Unlike most major studios, Disney has worked hard for many decades to establish a brand that makes sense to audiences around the world. When you see a Disney movie, you’re supposed to be able to know it even without the logo in front of it.
That’s definitely true in animation, but even some of their live-action movies have this same sheen. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, for instance, is a Disney movie through and through. Here are three reasons you should watch (or rewatch) it on Disney+:
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It’s some of Johnny Depp’s very best work
Over the course of decades, Johnny Depp’s schtick became a little bit exhausting. What remains true is that his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow is exactly the right amount of deranged and mannered.
Depp is genuinely hilarious playing a legendary pirate who bungles his way out of various puzzles and predicaments. Jack Sparrow’s genius combines the silly with the serious — a man with real goals and a solid head on his shoulders. However, Jack also spends most of his time drinking and arguing over things that don’t really matter.
It’s super rewatchable
Curse of the Black Pearl is a movie built around its set pieces, and none of those set pieces miss the mark. The movie is so rewatchable because of these perfectly placed scenes. It lays out its plot in perfectly tailored increments, ensuring that you’re never bored even as it lays out all the complicated dynamics behind the movie’s plot.
Few blockbusters deliver their information more efficiently or understand better how to intersperse the plot between set pieces that still absolutely hold up more than 20 years later. Curse of the Black Pearl just works, and that’s unlikely to change no matter how many times you’ve seen it.
Geoffrey Rush is a legend
There are countless great supporting performances scattered across this movie, but Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbosa is in a class by himself. A perfect foil for Depp’s Jack Sparrow, Rush is going just as big but doing something totally different. Rush is all cartoony menace until, quite suddenly, he’s not.
The character’s last moments in the movie are surprising and subtle in ways you might not expect and a reminder that Rush can do any number of different things. Thankfully, Gore Verbinski was wise enough to hire him to play this indelible character.
You can watch Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl on Disney+.
