Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Release Date: July 9, 2003

Watch Date: April 5, 2025

“The roguish yet charming Captain Jack Sparrow’s idyllic pirate life capsizes after his nemesis, the wily Captain Barbossa, steals his ships, the Black Pearl, and later attacks the town of Port Royal, kidnapping the governor’s beautiful daughter Elizabeth. In a gallant attempt to rescue her and recapture the Black Pearl, Elizabeth’s childhood friend Will Turner joins forces with Jack. What Will doesn’t know is that a cursed treasure has doomed Barbossa and his crew to live forever as the undead.”

---

It’s my birthday month! And you know what that means! I get to pick all the movies! So get ready for Mufasa, and that new movie about Bob Dylan.

But first, I’ve been craving some ocean adventures. Some true classics. Maybe it was my disappointment in Moana 2? Who knows. All I know is that I needed to see some swashbuckling and some adventures with curses and magical creatures that make the deep even more terrifying and unfathomable. And if there’s a kick ass soundtrack too, well all the better.

Thank heaven that Pirates of the Caribbean exists.

Not only is it one of my favorite rides in Disneyland, mostly because I love the bayou area and the bayou restaurant. I might really just prefer the restaurant. But it’s also, in my very humble opinion, one of the best movies Disney has ever made. I will point out now that I do mean that exclusively about this, and only this film. While the remaining two in the trilogy are good and stand well on their own, they never quite meet the magic and perfection that, to me, is this film. And of course, the last two are popcorn movies, adventurous romps with Jack Sparrow but best to be kept separate from the original trilogy and to go in with very few hopes.

Try as I might, I can’t think of one negative thing to say about this film. I really can’t. The main Pirates theme makes my heart race and almost want to cry at different times. The characters are well thought out and evolve naturally throughout the film. There’s a satisfying conclusion that does not require any sequel, though it got it. The action sequences are exceptionally well choreographed and filmed, set pieces are interactive with the fights, characters move throughout the space, the magic is heightened by the music and you can see and understand why every action and reaction from each character is happening. The costumes are gorgeous. The shots are well done. The CGI, while it’s starting to get a little old is still holding up over 20 years later.

I love this film. I really, really do love this film. It might actually be the reason why I like the ride so much, since I had never been on the ride until I’d seen this film. It’s like loving a movie before a book, but the movie adds so much extra context to the book, and then the book is changed to fit the movie, that how could you not have a heightened experience reading the book afterwards?

I digress. If you haven’t seen the first Pirates movie, you should. What planet have you been living on? Go to a thrift store, go on Amazon, get Disney+ I don’t care. But watch this film. I won’t ask you to watch the other four, that’s a large commitment of time, but watch this one.

What an excellent start to birthday month!