If any film is deserving a mega million dollar budget ... it is undoubtedly one made by Disney. And what better to be a live action, star-studded adventure than my favorite Disneyland ride, Pirates of the Caribbean . When I first caught wind of this swashbuckling tale, I grimaced at the thought of another animated film cursed with the voice overs of various famous film scalawags. But my fears were soon rescued when I clicked on the movie's trailer, and viewed this big screen hopeful in all it's preview glory. When you grow tired of super heroes and evil machinery this summer, be sure to squeeze this fun one into your movie going schedule.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of Black Pearl is a 17th Century romp across the high seas with pirates fighting pirates, pirates fighting the military, and pirates fighting undead skeletons among the many scattered islands. It is here we meet the charming rogue Capt. Jack (Johnny Depp - the classic Nightmare on Elm Street, Ed Wood, The Ninth Gate, The Astronaut's Wife, Sleepy Hollow and From Hell) and his crew of the Black Pearl, happily sailing along until they get ambushed by another dastardly bunch of pirates led by Captain  Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush - Mystery Men and House on Haunted Hill).

Stealing his nemesis's ship, Barbossa uses it to attack the town of Port Royal and kidnap the Governor's daughter, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley - Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace). Capt. Barbossa and his nasty crew, including the creepy Pintel (Lee Arenberg - Star Trek Next Generation and Voyager, The Wizard, Brain Dead, Martians Go Home, RoboCop 3, Freaked, Waterworld, and Dungeons & Dragons), have been searching high and low to find some rather mysterious buried treasure. This treasure of gold holds the only key to lifting a terrible curse that turns Barbossa and his crew into a bunch of walking and talking skeletons, under the light of the silvery moon. And unfortunately for poor Elizabeth, she has been wearing a piece of that same gold around her neck since childhood.

Back at Port Royal, Capt. Jack has been captured and ready to hang for his past indiscretions. But not until a young blacksmith named Will Turner (Orlando Bloom - the elven Legolas of Lord of the Rings trilogy and playing Paris in next year's epic, Troy), childhood love of Elizabeth, quickly realizes the only way to save her is to help Jack. But this idea only angers Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport - tale of the Mummy, the euro vamp series Ultraviolet, and Ticks), who is determined to get rid of the pirate Jack. To make matters worse, the ambitious Norrington has been given the hand of Elizabeth by her father, Governor Swann (Jonathon Pryce - Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Dark Blood, Stigmata and next year's The Brothers Grimm).

The adventure ride begins, as Will rescues Jack, steals a ship, and sets out to find the cursed pirate Barbossa, while chasing behind them is the British fleet. All of them headed for the ultimate climax to the dark and mysterious Island of Death.

Release Date: July 9th, 2003

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/pirates/index.html

 Here's a cool review of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of Black Pearl, by Samuel Walters at Dauntless Media:

http://dauntlessmedia.net/pirates-of-the-caribbean/curse-of-the-black-pearl.html