"Morgan's Ghost" (also called "Three Buccaneers" and "Pieces of Eight" in production) is an unreleased cartoon film by
Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...
, dated around 1939. A
Disney comics adaptation, ''
Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold'', was published in
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark" ...
' ''
Four Color
''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...
'' #9 in 1942.
It would also have been the first film which had
Mickey Mouse's new eyes, which would first appear in ''
The Pointer'' (1939).
Plot
Mickey Mouse,
Donald Duck, and
Goofy are the owners of a small tavern in a New England village called Fish Haven. On a stormy night, they are visited by a parrot with a peg leg named Yellow Beak. He is hiding from
Black Pete because Yellow Beak has the treasure map of the pirate
Henry Morgan
Sir Henry Morgan ( cy, Harri Morgan; – 25 August 1688) was a privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, becoming we ...
. Yellow Beak offers to share the treasure, if the trio can obtain a ship to get him to the island where the treasure is buried.
Pete overhears all of this discussion and disguises himself as an old woman, who persuades the treasure hunters to lease his ship, the ''Sea Skunk''. After a series of slapstick interludes at sea, Pete captures Yellow Beak and the map. He sets Mickey, Donald, and Goofy adrift in a tiny raft. They wash ashore on a tropical island, the very one with the treasure. They find an old chest that contains not gold but the nutty ghosts of Henry Morgan and two of his crew. They have been trapped in the chest for a century and so they celebrate being released. They agree to help the trio rescue Yellow Beak and find the long lost treasure. The ghost of Captain Morgan can't tell the trio directly where the treasure is hidden because "Dead men tell no tales".
The trio and the ghosts rescue Yellow Beak and the map. A gap in the map has to be placed over the tattoo on Yellow Beak's chest to reveal the treasure's true hiding place. After battling man-eating plants, quicksand, and geysers, they find the gold.
There were two possible endings. One had Pete trying to take the loot but losing a game of "Who's Got the Drop on Whom?" with the good guys getting the treasure. An alternate version has Pete taking the treasure and the down hearted treasure hunters returning to their tavern. Their gloom is lifted when Donald bursts in with a newspaper and the headline that Pete has been arrested for passing counterfeit treasure. Yellow Beak announces that he just remembered that what they found was a decoy treasure chest. The location of the real treasure is tattooed on his rear end! The story ends with them heading off to find the real treasure.
Legacy
The story was later released as ''
Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold''.
"Dead men tell no tales" became a phrase mostly associated with the ''
Pirates of the Caribbean'' franchise. It would originate in the
Disney attraction that opened at
Disneyland
Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...
in 1967 as the last attraction in which
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
had any involvement in. The phrase would later be used throughout the
series of films, specifically ''
The Curse of the Black Pearl
''Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'' is a 2003 American supernatural swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski and the first film in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' film series. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and ...
'', ''
At World's End'', and ''
Dead Men Tell No Tales'' being the title of the fifth film.
See also
*
List of unmade and unreleased Disney animated shorts and feature films
External links
* http://www.mouseplanet.com/8214/Donald_Duck_Finds_Pirate_Gold
* https://web.archive.org/web/20100727143553/http://www.disneyshorts.org/miscellaneous/unmadeshorts.html
1930s Disney animated short films
Unreleased American films
1939 films
1939 animated films