Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

I wanted to see this movie from the first time I saw a preview, but I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do. After all, I don’t own any other Disney DVD’s (not counting Touchstone and other subsidiary releases). But I have been excited to have Pirates as part of my collection. Though I will probably get heckled by fans of the old school, I have to say this is the best pirate movie ever!

Keep in mind we’re working with the romantic image of pirates with only the most general factual basis behind it. Not only that, but we’re also dealing with cursed pirates making this about as much of a ghost story as a swashbuckling adventure. I think that’s a large part of why I love it. If it had been strictly pirates, no supernatural living dead, I might have still liked it just fine, but I doubt I would have watched it as many times as I have.

The movie is mostly about the adventures of Jack Sparrow the pirate, Will Turner son of Jack’s shipmate, and Elizabeth Swann love interest of Will and pirate wannabe. At first their squabbles are with the British government, particularly Commodore Norrington whose lot in life is to stop all pirates, then Captain Barbossa shows up. He makes the whole naval fleet look like a Disneyland kiddy ride. His crew has gotten themselves in trouble with a curse that involves the child of Bootstrap Bill, problem is they don’t have a clue who the offspring is. They kidnap Elizabeth which brings Will on the run, but he needs Jack’s help who is willing to do so because of his own history with the cursed pirates. Norrington is after them all for differing reasons. The bad guys can’t be harmed as a result of the curse that makes them undead, but neither can they experience pleasure, not even anything as simple as enjoying a favorite food. To beat the pirates the good guys must unravel the mysteries of the curse while dodging cannonballs and sword blades.

It’s a solid story, a fairly complex plot with lots of little nuances, interesting and developing characters, and plenty of adventure. All that makes for a good movie, but the one thing it has that so many other movies lack these days is atmosphere. The foggy seas with the cursed pirate ship slipping silently away, ghostly pirates in a cave full of treasure, or Jack navigating stormy waters gives it the feel of a delightfully frightening campfire ghost story. Even though it’s dark a lot there’s also a spirit of fun. Jack’s despair at the loss of his rum supply is one of my favorite moments. “But why is the rum gone?” he asks.

I mentioned plot nuances. By that I mean several little mysteries to make the viewer wonder without spelling everything out in detail. What’s the history and fate of Bootstrap Bill? How did Jack escape a deserted island? What is Jack and Barbossa’s history together? Some aren’t answered directly, but only one I thought of wasn’t answered at all. Why does Will hate pirates with so much passion?

The acting is terrific. Keira Knightley is a lovely newcomer with promise. Lord Of The Rings has already built an appreciation for Orlando Bloom with me, and he does a fine job here, as well. All the supporting roles of the British leaders and primary pirates are well done. But the two that outshine the rest are Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Depp. Geoff is great because he plays Barbossa as more than a villain. He’s a tortured soul trying to end his misery. There’s a certain amount of sympathy to be had for him, his greatest desire at this point is to be able to enjoy eating an apple. Johnny plays Jack in such an unusual way that I wasn’t sure what to make of him at first. It makes perfect sense to recognize that he’s playing the pirate like a rock star. His mannerisms are extremely quirky even goofy, but he’s effective and sure of himself as a pirate. I enjoy the uniqueness of the character and attribute to it my fondness for the film to a large degree.

If you want swashbuckling adventure on the high seas you can’t go wrong. It makes for a good family movie since both parents and teens can enjoy it.

Content:
There’s little that’s questionable. I think there were only a couple of bad words. There is no sex, nudity, or anything like that. There is some violence but none of it is graphic. It’s probably too much for younger kids with the skeletons and all, but I don’t think many people would take issue with it for teens. It’s certainly no worse than Lord Of The Rings.

DVD:
I’m fairly impressed with the DVD. It has a nice design and is loaded with features. The case is plastic with a small inner tray for disc 2. There is an outer cardboard sleeve that looks nice and 2 inserts with chapters and a treasure map for the extras.

The format is 2.35 Anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 Dolby and DTS sound. The menu animation is fitting for the most part but is too long and slow between some of the menu changes. The one thing that bugs me about the menus is the selection of previews that precede it. Thankfully the menu button on the remote will skip them all, but I prefer DVD’s that go to the menu then the movie with a minimum of in between. To make up for it, pretty much everything (warnings and such) plays before the menus so at worst you can put the disc in, go make popcorn while the interface comes up, come back to start the movie, and only have to watch a single company logo before the movie.

There are loads of extras. The list on the case makes it sound like you’re getting 3 commentaries. Actually you get 4! Except 2 of those aren’t full length. Jerry Brukeimer’s is the shortest (maybe half an hour or so) while Keira Knightley and Jack Davenport’s is a little longer. The great thing about the formatting is that you don’t have to watch the whole movie for 30 minutes of commentary. The video skips ahead for you so there’s a minimum of dead air. The other commentaries - Gore and Johnny and the writers - are movie length. Keira’s is the most entertaining and Jerry’s the most interesting. Johnny’s is slow with too many incomplete ideas, and one of the writers interrupts so much that I kept wondering what the other guy had to say in the 4th one.

There are more extras on disc 1, but they aren’t anything spectacular. There’s a DVD-ROM preview (most DVD’s just have a page that says to put it in your computer while this one is more like a movie trailer and is also on disc 2), a THX Optimizer which is helpful for tweaking your entertainment system, several movie previews, and a couple of commercials. There are a few DVD-ROM extras, also. The web links are on both discs and include stuff like Disney’s birthday club, the website, support, etc. Both discs have the option to register on line. This supposedly is for the replacement of damaged DVD’s so it’s probably worth it. I signed up and so far I haven’t been bombarded with Disney e-mail.

There are 2 features specific to disc 1. One is a script scanner that plays the movie in one window while displaying the script in another. Similar to that is the storyboard viewer. It may take a few minutes to load, and the images could stand to be larger. Both are good for really getting behind the movie.

Disc 2 has most of the features as I’m sure you expected. One great thing is the large collection of deleted scenes. There are 19 ranging from completely deleted material to slightly altered scenes. Some don’t fit with the final story and are interesting from the perspective of story evolution. Some are slow while others are quite funny.

Another particularly good one is the blooper collage. It is put together like a music video and is very funny.

There is plenty of behind the scenes material. The primary making of feature is about 40 minutes and split into several chapters. A little more in depth is a 20 minute feature of setting up and practicing scenes.
The Producer’s Photo Diary is not so much a diary as Jerry talking about some pictures he took. I would like to have had these images in a gallery too, they’re well done.
The Pirate Diary is a highly unusual feature. Actor Lee Arenberg took a camera around with him during the production to film what life was like for the actors.
The Ship Diary sounds similar but is more like a Travel Channel special. It follows the ship as it sets sail and travels to the filming location. You get to see real sailors, storms, repairs, and the Panama Canal in action.

Another educational feature is the pirate ship tour. You get to go to different areas of a 3D ship and click on something to see a video. It includes life as a pirate, histories of real pirates, and other such topics. There is a video only presentation hosted by a pirate prisoner if you get tired of navigating the ship and an index of all the video clips if you don’t want to do either. A lot of thought went into the presentation of these clips. Nothing is better than fun education.

Scene Progression is neat for seeing the before and after of the scene, but I would prefer something simpler and more straight-forward.

Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color is an old TV special about the ride. It includes a good look inside the ride itself.

There are 9 galleries/slideshows. They include concept images, storyboards, costumes, and post production.

Pirate Cove Construction is a time lapse video showing the set from its earliest stages to its final appearance. It’s very neat although the camera is so far off it’s hard to make out what’s going on sometimes. To find it go to Fly on the Set menu and highlight the monkey’s tooth.

The animatic of Black Pearl Vs Interceptor is basically crude 3D renderings of the scene with no dialogue. It’s long and gets boring. Go to Below Deck and highlight the medallion skull.

There’s a Japanese trailer for the movie found on the Below Deck Scene Index Page 2 if you highlight the ring.

And finally there is a Keith Richards interview talking about Johnny’s imitation of him. I thought it would be longer, but is still fun to see. Go to Moonlight Serenade and highlight the skull’s tooth.

We’re not done yet. There’s still some DVD-ROM features to go. First is a gallery of images from the ride and its conception. The song from the ride plays in the background. I don’t know why this is a ROM feature instead of a regular one.

The History of the Ride feature is basically a look at the creation of the ride. It’s just a video clip so I don’t know why it’s on the ROM portion, either.

Tour of the Ride is fun. It’s a little confusing at first until you get used to the controls and direction you’re facing. You zoom, pan, and advance in a way that can leave you wondering where you came from and where you’re going. I had a little trouble getting mine to work right, but finally got it moving (Quicktime compatibility problems). None of the characters are animated but you do get full sound as if you were standing at the real thing. I found a hidden treasure chest that gave me a code to enter when I filled out the survey at the end of the ride. I couldn’t find the survey, though. If anyone else does, please let me know. All in all this is a neat if complicated feature. If only they had simulated the animatronic motions.

And the final feature is a photo-editing workshop. You can import your own picture, position it with the template, and decompose your flesh to look like a cursed pirate. Great for making Halloween postcards!

What else can I say? It’s a great movie with a well-done DVD. I highly recommend at least a rental, but there are enough features to make a rental period too short a time to really enjoy everything. I say it’s well worth a purchase and give it 5* and a smile.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older