Disney Debuts Jaw-Dropping New ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Animatronic
I’m a Disney adult. Always have been.
I grew up on the Disney parks, and many of those classic attractions are still among my favorite experiences ever created. So whenever Disney starts tinkering with one of the all-time greats, I immediately get a little nervous.
I’ll probably never forgive them for gutting Journey Into Imagination, and I still miss several of the original dark rides that disappeared from EPCOT over the years. That said, I don’t hate every update. I actually like the new ending to Haunted Mansion, the Hatbox Ghost is a welcome addition, and even the new endless staircase effect works for me. I don’t mind Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow showing up in Pirates of the Caribbean, either. Even replacing the infamous bride auction never really bothered me.
As long as the spirit of the attraction remains intact, I’m usually willing to give Disney the benefit of the doubt.
Which brings us to Pirates of the Caribbean.
Disneyland’s iconic attraction, which originally opened on March 18, 1967, and was the last ride personally overseen by Walt Disney before his death, has quietly debuted one of its biggest technological upgrades in years.
For decades, guests floated past the treasure grotto where a motionless pirate skeleton sat atop a mountain of gold. Now, that figure has been replaced by an incredibly sophisticated Audio-Animatronic that uses projection mapping and robotics to transform from a living pirate into a skeleton and back again. When he picks up a cursed piece of gold, he instantly decays into a skeleton. The moment he lets it go, he returns to human form.
According to Disney Imagineering, the breakthrough came from a new hybrid system. “We’ve come up with this hybridized technology that combines a front projection with a partially mechanically articulated face, which together makes for these incredibly characterful faces,” Executive R&D Imagineer Joel said. “It opens up an entirely new creative toolbox to be able to tell our stories. We can now have characters cry and emote in ways they just hadn’t been able to before.”
Disney says the pirate isn’t meant to be a new addition to the attraction, but rather a new way of telling an old story.
“Our pirate isn’t a new character, he’s actually the same character we’ve seen over the last 59 years, frozen in this moment of time as a skeleton,” Joel explained. “But now, using this new technology, we’re able to tell his full story… of him picking up the cursed gold and turning into a skeleton, and dropping it and turning him back into a human.”
And yet… I can’t decide how I feel about it.
On one hand, it’s undeniably cool. The technology is incredible, and Disney Imagineering deserves credit for pulling off something that looks almost impossible.
On the other hand, I’ve been looking at that same skeleton for decades. Changing one of the most iconic images in one of the greatest theme park attractions ever built feels… strange.
It also introduces something that’s always felt a little off to me.
A lot of people associate Pirates of the Caribbean with cursed Aztec gold because of the movies, but that’s never really been what the original attraction was about. The ride wasn’t a supernatural ghost story. It was simply a pirate adventure that happened to begin by drifting through the remains of pirates who had long since died. The skeletons weren’t alive. They weren’t cursed. They were just dead, serving as a visual reminder of where greed ultimately leads.
As a kid, I remember thinking there was something supernatural going on, especially when you pass the skeletal helmsman steering the ship during the lightning storm. Watching it as an adult, you realize he’s not steering anything. He’s just another corpse being rocked by the wind.
Now Disney has folded movie mythology back into the attraction by making cursed gold part of the ride itself.
I get why they did it. It’s a fun visual effect, and most guests will probably love it. I’m just not sure the original attraction ever needed that extra layer of mythology.
Maybe I’m just getting old.
Either way, I have to admit it’s a fascinating addition, and from a technical standpoint, it’s one of the coolest things Disney Imagineering has done in years.
Take a look for yourself and let me know where you land. Is this a welcome enhancement, or should Disney leave the classics alone?
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