Disney Facts!

Facts 2611-2640: Pirates Of The Caribbean Themed Page

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me! :D

Fact #2611
One of the most memorable parts of Pirates of the Caribbean is the theme song, 'Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me).' It's as catchy as 'It's A Small World,' but far less likely to drive you crazy.
The music for this classic tune was composed by George Bruns, who co-wrote 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett' and scored numerous Disney films. The lyrics are by Francis Xavier Atencio -- better known as "X" -- who also wrote the original script for the ride as well as the script and theme song lyrics for the Haunted Mansion.

Fact #2612
Following the success of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films, the rides in Disneyland and Disney World were altered to include characters from the movies. The town is now under attack by Captain Barbossa. Jack Sparrow can be seen hiding throughout the town and at the ride's conclusion. More recently, the mermaids from the latest installment of the series -- 'On Stranger Tides' -- were added to the ride.

Fact #2613
One of the most impressive movie-related additions is what appears to be a waterfall from which the face of either Davy Jones or Blackbeard emerges warning guests of the dangers ahead. As the boat reaches the waterfall, both the face and the water vanish. All of it is actually a projection on mist. For even more about the Pirates, check out The Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki and the fansite Tell No Tales.

Fact #2614
The first shot of the movie, the shot of the ship coming out of the fog, is really five shots cut together to appear seamless. It was all shot early in the the shooting schedule, but it wasn't finished until two days before the film's release date.

Fact #2615
Keira Knightley was 17 when filming Curse of the Black Pearl. Her mother traveled with her to all of the shooting locations.

Fact #2616
Early in the film, Orlando Bloom kept trying to play his character cooler than he actually is. He wanted to play the character more like Depp's Jack Sparrow, but Verbinski had to keep reiterating to him how uncool Will Turner is. "You're still a dork," Verbinski would say to him.

Fact #2617

Verbinski explains how 15 different composers worked on the music for Curse of the Black Pearl. They were all influenced and mentored by Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt who came up with the basic themes used throughout.

Fact #2618
The casting of Sparrow's fellow prisoners and pirate extras involved bringing in bikers and out of work actors into a basement at Disney. They were first given real weapons, but this quickly changed to rubber weapons when people began getting hurt. Out of 600 people, 10 were chosen. No word on if the other 590 were killed in pre-production.

Fact #2619
The Pirates of the Caribbean ride freaked Verbinski out as a kid. He liked how the ride scared him and made him laugh at the same time, and this was a sensibility he wanted to bring to the film.

Fact #2620
The instance of Jack the monkey smiling while sitting on Geoffrey Rush's shoulder was complete luck.

Fact #2621
In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean; The Curse of the Black Pearl, The monkey, Jack is played by two capuchin monkeys. One is a 10 year old female named Tara, the other an 8 year old male named Levi.

Fact #2622
Johnny Depp reportedly improvised the line Savvy, during shooting in The Curse of the Black Pearl, and continued to use it throughout the film. Savvy is a term used as a synonym for wisdom, or understanding, but is used by Jack Sparrow, often as a question, in which context the word was thought to mean, understand? Or Get It?

Fact #2623
On Stranger Tides was filmed on five different islands.

Fact #2624
The Queen Anne's Revenge was the first historical ship to be featured in a POTC film.

Fact #2625
On Stranger Tides was the biggest film to ever record scenes at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

Fact #2626
Depp worked closely with his stunt double but did most of the chase scenes himself.

Fact #2627
During filming of the fourth film, Penelope Cruz became pregnant which became a big challenge as it continued to she more every day during production.

Fact #2628
Astrid Berges-Frisbey who plays the mermaid Syrena is a well known actress in France and made her U.S. Debut with Pirates 4.

Fact #2629
The team of mermaids in the fourth film were consisted of 7 models and 22 synchronized swimmers, some of which competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Fact #2630
On her days off, Astrid wasn't allowed to have fun in the sun because she had to maintain pale looking skin for her role.

Fact #2631
Stranger Tides was also the first in the Pirates Franchise to be filmed in Disney Digital 3D.

Fact #2632
The soot used in the fight scene between Jack & Will at the Blacksmith workshop in the first movie was actually chocolate powder.

Fact #2633
The entire attack scene on Port Royal was shot in a single take.

Fact #2634
The oars and sails on The Black Pearl pay homage to a ship belonging to Captain William Kidd. Captain Kidd was one of the most famous pirates in history, made even more famous by the possible notion that he wasn't a pirate at all.

Fact #2635
Part of Davy Jones' tentacles were real and part of them were computer generated.

Fact #2636
Jack Sparrow's character was modeled from Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

Fact #2637
In the sword fight scene between Jack and Will in Curse of The Black Pearl, the tattoo Orlando Bloom (Will) got while filming "Lord of the Rings" can be seen on his right forearm when they stop for a moment and his arm is in the air, blocking Jack's sword with his own.

Fact #2638
The final time the cannon goes off when the Black Pearl crew are ransacking the town where Will and Elizabeth live, the smoke cloud across the moon forms a Mickey Mouse silhouette.

Fact #2639
Johnny Depp wears contacts in the movie. But they are not for changing his eye colour or anything, they are actually darkly tinted to act like sunglasses so Depp wouldn't have to squint when they were filming in the sun.

Fact #2640
The game that Will Turner plays with Davy Jones with the dice is a genuine game called Liar's Dice, a gambling game where each player has to make consecutively higher bids based upon how many of each die they claim are on the table (two threes, four fives, etc), until a player is called a liar, in which case all the dice are shown and it's seen if the bid is correct.

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I hope you all enjoyed the facts as much as I did!