Ron Gilbert is the creator of adventure game masterpiece Monkey Island, and an irritable godfather of a generation of PC gamers, a generation that embraces yours truly. A generation that, when confronted with the Pirates of the Caribbean trailers, cheered raucously because we were finally getting our Monkey Island movie.

So I always wondered if the Grumpy Gamer himself thought the same thing. Today, I got my answer:

So, I'm looking through my neighbor's window with a pair of binoculars, trying to see the TV to figure out if they have HBO that I can steal when the latest trailer for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie [Dead Man's Chest] comes on and I'm thinking to myself, "Hey, I've seen this before... no... I've played this before... no... I've designed this before!" I'm thinking "This is the Monkey Island Movie!" Yeah, they kind of screwed up his beard, but that's LeChuck, and let's be honest, if I'd thought of the squid tentacles for a beard, I would have done that.

More after the jump, me hearties!

So I rush out to my mailbox like an six-year old hopped up on Pixy Sticks with a Pop Rocks chaser figuring there must be a big fat royalty check waiting for me. No such luck. Two overdue credit card bills and a flier from some guy offering to Trim My Hedges, which I'm sure is just an innuendo for Wash My Cars, and I think we all know what that means. I tuck the flier away so I'll know where to find it later and head back to the house.

I'm not worried. Disney will do the right thing.

Ghost pirates, a curse, a mysterious island, the plucky governor's daughter...these are all pirate movie generalisms, yes, but something about the way they were mixed and presented smelt strongly of monkeys. Island monkeys.

It's the little things, as well...Will, PotC's clumsily heroic lead, was distinctly like the blonde, well-meaning and enthusiastic Monkey Island star, Guybrush Threepwood. And he will be bearded in the second movie, as Guybrush was in the second game. And I will bet you an entire Father's Day beard-grooming gift set with special Squid Scraping attachments that the sparsity of said facial fuzz is a running joke through Dead Man's Chest, as it was in Monkey Island II.

But Gilbert is indeed, very grumpy. And the comments on his post indicate that he has not even seen the original, probably preferring to bitch about it being stolen directly from his brains and served up for unwashed audiences. And I am sympathic. But can't we all just roll around in the pirate pile together? Guybrush would have wanted it that way.

The Monkey Island Movie [The Grumpy Gamer]