Monday, January 10, 2011

The Evolution of Dunking Carlos



After many years of collecting and shooting my own Disneyland photos, I have a fairly decent catalog of images to choose from. Here is a visual history of one particular scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Poor pitiful Carlos is in a state of perpetual dunking by his pirate captives as his shrewish wife basically yells at him from above to take it like a man. Starting with a vintage photo of the model, enjoy today’s visual journey of a scene that has seen surprisingly few changes over the last 40 or more years that it has continued to entertain guests at Disneyland.

A vintage publicity shot of the scene from when the attraction first opened:



A 1980’s view:



A large sampling from Summer 2006:













2007:


From 2008:


See more Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean photos at my main website.

12 comments:

Connie Moreno said...

Wow, fun look back! I don't recall the wife having such horrible teeth...I also thought she was younger looking. Hmmm...looks like we need to investigate this further!

Major Pepperidge said...

"Don't be cheeken!"

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

The Major beat me to it!!!! That's my favorite part of the ride (I have no idea why).. I feel cheated if I don't hear her say that!

Katella Gate said...

I find it astonishing how many of Davis' setups from this ride have become iconic... The Mayor Dunking, the Bride Auction, the Wench Chasers, the Trapped Prisoners, the Dynamite Target Practice.

None of these concepts looks too promising when typed out, but the results are just phenomenal. I don't know what kind of genius Marc had, but he had it in spades.
BTW, have you seen his "serious art"? Stunning.

Daveland said...

Where would one see his other art? Would love to check it out.

Katella Gate said...

Dave,

I was thinking of a blog here:

http://www.chadfrye.com/blog/?p=770

Daveland said...

Thanks a million for sharing; not at all what I would have expected, but I LOVE it! Some very cool stuff.

Katella Gate said...

My favorite was "Queequeg Pursuing Moby Dick". I know there are other sites on the web that has his serious art, I think he was very prolific away from the Studio.

JG said...

"Don't tell him, Carlos, Don't be Cheeken."

then...POW....the flower pots break.

Love it Dave.

JG

Katella Gate said...

"Don't tell him, Carlos, Don't be Cheeken."

In a world that's uber-touchy about chihuahua dogs and hammy bongo drummers, I am surprised this dialog has survived.

FZ said...

In defense of Carlos' wife (the really bad teeth aside) I don't think she is being "shrewish" so much as he is trying to give moral support to poor Carlos. Carlos doesn't want to give up the secret anymore than she does (both pre and post Jack versions of said secret) and his wife is simply trying to help.

As for her dialog, it looks worse when written out. On the ride it just sounds like a typical and accurate Spanish accent which is why probably it has not been changed.

JG said...

Well, to be fair, I remembered that dialog from a Disney guidebook where it was printed out in quotes, very much as the Major and I wrote it down. I can't remember the name of the booklet, but there are copies kicking around Ebay, I'm sure all the serious collectors have them.

Not sure how portraying a phonetic representation of the spoken speech in written form becomes "worse". The dictionary does it on every page.

I guess anything can be "worse" if you are disposed to make it so.