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Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean is a multi-billion dollar Walt Disney franchise
encompassing a theme park ride, a series of films and spinoff novels as well
as numerous video games and other publications. As of August 2006, Pirates
of the Caribbean attractions can be found at four Disney theme parks and
their related films have grossed more than US$2.4 billion.
Theme park origins
Pirates of the Caribbean was envisioned in the late 1950s as a walk-through
wax museum at Disneyland that would have featured depictions of real pirates
in static scenes. Instead, Disney Imagineers utilized the technological
breakthroughs achieved in the company's four pavilions at the 1964-65
World's Fair to transform the attraction into a rollicking boat ride through
vivid environments filled with fictional Audio-Animatronic pirates sacking a
Caribbean seaport. Its theme song, "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)", sets a
light-hearted tone for what were seen as violent criminals in reality.
The last Disney theme park attraction designed with input from Walt Disney,
it opened in its original form in New Orleans Square at Disneyland on March
18, 1967. Since then, it has been replicated in different forms at three
subsequent Disney theme parks — Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort
(December 15, 1973), Tokyo Disneyland (April 15, 1983) and Disneyland Paris
(April 12, 1992).
Capcom's Adventures in the Magic Kingdom features a Pirates of the Caribbean
stage where the player must save Ria Anasagasti from the pirates.
Eidos Interactive's Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour included a
level in which players can race water boats at the Pirates of the Caribbean
attraction in Walt Disney World.
Originally entitled Sea Dogs II, Pirates of the Caribbean was released in
2003 by Bethesda Softworks to coincide with the release of Pirates of the
Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Although it had no relation to the
characters,it features the movie's storyline about cursed Aztec gold and
undead pirates, it was the first of several games to be inspired by the
attraction.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow by Bethesda Softworks,
had players assuming the role of Captain Jack Sparrow (voiced by Johnny Depp).
The game is set prior to the first movie, as players explore the stories
that made Captain Jack Sparrow a legend.
Disney later moved to develop Pirates of the Caribbean Multiplayer Mobile
for mobile phones and a massively multiplayer online role playing game
entitled Pirates of the Caribbean Online, which is currently in BETA testing
and will be released in Spring 2007.
Pirates of the Caribbean was also featured in Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts
II. The level takes place during the events of the film, with movie
characters such as Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann, Will Turner, and Captain
Barbossa making appearances. The story is modified to fit the Kingdom Hearts
II storyline.
Another video game was Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black
Pearl for Game Boy Advance (Nintendo) and a few others. This game is based
on Captain Jack Sparrow's misadventures in the pursuit of saving Ria
Anasagasti with his ship mate Will Turner.
Another video game, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, was released
for the Nintendo DS, Playstation Portable, Game Boy Advance and others.
Another videogame entitled Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was
released on May 22, and was based on the film of the same name which was
released on May 25. It was the first game in the series to be released for a
next-gen console.
Adaptations
Several additional works have been inspired by the original attraction:
* A computer game (by Akella), loosely connected to the plot of Pirates of
the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
* Port Royal, a world based on the Pirates of the Caribbean films, appears
in the Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II.
* In 2000, Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold, opened at
DisneyQuest at Florida's Walt Disney World Resort. The attraction allows up
to five players to board a virtual pirate ship and attempt to sink other
ships with water cannons.
* Ron Gilbert often has said that the Monkey Island computer game series was
inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction (and vice versa he
believes, upon seeing the new movie), although he has said that he mainly
got his inspiration from Tim Powers' book On Stranger Tides. Within both the
film and the Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge adventure game is a
key-carrying dog named Walt, whose name is a nod to Walt Disney.
* A Pirates of the Caribbean special edition of Monopoly is manufactured by
USAopoly.
* A Pirates of the Caribbean version of the board game Battleship (game) is
produced by Hasbro under the title of Battleship Command.
* Pirates of the Caribbean was the name of a team participating in the
2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race. Their boat was named the "Black Pearl." [1]
References
1. ^ Team News: Pirates of the Caribbean. Volvo Ocean Race. Retrieved on
2006-08-03.
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