Disney Attraction Stories: Pirates of the Caribbean

The second installment of the attraction series♡
This time, it's about Pirates of the Caribbean!


Even though it's one of the veterans at Disneyland,
it's an attraction that exudes a majestic presence.
It has been a popular attraction at the Tokyo park
ever since it opened in 1983.

With its overwhelming sense of scale,
and the relentless terror of the pirates.
Yet, it also has that Disney-esque humor
that makes you think it's actually kind of fun.
I love Pirates of the Caribbean because, no matter how many times I ride it,
it always makes my heart race in a fresh way.

The very first Pirates of the Caribbean was
at Disneyland in Anaheim.
They renovated "Magnolia Park," which was themed after the American South,
located around the border of Frontierland and Adventureland,
and narrowed the theme down specifically
to New Orleans, Louisiana,
establishing it as "New Orleans Square"
in 1965, and it opened there two years later in 1967.
Disneyland itself opened in 1955.
Walt originally had a concept

for a pirate attraction
from the very early stages of Disneyland's development,
and he wanted to introduce it.
Influenced by novels he read in his childhood,
such as Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island,"
he himself was fond of "pirates."
At first, he planned to make it a walk-through type attraction
where you would look at wax figures of pirates,
but he felt it wasn't quite right,

so he kept it on hold for a long time.
Then came 1964.
The New York World's Fair was held,
which became a major opportunity for Disney.
For more details on the stories related to the World's Fair,

I would be happy if you read the article on It's a Small World!
To briefly review the flow,
Disney was in charge of four pavilions at that fair,
and two of them featured
an attraction where you could see
President Lincoln's Audio-Animatronics

(Audio + Animation + Electronics. Developed by Disney, these are the talking, smoothly moving figures you see in various attractions today)
and It's a Small World, which used a system
where you travel through a waterway by boat.
Combining those two
is what gave birth to Pirates of the Caribbean!
The pirate designs were by Marc Davis.
He was a legendary animator who created numerous characters
such as Cinderella and Tinker Bell,
but at the same time, he was a very humorous person

who was skilled at creating comical fun and brightness.
The somewhat fun atmosphere of Pirates of the Caribbean

is thanks to Marc's sense.
And for the spatial design,
there was Claude Coats.
He was also from an animation background,
but unlike Marc, he was a very serious, sensible person.
He was skilled at faithfully painting beautiful backgrounds.
The space he created
is exactly that: a medieval Caribbean coastal town full of realism!
A combined effort of two opposites.

This duo would later
also play an active role in the production of the Haunted Mansion.
Additionally, the pirates' costumes were handled by
designer Alice Davis, who is also Marc Davis's wife
(she also designed Princess Aurora's dress and
the costumes for the dolls in It's a Small World),
and the lyrics for the famous song "Yo-Ho"
and the pirates' dialogue were written by
a man named X Atencio, who was also from an animation background.

It was completely outside his area of expertise,
but Walt sensed his talent for storytelling
and decided to entrust it to him.

Walt was the kind of person who would sometimes
make such unreasonable demands. Haha
The reason there were many former animators among the Imagineers at this time
is the same as this;
everyone was rounded up by Walt, who was obsessed with building the park,
and they were working in a frenzy.
It sounds tough, but
it also sounds like it was a lot of fun, doesn't it!
(Maybe I can only think that because it's not my problem! Haha)
Pirates of the Caribbean was completed like this.
The result was a huge success,
becoming such a popular attraction
that it is said to have "changed the history of Disneyland."
It was so popular that
when the Florida park was built,

Imagineering decided,
"Since Florida is close to the real Caribbean Sea,
there's no need to go out of our way to build Pirates of the Caribbean,"
and even though they had planned a different attraction,
the requests from guests poured in,
leading them to change their plans!
The scene where you drop down a waterfall at the beginning is also characteristic, isn't it.
In the Anaheim park, you drop twice, but

that was originally
because there wasn't enough land in the park,
so it was designed out of necessity
to pass under the tracks of the Disneyland Railroad,
which forms the framework of the park,

to take the boats to a building outside the park grounds.
But because of that, it makes it even more fun
and enhances the sense of immersion, doesn't it!
(By the way, in the Tokyo park, that track
doesn't exist, so it's purely for show. Haha)
Pirates of the Caribbean is the last attraction
that Walt supervised before he passed away.
I don't know the details of how much he was able to see through,
but he passed away about three months before it opened.

In that sense, Pirates of the Caribbean is
a precious attraction for Disney.
It has undergone numerous updates and evolutions,
such as minor changes to match the values of the times
and re-importing elements from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies,
but while gently embracing that history,
I want it to continue to
sit majestically in the park
forever and ever,
that's the kind of attraction it is!

Thanks for reading!
If you'd like, please check this out too.

"Aunt Jemima's Pancakes"
↑ For those who have also become interested in the real American South.
But, it's an article that also talks about Disney!

"Do you like French culture? ③ : À propos de Disneyland Paris"
↑ New Orleans is a region where French culture is also deeply rooted! So, how about a story about the origins of the Paris park as well?