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Stars: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush,
Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Pryce, and Jack Davenport
Writers: Ted Elliott and Terry
Rossio
Based On A Screen Story By: Ted
Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie, and Jay Wolpert
Director: Gore Verbinski
Feature length: 143 minutes
Extras: Audio Commentary With
Director Gore Verbinski And Star Johnny Depp, Audio Commentary With Producer
Jerry Bruckheimer, And Stars Keira Knightley, And Jack Davenport, Audio
Commentary With Writers Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie, And Jay
Wolpert, “An Epic At Sea – The Making Of Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl”,
“Below Deck – An Interactive History Of Pirates”, “Fly On The Set”
Featurettes, “Diary Of A Pirate”, “Diary Of A Ship”, “Producers Photos
Gallery With Producer Jerry Bruckheimer”, “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World
Of Color”, “Moonlight Serenade” Scene Progression, Image Galleries, Sneak
Peak Trailers And Advertisements,
DVD-ROM
Extras: “Moonlight Becomes Ye” Effects Studio, “Disneyland Pirates Virtual
Reality Viewer,” “Dead Men Tell No Tales – History Of The Attraction”,
Script Scanner, Storyboard Viewer
Languages: English DTS Digital 5.1
Theatrical Surround Sound, And English And French Language Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround Sound
Subtitles: English Captions and
Closed Caption and French Language Subtitles
Packaging: Single Size Two-Disc
Keep Case
Chapter Stops: 16
Sound: DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical
Surround Sound And Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year of Theatrical Release: 2003/DVD
Release: 2003
Theatrical Distributor: Walt
Disney Pictures
Home Video Distributor: Walt
Disney Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
Walt Disney’s “Pirates Of The
Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl” was the surprise hit of the summer. I
would have never thought a movie inspired by a Disneyland attraction would ever
be as entertaining as this and the next best thing to seeing it on a big screen
is to view Walt Disney Home Entertainment’s new 2-Disc Collector’s Edition
DVD set release. Johnny Depp makes the film with his portrayal of Pirate Captain
Jack Sparrow and the other lead Actors that include Orlando Bloom (The Lord Of
The Rings), Geoffrey Rush (Shine), Jonathan Pryce (Brazil), Keira Knightley
(Bend It Like Beckham), and Jack Davenport (Coupling: The Original BBC TV
Series) are all simply excellent. However there are also plenty of Character
Actors who lend the film a sense of depth, humor, and dare I type pathos? I mean
there was a part of me that sort of felt bad for the pirates toward the end of
the film. Can you imagine living under a curse as some ghostly being only to
have it lifted and then be essentially taken prisoner or killed right away? Odds
are those pirates got hung when they were taken back to port.
Walt Disney Home Entertainment’s
presents “Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl” in a
beautiful THX certified anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio with a
choice between an aggressive English DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround
Soundtrack or a very discrete and well mixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Soundtrack. A French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack along with
English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and French
Language Subtitles are encoded on to the DVD as options too. The THX Optimizer®
program is also provided for proper home theater picture and sound calibration.
There are also three separate
feature length audio commentary tracks. One is with Director Gore Verbinski and
Star Johnny Depp, another is with Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and Stars Keira
Knightley, and Jack Davenport, and another is with Writers Ted Elliott, Terry
Rossio, Stuart Beattie, and Jay Wolpert. All three are quite entertaining in
their own way. The track with Verbinski and Depp sounds somewhat subdued, but
not because of a lack of enthusiasm. Their voices just seem somewhat low and a
bit gruff at times.
Bonus trailers and advertisements
for “Hidago” (2:39), “The Lion King 1 ½” (1:04), “Freaky Friday”
(1:20), “Spy Kids 3D: Game Over” (2:07), “Disney Cruiseline” (: 33),
“Walt Disney World’s Mission Space” (: 33), and the ABC TV series
“Alias” (: 33) are al presented in 5.1 Sound and wrap up the set-top DVD-Video
features on disc one.
The second disc is packed with
featurettes and documentaries that begins with the eight part behind-the-scenes
documentary “An Epic At Sea: The Making Of Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse
Of The Black Pearl.” This documentary can be viewed in individual parts that
cover the actors, locations, production design, ships, costumes and make-up,
stunts and swords, visual effects, and the theatrical premiere. Most of the
extra features like this documentary can also be viewed as a whole with “An
Epic At Sea: The Making Of Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black
Pearl.” having a total running time of 37 minutes and 55 seconds. Some of the
segments are more EPK in nature, but others like the visual effects portion with
ILM’s John Knoll were quite interesting.
Next are 19 deleted and extended
scenes presented in varying letterboxed aspect ratios that can also be viewed as
whole too (19:14). They are detailed as “Meet Will Turner,” “Carriage
Ride,” “A Change In The Wind,” “Only One Shot,” “Peep Show,”
“All Is Well,” “Make It Last,” “A Bit Of A Stick,” “It’s
Begun,” “The French,” “Not All That Big,” “No Truth At All”,
Accepting The Proposal,” “Peas In A Pod,” “Take A Walk,” “Let Them
Eat Cake,” “The Immortal Captain Jack,” “Good Luck,” and “ Happy
Endings.” There are also five raw behind-the-scenes “Fly On The Set”
featurettes (20:49) focusing on the “Town Attack,” “Tortuga,”
“Blacksmith Shop,” “The Cave,” and “Jack’s Hanging” sequences.
Three different personal diaries
from behind the scenes of the film are also provided featuring Producer Jerry
Bruckheimer (4:18), Character Actor Lee Arenberg AKA “Pintell” in the film
(9:40), and look at the Lady Washington (11:03), the real-life ship that
became the ‘H.M.S. Interceptor’ for the movie. An examination of how
a scene goes from concept to completion is presented in the “Moonlight
Serenade” Scene Progression (6:34) and there are six slide show still
galleries covering historical references, conceptual art, storyboards, costume
design, production, and various one-sheets created to promote the film. A
blooper reel (3:12) and a vintage look at the development of the “Pirates Of
The Caribbean” theme park ride and section at Disneyland, which aired as a
part of “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World Of Color” TV show in January of
1968, is also included among the extra value features (18:19).
My favorite extra feature was the
“Below Deck: An Interactive History Of Pirates,” which is comprised of a
virtual tour of a pirate ship complete with crew voiceovers and a documentary as
well as extra segments covering the historical facts and myths that surround
their legends with Maritime Historian David Cordingly (22:08). Much of the
information in this segment is quite fascinating.
Windows based DVD-ROM users will
also have access to additional content that includes a script to screen scanner,
storyboard viewer, concept art for the Disneyland attraction, a 360 degree view
of the theme park attraction as well as opportunities to place one’s own image
and turn it into one of the ghostly characters from the film. This feature is
somewhat similar to the “Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Extreme Edition”
morphing feature found on the two-disc set released earlier this year from
Artisan Home Entertainment that allowed one to place their image over that of an
T-800/T-8-50 series endoskeleton and become a battle scarred Terminator.
The menus are all well rendered
and very easy to navigate. “Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black
Pearl: 2-Disc Collector’s Edition” is probably one of the best DVD releases
of the year and it is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline
from Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
© Copyright 2003 By Mark A.
Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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