This weekend marked the final days of the “Bride Auction” scene in Magic Kingdom’s classic Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The scene has had some controversial implications and has split audiences on its appropriateness. Users took to Twitter (as one does) to comment about the attraction before the scene undergoes refurbishment. Regardless of what people think about the scene, it turns out that Walt Disney himself has some reservations about the concept and premise of this part of the attraction. Jenny Nicholson tweeted saying “[Walt] had to be talked into it by his Imagineers.”
Another Twitter user, Mark Willard was skeptical of her comments and did some research regarding the tweet, citing Jason Surrell’s 2005 book, Pirates of the Caribbean on the history of the attraction.
This piece of trivia makes one wonder what other challenges (good and bad) Imagineers face and how many revisions a story goes through before it finally reaches the fans. Here’s a clip of the scene before the upcoming refurbishment gets underway.
The auction scene has been reimagined and will still include the popular redheaded Audio Animatronic, this time as a pirate!