I second that. I think that attractions are going to have more movie characters in them. People can connect with the attraction better if they feature characters they are familar with in my opinion.
Just my personal opinion here, but anyone who can't "connect" with an attraction or its characters because they're not featured in a movie or TV show lacks imagination and an ability to accept something new. I can point out many examples from Disneyland and Disney World of characters exclusive to them that have had a tremendous impact on me - for example, Figment (even if the last two incarnations have been, shall we say, unimaginative), Buzzy, the Country Bears (okay, they did have a terrible movie, but fortunately no change was made to the attraction at Disney World), Timekeeper, Nine-Eye, Jose and the rest of the Tiki Birds. They didn't have to be plastered onto a lunchbox or pushed in my face everywhere I went. I love the idea of going on an attraction where the story hasn't already been laid out for me. Yes, I love Peter Pan's Flight, too, but I find I much prefer the ORIGINAL ideas and characters.
I liked Jack Sparrow in the first movie, but there was NO reason to change the attraction to be about him. And that's what they did. Almost everything is about finding Jack and getting Jack and Jack doing his schtick. The original attraction was ambiguous. You didn't know who these pirates were. You didn't know all of the events that led to this. You were allowed to use your own imagination to fill in the details, and that, for me, was perfect. Many of the current Imagineers - or whoever it is coming up with these boneheaded decisions to make these changes - seem to think we're all a bunch of idiots that need to be constantly told what's going on and what we should buy. Look at the recent changes:
1. The aforementioned Pirates is now a big marketing gimmick and a huge Jack-love fest (they should have called it "Just Jack" and gotten it over with)
2. The Tiki Room was halved in length (a frightenly frequent trend now. Anything over 5 minutes will scare off the MTV generation), populated with two birds from Disney movies, and filled with insults toward the original show.
3. In The Haunted Mansion they've decided to show you that Constance is now quite definitely an axe-murderer instead of leaving her story vague and therefore up to your own obviously stunted imagination.
4. Speaking of stunted imagination, they halved Journey Into Imagination and removed all the imagination. Now you're spoon-fed lame fun house tricks, smells, and sounds and Figment sounds like a petulant child.
5. In Disneyland's Small World they've changed the focus from peace and brotherhood to a muddled message spot-the-Disney-character farce. No doubt these characters are or soon will be for sale in the gift shop at the exit. I haven't bothered to look.
6. The Seas with Nemo and Friends features a ride that has zero educational value. In any other park, that would be fine, but education is in EPCOT's original dedication. Entertainment is, too, but the tiny bit of education you can easily skip after the ride is too little, too late. I'd be okay with this if the attraction were modified to impart just a little information about the Seas.
There's more, but this is long enough already. Look, an attraction created just for Jack Sparrow - perhaps in the Studios so it wouldn't compete with Pirates of the Caribbean - would be great. I just don't think it was necessary to destroy (and I know some will disagree with me on that) an attraction just to push a movie or character from a movie. If they want to "improve" Pirates at Disney World, then they should redo the beginning and end to be more like Disneyland's.
