With the advent of the sequel to "Pirates: Curse of the Black Pearl" recently - and all of the attending hype of a Disneyland celebrity-studded, red-carpet premiere, plus all of the merchandising hoopla- the question among Disney "purists" (such as myself, I'll freely admit) is whether or not the classic "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction has been substantially tampered with to the point that the Captain Barbossa and Jack Sparrow characters which were added detract from the original attraction. Without giving too much away, I'm happy to report that not only are the "enhancements" to the attraction non-threatening to a purist, but I'll stick my neck out here and daresay that Walt himself would have been proud.

The three Sparrow/Depp appearances are subtle and funny (the first with him slyly hiding behind a dressmaker's dummy, so that from the first view of him, he appears to be WEARING the dress! Quite a nice touch). The famous "gluttony" scene which caused so much controversy in the lame '97 "politically correct" version of the attraction has been restored to a "chase scene" the way the original Imagineers intended it; although now, instead of food, the men are chasing treasure, not women, and the women are chasing THEM to get their jewelry back.

The appearance of Davy Jones (the mythological squid-faced creature from the fathoms who pulls sailors down to his "locker," for eternal sleep) is purely "E-Ticket" all the way. It is astonishing and, as with those of us who are old enough to remember our first rides on "Pirates" in the late '60's, Davy's appearance is one of those "WOW!-How-DID-They-Do-That?" moments. It is an amazing special effect.

Captain Jack Sparrow's final appearance (located where the two former pirates were huffing and puffing and grunting their way UP the waterfall with their gigantic sack of loot), is not only voiced by Mr. Depp himself, but is uncannily (almost creepily) realistic. It is so real, you will not be able to trust your eyes.

I have a mere two complaints, which are not complaints as much as they are two things I miss. One, the voice- over narration in the cave ("No fear says ye of evil curses says you...haunnnhhh," and "Perhaps he knows too much; he's seen the cursed treasure...") is deleted, and the old Blackbeard Captain on board "The Wicked Wench," who has howled: "Strike yer colors, ya lily-livered lubbers" and "Ye bloomin'cockroaches...fire at will!" for thirty-nine years while directing the shelling of the fort, has been replaced by an Audio-Animatronics figure of Geoffrey Rush's Barbossa character from Movie #1. He still says roughly the same dialogue as did the old Blackbeard, and Rush uttered the immortal lines in the movie, but it's just jarring not to see such a famous Disney icon where he SHOULD be. As an ATTRACTION character, he's as much of an icon as "Big Al" in "Country Bear Jamboree" used to be, without having been in a Disney film. As I said, I'm probably in the minority on this and being a little picky and opinionated over the things I miss about my old friend, "Pirates." It has been rumored, too, that for next May's premiere of Movie #3 in the trilogy there will be Kiera Knightly AND Orlando Bloom figures added, as well. So, we'll have to wait and see. It is interesting to note that the Sailing Ship Columbia now has pirates who commandeer the boat, and for the world premiere of the recent film, the entire ship was painted black and rigged with black, tattered sails making it look like "The Black Pearl" from movie #1 or the legendary cursed/lost ship, "The Flying Dutchman," from film #2. All of this was done by the Disney-Magic wizards literally overnight!

With the dozens of other subtle improvements inside of POTC, (greatly enhanced audio, neat lightning effects, more actual movie props added to the skeleton-atop-the-gold-pile scene--since our Anaheim version of POTC is the flagship version, we got the actual props. All other parks will eventually get duplicates-- and the hilarious addition of a skeleton "Pirate/Parrot" in the "Captain's Quarters" scene which had me howling with laughter... he's a skeleton, even in a miniature pirate's get-up) and an entire exhibition of set/costume designs from the films in the Disney Gallery above POTC, (much like the exhibit which was there after the premiere of the Eddie Murphy HAUNTED MANSION film a few years back), the Disney Purist may rest assured that you can relax and ENJOY the "New-And-Improved" attraction when you see it.

--A former Disneyland Cast Member and Disney aficianado, Jack Richardson is a collector of Disneyana, a member of the Extinct Attractions Club and the Disneyland Resort Alumni Club who is a contributor to this Site.