from 1997
MARC DAVIS
talks about Pirates of the Caribbean

by Scott Wolf

Although Marc Davis started out in animation and designed and animated characters such as Bambi and Tinker Bell, Marc also designed many of the Disney parks' most well-known characters for some of the most popular attractions.

His drawings of characters seemed to leap off the page with personality such as the many pirates and ghosts he created, the country bears, and my personal favorite... the animals for the former Disneyland attraction America Sings. (Today those characters are used throughout Disneyland's Splash Mountain.)

What an honor to have been able to consider this genius a friend, and what a delight to be able to share these interviews with you! 

For Pirates of the Caribbean, Marc drew the two dimension scenes and  the pirates which would be converted into three dimensional.

Scott Wolf: I’ve heard that many of the pirates you designed are actually caricatures of employees. Is there any truth to that at all?

Marc Davis: Not really. There’s one character down near the end of the ride when they’re in jail trying to get the key from the dog, and the guy in the middle (whistling) is the janitor at what we called WED at the time (now called Walt Disney Imagineering).

SW: Is there an actual storyline in the attraction?

MD: Well, Walt asked me during the work on the New York World’s Fair, he said, “You know something I’d like to do? I’d like to do an attraction on Pirates. You know where? Under the New Orleans Square. We can do a walk-thru down there. Give it some thought.” Which I did and I did a design for walking down there, I did a lot of drawings, and I could never get Walt to pause and look at them. So anyway, this went on, finally after the World’s Fair he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to put a building outside of the berm and that would hold a pirate ride but originally the whole attraction was going to be down in this area, so when Walt came up with the idea of putting the whole attraction in a big building outside of the berm, I had all this to fill up, so that’s where I decided on the skeleton ideas. Then you go thru the tunnel and come out thru this big area with the ship firing on the shore and go scene by scene, and finally around where the place is burning up, but it was idea after idea and it worked out very well I think.

SW: So it was just meant to be entertaining, but not telling a story.

MD: Well, Walt agreed and I certainly agreed that this type of show is not a story-telling medium. If you want a story, do a film and that was his attitude. So these things were put in together. It says Pirates. It says Jungle... but to entertain the people that are coming thru.

SW: Was it ever decided how far to go with Pirates as far as their crimes?

MD: No, I think Pirates was just fun ideas. You know, really the truth about pirates is a strange story because actually there were more pirates who did not die in battles at sea and so on, they died of venereal diseases in bawdy houses (brothels).

So this was the real true story, but I didn’t point that out obviously.

SW: Were these American or Spanish pirates?

MD: Well, this was the Caribbean. A (heck) of a lot of them were British. The thing was most of them were mistreated British sailors and whenever they got a chance, they jumped ship. So really the costumes that a lot of these guys were wearing should have been half British sailor clothes. And in some drawings I did do this, the sailor pants and that kind of stuff, but then to use the hats of the time that they might have stolen from somebody that they killed over or did whatever (chuckles).

SW: (Referring to a photo of the scene with the pirate and the pigs.) Was there any story behind when you came up with this scene?

MD: I just thought it would be funny, drunk, and he’s lying there in this pig pen with his pigs and he’s drinking and the pigs have been drinking with him, and they’re all soused and I thought that made a funny scene. Then right to the left of this is a guy with his leg hanging over that’s bare, and with him is a parrot, and they always get a laugh out of that bare leg with the hair on it.

SW: Did you do any research about real pirates?

MD: If you needed something you could go up to the library and see what you could find but I wouldn’t call it research. Well, with Pirates I went to the library and picked up about three books about pirates, and three different viewpoints on pirates, and I did this with most things. Why not really see what it’s all about. But I think still, to look at it from the standpoint of fun, that you’re entertaining people.

More from Marc:
A hilarious jungle ride with Walt Disney
Marc & Alice Davis' Christmas cards

See other interviews

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in the interviews are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mouse Clubhouse. Mouse Clubhouse accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed within.