''Pirates 4D'' (also known as ''Pirates 3D'') is an attraction film designed to be shown in a specially-built or remodeled theater space in a
theme park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
, featuring in-theater
special effects
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
, sometimes referred to as a
4D film
4D film is a high technology multisensory presentation system combining motion pictures with physical effects that are synchronized and occur in the theatre. Effects simulated in 4D films include motion, vibration, scent, rain, mist, bubbles, fo ...
.
The film itself is a dual strip
70mm
70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is wid ...
3D film
3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. They have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion pict ...
short, featuring
Leslie Nielsen
Leslie William Nielsen (11 February 192628 November 2010) was a Canadian actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters.
Nielsen was bo ...
and
Eric Idle
Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, musician and writer. Idle was a member of the British surreal comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band The Rutles, and is the writer of the music and lyrics for the Broadwa ...
. It was produced by Renaissance Entertainment and
Busch Entertainment Corporation
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment is an American theme park and entertainment company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. and owns and operates thirteen recreational destinations in the Unite ...
, and
distributed by
Iwerks Entertainment. It was released in 1999, and first shown at
Sea World Ohio (then owned by Busch), at two
Busch Gardens
Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States, owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. The original park is in Tampa, Florida, and the second park is in Williamsburg, Virginia. There were also previously B ...
parks, and at
Thorpe Park
Thorpe Park Resort, commonly known as Thorpe Park, is an amusement park located in the village of Thorpe between the towns of Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey, England, southwest of Central London. It is operated by Merlin Entertai ...
in England, then owned by
The Tussauds Group
The Tussauds Group was an entertainment company which is now a part of Merlin Entertainments. It was based in Poole, Dorset from where it managed a portfolio of brands and over 50 attractions that included the Madame Tussauds waxworks, Legoland T ...
, which was the earliest overseas venue.
Venues
The film was produced exclusively for theme park usage. It was formerly shown at
Sea World Ohio in
Aurora, Ohio
Aurora is a city in Portage County, Ohio, United States. It is a suburb of Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, and is co-extensive with, and formed from, the former township of Aurora, which was formed from the Connecticut Western Reserve. It is part of ...
,
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Busch Gardens Williamsburg (formerly known as Busch Gardens Europe and Busch Gardens: The Old Country) is a amusement park located in James City County near Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Located approximately northwest of Virgini ...
, in
Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula ...
,
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a animal theme park located in Tampa, Florida, United States, with the entire park landscaped and designed around themes of Africa and Asia. Owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, the park opened on Ju ...
in
Tampa, Florida
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
,
Thorpe Park
Thorpe Park Resort, commonly known as Thorpe Park, is an amusement park located in the village of Thorpe between the towns of Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey, England, southwest of Central London. It is operated by Merlin Entertai ...
in
Chertsey
Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in the ...
,
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, England,
SeaWorld San Diego
SeaWorld San Diego is an animal theme park, oceanarium, outside aquarium and marine mammal park, in San Diego, California, United States, inside Mission Bay Park. It is owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.
SeaWorld San Diego ...
in
San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
,
SeaWorld San Antonio
SeaWorld San Antonio is a marine mammal park, oceanarium and animal theme park in the Westover Hills District of San Antonio, Texas, on the city's west side. It is the largest of the three parks in the SeaWorld chain owned and operated by SeaW ...
in
San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
,
Hansa Park
Hansa-Park is a seasonal amusement park in Sierksdorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany off the Baltic Sea. It was opened on May 15, 1977 under the name Hansaland and renamed Hansa-Park in 1987. It currently spans and includes more than 125 attractio ...
in
Sierksdorf
Sierksdorf is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, situated on the Bay of Lübeck. The Hansa Park amusement park is located in Sierksdorf.
References
External links
Internet presence of Sierksdorfon t ...
, Germany,
Mirabilandia in Italy, Magix 4d ride on
Sentosa Island
Sentosa Island, known mononymously as Sentosa, and formerly ''Pulau Belakang Mati'', is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore's main island. The island is separated from the main island of Singapore by a channel of water, the K ...
, Singapore,
Six Flags New Orleans
Six Flags New Orleans is an abandoned theme park located near the intersection of Interstate 10 and Interstate 510 in New Orleans. It first opened as Jazzland in 2000, and a leasing agreement was established with Six Flags in 2002 following the ...
in
,
Noah's Ark Water Park
Noah's Ark (officially Noah's Ark Family Park Inc.) is the largest outdoor water park in the United States. It features 51 water slides and dozens of various attractions. The park is located in the village of Lake Delton, Wisconsin.
History
In ...
in
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Dells is a city in Wisconsin, straddling four counties: Adams, Columbia, Juneau, and Sauk. A popular Midwestern tourist destination, the city forms an area known as "The Dells" with the nearby village of Lake Delton. The Dells is ho ...
,
Enchanted Kingdom
Enchanted Kingdom (abbreviated as EK), is a theme park in the Philippines. It is located in Santa Rosa, Laguna. It has a land area of . The park is managed and operated by Enchanted Kingdom Inc.
Enchanted Kingdom is a member of the International ...
in the Philippines, and the
Luxor Casino in
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. It is still open at
Phantasialand
Phantasialand is a theme park in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany that attracts approximately 2 million visitors annually. The park was opened in 1967 by Gottlieb Löffelhardt and Richard Schmidt. Although starting as a family-oriented p ...
in
Brühl, Germany, as of 2020.
The show at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay was closed in March 2010 to make way for Sesame Street Film Festival 4-D, but due to guest demand, the attraction returned on August 5, 2010 and featured three showings a day after three showings of the "Sesame Street" film. On July 7, 2013, Busch Gardens Tampa announced that Pirates 4-D had closed again in Timbuktu (now Pantopia) along with Timbuktu Theater to make way for a new show and Pantopia Theater.
Synopsis
Davie (
Adam Wylie
Adam Augustus Wylie (born May 23, 1984) is an American actor, magician and a former Crayola spokesman. Wylie is known most for playing Zack Brock, the youngest son of Doctor and Sheriff Brock's children, on ''Picket Fences'' from 1992 to 1996.
Ea ...
), a cabin boy who was betrayed and marooned by the nasty Captain Lucky (
Leslie Nielsen
Leslie William Nielsen (11 February 192628 November 2010) was a Canadian actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters.
Nielsen was bo ...
) on Pirate Island, escapes the captain's trap and sets up booby traps with the help of a monkey named Chester to catch Lucky and his crew when he returns to the island to recover a treasure he buried there. The captain, with a French pirate named Pierre (
Eric Idle
Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, musician and writer. Idle was a member of the British surreal comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band The Rutles, and is the writer of the music and lyrics for the Broadwa ...
) as his first mate, returns soon after, along with his new crew. Two of the pirates are caught in a trap involving crabs. The next pirate has a bee hive dropped on his head, while the next is hit in the back by a cactus. Pierre is caught in a trap involving pigeons, which defecate on him. After the booby traps leave all the pirates behind except for the Captain and Pierre, Lucky leads Pierre into a dark cave on the island where his treasure is hidden. Upon entering the cave, Pierre encounters a giant spider and various bats, before running into the skeletons of Lucky's former crew, having been hung by shackles to the cave's walls. Lucky approaches Pierre, menacing him with "To me...or not to me". The captain finds his treasure chest, which now holds a booby trap. After the captain begins caressing the chest's treasures, the chest locks him with shackles and drags him out of the cave and into a lake, past the pigeons. Meanwhile, the pirate crew discovers Davie, and prepare to attack him, before Pierre shows up with the skeletons of Lucky's last crew. Lucky eventually escapes the shackles and begins to have a sword fight with Davie, whom he disarms. They all return to the ship, where the crew makes Lucky walk the plank, and Davie is named as the crew's new captain. As the screen begins to close to black, Lucky appears in front of it and spits out water, telling the audience "I'll be back" before the closing screen bonks him and knocks him out.
The film trailer may be seen on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Effects
Viewers of the film wear
polarized 3D glasses
A polarized 3D system uses polarization glasses to create the illusion of three-dimensional images by restricting the light that reaches each eye (an example of stereoscopy).
To present stereoscopic images and films, two images are projected s ...
in order to experience the film's 3D effects. The 4-D effects are of two general types: in-theater special effects, such as water cannons,
and specialized seating, with built-in effects and audio.
The in-theater effects packages were sometimes produced by different manufacturers. Busch Entertainment Corporation (BEC) developed its own package for its initial installations, as did Thorpe Park. Later installations most likely utilized a more common package which was the early Iwerks 3D/4D FX Theatre System.
Thorpe Park's package was developed by Technology Design Associates (TDA), and integrated by Advanced Entertainment Technology (AET).
Each package differed somewhat as to which effects were included, and the specific application of each, however, there were many similarities,
driven by moments built into the film. For example, at the end of the film, after Captain Lucky walks the plank, he surfaces and spits water into the camera. Simultaneously, one or more large water cannons are discharged from below the screen, sending a water spray out into the audience. The guests in the front rows were often soaked.
The specialized 4D film seating featured in-seat sound, vibrators, water squirts, bursts of air and wires which push against the viewers' feet.
Technical information
The film was released as a 70 mm/5 perforation twin strip polarized 3-D attraction film 17 minutes in length, and was directed by Keith Melton, and written by Eric Idle. It was in color, and was filmed in 2.1:1
aspect ratio. It featured
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...
sound, although this was usually not used.
The Iwerks seating was an early version of a product now called Simex-Iwerks 4-D Seats.
This early version was far less capable than the current model, with the major difference being the lack of the current
motion simulator
A motion simulator or motion platform is a mechanism that creates the feelings of being in a real motion environment. In a simulator, the movement is synchronised with a visual display of the outside world (OTW) scene. Motion platforms can provi ...
base (3 DOF) capabilities.
The BEC seats and the TDA/AET seats were quite similar. Both featured the following effects: water spray, wind effect, bats effect, seat speakers and seat vibrators. The BEC seats were installed at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and replaced an earlier prototype at Sea World Ohio. The TDA/AET seats were used at Thorpe Park.
Besides the water cannons noted above, the in-house effects included a "
bird droppings
Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...
" effect, consisting of a burst of warm water sprayed on the audience from the ceiling when the birds are released on the pirates, a large
smoke ring effect, discharged over the audience when the ship's cannon is shot toward the camera, and a glittering gold lighting effect around the proscenium when Lucky's treasure is revealed.
The audio for Pirates 4-D was usually stored on an outboard device, and synchronized to the film. The early SeaWorld/Busch Gardens venues used an 8 channel
Tascam DA-88
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) deck, while the Thorpe Park installation used a 12 channel
Alcorn McBride
Alcorn McBride is an American manufacturer of show control, audio and video equipment for the themed entertainment industry. Their equipment is used in theme parks, museums, restaurants, visitor centers, retail stores, kiosks, cruise ships, and t ...
Digital Binloop.
This was necessary because the Dolby Digital format had only six tracks available for audio, and all were used for the cinema speakers. Busch used the seventh channel for the seat speakers. Thorpe Park used four channels for the seat speakers, one for a point source speaker for Justa, its
Animatronic
Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions.
It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
pirate parrot, and the twelfth for the preshow.
References
External links
''3-D Revolution: The History of Modern Stereoscopic Cinema '' page 160
''Monty Python: A Chronology, 1969–2012'' 2nd edition Douglas McCall – 2013 – Performing Arts, page 182 item 2251 May 10, 1997
{{Thorpe Park
1990s 3D films
Amusement park films
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
SeaWorld San Antonio
SeaWorld San Diego
2006 establishments in Virginia
2013 disestablishments in Virginia
Amusement rides introduced in 1999
Amusement rides introduced in 2006
Amusement rides that closed in 2004
Amusement rides that closed in 2007
Amusement rides that closed in 2009
Amusement rides that closed in 2013
3D short films
4D films