The biggest challenge for the theatrical Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was outdoing its prequels. While the movie did achieve this goal in terms of production budget, running time, and sheer density of special effects, it neglected the essentials -- story and character. Box office numbers argued the contrary, but many critics saw the film as the final nail in a coffin whose construction began in Pirates: Dead Man's Chest. As the conclusion of a widely successful trilogy, At World's End was not the kind of film to elicit responses like, "Save your money, just buy the DVD." It was, however, somewhat below audience expectations.

Taking its own history into account, the latest Pirates DVD has a clear purpose: to reveal director Gore Verbinski's original plan and vision for a film gone sadly astray. To his credit, this collection effectively conveys the passion and dedication that drove this film to completion in less than a year. While diehard fans will enjoy the bloopers and deleted scenes, there is something here for the cynic as well.

It is impossible to listen to the commentary or watch the scoring sessions without realizing that every contributor believed he was creating a work of art. Seeing the artistic process from start to finish, we can imagine what the film would have been like had the creators taken the same energy they channeled into special effects and dedicated it to the story as a whole.

Some of the most memorable features from the first Pirates DVD were the bloopers, and the first disk in the special edition of At World's End contains bloopers as well. While amusing, they, like so many other things in this film, are not nearly as funny as those in Curse of the Black Pearl.

The real treat arrives on the second disk, which features an eclectic mix of interviews, commentaries, and even a dash of historical material. The collection highlights the two newest cast members -- Keith Richards and Chow Yun-Fat. In two separate features, we get to know each actor a little better, as they interact on the set and with other cast members. The interviews provide various perspectives on pirating -- pirating as a rock star culture, and pirating as a last resort for the Chinese fisherman.

The only other actor to receive his own feature is Johnny Depp in "The Tale of Many Jacks." This revealingly titled clip focuses both on digital effects and on the effects that only an actor can produce. Depp offers his thoughts on Sparrow's split personality, while Verbinksi explains what he was trying to achieve in the scene. Despite his attempts to qualify his interpretation of Davy Jones' Locker, it still boils down to one word: weird.

Other scenes benefit from Verbinski's commentary, such as the short, deleted scene with Pintel and Ragetti. Here, and in the other cut scene with Sparrow and Barbossa, he explains underlying motivations or themes that audiences, caught up in the whirlwind plot, may not have noticed.

"The Pirate Maestro" and "Hoist the Colors" focus on Hans Zimmer's music, his inspiration, and the creative yet tedious process of film scoring. We delve deep into the creation stage of the film's opening song, discovering the meaning behind its ambiguous lyrics along the way.

In an effort to parallel the story with real-life pirates, the DVD includes the interactive section, "Inside the Brethren Court." While the very mention of a history lesson may turn some people off, the information is presented in a fast-paced, relevant way. One has the option to click on the pieces of eight that correspond with the nine pirate lords.

Most impressive of all, however, is the long feature, "Anatomy of A Scene." A detailed description of the film's most ambitious moment, the clip emphasizes the painstaking creation of the maelstrom battle, from building the sets to digitally creating the storm. As the actors, drenched with rain, act and reenact scenes on some of the largest sets in recent filmmaking history, Verbinski says, "Just take a moment to enjoy the fact that you will never make a film this big, ever again in your life."

The Pirates franchise seems to agree with that concept -- bigger, better, bolder, brighter. But beneath the surface, creating the film required the same delicate process that created the digital effects in the maelstrom scene. It takes something as small as a DVD to show how all the details coalesce into the bigger picture.
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