"Don't you see?! This is all the doing of one man: JACK SPARROW!"
— The Auctioneer
Tales of the Code: Wedlocked is a 2011 Short Film set in the Pirates of the Caribbean universe. More specifically, it is a prequel of sorts to The Curse of the Black Pearl, detailing some things that happened before the film and had consequences on it.
On Shipwreck Island, prostitutes Scarlett (Lauren Maher) and Giselle (Vanessa Branch) find out they have been duped, as the pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) separately promised them both marriage but is nowhere to be seen. Instead, they are both put on auction before a crowd of horny pirates.
Tales of the Code: Wedlocked provides examples of:
- All Men Are Perverts: The crowd of pirates attending the auction with the two women as the "properties" to be sold are practically drooling over them.
- Auction: Scarlett and Giselle are put on auction for the buyer to do whatever he wants with them. That scene is straight out of the Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland ride.
- Black Comedy: The short film is about women who are put on auction to be sold as sex slaves and someone who loses his tongue, and it still bears the classic Pirates of the Caribbean humorous tone (which is often pretty dark anyway).
- Colon Cancer: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Tales of the Code: Wedlocked"
- The Dreaded: Captain Teague doesn't show up, but once the Pirate Code is shot, it's pretty clear he'll want to kill those who did it, as the Mass "Oh, Crap!" shows. You don't mess with the Code, as Teague demonstrated in At World's End.
- Homage: The auction scene is a deliberate homage to the auction happening in the original Disney Theme Parks Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The pirate named Mungard accidentally shoots at the Pirate Code. Cue the Oh, Crap! from everyone in the auction room.Unnamed pirate: Captain Teague will have his head!
- Prequel: The short is set a few days before Jack Sparrow reached Port Royal in The Curse of the Black Pearl, and details a few things about it:
- The exact reason why Scarlett and Giselle slapped Jack Sparrow on the isle of Tortuga.
- The reason why Sparrow's boat is on the verge of sinking when he reaches Port Royal.
- How Cotton lost his tongue.
- Revenge: Scarlett pulls out some nails in Jack Sparrow's small vessel for duping her, which makes it take on water slowly once Jack sets sail to Port Royal.
- Runaway Bride: Gender flipped. Jack Sparrow separately told Scarlett and Giselle that he would marry them. Both women end up duped and put on auction to become Sex Slaves, and Jack is nowhere to be found.
- Stock Footage: Jack Sparrow appears in the short through a reused footage from Curse of the Black Pearl, showing the near-sinking state of his little boat as a consequence of the Runaway Bride scheme he pulled on Scarlett and Giselle.
- Tongue Trauma: The short explains how Cotton lost his tongue: Mungard swears he will cut the tongue of anyone who says a word about him shooting the Pirate Code. Cotton apparently didn't hold his tongue...
- Truer to the Text: In comparison to the sequels that rarely reference the ride, this short is pretty much a Whole-Plot Reference to the auction scene.
- Verbed Title: The subtitle, as a reference to the weddings for the runaway groom.
