The Curse of the Black Pearl, indeed…

Image: Mttbme, Wikimedia (license)

His name was George, and he was a diehard employee of The Walt Disney Company. A welder by trade, George showed up for work every day, did his job, and made his co-workers smile. His dedication to his craft almost supersedes the fact that he didn’t exist. Tragically, George’s job requirements included climbing a set piece from the early days of the attraction. It was called The Burning City, and it stood high in the air. As George attempted to climb up to service the contraption, his tripped and fell to his death.

Alas, George was an amalgam of two different Disney construction workers who experienced tragedies during the early days of the park, neither of whom were stationed at the work site for Pirates of the Caribbean at Walt Disney World. The honesty between the lies is irrelevant to the myth, though. Twisters of truth remember George the welder as a single man who later became a spirit called the Ghost Pirate of the Caribbean.

Image: Disney

Disney cast members have offered their respects to George for decades now. They understand that if they fail to greet him over the PA system in the morning and at night, they’ll run the risk of incurring his wrath. George is equal parts friendly ghost and hostile spirit. People who befriend him will enjoy an easy work day. Those who fail to acknowledge him will suffer ride breakdowns, power outages, and even the occasional ride injury.

Basically, George receives the credit for every incident that occurs on Pirates of the Caribbean. Many current and former cast members relay personal anecdotes about weird things that happened on the ride that they believe are otherworldly in nature. In reality, this is a rickety old attraction that takes place in water in the dark. Strange things occur, and none of them involves a ghost whose name people don’t even remember correctly. On the plus side, it gives cast members something to look forward to each day as well as something to blame when things go wrong.

The “lost” Mickey Mouse cartoon

Image: Disney

Should you have the courage to google suicidemouse.avi, well, you’ll be in for a disappointment. It’s an elaborate hoax involving the mouse that started it all. Some enterprising viral video creator recognized that spinning the beloved icon into a dystopian victim would be brilliant years before Banksy borrowed the idea.

Mickey Mouse Goes to Hell was an early contender in the found footage genre. The premise was that an executive (in some versions, the archivist is noted film critic Leonard Maltin) discovered hidden footage on a previously released animation clip. The video only displayed the first three minutes of a nine minute production. Curious, he tried to watch the rest and basically wanted to gouge his eyes out by minute seven.

The clip’s audio alters around this point, evolving into a gurgling noise that sounds like someone drowning. After that, a screaming sound emerges. Meanwhile, an unholy version of Mickey Mouse appears onscreen. He has a wicked smile that is not at all Disney-friendly, and then his face gradually falls apart piece by piece. It’s obviously someone’s idea of a joke that frankly isn’t all that entertaining on either a psychological or humorous level. Still, if you want to investigate the story more, there’s a surprising amount of information out there about SuicideMouse.avi.

Don’t lose your head…

Image: Disney

Every parent warns their children of the dangers of amusement park rides. These warnings begin the instant their kid can pass the “You must be this tall to ride…” lines. The hope is that by instilling respect and a healthy dose of fear in their child, they’ll avoid any issues while on vacation at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Does a wives tale that provides a doomsday scenario for that philosophy help? That depends entirely on its extremity. In the case of Space Mountain, the rumor is so scary that it may frighten your child too much to relay it. That’s your call.

According to legend, a misbehaving boy managed to slide his legs out from under the safety harness, allowing him to stand up. As you know, the ride primarily takes place in the dark, so the kid couldn’t see the impending danger and, well, lost his head.

The story isn’t true, of course. Space Mountain doesn’t have that sort of danger intrinsic in its design. A person would have to work hard to find a way to get decapitated during the ride. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, though. Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, experienced this kind of incident in 1980. So, it’s a lie with the ring of truth. Having said that, coasters move at such high velocity that collisions can cause loss of limb, as occurred at Alton Towers in the summer of 2015. As such, this myth works as a cautionary tale for misbehaving children, assuming they don’t suffer nightmares after hearing the story.

People always joke that the song makes them want to kill themselves…

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An unexpected number of myths involve It’s a Small World. I suspect it’s because some folks despise the song so much that it elevates their desire to perform character assassination on the entire attraction as well as Disney as a company. Whatever the explanation, the It’s a Small World stories strain credulity.

The first of them falls in the haunted spirits category. A woman who took a boat ride in 1999 came away with a disturbing memory and an even more chilling photograph. She claims that her ride suddenly stopped when the entirety of It’s a Small World shut down. It was the type of breakdown that required cast members to turn on the lights and tell guests that they were going to be extracted from the ride immediately.

Image: Disney

One of the occupants being rushed out of the building grabbed her camera, sensing something unusual occurring. Remember that this was the age before the ubiquity of smartphone photography. People had to wait weeks to develop film, and when she finally got her vacation photos back, one them was shocking.  According to this post on Imgur, a child had hung itself in the rafters and she had unintentionally recorded it for posterity’s sake.

Spoilers: it’s not even a little bit true. The ride is virtually nothing but dolls that are child-like in appearance. There was no report of a death at any Disney theme park during this timeframe. And the blurry picture shot from below is a strong hint that somebody snapped a horrid picture that they’d now instantly delete off their phone. Since this was 1999, however, it became a scandalous turn of events that proved that a child haunted the rafters of It’s a Small World.

And that’s the LEAST weird of the two myths about this attraction…

Image: Disney

Okay, we’re about to take this article to plaid. Please don’t shoot the messenger for this nonsense. There are people who believe that It’s a Small World’s dolls come to life at night. Imagine Toy Story as an amusement park attraction, and you get the gist. If you’re anything like me, the mere thought of that will haunt your dreams for months.

All of those creepy dolls don’t need power to operate. After cast members leave at night, the characters re-animate and throw a party, presumably talking about all the annoying humans who rode through It’s a Small World that day. Perhaps Walt Disney’s ghost or the immortal Walt Disney himself even visits to hang out with them. Is it okay if we blend multiple myths together at once like that?

Believe it or not, the story can and does get weirder. Some people aren’t content with the concept of living dolls who act as statues during the day before moving around at night. They had to plus the urban legend even farther. Their belief is that the cast members who loved It’s a Small World return there when they die. Yes, the creepy dolls are possessed by the spirits of former Disney cast members, and they are the ones who enjoy the scary doll dance after park closing. Let’s all agree never to ride or think about It’s a Small World ever again.