Ride or Movie? Which Came First?

If you’ve been to a Disney Park or are even just a fan, you know of the Pirates of The Caribbean ride. Yet when you ask most people, they think of the movie franchise first. Everybody seems to gloss over the fact that the ride was constructed in 1967. Yes, you read that right. There’s all sorts of transfer of mediums with entertainment. You see movies as Broadway shows, TV shows as movies, musicals as movies, and so many other variations. Yet a quick Wikipedia search shows just seven rides that were turned into movies.

Now, I’ve been on the Pirates ride before (and actually got stuck on it!) and Disney even did a really cool documentary called “The Imagineering Story” on Disney+ that featured the ride and talked about how it was conceived. We all know that there are hundreds of things in every Disney thing that we don’t realize and it’s exactly the same with the ride. There’s the music in the queue, the cyclical nature of the dialogue, and many other aspects that were constructed so perfectly they can only be Disney.

So what happens when you take an already popular, established ride and make it into a movie? When other mediums do this, there’s some form of source material that’s around the same length. Maybe chop or add a few scenes but most of the time you can transfer one to the other with relative ease. At most the ride takes just over 15 minutes, not nearly enough for a feature film that ended up running 2.5 hours. Disney was lucky in that, because it had been long established, they knew what the riders liked and could transfer that to film. But that also became this movie’s crutch.

I’m inventing a new term here: Wazowski-ing. You know, the little green guy from Monster’s Inc.? And every time he sees himself in that ad it’s all pointing fingers at his obscured head. That’s what Disney did to this movie, albeit in a relatively OK way. It seemed that they sat in a room and worked out how to get from “favorite scene A” to “favorite scene B” without a ride system. Again, this isn’t a bad way to do it but there’s nothing in this movie that makes you go “wow”.

It’s been a while since I’ve watched any of the movies in this franchise and I think I’ll work on watching the rest soon. The best part about this is that there isn’t a second installment to the ride. That’s when Disney really is able to unleash their creative potential while still satisfying the audience.

Comment down below what your opinions of this movie are, and don’t forget to check out my Instagram Page (@ChrisMovieReviews), catch up on past reviews and new movie reviews on my YouTube (bit.ly/CMRYT), look at all the movies I’ve yet to review, and submit which movie you want me to review next! Stay safe and healthy out there!

A little bonus if you’ve made it this far: A family in Utah, while under quarantine, decided to recreate the ride in their home. It’s always nice to see creativity thriving even in these strange times. Enjoy! https://www.facebook.com/julie.f.thornock/videos/3382401841774818/