Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Pays Homage To A Beloved Disney Theme Park Ride

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This post contains spoilers for the first three episodes of "Star Wars: The Skeleton Crew."

"Star Wars" is famous for borrowing from other film franchises and paying homage to moments from movies outside a galaxy far, far away, but "Skeleton Crew" might have given fans the franchise's first specific homage to a ride from Disney Parks. 

"Skeleton Crew" tells the story of a group of kids from the mythical treasure planet of At Attin. They find an ancient pirate spaceship and accidentally set off into the stars, completely losing their way home in the process. So far, all of the scalawags they encounter have credit signs in their eyes when the kids' homeworld is mentioned, but none of the ruffians know how to get there since it's been wiped off the galactic maps. The entire situation reads a bit like Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island," but there are too many similarities to ignore between the situations the kids get themselves into at Port Borgo and a certain Disney theme park attraction.

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Port Borgo itself feels very much like the bustling Isla Tesoro found in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride that first opened in Disneyland park in 1967 and was later ported over to Walt Disney World in 1973. Isla Tesoro itself is also a reference to Stevenson's "Treasure Island." The port in the ride actually didn't get its name until it was updated to include Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow from the films looking for a mysterious map to a hidden treasure (another similarity to both "Treasure Island" and "Skeleton Crew"). 

The pirates of Port Borgo and Isla Tesoro in the ride are a rough and tumble crew, fighting and setting things ablaze and causing lots of problems. The scenes in the background of Port Borgo in "Skeleton Crew" play out in a way that let the audiences experience them the same way they would in a boat riding the attraction; pay attention to the pirates in the background the same way you would on the ride and you'll notice all kinds of stories playing out that you wouldn't notice otherwise. This approach amps up in the third episode, as Jod Na Nawood sneaks out with the kids escaping the jail cell, ending in a big confrontation. The kids are catalysts for the mischief and action, sure, but there is much more going on, and it has the same tongue in cheek hilarity and pirate-y tension that Pirates of the Caribbean has been offering to park-goers for almost sixty years.

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One moment in particular stands out as a direct, beat-for-beat homage to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. As the kids are captured and tossed into the brig in the second episode, we see it's a cave-style jail cell, much like the same iconic scene we've been sailing through in Pirates of the Caribbean for decades. On the ride, we're treated to a number of pirates trying to convince a dog to bring them the key to the cell to facilitate their escape. This moment is repeated in "Skeleton Crew" as the kids try to convince the rat they've procured from their pirate droid SM-33 to get the key for them as well. It's a great moment and evokes the same feelings of nostalgia from the ride, and it's exactly the sort of plan a group of children or drunken pirates would try to come up with. The pirates on the ride are forever stuck trying to convince the dog to help them escape, but for the kids, they find salvation in a man they think to be a Jedi, Jude Law's Jod Na Nawood.

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There's one more bit of Disney pirate reference that made its way into "Skeleton Crew" that's worth pointing out, especially since the subject of the reference also found his way into Disneyland (just on a different ride). There's no doubt the droid SM-33, voiced by Nick Frost, is a pirate. He only has one eye and a peg leg and he sounds like a cross between K-2SO and Long John Silver. But SM-33 is a very droidish spelling of "Smee." For those who didn't catch that, Smee is Captain Hook's first mate from "Peter Pan," an animated adaptation of which hit theaters in 1953. Naturally, "Peter Pan's Flight" is one of the most popular rides in Fantasy Land both at Disney Land and Disney World, and Mr. Smee features prominently at both.

It seems like the makers of "Skeleton Crew" are leaving no pirating stone unturned from the Disney parks in their inspiration for the show, and I really can't say as I blame them. The stuff they've been coming up with and mining for that material is fantastic and has translated into this show beautifully. I can't wait to see what they bring into the show next.

New episodes of "Skeleton Crew" hit Disney+ on Tuesday nights.