Can We Talk about Pirares of The Caribbean

As we all know, the fourth Pirates film is now out. I had known that I wanted to cover Pirates on A Look at Disney. But how?  At first I thought of doing something like my Disney/Star Wars Characters countdown but I could not find enough combos. Then I thought of doing a Top 6 Pirates characters but I realized that my number one choice would be too obvious as it would have been Jack Sparrow.  Instead I have decided to focus on the ride. 

 The ride is the one that started it all.  Pirates of the Caribbean is the last ride that Walt Disney himself oversaw before his death.  Originally it was meant to be a wax museum of pirates before it came what it is today.  It is a classic Disney ride; it may just be a simple boat ride. But it is a lot of fun!   It didn't really need any story as you were just watching scenes of Pirates.

Then in 2003, the first film of the Pirates movie franchise was released and it wasn't bad. Though I will admit that I had my reservations as the last time Disney made an attraction based film, it was awful. That one was The Country Bears and oh that one is terrible. Unlike Bears, Pirates did all right. Well enough to get a few sequels.

This is where my problem comes in. Around the time of the release of the second Pirates film, changes were made to the ride. What kind of changes? Well, here is an example.

They started putting in characters from the films. Now some of you may be wondering why this bugs me. It's hard to say but I'm almost feel like adding in the film characters takes away from the ride. I have nothing against these movies but I feel as though the ride and films should be treated as individual properties.  Also they just feel tacked on. I will admit that it was kind of cool seeing Jack in the ride that inspired his existence but I guess this where my Disney Purist side comes out. 

I just don't see the point in including these characters when the ride was a great ride even before the movies ever came out.  At the time of Disney doing this, I thought it was just going to be a one-time thing to promote the second movie but it appears as though and Jack and crew are there to stay. 

I think this would work better as a seasonal thing or just a special event for the release of the Pirates movies.  Now I have mentioned before that I do not like The Nightmare Before Christmas but Disneyland has done something with that film that I think is smart.

This special event is Haunted Mansion Holiday. In this event The Nightmare Before Christmas takes over the Haunted Mansion and all of the characters from that film appear in this ride. Unlike the Pirates changes it is seasonal. This event only lasts from late September to early January.

Once the season is over, the Haunted Mansion goes back to what it normally is. If they had found a way to do that with Pirates of The Caribbean, I beleive this would not have bugged me so much.

These changes don't stop me from going on the ride but I just feel as though the ride and the film do not mesh very well. As I said also, Jack just feels tacked on. In some regards, it feels as though they didn't know what they watned to do with Jack and just picked three random spots in the ride to place him. In the end, I just wish that Disney would have kept the ride and movies seperate from each other.

Who knows? I just don't see the point in adding the film characters where I beleive they weren't needed. What's your take? Do you agree that this was an uneeded change or do you think it adds something to the ride? Tell me in the comments.

Just one last note and this is kind of going off-topic but in case you did not see my announcement on My Profile, I have decided to cancel any plans I have for any future non-Disney Can We Talk about's. There were three written but they have all been deleted. I have chosen to end this series as  I wasn't enjoying it and also I felt that it was taking away from A Look at Disney. With my blogs, A Look at Disney has to always come first as that is the most important series I do for myself.  With me not enjoying writing those blogs, I feared that might cross over into A Look at Disney and I didn't want to write about something when I wasn't enjoying it. I apologize for making the series so short and saying that it would have a been a spin-off series but at this time, I would rather focus A Look at Disney as that is the series, I truly enjoy doing.