News and observations from the past month

[Cletus]

Yes, there are some dust problems on the film, but it is still a grade-A experience and anyone that says otherwise is just looking to complain.

No, it's simply not "all that". It's a glorified production of the Cinema 180 Chevy Show that I saw back in the 70's at my local Six Flags. Yes, it tilts and smells of oranges, cutting edge it is not and has never been. I'm not complaining, just stating the facts as *I* see them.

The attraction served as a first step in the evolution toward the modern day IMAX theater and the precursor to motion simulator rides. Next to the small, white air-conditioned building housing the presentation, the automobile company displayed its latest models underneath a canopy. It presented a twenty-minute film projected onto a 180-degree curved screen looming above several rows of wood benches. The film featured first-person footage of a ride on a roller coaster, a trip down a ski slope, a flight through a canyon, a ride down a raging river, a frantic drive along a mountain road, and a mad dash through city streets.

Just sayin'....

 

[mergatroid]

In the last three weeks we've been we've not seen the mist and projection on Pirates once, I'm assuming they've just scrapped that effect now? Also didn't see the mermaid effect, well nothing like the one I've seen on youtube so I'm assuming that has gone too?

 

[JenniferS]

In the last three weeks we've been we've not seen the mist and projection on Pirates once, I'm assuming they've just scrapped that effect now? Also didn't see the mermaid effect, well nothing like the one I've seen on youtube so I'm assuming that has gone too?

We were there 09/23 - 10/02, and rode PoC 7x. The mist screen was not working even once. The mermaid effect was very subtle; easily missed if you didn't know what you were looking for.

 

[mergatroid]

We were there 09/23 - 10/02, and rode PoC 7x. The mist screen was not working even once. The mermaid effect was very subtle; easily missed if you didn't know what you were looking for.

Sadly looks like the mist screen has gone then. As for the mermaids, I knew where to look but couldn't see much at all. A bit of a 'bubbling' effect and a very faint glow, so faint it may as well not have been there.

 

[JenniferS]

Sadly looks like the mist screen has gone then. As for the mermaids, I knew where to look but couldn't see much at all. A bit of a 'bubbling' effect and a very faint glow, so faint it may as well not have been there.

A bit of a bubbling effect and a very faint glow - yep, that's it.
Very subtle.

This is one of those "Disney can't win"s. People beaked like crazy when it was announced that the mermaids were coming, and then many of those same folks complained that it was too subtle.

I am sad about the mist screen. I preferred Davy Jones over Blackbeard, just because he was much scarier. I am fine with or without the mermaid effect, but quite like hearing the song. I also didn't think it was a sacrilege to add Jack Sparrow.

Question - From my very earliest recollection, I thought the men chased the women around (in the post-auction scene). Was it changed (to be more humorous or PC) or am I totally out to lunch?

 

[mergatroid]

Question - From my very earliest recollection, I thought the men chased the women around (in the post-auction scene). Was it changed (to be more humorous or PC) or am I totally out to lunch?

No you're correct. It did used to be that way until some group got upset by it and made noises, so Disney changed it.

 

[Bairstow]

No you're correct. It did used to be that way until some group got upset by it and made noises, so Disney changed it.

The original gag was that the first couple pirates were chasing "attractive" women, and the third was being chased himself by an older, larger woman.

The gag has been modified several times, originally by having the pirates still chase the women, who were now carrying food, and finally to having all the women chase the pirates who are carrying food and things they have stolen. The changes were uneven between the various parks, and I've read that somewhere at one point the pirates were chasing the women who seemed to be carrying treasure.

Here's someone who was, and still is, offended: http://thesocietypages.org/socimage...disney-ride-still-makes-light-of-sex-slavery/

 

[luv]

I am of the female persuasion and preferred the "sex slavery"...it was funny. The pirates are supposed to be ne'er-do-well cads and really bad eggs who could only be loved by their mommies and dads. They might as well change the song to, "We're sensitive men and we never do bad and we're tolerated by all mommies and dads."

I liked the mist screen and thought it added to the ride. Didn't really care for the mermaids, but didn't really care THAT much.

Could have lived with one Johnny Depp, but think more than one is excessive. His animatronics are very well done, though.

 

[JenniferS]

Thank you @Bairstow and @mergatroid.
I read thesocietypages link, and just had to shake my head. Many of the points were valid, and human sexual slavery is an abomination, but it's a ride for Pete's sake. Get over yourself. The ride depicts, in a humorous palatable form, the savagery that was the Pirate's life. Rape, murder, drunkenness, disease and early death were the norm. Do I want to see that in all its brutal realism? No, I want to see them singing, joking, being hen-pecked and sleeping with the swine.

"We wants the Red-head" is funny. Even to this middle aged, uptight prude.

 

[ford91exploder]

Thank you @Bairstow and @mergatroid.
I read thesocietypages link, and just had to shake my head. Many of the points were valid, and human sexual slavery is an abomination, but it's a ride for Pete's sake. Get over yourself. The ride depicts, in a humorous palatable form, the savagery that was the Pirate's life. Rape, murder, drunkenness, disease and early death were the norm. Do I want to see that in all its brutal realism? No, I want to see them singing, joking, being hen-pecked and sleeping with the swine.

"We wants the Red-head" is funny. Even to this middle aged, uptight prude.

Agree, I liked the old scenes better.

 

[Tom]

Thank you @Bairstow and @mergatroid.
I read thesocietypages link, and just had to shake my head. Many of the points were valid, and human sexual slavery is an abomination, but it's a ride for Pete's sake. Get over yourself. The ride depicts, in a humorous palatable form, the savagery that was the Pirate's life. Rape, murder, drunkenness, disease and early death were the norm. Do I want to see that in all its brutal realism? No, I want to see them singing, joking, being hen-pecked and sleeping with the swine.

"We wants the Red-head" is funny. Even to this middle aged, uptight prude.

Right. It's called history for a reason...because it took place in the past....where things happened that shouldn't be dwelled upon today. It doesn't imply that they condone such activities now. The ride tells a story, while also cleaning it up a bit for a family setting. Kids don't even know what's going on, and by the time someone is old enough to know what's going on in the ride story, they should also be old enough to understand that they're just depicting what a pirate raid used to be like.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

If they ever changed the redhead scene I think I'd cry. That's my favorite.

 

[Siren]

The original gag was that the first couple pirates were chasing "attractive" women, and the third was being chased himself by an older, larger woman.

The gag has been modified several times, originally by having the pirates still chase the women, who were now carrying food, and finally to having all the women chase the pirates who are carrying food and things they have stolen. The changes were uneven between the various parks, and I've read that somewhere at one point the pirates were chasing the women who seemed to be carrying treasure.

Here's someone who was, and still is, offended: http://thesocietypages.org/socimage...disney-ride-still-makes-light-of-sex-slavery/

Thanks for posting the link to that article. It's a very well written piece and I completely agree with the author. I'm so proud of Disney for removing that awful scene.

ETA: Wow.. I totally misinterpreted the picture, I hate it. I thought the fat chick was chasing this gross pirate to beat him up.

Instead, she's meant to be old, fat, undesirable and therefore desperately chasing this creepy pirate . Really? Ugh...

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

It's kind of silly that there was such a need to censor the crap out of the ride when the movies have a ton of adult material that are arguably just as disturbing if not worse than the original ride. Even my mother (who is now over 60) has always found the scenes funny and didn't ever take it seriously, the original ride was poking fun at this behavior and was outright admitting it was a bad and leads to bad ends. This extreme PC nazi-like obsession from overly sensitive people is making the world a real obnoxious place to live in.

One also wonders why the "wench auction" still exists if the rest of the ride received such butchering. It should be considered "worse" than those chasing scenes given the nature of it. My guess is that probably the scene is just so iconic and beloved by fans that the removal of the scene would offend and off infinitely more people off than keeping the scene intact would (and they're right).

There's a lot of elements regarding Elizabeth's character in all three original Pirates movies that are...suggestive at best. Barbossa for example insisted that she dine with him in Curse of the Black Pearl, or else he would force her to strip naked in front of the rest of his crew. In the second movie there's a scene where a bunch of sailors basically over her discarded dress (while she looks on at the scene disguised as a man). There are also several attempts by Jack to get her drunk and sleep with her. And in the beginning of the third movie at Singapore, Ragetti is excited for a chance to peek up her dress to see her nude body. There's frequent references to prostitution in all four movies as well as a constant referral to such women as "salty wenches".

And the movies portray all of this in a realistic non-joking sense, not the ultra cartoonish rendition the ride shows it as. Hell, as the movies went on they actually even de-villainize a lot of the evil pirate characters, they become anti heroes or even outright good guys to a certain extent (despite not changing how they act towards women). In the ride, there is never any question that the pirates are scum and villainy with a complete lack of morals, they are also cursed after death for eternity for their actions.

 

[michmousefan]

Sadly looks like the mist screen has gone then. As for the mermaids, I knew where to look but couldn't see much at all. A bit of a 'bubbling' effect and a very faint glow, so faint it may as well not have been there.

Same thing when I rode last week. The audio seemed to be playing, but no mist... which leads me to think that they will fix it. As with most of Pirates... the mist effect is better in California, so maybe they are working on plussing it. At least we can hope... there are enough other problems like the bumping together of boats near the end of the ride... last week they were bumping waaay before the jail scene. How hard is it to get the timing right, anyway?

 

[mergatroid]

Same thing when I rode last week. The audio seemed to be playing, but no mist... which leads me to think that they will fix it. As with most of Pirates... the mist effect is better in California, so maybe they are working on plussing it. At least we can hope... there are enough other problems like the bumping together of boats near the end of the ride... last week they were bumping waaay before the jail scene. How hard is it to get the timing right, anyway?

The times we rode it there was lots of bumping towards the end too, much more than normal. The last time we rode it we were jammed behind boats to underneath the pirates dirty leg under the bridge the tailback was so long. I have read on here however that there are problems with the new boats taking on water and having to have it mopped or scooped out at times (though I didn't actually witness this myself when there), so perhaps this was causing the bumping as the boats weren't going through as quickly if this was happening?

I also think the boats just float around the attraction on a current as opposed to be controlled individually, so they can't easily be stopped and started mid-ride. So if there's a backlog of boats at exit they can stop sending more but the ones that have already started will continue till they bump one in front, or reach exit whichever comes first. I imagine they probably have an emergency case scenario procedure also where individul boats can be stopped or sections of the route be blocked, but these wouldn't be used to stop a bit of bumping near the exit. I'm sure there are many more qualified than me on here who can tell you I'm either talking nonesense or can give a better explanaton though.

 

[unkadug]

Thanks for posting the link to that article. It's a very well written piece and I completely agree with the author. I'm so proud of Disney for removing that awful scene.

ETA: Wow.. I totally misinterpreted the picture, I hate it. I thought the fat chick was chasing this gross pirate to beat him up.

Instead, she's meant to be old, fat, undesirable and therefore desperately chasing this creepy pirate . Really? Ugh...

Really? I thought you banned yourself from here?

 

[AEfx]

Thank you @Bairstow and @mergatroid.
I read thesocietypages link, and just had to shake my head. Many of the points were valid, and human sexual slavery is an abomination, but it's a ride for Pete's sake. Get over yourself. The ride depicts, in a humorous palatable form, the savagery that was the Pirate's life. Rape, murder, drunkenness, disease and early death were the norm. Do I want to see that in all its brutal realism? No, I want to see them singing, joking, being hen-pecked and sleeping with the swine.

"We wants the Red-head" is funny. Even to this middle aged, uptight prude.

Particularly since the ride is completely riddled with violence and torture, if one wants to look at it that way and try to take it seriously. To equate drunken guys running after women in a bar (and, might I add, never catching them) to modern sex slavery is simply oversensitivity to a particular issue. If one has an issue with the chasing, they should have just as much an issue with the murder/torture depicted.

It's like the whole (/eyeroll) "Woman in Refridgerator Syndrome" stuff in comics. Why are females often in peril in comics? Because comics are mostly written by heterosexual men, for a largely heterosexual male audience, and there are only so many ways for the hero to get emotionally involved enough to make a story. Their romantic partners are an obvious choice when you are talking about a hero having 100's and 100's of issues they need to constantly come up with ideas for. The same folks will at once complain that "why are all female villains attractive" and at the same time complain when they aren't ("Why is Glinda pretty and the Wicked Witch "ugly"?).

There most certainly are institutional inequalities and many issues in the world to be addressed, but people who spend their time looking at things like theme park rides and comic books as crimes against sensitivity are the true definition of "first world problems" - if that's the part you chose to pick apart and take offense to when it comes to those issues, and that's the worst thing you have to experience - then that does a disservice to all the people in the world who actually DO have to deal with REAL problems in these areas, not just be uppity and offended by rides and comics.

 

[Siren]

Really? I thought you banned yourself from here?

Yes, really. Are you "really" back for more? I can't believe it. You clearly "thought" wrong, so just don't think. I didn't know Disney hired people to read these threads, so I just wanted to express my appreciation for Disney taking a stand and doing what's right. And, I really liked the insightful article, too.

 

[willtravel]

Sadly looks like the mist screen has gone then. As for the mermaids, I knew where to look but couldn't see much at all. A bit of a 'bubbling' effect and a very faint glow, so faint it may as well not have been there.

Is there a reason why the mist was taken out?