The transformation of Geoffrey Rush proved to be a big challenge. Photo Credit: Industrial Light & Magic. Unless otherwise noted, all images from the film Pirates of the Caribbean © Disney Enterprises Inc. and Jerry Bruckheimer Inc. All rights reserved.

“Yo ho, ho, ho, a pirate’s life for me!” That is the opening verse audiences are singing as they depart from Walt Disney Pictures’ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Amidst a season filled with high-budgeted sequels, Pirates emerges as the surprise of the summer, thanks mostly to a near-perfect hybridization of an impelling story and VFX. In a film that could have easily become a spoof of the Disneyland ride or an overblown fizzle like The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, the respectful approach and attention to detail in Pirates, which stars Johnny Depp, would have made Walt Disney proud. The creative vision of director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, coupled with the VFX crew of Industrial Light & Magic, honed Pirates into sheer fantasy splendor, creating the cinematic “ride” of the year.
 
 

Director Gore Verbinski (center) talks to a pirate extra (left) and Jack Davenport (right) on the set. ILM and Verbinski had biweekly videoconferences during the making of the movie. Photo Credit: Elliot Marks, SMPSP.

Hal Hickel, animation supervisor at ILM. Courtesy of ILM.

With roughly 200 people, including 25 animators, the ILM crew was larger than usual, mainly due to Pirates’ rapid production schedule, which ran from October 2002 through June 2003. ILM contributed more than 300 FX shots. Alias|Wavefront’s Maya was the primary modeling and animation software used in the film, which is atypical for ILM. Traditionally, ILM uses SoftImage 3.9, but beginning with recent films such as Hulk, ILM has begun leaning toward Maya, the industry standard. For the remainder of the FX operations, including rotoscoping, optical motion capture, facial animation and cloth, ILM employed its own in-house programs.

Typically, a pirate film would not require hefty visual effects, but Pirates has a twist: as its subtitle trumpets, there is a curse. The crew of the pirate ship The Black Pearl harbors a curse for stealing Aztec treasure sullied by the sins of Cortez himself. The consequence of this curse leaves the pirates immortal and without somatic senses. More importantly, the moonlight reveals the true figures of the pirates: they are skeletons. Audiences have Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (screenplay and screen story) to thank for this innovative spin on the ride’s story; these two Hollywood corsairs were previously responsible for penning Aladdin and Shrek, among other successes. They waited nearly 10 years to have a studio pick up their supernatural take on a pirate tale.