pirates of the caribbean - Pirates of the Caribbean was envisioned in the late 1950s as a walk-through wax museum at Disneyland that would have featured depictions of real pirates from history in static scenes. Instead, Disney Imagineers utilized the technological breakthroughs achieved in the company's four pavilions at the 1964-65 World's Fair to transform the attraction into a rollicking boat ride through vivid environments filled with fictional Audio-Animatronic pirates sacking a Caribbean seaport. Its theme song, Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me), sets a lighthearted tone for what were seen as violent criminals historically. The last Disney theme park attraction designed with input from Walt Disney, it opened in its original form in New Orleans Square at Disneyland on March 18, 1967. Since then, it has been replicated in different forms at three subsequent Disney theme parks — Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort (December 15, 1973), Tokyo Disneyland (April 15, 1983) and Disneyland Paris (April 12, 1992). [edit] Films Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean films When rumors about a possible film inspired by the attraction first surfaced in 2002, many saw the move as a simple ploy by Disney to promote one of its theme park rides. Additionally, many were concerned that pirate films such as Cutthroat Island and films based on Disney attractions such as The Country Bears had not done well at the box office. Nevertheless, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, starring Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, opened on July 9, 2003 and eventually grossed US $653 million worldwide, becoming one of the top twenty-five global box office earners of all time. In 2006, to promote the release of the second film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and to bring the attraction up-to-date, audio-animatronic likenesses of Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa were added to the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom versions, along with new special effects, though the basic ride remains the same. The triumph of the first film led to the production of two additional films with the same core cast. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opened in July 2006 and quickly broke several records, including that for the quickest $US100 million box office gross.[1] Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the final film of the trilogy, was produced concurrently with Dead Man's Chest and is set to be released in late May 2007.[2]