Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
I’m really going to try my best to rate the DVD and not the movie in this article. For that, you can clicky over here. The facts follow:
* Sound Format: Digital Theater Systems (akin to 5.1)/THX-Certified Mastering
* Languages/Sound: Eng/Fre
* Screen Formats: Enhanced Widescreen for 16×9 TV
* Subtitle Languages: Fre/Eng
* Additional Features:
o 19 deleted & alternate scenes
o Blooper reel
o Multiple audio commentaries: Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp; Jerry Bruckheimer; Keira Knightley and Jack Davenport; Writers Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio and Stuart Beattie and Jay Wolpert
o “An Epic at Sea”: The Making of Pirates
o “Moonlight Serenade”: Scene Progression
o “Below Deck”: An Interactive History of Pirates
o “Fly on the Set” featurette
o “Diary of a Pirate”
o “Diary of a Ship” Producer’s photo diary with Jerry Bruckheimer
o Image galleries
o Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color
o “Moonlight Serenade” scene progression
o Image galleries
* Enhanced computer features (PC only):
o “Moonlight Becomes Ye” effects studio
o Disneyland Pirates virtual reality viewer
o “Dead Men Tell No Tales” history of the attraction
o Pirates of the Caribbean Attraction image gallery
o ScriptScanner
o Storyboard Viewer
I’ll spare you the pirate booty camparisons and jokes, but OH MY GAWD is there a lot of stuff on this 2 disc set. Over 10 hours of bonus features. Highly recommended are the commentaries by Depp and Knightly, although the latter can be a bit dry as the actress gives more of a scene by scene play, rather than commenting on what was going on in her head at the time. We still love you Keira! You’ll laugh yourself to tears at the blooper real which includes an edit of the two ships battling each other to the sound effects of cars screeching their tires and machine guns blazing.
An in-depth, though dated, look at the Pirates ride at Disneyland is included hosted by Walt himself. This video probably will be the last to show the original ride, prior to the whole “politically correct” changes made in the past 10 years or so.
The menus are very simplified, using backgrounds of film clips and superimposed treasure map scrolls and maritime imagery. There are no complicated visuals or 3D computer generated effects, but that really lends to the authenticity and appeal of the movie to begin with.
Picture and sound quality of the film itself are absolutely stunning. I’m happy to say that Disney produced the disc on with a DTS soundtrack instead of their self-stroking “Disney Surround Sound” BS they’ve been adding to their discs lately. As expected, your subwoofer will get a good workout from the thunderous soundtrack and canon fire emmenating from the british fleet and the ghost ship.
Video clarity does not disappoint either. This can be a very dark movie in places, with only torches or fire lighting the scene. No banding occured, the blacks were full and clean. The few scenes that did take place in bright sunlight were beautiful with the blues and greens of a Caribbean island.
I can honestly say that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is my favorite movie this year, even without having seen Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I highly recommend adding The Black Pearl to your library or to that of anyone with an interest in pirates, a love for action adventure or has the hots for Keira Knightly (wink wink). Drink up me hearties, YO HO!
