Is Pirates of the Caribbean A Rip-Off Of Monkey Island?

We blame Disney for a lot of things; High School Musical, The Goof Troop and the death of Bambi's mother among them. One of the most recent accusations levelled against the company has been that its Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy bears some remarkable similarities to Lucasart's adventure series, the Monkey Island series.

For anyone not familiar with Monkey Island, players take on the role of Guybrush Threepwood, intrepid pirate to-be. It's an unusually well put together point-and-click adventure game, starring our naïve pirate-in-training, an array of spirits, cannibals, a swordmaster, a strange voodoo priestess and an even stranger used boat salesman.

The Secret of Monkey island, the game that started it all?

The Secret of Monkey Island

At the games' opening would-be pirate Guybrush Threepwood who has just arrived on Mêlée Island to seek his fortune, and whose only aptitude is a claimed ability to hold his breath for ten minutes underwater. Action, romance, comedy and adventure on the high seas, The Secret of Monkey Island has it all.

By way of comparison, the Pirates of the Carribbean trilogy features William Turner, also an intrepid young pirate to-be (though he's unaware). It too is an exciting tale, featuring a host of undead, cannibals, a strange voodoo sorceress and an even stranger Johnny Depp. If you've noticed any similarities, you're not the first. In fact, both are said to have been based on Disneyland Florida's famous Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert however, commented in his blog that his initial response to seeing the trailor for Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest was, ""Hey, I've seen this before... no... I've played this before... no... I've designed this before!" I'm thinking "This is the Monkey Island Movie!"". Indeed, it wasn't long before long-time fans of the series started making some unfavourable comparisons.

When you see them lined up like this, it's amazing they got away with it.

Gilbert went on to say that his inspiration for the Monkey Island series instead came from Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides, "Some people believe the inspiration for Monkey Island came from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride - probably because I said it several times during interviews - but that was really just for the ambiance. If you read this book you can really see where Guybrush and LeChuck were plagiarized derived from, plus the heavy influence of voodoo in the game." This of course, raises the question of the healthy amount of voodoo in Pirates of the Caribbean... if indeed any amount of voodoo can be thought healthy.