auctioneer pirate at the Pirates of the Caribbean’s 25th anniversary.
Opening Day Success
Marc Davis ended up designing many of the 64 pirates that are featured in the ride. Blaine Gibson worked on bringing these designs to life, along with Roger Broggie, Fred Joerger, and Wathel Rogers who worked on the programming of the animatronics. X. Antencio contributed his voice to the attraction, as he is the infamous voice behind the rides slogan, “dead men tell no tales”. The attraction opened in Disneyland on March 18th, 1967. It was a big success, largely because it mimicked the other dark ride attractions of bringing you into a whole different world. Once you enter inside the building in the queue, the daylight starts to get shut out, the smells of the water are pushed toward you, and the noises of pirates and boats begin. Your experience from the outside of the ride to the inside completely changes, and you wouldn’t be able to tell whether it was day or night outside once you’re in a boat. Pirates were also a popular theme for attractions because it was fit for everybody, there’s always something new to see on the ride.
Image from the Pirates of the Caribbean E-Ticket
Image from the Pirates of the Caribbean E-Ticket
Things That Were Added Along The Way
Some of the imagineers who had been developing the ride were worried about its content, even though after doing the research on pirates, they knew the reality of some of the things they did. Disney was okay with including some of these things in, including the auctioning scene, because it was correct with the time period they were trying to convey. Despite this decision made, in 2018 Disney parks changed the auction of the bride scene to an auction of the loot scene, with the new and improved lady pirate “Redd” hosting it.
Image from: https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/30/auction-scene-in-disneylands-pirates-of-the-caribbean-to-no-longer-auction-brides/
Image from: https://insidethemagic.net/2018/03/video-pirates-caribbean-reopens-walt-disney-world-new-redhead-scene/
To further develop the themes of the ride, the scene with the horse and goat were added into the chase scene to show more of the gluttony of pirates.
Image from: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/03/caption-this-the-hungry-pirate-at-disneyland-park/
In 2003, the first film based off the attraction was made, appropriately titled “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”. It was so successful that only 3 years later they released the sequel titled “Dead Man’s Chest”. After the release of this film in 2006, Disney added animatronic Jack Sparrow’s into the ride, to marry the film and the attraction together, since the attraction didn’t have much of a storyline to begin with.
In 2011, Disney added a projected image of blackbeard onto a waterfall that transitions you into the grotto scene. This was to further push the idea that the film and ride are one.
Image from: https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/20/inside-the-legendary-pirates-of-the-caribbean-ride-50-years-later/
Image from: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/05/blackbeard-comes-aboard-at-disneyland-park-and-magic-kingdom-park-may-20-2/
Captain Jack Sparrow?
On April 26th, 2017, Johnny Depp brought myths to real life when he replaced his animatronic in the ride and stood in the attraction to play himself. He stumbled around the scene just like his character Jack Sparrow and interacted with the riders who were floating by. Later on in the evening after surprising guests throughout the ride, he made an appearance on the balcony of the Disney dream suite located above Pirates. A large group of people stood waiting outside for his arrival.
Image from: https://gfycat.com/obedientvigilantblackandtancoonhound
Pirates of the Caribbean is my favorite attraction of all time, simply because of the immersive experience and iconic song. I could go to any Disney park in the world and that is always one of my first stops. Yo ho yo ho, a pirate at heart for life!
Information from: The “E” Ticket Issue #32 Pirates of the Caribbean, Marc Davis… a pirates sketchbook by Jack E. Janzen and Leon J. Janzen (1999). Janzen, Jack E, and Leon J Janzen. The "E" Ticket Pirates of the Caribbean. Vol. 32, 1999.
