When I saw The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides this weekend, I was shocked.
Shocked by the flagrant disregard Disney has shown for the character of Tinkerbell, Peter Pan’s faithful sidekick.
I know what what you’re thinking. Did we see the same film?
There were pirates and mermaids present to be sure, and a theme of immortality thrown in as well, but Johnny Depp’s latest outing had no hint of fairies or Peter Pan, despite these obvious similarities.
There was Tinkerbell in the film.
No? Well, you’re wrong.
As the movie opened, in a humorous nod to the audience a Jolly Roger flag was shown flying above the Sleeping Beauty castle in the animated Disney logo. Apparently, pirates had taken the castle by force.
And what is Tinkerbell’s reaction?
Tinkerbell who has dedicated her life to fighting pirates side by side with the immortal Peter Pan? She flies by as she always does, sprinkling fairy dust in her wake, as if nothing in the least bit out of the ordinary were happening.
There is no way her character would allow herself to do that.
But that’s not what I’m here to write about today.
Not quite. I wanted to point out that the new Pirates movies is not only a sequel to the first three Pirates films, it is also a prequel to the little seen and seldom remembered Peter Ustinov/Dean Jones 1968 comedy, Blackbeard’s Ghost.
I, like the rest of you, have waited 43 years to get the backstory on this film, and feel it’s long overdue.
IMDB describes the movie:
In this comedy, Peter Ustinov is the famous pirate’s ghost that returns to our time. Blackbeard has been cursed by his last wife who was a notorious witch, so that he will never die. The only way to “break” the curse is to do (for once in his life) a good act. Is the famous pirate able to do something good?
No spoilers, but those who have seen the movie might recognize a minor plot point here. I find it interesting that Blackbeard has been cursed by his last wife, a witch, and in the new movie he is seen using black magic himself. Critics of the prequel theory will point out the differences in character between Ustinov’s portrayal of Blackbeard versus Ian McShane’s more diabolical take.
To which I will counter with this bit from Wikipedia:
In the original novel, [by Ben Stahl] two teenage boys (not a track coach) find the book that brings back the ghost of Blackbeard… In addition, Peter Ustinov portrays the pirate Blackbeard as a charming individual in contrast with Stahl’s version of the character.
It is interesting to note that after his death in the recent Pirates film, but before the events of Blackbeard’s Ghost, the pirate had a small but important role in the famous short story, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benét.
In the story, Blackbeard’s ghost is one of the jurors summoned from hell by the devil to decide the case. Years later Blackbeard would once again sit on a jury and decide the fate of a soul, this time in judgement of Peter Tork of The Monkees in the episode, “The Devil and Peter Tork”.
Blackbeard has long been associated with witches, having twice found himself in the presence of Sabrina the Teenage Witch in 1999, summoned from the past through magic. Speaking of time travel, the notorious pirate has been visited by both the Doctor from Doctor Who and the Time-Warp Trio.
One other odd thing about Blackbeard is that he has been the nemesis of two characters played by the legendary Bruce Campbell.
Once, when Blackbeard contested with Brisco County Jr. and twice against Jack Stiles in Jack of All Trades.
Bringing this back to Tinkerbell and Peter Pan, it has been said that the notorious Captain Hook was Blackbeard’s botswain, the man in charge of the deck crew.
In short, Blackbeard is one of those historical figures who has had many more adventures than his standard biography might indicate. He has done it all (and may conceivably be still doing it, somewhere, somehow) through the use of magic, strange science and time travel. Then again, this all might be no more than a legend, started by Ben Grimm:
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