Anaheim, CA — Timed to celebrate the world premiere screening of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST on June 24th, Disneyland unveiled to guests and press their newly enhanced Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in New Orleans Square.   Now Captain Jack Sparrow has boarded with the wildest crew ever to sail the Spanish Main, as he joins the adventure of Yo Ho-ing buccaneers who seek cursed treasure. What follows is our FilmEdge review with photos of the ride's new and enhanced scenes, in the order encountered as your bateau sets sail from Lafitte's Landing, down through the pirate caverns and into the swashbuckling action.

Leaving the Blue Bayou's peaceful twilight behind, we drop down into the caverns via two waterfalls to find the skeletal remains of three greedy buccaneers.  Their dusty bones illustrate the pirate code: dead men tell no tales.  Imagineers have altered the musical mood of this scene, which used to be more mysterious and foreboding in its original form.  Now the arrangement is slightly more upbeat, but still appropriate to the scene — a subtle change only the die hard ride fans would notice, but they will.

The hurricane cove scene looked spectacular, though after only one ride-through I can't tell if it's actually received new enhancements beyond those upgraded storm effects installed during the ride's previous refurbishment.  Lightning effects and storm projections behind the scene look the best they ever have.

Passing the cove's stormy scene, we find two additional pirate skeletons engaged in an eternal game of chess, a recall to the same scene found in the Orlando ride's queue area.  It makes the tavern scene a little more crowded, but fits in well enough as an accompaniment to the ever-thirsty skeletons seated at the bar.

The Captain's Quarters remains largely unchanged, except for some additional set dressing of props in the alcove: a new mirror and chair on the far left, and the tiny skeleton of a parrot perched on a stand near the harpsichord at the far right of the scene.  A whimsical, minor touch added for a laugh.

The Treasure Cave's contents were actually removed and the treasure entirely recreated to include over 400,000 gold pieces and set pieces, including many props from THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL film.   These are sprinkled throughout the display to give the hoard of gold and jewels a bit more dimension and variety, but otherwise the scene remains the same as the skeletal guard stares forever into his handful of golden doubloons.

Now that you've seen the pirate's hidden treasure, you are forewarned of the curse that follows those who know its location, as the voice of Davy Jones himself echoes through the dark caverns.  Up ahead a waterfall shimmers in the black passages, when suddenly the ghostly image of Davy Jones (as seen in DEAD MAN'S CHEST) bursts through the cascading waterfall.  Unwary travelers now owe their souls to Davy Jones in exchange for knowledge of the secret pirate treasure.

With the cavern (actually the transition tunnel between show buildings) being so dark, all you can see is the waterfall ahead, and even for those familiar with the ride layout, you don't realize that your boat is headed straight into Davy Jones' waterfall!   Yet have no fear, ye won't get wet: the waterfall and Davy Jones' apparition are an excellent illusion, created by projecting the images on a falling fog curtain that spans the width of the passage. 

This effect first debuted in Adventureland's Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, back in the early 90s — but it never worked properly after the first ride previews before the attraction opened to the public.  In current operation, the temple jeeps cycle through the ride too fast to let the fog curtain settle between jeep passes, so the projections of the rats running across the vine are barely visible.  In the Indy ride previews, this effect was a static projection of a huge spider web, which was incredibly effective as your jeep drove through it because the fog curtain was steady and settled to hide how the effect was created until you were past it.

With the controlled cavern environment and the slow-moving boats through it, the fog curtain falls steadily across the passage, and the waterfall effect projected is quite believable even as you sail right through it.  If Davy Jones utters his curse while your boat nears the waterfall, he looms large overhead as you pass beneath the effect, which is a fun sensation for guests.

Having taken on the curse, we are transported back in time to the era of piracy, and enter the panoramic cannon battle scene between the Wicked Wench and the town's shoreline fortress, which hosts a bounty of ride enhancements.

Captain Barbossa now helms the Wicked Wench, firing cannons on the town and searching for Jack Sparrow

Captain Barbossa, scourge of 2003's PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL, has now taken over the helm of the Wicked Wench, deposing the Blackbeard-inspired figure who used to berate the bloomin' cockroaches from the deck.  Barbossa still engages in a furious cannon battle with the fort, but in between his crew orders, he demands to know the whereabouts of Jack Sparrow and the town's treasure.  His dialogue is roughly half re-recording of the prior Blackbeard spiel, and half new material about finding Jack and the treasure.

Meanwhile the cannonballs are creating a big splash with riders, with new impact effects in the water.  Shots now detonate a stream of water high into the air, which along with upgraded cannon fire lighting and audio effects, give the battle a much more realistic sense of danger to guests' boats weaving through the gunfire.  There may be new dialogue coming from the fortress as well, but I was focusing more on Barbossa's character than the right side, so a second (and third) trip are required to pick up all the details of this massive scene.

Imagineering set and lighting designers have also enhanced the ambient mood of this scene, with new lighting and fog levels that make the scene less placid than it once looked, and more befitting the intensified action around you.   This is perhaps the most successful enhanced scene of the entire attraction, though in reality the new Barbossa figure and audio tracks were the only major changes to it.  The remainder of changes are tweaks and upgrades to existing effects, which raise the bar for the entire scene without truly changing it.

Escaping the cannon battle, we turn the bend and enter the town to find the usual crew of scalawags dunking the Magistrate in the well — only now the hook-handed pirate interrogates him for harboring Jack Sparrow and demands the town treasure's location.  Little does he know that Jack Sparrow is hiding out of view just behind the crew, ducking in and out between dress stands at the town's clothing store, spying on his pursuers the whole time. This new animatronic figure of Jack is a good match for the Depp-inspired pirate of the film series, and Imagineers programmed in a bit of Johnny Depp's physical flair to the subtle animation.  Sparrow's leaning back behind the dress mannequin has a touch of Depp's off-kilter imbalance to it — ducking for cover with a touch of limbo arch to the back. The costume and finely shadowed skin coloring match the good facial likeness of Depp's character, albeit with little facial expression in this scene.   Then again, the body physicality and eyes are nearly all that's required to sell the figure as Jack Sparrow, since he's not intended to steal the scene, only to hide in it. Across the waterway, the Bride Auction scene remains largely unchanged, save for a recent poster addition behind the Redhead, further underscoring the concept that these pirates are bidding on wenches to be their new brides, which only echoes the original intent of the scene as conceived over 35 years ago.

Sailing under the bridge, we arrive at the Chase scene, where pirates pursue their bashful new brides around the balconies and walkways of the town.  At the water's edge, the Pooped Pirate questions passing crews if they have seen Captain Jack Sparrow in town, bragging that Jack will never steal the treasure since the Pooped Pirate now has the treasure map and the key to the vault!

Little does he realize that Jack Sparrow hides in the barrel right next to him, looking over his shoulder to read the map and find the treasure's location.  A barking dog attempts to alert the drunken braggart to Jack's presence, but Sparrow knows that once he steals the pirate's key, the treasure will soon be his! Seeing this shoulders-up figure in animated action, combined with the new set lighting, this second glimpse of Jack Sparrow proves the closest likeness to the actor and film character. Sparrow glances between the Pooped Pirate, passing boats and the noisy hound with uncanny resemblance to Johnny Depp.  Imagineers sculpted this facial expression with great success, and animated his gestures to mimic Jack's attitude well, given what little the figure can do hiding in a barrel. Within the scenes limitations, Imagineers wisely programmed in Jack Sparrow's attitude, and animated his trickster personality.  Just as the Pooped Pirate thinks he's outfoxed Sparrow, Jack once again proves himself one sly step ahead of his foes and within grasp of the town's treasure he intends to plunder before his competitors can track him down and lay claim to the gold.

We continue on to the Town Burning, as the looting pirates set fire to the village after drinking and pillaging their share of the scavenged goods.  I had read that the fire effects in the scene had received upgrades in appearance, but the flaming buildings and archways looked no different in my tour — which happily is to say the fire illusions look as good as they have since the prior ride anniversary enhancements installed.  The staggering pirates' torches do glow and flicker much better now, which is a welcome upgrade from the tired tiny fans that had silk flames limply fluttering atop the handles before.  The lighting crew may also have eliminated some of the stray light patterns and shadows that once showed on the ceiling, too, further enhancing the realism of the fiery illusions in use.

Actor Johnny Depp visits Disneyland to spend a moment with his animated alter-ego, Jack Sparrow

Ducking under the bridge occupied by the singing pirate and his parrot, we enter the depths of the town jail, where imprisoned pirates continue begging the dog for the keys to unlock their cells.  No change here, except a few added props above in the collapsed structure, which help enhance the feeling there is more to the simulated floor above than the ceiling to the show room with a tilted table hanging from it.  I noted new lighting and prop effects in some of the smoldering timbers, which further enhance the illusion of glowing embers within the fallen columns — another nice, subtle touch for aficionados of this classic attraction.

The final enhancement to an existing scene is evident in the drunken pistol play between pirates who have commandeered the town ammunition stores.  Either through soundtrack remastering or conceptual restoration of the scene (or both!), it's a welcome sight to see these fool hearty scoundrels actually firing their pistols and muskets again.  The previous refurbishment seemed to de-emphasize the piratic gunplay of the scene, as originally designed by Walt and the original crew of WED artisans, which weakened the finale's impact on guests caught in the gunplay. 

The point was never that the pirates are shooting each other; instead they are carelessly taking target practice in a vault filled with ammo and gun powder, risking both their lives and guests' with a threatening explosion of the whole weapons cache at any moment.  Apparently Imagineers have thrown another layer of political correctness aside, and returned the scene to its original intent as a daring cliffhanger escape from the treasure's curse — and a welcome restoration it is!

This leads us to the final new addition to the ride, and one that will likely prove the most controversial among die-hard purists who dislike any changes to Walt Disney's classic attractions.  Indeed, the Anaheim park's Pirates of the Caribbean is not only widely considered the gold standard of Disney attractions worldwide, but Disneyphiles also revere it as the last park project Walt personally supervised in his life, sadly passing away in late 1966 just months before the ride opened to the public.  With that double standard to live up to, purists regard any changes to this Disneyland gem with high skepticism at best, and downright dismissal at worst.

I fall somewhere in between the camps of "don't change for change-sake" and applauding Disney for reinvesting and reinventing the park's attractions, as Walt always intended to happen.   I too was quite dubious when I heard these PIRATES film-era changes were scheduled.  Nevertheless I knew they were inevitable, given the film series' immense popularity, and did my best to keep an open mind when the enhancements arrived.

That said, the only significant disappointment of these new scenes results from Jack Sparrow's finale scene: the scoundrel has once again outfoxed his rivals and captured the town's supply of gold and riches for himself, happy to share with our boats as we magically sail up the waterfall and out of harm's way.  [I'll post a picture of the scene as soon as available.]  On first viewing, this Jack Sparrow figure seemed the least successful of a match with Johnny Depp of the three added to the ride, which is a bit disappointing since it's supposed to be Jack's grand finale and triumph.  The figure is animated well, albeit in an awkward slouch as Jack kicks back in his treasure throne, but the face sculpture isn't quite as keen in duplicating Depp's expressions or appearance.  Part of this may be caused by the set lighting, or perhaps that we view Sparrow from below, which creates an angle looking up his nose as he sways and rocks — not the most conventional view to have chosen for a celebrity likeness.   I'll need a couple more ride visits to have a better look, and may amend these comments when I'm more familiar with this entirely new, added scene.

Regardless, the treasure vault has now replaced the two greedy pirates, added in the ride's anniversary reworking, who struggle to haul their treasure up and out of the powder cellar.  The point of that addition, along with the sword-pieced skeletons in the alcoves, was to reinforce the ride's theme of the cursed treasure: that pirates' greed for gold would curse them to become prisoners in this dark underworld of caverns and passages, and dead men tell no tales of where the treasure can be found. 

Thus guests' adventures into this dark world of piracy and treasure was a cautionary tale, and a fun morality lesson, against the excesses of greed and corruption.  Indeed, this was the very thematic concept which inspired producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the feature film's creative team to turn Disneyland's attraction into a hit movie, then take the treasure's curse to a literal extreme by cursing Barbossa's mutinous crew into living skeletons who forever seek accursed gold as atonement for their greedy sins.

With the subtraction of these bookend story elements, replaced with Jack Sparrow celebrating and singing "Yo Ho" inside the treasure vault, that conceptual thread of morality and supernatural curses is considerably weakened.  Granted, the treasure's curse was always a subtle thread to detect amid all the rip-roaring action of the major scenes, but that thread always raised the level of excellent storytelling one notch higher that other parks' versions of the ride.  It added depth to an already well-layered tale of pirate adventure, and I will miss it.

Despite one disappointment, overall I found the new ride enhancements and interweaving of film characters were mostly excellent and pleasing additions to Disneyland's classic pirate adventure.  Imagineers displayed their usual care in reconfiguring the show lighting and special effects, as well as completely remastering the original soundtrack elements into a digitally redesigned audio environment in the ride.  Most Disneyland fans will grow to like (or at least accept) these new elements after a few visits, and 'new' becomes less-so in time.  Certainly today's youngest generation who are growing up in Pirates world inhabited by Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa will embrace their additions to Anaheim's salty crew of seadogs, as the ride now finally incorporates the buccaneers they know best.

Pirates of the Caribbean is now open to the public in New Orleans Square at the Disneyland Resort, and its sister attraction in Orlando's Magic Kingdom park will re-open with similar enhancements on July 7th.

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