The little-known story behind one of Disneyland's most recognizable ride songs

"One of Atencio's first major projects with Walt Disney Imagineering - WED Enterprises (for Walter Elias Disney), as it was known at the time - was Pirates of the Caribbean. In the mid-'60s when Atencio joined the Pirates team, the attraction was well underway, with the likes of fellow animators-turned-theme park designers Marc Davis and Claude Coats crafting many of its exaggerated characters and enveloping environments. Atencio's job? Make it all make sense by giving it a cohesive story."

"Atencio would not only figure it out but end up as the draftman of one of Disneyland's most recognizable songs, "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)." In the process, he was key in creating the template for the modern theme park dark ride, a term often applied to slow-moving indoor attractions. Such career twists and turns are detailed in a new book about Atencio, who died in 2017."

Xavier Atencio joined Walt Disney Imagineering in 1965 and worked on projects outside his comfort zone, including Pirates of the Caribbean. He translated animators' exaggerated characters and environments into a cohesive story and unexpectedly became a songwriter, co-writing 'Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)'. His background included animation credits on Fantasia, the Oscar-winning short Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, and stop-motion work in Mary Poppins. Atencio received minimal direction from Walt Disney on Pirates, who criticized earlier narration as stodgy, prompting Atencio to refine dialogue and storytelling and influence the development of the modern theme-park dark ride.

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