FILM 2204: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL (2003)

TRIVIA: Clothing and smears of charcoal were used to conceal Johnny Depp's numerous tattoos. The "Jack Sparrow" tattoo on his arm in the movie is a fake, but he got a real replica after finishing the film, in honor of his son Jack.

Johnny Depp improvised Jack Sparrow's catch phrase, "Savvy?"

Johnny Depp wore contact lenses, which served as sunglasses, so he wouldn't be squinting in the sun all the time.

According to the DVD commentaries, Geoffrey Rush has a theory that people watch the screen from left to right, just like when they read a book. Therefore, he tried to be in the left side of the screen as often as possible. He was particularly intent on doing this in the scenes with the monkey and Keira Knightley, because he didn't think anyone would look at him otherwise.

Originally, Johnny Depp wanted Jack Sparrow to have no nose and be afraid of silly things like pepper and the common cold. Disney rejected the idea.

The East India Company (the real-life counterpart of the film franchise's East India Trading Company) really did brand pirates with a "P", but it was put on their forehead instead of their arm.

Johnny Depp's character, Captain Jack, is portrayed as having gold teeth in the film. The gold teeth were Depp's idea, but he predicted that executives would want fewer gold teeth, and told his dentist to implant more gold teeth as a bargaining tool. Sparrow's final number of gold teeth in the film was what Depp had envisioned all along.

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is the tenth highest grossing franchise ever.

HIDDEN MICKEY: (at around 35 mins) The final cannon shot during the Black Pearl's siege of the town, billows into a Mickey Mouse head shape against the night sky.

The ship used as the "H.M.S. Interceptor" is an actual ship, the "Lady Washington", and is the official tall ship ambassador of the State of Washington. She can also be seen in Star Trek: Generations (1994), and was used as a reference for the R.L.S. Legacy in Treasure Planet (2002). It has also been used in the show Once Upon a Time (2011) as Killian Jones' a.k.a. Captain Hook's ship, "The Jolly Roger."

The movie's world premiere was located at Disneyland Park at the Disneyland Resort in California, home to the original Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, on June 28, 2003. This was the first ever movie premiere at Disneyland.

References to the Disneyland attractions include (but are not limited to): three uses of the song "(Yo Ho, Yo Ho) A Pirate's Life for Me" by Xavier Atencio and George Bruns in the opening scene (sung by young Elizabeth), when Jack and Elizabeth are marooned on the island, and in the end by Jack. The jail scenes, in which the prisoners try to tempt the dog who holds the key to their cell. Jack says, "That dog is never going to move" - although the movie dog eventually does, the one in the ride doesn't. Jack later tries to tempt it with a bone, as does one of the audio-animatronic pirates in the ride. The "burning town" sequence, and within it, the redheaded prostitute (who slaps Jack), the "stuffed pirate" drinking the rum spurting out of a barrel, and the pirate chasing the lady (in the ride they're circling a barrel or pillar) Jack's initial discovery of Gibbs sleeping with the pigs The line "Dead men tell no tales", said by the macaw, which is repeated throughout the ride's narration A quick shot of a skeleton sprawled on the beach of the Isla de Muerta, with a crab nearby During the raid on the town, seen is a man being dunked into a well. A skeletal Barbossa drinks wine, which trickles through his exposed ribcage, as one of the skeletal pirates do. During the battle scene between the two ships, Black Pearl and the Interceptor Captain Barbossa refers to his crew as "bloomin cockroaches" just like the captain in the ride does when his ship attacks a local town fort. In Tortuga, we see a pirate drinking rum on top of two barrels and is wobbling just like in the ride. There are references to cursed treasure in the ride: old pirates speak of cursed treasure and how you probably don't believe in it, and the line "Who knows when that evil curse will strike the greedy beholders of this bewitched treasure." The woman wearing a red dress at Tortuga island that slaps Jack and he wonders if he deserved it is a character in the ride. Part of the Caribbean Beach Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, is called "Port Royal". It is also the name of the shop at the exit of The Pirates Attraction in Disneyland.

WILHELM SCREAM: Heard during the battle on the Dauntless between the Royal Navy and Barbossa's crew.

Voted number 4 in Channel 4's (England) "Greatest Family Films".

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