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There's A Freaky Secret That Disney Hid Inside The "Pirates Of The Caribbean" Ride
Pirates of the Caribbean may be primarily known as a movie now, but before Captian Jack Sparrow was sailing the seven seas, the theme park ride was all that mattered. It was so innovative in its time, but it was the set decorations that really caught people's eye.
Right from the start, it was clear that something was special about this ride. But people started to realize that the decor was maybe a little too realistic.
The ride was the last one that was designed by Walt Disney himself back in 1967. It cost $15 million to make and required several teams to work together. The engineering, animatronics, and machine departments had to work together to make sure everything would run smoothly.
The design team was the one that was the team having the most issues. They needed a lot of fake skeletons for the ride, but apparently the ones that were available at the time were "just too unconvincing."
Former Disney producer, Jason Surrell, wrote a book called Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies where he revealed some of the secrets from the creation of Disneyland, specifically this ride.
He explained that because they didn't like the way the fake skeletons looked, the company had to go a whole other direction, a much more realistic direction...
Creating one of the most famous rides at Disneyland means putting a lot of work into the decor. Sure, the ride has to work great, but if the story isn't sold through the look of it, what's the point?
Surrell revealed that the designers went to UCLA Medical Center and hit up the anatomy department to get some pretty impressive props. They used real human bones to create the spooky look of the pirates, some of which are rumored to still be there today!
As technology improved, Disney swapped out most of the bones on the ride. There are however a few that are thought to be the real deal. There are three bodies that the rumors claim are real bodies.