Disney is Back!

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2003)

I'm going to keep this short and sweet.
I went into Pirates of the Carribean as a longtime fan of the ride, having been to disney world about 17 times all throughout my life. Many fond memories of the classic ride.
I used to love Disney, before they stopped making quality musicals like the Little Mermaid and focused their attention on ruining their theme parks with stupid deletions/changes of rides, ludicrous closing times (6 pm!?), over emphasis on being 100% P.C. and not p***ing anyone off (rather than putting out quality material), and of course exploiting every single movie they ever made with a cheesy ham handed sub par "sequel" (SNL went as far as mocking them with a bit called "Bambi 2000". You figure it out.)
Overall, I hate Disney's movies. Anyone see "Snowdogs"? Didn't think so. I went into "Pirates of the Carribean" thinking it was going to be another dumb "strictly-for-little-kids" fart-joke fest, with poor dialouge, a trite plot, crappy acting and general badness.
I'm also a film major, and I know my stuff when it comes to movies.
You could say I was probably the toughest audience member they could have had. ....and I was completely and utterly blown away. Blown. Away.
Disney, somehow, released something that was devoid of all fart jokes, with no lame jokes or bad acting, or exploitation, something that wasn't watered down or cut or anything. In fact, it was completely AWESOME.
They've managed to create a film that has all the wonderful fun, adventurous spirit of the old disney movies that everyone loved as a kid. It's as though Walt himself was watching over this project in some way. All the emotions I experienced riding the ride as a kid came back to me...the forboding & sense of death lurking about, adventure, danger, and even humor...yes, that's right - they managed to NOT screw up the jokes at all - with a sense of flair and style that you could only expect from disney. Depp gives a smashing performance, his best since Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and the rest of the cast is positively top notch. The plot is creative enough to leave you guessing, but it still fits within the confines of a classic Romantic Narrative...and it was such a blast to watch.
That was the most important thing - I'm 20, and I was sitting in a theatre watching a new disney movie.....and I was ENJOYING every MINUTE of it.
GO SEE THIS. NOW.