PDA

View Full Version : A pirate's life for Depp - Los Angeles Times Editorial, 2/12/06



Darkbeer
02-12-2006, 05:56 AM
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...l=la-home-oped (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-disney12feb12,0,6432909.story?coll=la-home-oped)

QuikQuote: That particular tableau found its way to the big screen in the first "Pirates" movie, serving as a not-so-inside joke, one of those increasingly rare cultural references that almost everybody understands and finds inoffensive. Which is what's so appealing about the Pirates ride: its rickety, old-fashioned sense of humor, its G-rated, family friendly take on some pretty brutal subject matter — the pillaging of a colonial seaport — and its refusal to acknowledge the rapidly changing world outside its caverns. Knowing that the ride was the last to be supervised by Walt Disney adds still more texture to its anachronistic charm.
The ride will certainly continue to thrill, or at least amuse, when Johnny Depp joins the cast. But makeup and dreadlocks aside, Jack Sparrow's face is easily identified as that of a modern movie star. Among the swarthy animatronic commoners, Depp's mug will collapse the decades of history that would have reminded riders of why exactly Pirates — however hokey and out of date — was evocative enough to win stamps of approval from both Walt Disney himself and modern-day moviegoers.

disneyhound
02-12-2006, 06:47 AM
...and its refusal to acknowledge the rapidly changing world outside its caverns...Never mind the PC changes that have already altered the ride over the years.

Opus1guy
02-12-2006, 11:14 AM
Never mind the PC changes that have already altered the ride over the years.

In my opinion those change were extremely minor (almost insignificant) compared to what adding Jack, Barbarossa, and Davy will do to the storyline, simplicity, and focus of the current attraction.

As I posted in another thread on this subject...one of the things that contributed greatly to the attraction's success over the years was the fact that it was a simple, very general, voyage through various scenes where there were no central reoccurring characters or central focus. Every trip you looked in a different direction...you discovered something new. There were interesting characters and scenes going on all around you. No one character commanded overly strong central focus. I think that's added a lot to the enduring timelessness of the current attraction.

And as this author points out...having a "celeb" in the attraction will also effect the "feel" of the show.

I just hope everyone doesn't look at the new scenes and think, "Oh look. There's the new Johnny Depp robot."

3894
02-12-2006, 11:23 AM
LA Times sez "anachronistic charm".

Pirates is the Attraction-That-Time-Forgot? Get out.

I Heart Disneyland!
02-12-2006, 02:50 PM
I so much rather the movie copied things from the ride and not the other way around. If it is a wonderful change, I will be the first to admit it.