Pirates of the Caribbean

This article is about the franchise. For other, more specific uses, see Pirates of the Caribbean (disambiguation). For historical parties of the Caribbean Sea, see Piracy in the Caribbean.

File:Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean Poster.png

Poster for the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland, California

Pirates of the Caribbean is a franchise that originally began as a ride at Disney theme parks and has evolved to include a series of video games and highly successful films. As of August 2006, Pirates of the Caribbean rides can be found at four Disney theme parks and their related films have grossed more than US$1 billion worldwide.

Origins: theme park ride

Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean (theme park ride)

Pirates of the Caribbean was first envisioned in the late 1950s as a walk-though wax museum, but instead incorporated Audio-Animatronics technology that first appeared at the Disney's exhibit at the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York City. At that time, Pirates of the Caribbean had been ahead of its time, employing advances in technology that allowed the pirates and other characters to appear real and seem to interact with the riders. The attraction at the World's Fair enthralled guests, who underwent an experience where pirates would sing to the tune of Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me), while cannon blasts, burning buildings, and other special effects occur. Coming off its success at the World's Fair, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride opened at Disneyland, California on March 18, 1967, as the last theme park ride actively designed by Walt Disney. Since then, similar rides have become prominent attractions at other Disney theme parks around the world. The Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort opened an abbreviated version of the ride on December 15, 1973 at the request of visitors, despite fears from Disney that the ride's Caribbean locale would not be exotic enough in Florida's already subtropical environment. Disneyland Tokyo and Disneyland Paris both featured their own versions of the popular ride when they opened on April 15, 1983, and April 12, 1992, respectively.

Expansion

The Pirates of the Caribbean began to expand into into other media with the developed of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

Film

When rumors about a possible film based on the ride first surfaced in 2002, many saw the move as a simple ploy by Disney to promote one of its attractions. Additionally, many were concerned that other pirate films, such as Cutthroat Island, and other films based on Disney rides, including The Country Bears, in the past had not done well at the box office. Nevertheless, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl opened on July 9, 2003 and eventually grossed US$653 million worldwide, becoming one of the top twenty-five global box office earners of all time.

The triumph of the first film at the box office led to the production of two more to complete a trilogy. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opened in July 2006 and quickly broke several records, including that for the highest box office total in one day. Filming for a third movie, tentatively titled Pirates of the Caribbean 3 occurred during, but primarily just after, the filming of the second film. It is set to be released in late May 2007.

See also: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Video games

Originally entitled Sea Dogs II, Pirates of the Caribbean was released in 2003 by Bethesda Softworks to coincide with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Although this venture had no relation to the film or any of its characters, it was the first of several games to be based off the popular theme park ride. Since the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise in media outside the theme park had been established with the first film, Disney moved to develop Pirates of the Caribbean Multiplayer Mobile for mobile phones and a massively multiplayer online role playing game entitled Pirates of the Caribbean Online due for release in 2007, at the time of the third and final film's release.

Adaptations

Due to the popularity of the Pirates of the Caribbean rides and the name, several works have been derived from the attraction.

• A computer game (by Akella), loosely connected to the plot of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

• Port Royal, a world based on the Pirates of the Caribbean films, appears in the Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II.

• In 2000, Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold, opened at DisneyQuest at Florida's Walt Disney World Resort. The attraction allows up to five players to board a virtual pirate ship and attempt to sink other ships with water cannons.

• Ron Gilbert has often been quoted as saying that the Monkey Island computer game series was inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, although this has been refuted. Within Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge there is a key-carrying dog named Walt, whose name may be alluding to Walt Disney.

• Pirates of the Caribbean was also the name of a boat participating in the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race.