Disneyland set to alter Pirates ride

The scene of leering pirates auctioning off women as brides on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in Disneyland will be gone forever next month, replaced by a scene considered less offensive to contemporary tastes.

The Anaheim resort announced this week that it will close the ride April 23 to begin its planned makeover, which includes replacing the auction scene with a depiction of pirates selling the pilfered belongings of local townsfolk. The ride should reopen this summer. A similar overhaul was completed this week at the Magic Kingdom Park in Florida. On that ride, a tall redhead in a red hat — the prized bride in the auction scene — has been retained in the new scene, where she plays a guntotting pirate named Redd. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland Paris was also overhauled.

In a post this week on the park’s blog, Disney officials explained the changes by noting that Walt Disney himself said he envisioned that his theme parks would always be changing and evolving.

Some Disney fans and theme park experts note that Disney has a history of revamping rides either to reflect more sensitive contemporary tastes or to inject characters or scenes from new movies.

“At Disney, their specialty is scrubbing everything to be squeaky clean and palatable,” Rick Rothschild, a ride designer for Disney from 1978 until 2009, told The Times this year.

This is not the first time the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction has been altered. The scene of pirates chasing women through a pillaged town was tweaked in 1997. And characters from the multibillion-dollar movie franchise starring Johnny Depp were added to the ride in 2006.