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.

Tell-No-Tales Thursdays: Carlos—Don’t be cheek-en!

Today’s post is about the famous well scene, with the mayor getting dunked while his beloved snaggle-toothed lady tells him not to be “cheeee—ken” (chicken, for those of you who don’t speak snaggletooth). It took me years to finally figure out what she was really saying. This one is from a vintage viewmaster reel, and I am happy to say that they left this scene (virtually) the same during the refurb. Compare the two shots.



Here’s a great close-up of the Mayor’s wife, perpetually admonishing Carlos as he gets dunked again and again. First with flash and then without.





This poor bastard has his wife yellling at him from above, a pirate threatening him with a sword, and a mouth full of well-water. And today’s political officials think that THEY have trouble. They have no idea. Shown here with and without flash:





These fellers are just standing by and gloating as poor Carlos continues to get dunked eternally.







These poor suckers are waiting patiently for their “turn” to be dunked in the well .



Here’s a good overall shot of the scene as your boat leaves the area.



Marc Davis...what a genius. So much story in such a small space. See more Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean photos at my website.

The Genius of Marc Davis

Here you can see the evolution of two of my favorite scenes, the Wench Auction & Carlos at the well. The opening shot is from a Pirates of the Caribbean booklet that I have had since it was originally published, and have read and re-read it many a time. It’s great to see Davis surrounded by all of his sketches for this classic attraction. First up are a few Marc Davis sketches; I love this man’s style. He really put characters in to his characters! The Red Headed Wench seemed to have the most changes from sketch to reality; the final AA figure is definitely more buxom!





Next up we have the first 3d rendering, a very detailed small model:



This shot appears to be a larger (and extremely detailed) model:



The scene as first displayed, shown in these Panavue Slide views:





And how it looks now; not a whole lot of change going on here, which suits me just fine. Jack Sparrow not needed here:





Moving on to scene 2, this is the famous well scene, with the mayor getting dunked while his beloved snaggle-toothed lady tells him not to be “cheeee—ken” (chicken, for those of you who don’t speak snaggletooth). First we see the Davis sketch for the next three waiting to be dunked (or shot).



And here is the scene in 3D, displayed in a finely detailed miniature; one would have to look hard to be sure that this is not the actual scene itself.



Next up is the scene as it was first shown to guests, courtesy of this Panavue slide:



And a few recent shots; the biggest changes to this scene are the new lines of dialogue that now include Jack Sparrow.









To all, I wish you a very Happy New Year! See you in ’08!

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