Johnny Depp surprises Pirates of the Caribbean riders as live animatronic at Disneyland

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/27/johnny-depp-surprises-pirates.html

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Here is exactly what can happen to a once promising career.
And I’ve been a worried about the machines taking over…

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I was pleased to see this was from an actual surprised person’s perspective and not a slick video from Disney showing the “cool” thing they did! Very fun!

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This reminds me of a pretty great “Surprise! Johnny Depp” moment that actually made me inhale sharply and then cry. It was from short run of This American Life video series where they asked a quadriplegic kid who could only communicate through a type-to-robotic-voice device who he thought would best express his personality. He said Johnny Depp, and then in the next scene, it just was Johnny Depp’s voice. Dang, I got a little tender just thinking about it…

(spoilers split into two in case you want enough spoiler to seek it out, but not enough to totally spoil it…)

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Wow, he must really be broke like the tabloids are saying.

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For some reason, this saddens me.

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I looked it up for the gimmick of hearing Johnny Depp but very quickly was more invested in the piece. What an amazing guy! (And girl!)

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if I was an actor, could only hope that one day I would be so famous, popular, and have created such a recognizable character that I could step into a ride at Disneyland and play that character, live, while people excitedly interacted with me and posted videos of me.

ps. He’s been known to do this sort of thing as Jack Sparrow for many years, just for fun.

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Yeah, I guess that’s one way to look at it.

I don’t know, i think it’s really cool of him to do something like this. Doesn’t take much out of his busy schedule, it’s memorable and seemingly spontaneous.

And i say this as someone who hasn’t been much of a Depp fan for the past 10 years or so. If an actor or artist i really liked did something like this i would be over the moon.

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Somehow I suspect this was still less immersion-breaking than when they tweaked the ride to add in animatronic Johnny Depp(s).

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Ever since they added the animatronic Depp, he’s been known to sneak in and prank people by acting like an animatronic or standing still, then winking at unsuspecting riders or saying “Hi!”, that sort of thing.

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Yeah he looked like he was quite enjoying it. I mean why not dress and surprise the fans by interacting with them where it is safe enough from getting mobbed.

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Wow… a nested spoiler? That’shardcore

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So… unbelievably… envious.

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Didn’t Disney just release a new Pirates movie?
Still nice of him to have a laugh with some park visitors

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…then he got sloshed and starting singing the “Spongebob Squarepants” song.

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As a big fan of the PotC franchise: “neato!”

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