It took the right lessons from Treasure Island in making the pirates incredibly likeable while still being all-around terrible people. Sparrow and Barbossa, plus their crew, absolutely stole the show from the actual leads. Combine that with surprisingly good writing and an amazing score and it ended up one of my favorite films despite being based on a theme park ride.
Allowing the pirates to steal the show from capable leads is what makes the first one so good. Making the pirates the leads, on the other hand, ends up being disappointing (see the sequels). Interesting lesson.
It took the right lessons from Treasure Island in making the pirates incredibly likeable while still being all-around terrible people. Sparrow and Barbossa, plus their crew, absolutely stole the show from the actual leads. Combine that with surprisingly good writing and an amazing score and it ended up one of my favorite films despite being based on a theme park ride.
Allowing the pirates to steal the show from capable leads is what makes the first one so good. Making the pirates the leads, on the other hand, ends up being disappointing (see the sequels). Interesting lesson.