News Pirates of the Caribbean closing for refurbishment in February for new auction scene

[tirian]

Oh totally.

I don't think the original scene should have been changed (because the original ride is a piece of pop art) but I completely understand and to a degree sympathize with Disney's reasons for doing so.

Same here. I think the new scene lacks imagination and artistry, but human s** trafficking wasn’t a widespread concern in the 1960s. Now it is, and now that Disney has encouraged its guests to identify with the pirates instead of just observing an adventure, the classic auction scene has become awkward at best.

But really, this is the best WDI could imagine?

Also—first Trump, now the Redhead. What’s up with the AA sculptors?

 

[RobotWolf]

Also—first Trump, now the Redhead. What’s up with the AA sculptors?

I think she looks well enough like a female human. But her face does not, at all, fit in with the Gibson/Davis sculpts that give so much character to the rest of the ride. The art style is completely different. Much like the good yet similarly mismatched sculpts outside the Mansion.

 

[peter11435]

Also—first Trump, now the Redhead. What’s up with the AA sculptors?

The new redhead was not a new sculpt

 

[Bairstow]

Also—first Trump, now the Redhead. What’s up with the AA sculptors?

They're not used very often?
Trump was almost certainly sculpted to be Hillary and given some eyebrow inserts and a wig at the last minute, and the new redhead is possibly a reused cast of Maureen O'Sullivan from the Great Movie Ride.

 

[Raineman]

So, for anyone who thinks that removing a scene depicting a bride auction needed to happen because “in 2018 it is not right to show human trafficking”, what is next on your list? Cultural stereotypes and violence against animals on JC? Depictions of death and frightening imagery for children on HM? Promotion of ozone layer depleting fossil fuels in Tomorrowland Speedway? Depictions of explosives as harmless and funny on BTMRR? Where does it stop? Please enlighten me, because we have already started down the slippery slope of PC revisionist history within WDW.

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

Ah yes, social justice of the caribbean. While there were a handful of female pirates back in the day, why would any contemporary woman want to be associated with such vile "toxic masculinity"? What role model would this do for a girl? Getting drunk and stealing people's stuff is fun!

...but then again the pirates have become the "Boy Scouts of the Caribbean" since the mid 90s according the late Disney Legend, X Atencio.

If they absolutely needed to turn her into a Pirate, they could have easily kept Paul Frees' narration and the other character narration with minor elimination or tweaks.


Paul Frees/Auctioneer: "We anchor, now, ye swabbies? What be I offered for this? Stout-hearted and corn-fed? *the woman holds up the chickens*

Pirate 1: Hey! Be ya selling’ by the pound?

Paul Frees/Auctioneer: Shift yer cargo, dearie.

New dialogue from pirate: We don’t want that! We wants the redhead.

Existing dialogue of pirates in unison: We wants the redhead!

The redhead becomes visibly angry. The pirate next to her still shouts “Avast!” But instead of him firing his gun, she aims her gun and fires at the pirates, recreating the same scene where the bullet ricochets off the sign causing the donkey, goat, and chickens to get spooked.

 

[celluloid]

The fact that the scene is changed and the resulting scene that they went with to replace it that seems to lack any humor with the theme is showcasing that writing is at the source everything. Now we have a scene that is different for the sake of being overly different where unlike the old one, nothing happens to progress the story.

 

[Bairstow]

The fact that the scene is changed and the resulting scene that they went with to replace it that seems to lack any humor with the theme is showcasing that writing is at the source everything. Now we have a scene that is different for the sake of being overly different where unlike the old one, nothing happens to progress the story.

IS there a story to the ride?
I always thought one of Pirates' (and Mansion's) best qualities is that unlike more modern rides there is no real narrative story.

 

[donaldtoo]

Also—first Trump, now the Redhead. What’s up with the AA sculptors?

Blaine Gibson and all of his protégés are long gone.
Perhaps Disney should partner with Madame Tussauds...?

 

[RobotWolf]

Something that contributes to the red head's weird behavior is that, for most of her loop, she holds the rum bottle at her hip at a very odd angle. Like she's hiding it for the reveals she does during her lines.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

IS there a story to the ride?
I always thought one of Pirates' (and Mansion's) best qualities is that unlike more modern rides there is no real narrative story.

In Pirates, you first travelled through a large trove of cursed pirate treasures inside a dank and musty cave. The treasures sent you back to witness the hayday of pirates, looting, ransacking, and eventually burning Port Royal (no idea if that name is originally canon). It told it's story through actions, through experiences, but maybe in too abstract a way for audiences to pick up on.

Haunted Mansion is a tour through the various realms of such a ghostly gathering, with stories being present but not exactly exposed like modern audiences are used to. Narration helps ensure a kind of cohesion that wasn't particularly executed
in pirates's story.

 

[Thelazer]

It literally makes no sense (and not just the voice work, which is god awful.... and not even worth talking about that.)

"Ten for a hen?" is this the Jungle Cruise?

Why is it now okay for the female to call out the men, as only after the rum?
Men are not good for anything else apparently?

At the very least, why not auction off some "real treasure" gold coins, etc... not hens!

Move the lady to another scene that is lacking in dynamic, re-cast her there perhaps with a different purpose.

 

[Bairstow]

eventually burning Port Royal (no idea if that name is originally canon).

Definitely not Port Royal.
Jamaica was a British colony at the time of the golden age of piracy, so the inhabitants (and certainly the mayor and fort garrison) would have been British subjects, not Spanish, as depicted in the ride.
The town in the attraction is variously given as Puerta Dorado or Isla Tesoro.

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Well, looks like I'm going to have to start booking flights to Tokyo from now on

 

[RandySavage]

Feels like a move to throw a bone to "purists" who would've been been annoyed at the auction changes. Not really enough though... I would've rather they put the money into that exit door.

That exit door has to be temporary (as in a curtain or something is missing for maintenance) because in the video you can clearly see not just the sign and door but unthemed backstage areas . Will check another vid in a few days.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Well, looks like I'm going to have to start booking flights to Tokyo from now on

It's best to break up the flight by using Hawaii as a stepping stone. Unfortunately, pirates over there is not nearly as popular as in the states.

 

[celluloid]

IS there a story to the ride?
I always thought one of Pirates' (and Mansion's) best qualities is that unlike more modern rides there is no real narrative story.

Yes there is. Walt Disney gave a tour of it himself. Admitedly the WDW version is shoehorned so it is not as strong. But the Redhead falls victim to the treasure as the paintings and skeletons of all who you see before the waterfall caverns. Walt used going down the waterfall as a storytelling device to go back in time of the pirates and then you have a bunch of situation (cocktail party conversations) as Walt noted to others that you pick up on. An experience does not have to overtly beat you over the head with a preshow or lazy writing to feature a great story told through the experience. Those are actually the best stories in the world and why writers often use "show don't tell" when they create something.

Haunted Mansion's would be a retirement home for ghost with sight gags explaining either the fate or time periods of the ghosts and how they have fun in their..."retirement" It is like an elite retirement country club for ghosts all over the world.

 

[KBLovedDisney]

Ya know, all Redd is missing is wings...Pirate Fairy...

 

[MisterPenguin]

Ya know, all Redd is missing is wings...Pirate Fairy...

And a tiara...

 

[Lunair]

Sooo...

How long until the ride is changed again? Maybe these "pirates" become upstanding citizens who sailed by a city that had caught fire. They disembark and help rebuild the city, holding buckets of water instead of guns. And they're not drinking rum; it's LeFou's Brew. At the end, the city jails the citizens that originally set the city on fire, and the city gives the pirates an enormous pile of treasure in gratitude.

Heartwarming.