As the film opens, a young girl is standing at the bow of an 18th century English-flag sailing ship singing, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me," the ever familiar theme to The Pirates of the Caribbean, arguably the most popular attraction to ever open at Disneyland park in Southern California.

From that point on, filmgoers are treated to a full platter of daring do including evil pirates, ghosts, sword-wielding skeletons, mysterious hidden islands, cursed treasure, battles at sea and every other thing one might expect from a bit of swashbuckling fluff.

The special effects are stunning. The sword duels are breathtaking. The battles at sea, with cannons blazing, are incredible. But the film isn't vicious. This is a presentation from the Walt Disney Company, after all. So, like the pirates in the Disneyland ride on which "Pirates of the Caribbean, the Curse of the Black Pearl" is based, the pirates come off much more as rollicking scallywags than murderous thugs.

The film follows the adventures of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), a lad who was rescued from a ship that had been attacked by cutthroats wearing a strange golden medallion. He, of course, doesn't know he's the son of Bootstrap Turner, a member of the crew of the Black Pearl, the fastest and most notorious pirate ship to ply the Spanish main. Nor does he know that the medallion his notorious father sent him is the key to a dreadful curse. In fact, he doesn't know about the medallion at all, since it was taken from him on the day he was rescued by young Elizabeth Swan (Kiera Knightly), the Port Royal governor's young daughter. But several years later, when they've both come of age and Will has become secretly smitten with the lovely Elizabeth, it all comes to light. An accident involving an overly tight corset plunges Elizabeth into the sea, exposing the medallion and calling the Black Pearl. This, of course, neatly coincides with the timely arrival of Captain Jack Sparrow (played to the hilt by Johnny Depp) who attempts to commandeer a ship in order to follow his mutinous former crew and regain possession of the Black Pearl. But he is waylaid when he rescues Elizabeth, and then befriends Will when the pirates kidnap her, believing it's her blood – and not Will's – that, along with the medallion, will release them from the curse of the Aztec gold they stole that has turned them all into moldering ghostly skeletons.

From there on it's a seesaw as everyone is captured, rescued, and captured again. Ships are stolen, chased, recovered and sword duels and cannon battles abound. In one of the most memorable scenes in the film, Sparrow and Elizabeth, having been marooned on a desert island, dance around a rescue bonfire singing the familiar theme to the Disneyland ride.

Depp, in fact, literally steals the show. He plays the pirate Captain not only with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but he plays it with so much comedic panache you'd have thought it was the role he was born to play.

While "Pirates of the Caribbean, the Curse of the Black Pearl" abounds with action, it is totally lacking in menace and threat. The good guys are barely discernible from the bad guys, there's never a convincing hint that the heroes are ever in real jeopardy, and even the ghostly skeletons – who are only seen in their tattered remains under the light of the full moon – are mere, albeit dazzling, set dressing.

But the main thing the film has going for it is the same element that has made its namesake the most popular attraction in the history of Disneyland. It's just plain fun to watch.

For those who have never been to Disneyland, the Pirates of the Caribbean is a cruise through a world populated by rollicking, realistic, animatronic buccaneers. It begins along a darkened New Orleans bayou that leads unwary passengers to the mouth of a mysterious tunnel and then down a waterfall into a ghostly cavern inhabited by the skeletal remains of ships and pirates. All this leads to a cavern filled to the top with piles of stolen gold and jewels and a ghostly warning…"You've seen the cursed treasure, ye know where it be hidden. Now proceed at yer own risk…ye may be able to pass this way again…dead men tell no tales!"

The cavern opens into a full on battle between a marauding pirate ship and the guns of a Spanish fort. The voyage then continues into a Caribbean island town being looted and burned by fully animated pirates who auction the town's women, dunk the mayor in a well to force him to tell them where the town's gold is hidden and exchange gunfire with one another while sitting atop powder kegs. All along the way, as the pirates steal, chase townswomen, swill rum and set fire to everything, they constantly sing the ride's theme song, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me."

A part of watching the feature film version that's really fun is picking out scenes that were obviously derived from the ride. And believe me, they are all there, from the drunken pirate sleeping with the pigs to the skeletal pirate drinking rum and the pirates in jail trying to use a juicy bone to attract a dog with the keys in its mouth. If you've never been through Pirates of the Caribbean, you'll never notice any of this. If you have, it will seem like déjà vu.