I used to love the Pirates of the Carribean ride at Disneyland when I was a kid. I grew up about 15 miles away from Disneyland, and when I was in elementary school my dad would sometimes tell my teacher I was sick and secretly take me to Disneyland for the day. That way, he explained to me, we could enjoy the park on a weekday without all the lines and tourists. Pirates was one of my favorites because you get to go in this big boat down waterfalls, and there’s lots of fire and destruction and stuff.

I wasn’t crazy about the first Pirates of the Carribean movie, but the second one intrigued me. Partly that’s because it has several well-realized sea monsters. But partly — as I explained in my column last week — it has to do with the interesting politics of the film. This is a story full of giant kraken, and yet the most demonic enemy is the British East India Company. There’s an odd anticolonialist message running under the surface of the flick.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 9:53 am.
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