Long before the swashbucklers of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" hit the silver screen, they were pillaging and plundering thru the ever-popular Disney attraction. As one of the last attractions personally supervised by Walt Disney himself, its continued popularity forty years after its initial opening remains a testament not only to the genius of Walt Disney, but all involved in its creation.
So drink up, me hearties and enjoy these firsthand stories directly from the people who created was is hailed by many as the quintessential theme park attraction. Marc Davis started his career with Disney in 1935 as an Assistant Animator on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and went on to design and animate some of Disney's most beloved characters, including one whose popularity is perhaps second only to Mickey Mouse, and that's Tinker Bell. In later years, Marc was an idea man for Disneyland, creating various scenes on paper that would later be developed into complete three dimensional lifelike shows in attractions.
For "Pirates of the Caribbean", Marc developed various scenes for the show, however all those famous rooms of skeletons at the beginning of the ride were not part of the initial concept. At that time, "Pirates of the Caribbean" was not to be a ride at all. No boats, no water, in fact the original concept was started in the 1950s and was to be still figures, not the fully animated figures as it is today, and it wasn't going to be a ride at all, but a walk-thru attraction. When Walt decided to slightly change the ride's location, Marc had a lot of space he needed to fill in, and thus those famous scenes of the skeleton at the helm of the wheel, the skeleton in bed reading the map, and the drinking skeletons at the bar were all added.
