- "You'll recognize Cotton from the parrot he keeps at his side."
- ―Joshamee Gibbs
Cotton's Parrot was a blue and gold macaw owned by Cotton, a pirate who joined the crew of the Black Pearl, under Captain Jack Sparrow.
Biography
Early life
Cotton with his parrot at Shipwreck City.
At some point in its life, this blue-and-yellow Macaw would be owned by a pirate named Cotton, and would live in Shipwreck Cove by the 1730s. One night, he would be present, along with Cotton and a group of pirates, during the attempted auction of two wenches, Scarlett and Giselle. After accidentally shooting at the Pirate Code, a pirate named Mungard ordered the Code locked up and warned the crowd of pirates that if any of them speak a word of what occurred, he would have their tongues. It was then that Cotton and his parrot assured Mungard that mum's the word.[1]
However, Cotton ended up losing his tongue, most likely after spilling the beans about Mungard. Unable to speak, he would subsequently train his parrot to use a large number of phrases to essentially talk for him. How the mute Cotton achieved such a feat is unknown.
Jack Sparrow's crew
- "If you're going to let a parrot speak for you, at least find one that makes sense!"
- ―Jack Sparrow to Cotton
At some point, Cotton and his parrot joined the crew of the commandeered British Royal Navy vessel HMS Interceptor under Jack Sparrow. He had been hired by Joshamee Gibbs in Tortuga. As Sparrow examined the crew, he asked Cotton if he had the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger, but as Cotton could not talk his parrot had to answer for him. They sailed through a storm, during which Cotton, his parrot, and the other crewmen were soaked in the rain. He looked over the rail of the Interceptor into the sea as the ship passed through a dangerous passageway the next day. The parrot sang an eerie song as they sailed through the mist. They later arrived at their destination, Isla de Muerta, where Jack Sparrow and William Turner went into the island alone. Will later came out without Jack, but the crew kept to the Pirate's Code and went on without him. When the Black Pearl attacked the Interceptor, Cotton loaded and manned the cannons on the top deck as the Pearl chased their ship, with his parrot on his shoulder. The Interceptor later turned around to fight the Pearl and its crew, and the ships opened fire on each other. He and his parrot survived and was taken prisoner with the other crewmen. They were imprisoned, left in the command of two cursed pirates. However they were later freed from their cell by Elizabeth Swann and took over the Black Pearl. They refused to help her rescue Will and Jack from Isla De Muerta, they later rescued Jack from the gallows and he became captain once more.
The pirate crew had numerous exploits over the next year, though their most dangerous came when Davy Jones unleashed the Kraken to settle a debt owed by Jack. Jack ordered Cotton and the crew to set out for land to avoid the beast. The Black Pearl landed at Pelegosto Island and the crew were captured by the Pelegostos, the native cannibalistic tribe; the crew members consumed were made into two giant bone cages in which the surviving crew was kept, Cotton and several other crew members among them. His parrot had flown off and later met Will Turner. The crew within the two bone cages swung back and forth from the bridge where the cages were hung, finally grabbing hold of the roots and vines on the cliff side, beginning the climb up. With Will Turner's help, Cotton and the crew managed to escape, and Jack rendezvoused with them at the Pearl. Cotton's parrot returned to his master as they set off aboard the ship with the help of Pintel and Ragetti.
When the crew of the Flying Dutchman held back the Motley Crew, Palifico held a dagger to Cotton's throat, the parrot on his shoulder. Cotton and his parrot later joined Jack's quest to find the Dead Man's Chest, which took them to Tia Dalma's shack, and a run-in with Davy Jones. Jack then sailed the Pearl to Tortuga, where they had to gather ninety-nine souls to pay off Jack's debt with Jones, which lead to a confrontation with James Norrington who joined his crew for the quest. After the journey to Isla Cruces, Cotton and his parrot participated in the fierce battle against the Kraken after Jack failed to obtain the chest. He and his parrot were some of the few to survive the Kraken's attack on the Pearl, during which Captain Sparrow sacrificed himself to save his men.
At Tia Dalma's shack, he mourned Jack's death. Through his parrot, Cotton voiced his agreement to join the quest to World's End, endeavouring to bring Jack back from Davy Jones' Locker. Cotton and the others were surprised to discover their new captain would be Sparrow's old enemy, Hector Barbossa. The crew first infiltrated Sao Feng's bath house, hoping to steal the Mao Kun Map and acquire a ship and a crew. As his parrot remained with Tia Dalma in the streets of Singapore, Cotton and several others swam to the sewers, and started to drill through a gate to Sao Feng's boiler room. As they drilled, the noise was silenced by music played by Tia Dalma, Barbossa's monkey and Cotton's parrot. In an ensuing battle, the East India Trading company armada attacked the pirates. They ran up to the bathhouse to participate in the fight, which took them outside into the streets. Cotton hid inside a barrel, occasionally looking out and firing a rifle at the Company soldiers, while his parrot remained with Jack and Tia Dalma, activating several bombs and destroying a squad of Company soldiers about to execute several pirates. He and the other crewman were joined by a large amount of Chinese pirates as they boarded a new ship, the Hai Peng.
They sailed through an icy sea, eventually reaching the passage to the World's end; a massive waterfall. Cotton held onto the rigging as the Peng fell over the edge, and his parrot tried to fly off. They arrived at a beach in Davy Jones' Locker, where the Black Pearl appeared from a mountaintop, carried by Tia Dalma's crabs, with its captain atop the crow's nest. The crew lined up to be examined by Sparrow, who deemed Cotton appropriate to join him, as well as his parrot. Now that the crew had regained both Jack and the Pearl, they had to return to the living realm, but nobody aboard the ship could solve the riddles on the map. Jack, however, eventually discovered that they were to tip the ship to return to their own world. Jack and the crew rocked the ship by running from one side to another, eventually tipping it over and returning to their world. When the crew pulled pistols on each other, Jack the monkey pulled one on the parrot, who begged for parlay. As several crewmen rowed to an island and discovered the deceased Kraken, Cotton and his parrot remained on the ship under the command of Will Turner. Turner, however, lead a mutiny along with the Chinese pirates, and Cotton was held hostage. Sao Feng arrived aboard his flagship, the Empress, along with Lord Cutler Beckett of the Company, aboard the HMS Endeavour. Cotton and his parrot fought against the Company soldiers, and escaped aboard the Pearl. Cotton and his parrot was present during the Fourth meeting of the Brethren Court along with other members of Jack's crew.
As the East India Trading Company Armada arrived, Cotton's parrot flew away as he saw the size of the Company's fleet. Cotton survived the battle, and was reunited with his parrot when it flew back to him. After Barbossa's second mutiny against Jack, Cotton and his aboard remained in service aboard the ship, now under Barbossa. Soon, however, the Queen Anne's Revenge attacked the ship, and Captain Blackbeard used his magic sword to turn the Pearl against them, wrapping the rigging around the crew. Cotton was likely killed during the battle, but his parrot survived and was trapped in a bottle with the Pearl along with Jack the monkey. His further fate is unknown.
Personality and traits
- "Listen...if anyone should ask, tell them Will Turner went into the jungle in search of Jack Sparrow. Understand? I'm talking to a parrot."
"Aye, aye, sir!" - ―Will Turner and Cotton's Parrot
Cotton's Parrot was very loyal to Cotton and, like most parrots, was most often seen on his master's shoulder. The only known case where the parrot did not accompany Cotton was when facing Cutler Beckett's Armada.[2]
The parrot was known to use nautical catchphrases like "Don't eat me", "Shiver me timbers", "Dead men tell no tales" and "Walk the plank" for more complex ideas (in these particular cases, "You missed a spot on the deck" and "We don't like the job you're doing, Captain Jack."). "Wind in your sails!" was generally accepted to mean "Yes". The bird at times appeared to be more intelligent than many of the Black Pearl's crew members, to the point of giving Cotton orders occasionally. Another phrase the parrot said was "uh oh. Fire in the hole!" after Jack the Monkey lit a firework to blow up a firework factory.
Behind the scenes
- "Nobody knows the parrot's name, neither, so we just call it 'Cotton's parrot.' "
- ―Joshamee Gibbs to Jack Sparrow (first screenplay draft)
- Cotton's Parrot was portrayed by blue-and-gold Macaws Chip and Salsa on screen in The Curse of the Black Pearl and its sequels, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. One of the parrots appeared in the short film Tales of the Code: Wedlocked, but which one is currently unknown. Christopher S. Capp provided the parrot's voice in all three films and the At World's End video game, while James Arnold Taylor voiced the parrot in The Legend of Jack Sparrow.
- There was a deleted scene in The Curse of the Black Pearl in which during Jack Sparrow's attemtped execution at Port Royal, Cotton's Parrot was to defecate first on Mullroy's left shoulder and then on Murtogg's face. The scene must be taken off the film for being too madure.
- When Jack came in a longboat to the shores from the Black Pearl in Davy Jones' Locker, while everyone was running over to him, Cotton's Parrot said, "Hide the Rum!".
- In Terry Rossio's original script for Dead Men Tell No Tales, Cotton's Parrot, as well as Cotton himself, were present in the story.[3]
- Because Cotton's Parrot's was not seen during Dead Men Tell No Tales, it is possible that he died between films, likely of starvation for possible lack of food, a theory backed up by Jack the Monkey being immortal at the time. Alternatively, Sparrow may have simply taken the cork out of the bottle at some point, allowing it to fly out, or it may have remained below deck or flown away off-screen when the Black Pearl was restored to its original size.
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Appearances
- Tales of the Code: Wedlocked
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (First appearance)
- The Accidental Pirate!
- Revenge of the Pirates!
- The Capture of Jack Sparrow!
- Going Overboard!
- The Eye of Dispair!
- The Sails of Doom!
- The Black Skull!
- The Star of the Sea
- The Eyes Have It!
- The Return of Jack Sparrow
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Non-canonical appearance)
Sources
Note and references
- ↑ Tales of the Code: Wedlocked
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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