On Stranger Tides Countdown Discussion Day 1

[corrielle]

To celebrate the imminent release of On Stranger Tides, I've come up with some Questions for Discussion, one for each day between now and the U.S. release on the 20th. I'm going to try my hardest to post one each day, and anyone else who wants to join me, please feel free! (And leave me a link in the comments so I can read your answers!)

The questions:

Day 1. What were your first impressions of PotC? 
Day 2. What's a cool/interesting/favorite piece of pirate/navy/PotC stuff you own?
Day 3. If you make fanworks, link to a piece of your work that you're especially proud of. If you don't make fanworks, link to a piece you're especially proud of finding. ;-)
Day 4. What are your hopes for the new film?  What are you most looking forward to?
Day 5. If you could bring one character from the first three movies back for OST, who would you choose? How would you write him or her in?
Day 6. Tell about a favorite/funny/happy memory of your involvement in the PotC fandom.
Day 7. I'm assuming we'll all see the movie somewhere around here… Describe your initial reaction in 100 words or less.


It was the summer of 2003, and I'd just graduated from college.  For several months, I'd been seeing posters and trailers for this pirate movie based on the ride at Disneyland.  While I was a little skeptical about making a whole movie out of a five minute ride, Pirates was one of my favorite things to go on at Disneyland, and I'd always had a fondness for sea stories, (Thank you, read-along adaptation of Treasure Island...) swashbucklers, and period British military uniforms.  I think one of the first posters I ever saw was of a skeletal foot coming down on the sea floor, and one of the first teaser trailers I saw had a really chilling clip of the "take a walk" scene.  This should have terrified me (I usually don't do skeletons...) but I'd seen The Mummy enough times to know that CGI skeletons aren't nearly as terrifying as prop-skeletons.

I went in with very few expectations.  I thought it was going to be, at best, fun and somewhat forgettable. I went, I believe, with angelsbaby0910 and my mom, which started a tradition of the three of us going to every PotC movie together some time while it's in theaters.

I remember very clearly the moment that I knew I was going to come back and see this movie again.  It was the "Why is the rum gone?" scene.  Specifically, it was the moment when Jack spots the Dauntless anchored just off the island and says, "There'll be no living with her after this."  There was just such a mixture of annoyance, relief, and resignation in the way he said it on the heels of all of his flailing about the rum that I knew this film was something special.  (Yeah... hadn't noticed how incredibly special the Navy was yet... that would take a few more watchings.)

I think I saw it again within the week, I had at least one Jack Sparrow shirt before the movie was out of theaters, and I became physically unable to say the word "savvy" without just a bit of Jack creeping into my voice. I don't think I've been the same since, but then... I don't think I would have wanted to be.