The Curse of Monkey Island



"I've sailed the seas from Trinidad to Tortuga and I've never seen anything like it! The engagement ring I gave Elaine has a terrible pirate curse on it. LeChuck is behind it, I'm sure. I should have known that nothing good could come out of that evil zombie's treasures. And if that's not bad enough, the clairvoyant I met in the mangrove swamp told me that if I am to break the curse and save Elaine, I will have to die!"

- Excerpted from The Memoirs of Guybrush Threepwood: The Monkey Island Years

The third game in the Monkey Island series, The Curse of Monkey Island was released in 1997, six years after the previous installment, LeChuck's Revenge. With two of the three fathers of the series, Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman, no longer working for Lucas Arts, and the third, Tim Schafer, being busy with other projects, no one was really around to explain the infamous ambiguous ending of LeChuck's Revenge, so the company decided to go with a Cuckoo Nest interpretation of it.

Curse starts off with Guybrush, adrift in a bumper car after escaping LeChuck's spell and his "Carnival of the Damned", arriving in the harbor of Plunder Island, just in time to save the island (and Elaine) from attack by LeChuck and his undead pirates. LeChuck is slain yet again, and Guybrush proposes to Elaine using a ring he found in the hold of LeChuck's ship. Unfortunately, said ring turns out to be cursed, and Elaine is turned into a golden statue. Guybrush's new mission is to lift the curse on Elaine and return her to normal (and defeat LeChuck again when the evil pirate once again comes back from the dead, this time as a fiery demon).

This game marks Lucas Arts' final use of the SCUMM engine. This game also marks the first appearance of Murray, the franchise's Ensemble Darkhorse.

This game provides examples of:
"Fat Pirate: Hey! What d'ya know? I really AM big-boned!"
 * Action Girl: Elaine Marley is definitely one, if her Blasting It Out of Their Hands moment below is anything to go by.
 * And Starring: The first credit after the main title of this game says, "STARRING: Dominic Armato as Guybrush Threepwood".
 * Apothecary Alligator: The Voodoo Lady has a stuffed alligator whose tongue you have to pull to summon her.
 * Appease the Volcano God: Parodied. There is a lactose-intolerant volcano god tended by a tribe of vegetarian cannibals. Naturally Guybrush has to mess with the sensitive volcano. How? Blessed Are the Cheesemakers.
 * All Balloons Have Helium: One puzzle requires a helium balloon and bubblegum.
 * Amusement Park of Doom: The Carnival of the Damned
 * Badass Bookworm: Averted. Bloodnose the Pirate tries to play himself off as this, but he's utterly pathetic. That said he does have a gun, forcing you to talk him into defeat.
 * Bag of Spilling:
 * Guybrush begins the game with only one item in your inventory: a pair of helium filled balloons. Presumably these are the same balloons acquired in the endgame of Monkey Island 2, but everything else from that game has been lost.
 * Midway through the second chapter as well: Guybrush gets swallowed by a snake, and has to collect a wide variety of items inside the snake's belly before finding one that'll help him escape... after which the snake vomits Guybrush into a quicksand pit, which sucks almost all of Guybrush's recently discovered loot right through his pants.
 * BFG: The Destructo-Matic T47 Armor-Piercing Carnage-Delivery System with Auto-Loading and Fax Modem.
 * Bilingual Bonus: When Guybrush poses as "El Pollo Diablo," he has dialogue options in Spanish or English.
 * Not QUITE a bonus, as the Spanish options are simply translations (albeit good ones) of the English options. Dominic even gives them proper pronunciation and emphasis.
 * Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Happens in the intro, when LeChuck raises his sword to kill Guybrush and Guybrush's future-wife Elaine shoots the sword out of LeChuck's hand.
 * Added bonus for A) Firing from the fort which was a good 50 meters away. B) Using a musket (Though not really an option) which are notorious for their poor accuracy at range. And C) Blowing out the smoke from the barrel.
 * Bound and Gagged: Wally and Elaine.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall:
 * In Part II, even though it's always daytime in Puerto Pollo, the clock tower at the Long John Silver Center for the Performing Arts is a real-time system clock that is built in for your computer, telling you at what time you played the game and keeping track of your current, local civil time. At each hour, the clock chimes in a bit of LeChuck's Theme followed by the chime of the hour number, and about 30 minutes after each hour, the same bit of LeChuck's theme plays, but without the chime of the hour number. Even interesting is that when Guybrush examines the clock tower, he will say what current time will be in the Caribbean Standard Time in hours, minutes and seconds, whether in morning, afternoon and night, acting like a speaking clock on the phone at the time of day service. Complete with "Beep."
 * Also, when Guybrush speaks with Palido Domingo and asks him how long he's been lying in Brimstone Beach trying to get a tan, Palido will tell him he's been there since seven months prior to the current month and date on your computer clock. If you asked him in August, for example, he'll say, "Since January." Ask him in January, however, and he'll not only say, "Since June," but he will also wish Guybrush a Happy New Year! Weird!
 * "It just occurred to me that mixing medicine and alcohol is a really stupid and possibly lethal thing to do. If I were a real person instead of a lovable, inept cartoon character with the potential for a few more sequels... I wouldn't even consider it. Skoal!"
 * "I didn't think you could die in LucasArts adventure games. The developers must be trying something different"
 * Brick Joke: Early on in the story, Elaine is about to punch Guybrush when she suddenly turns to gold. Guess what happens the instant she's returned to normal.
 * Also, throughout the game there's some instances where Guybrush will attempt a distraction by yelling "Look! A three-headed monkey!", and Guybrush even lampshades it with 'I knew it'd turn up sooner or later!'
 * At one point, you have the opportunity to read a poster left by the Plunder Island Naturalist Society that teaches you the word "pappapisshu" (native Plunder Islander for "yowch"). If you do this, Guybrush will use the word instead of "yowch" for the rest of the game. Don't read it, and he'll continue to say "yowch" instead.
 * Not just Guybrush. Everyone.
 * Buried Alive: Invoked by Guybrush to access a crypt. In a Continuity Nod he encounters Stan in said crypt, who was trapped inside a coffin by Guybrush in the previous game.
 * But Thou Must: Guybrush joins a poker game with a group of pirates who are obviously going to cheat, and no matter what he picks will say "Sure".
 * In the Crypt, you get multiple ways to say "no", and a single "yes" response, but Guybrush will still say "no".
 * He is asked early on by the Voodoo Lady if he wants to see pictures of some voodoo children. All of the selectable responses are of him being horrified and loathing it, but he will always say "Perhaps...later."
 * Captain Color Beard: Blondebeard.
 * Coincidental Accidental Disguise: Tar + feathers = El Pollo Diablo
 * Comedy As a Weapon: The results of sword fights are based entirely on insults and puns.
 * Continuity Nod: There's a pair of Easter eggs that reference the first game, as well as a call-back to the joke about Guybrush looking more like a flooring inspector than a pirate.
 * Conveniently Placed Sharp Thing: Parodied.
 * Cooking Duel: Guybrush must defeat Van Helgen in a banjo duel in order to recruit him. (He has to cheat, of course...)
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: In a puzzle where you have to get out of a locked tomb, Murray threatens Mort with this. What punishment, you ask? "I will hide your keys beneath the cushions of your upholstered furniture, and nevermore will you be able to find socks that match!" All in a sinister voice one would expect to hear one use when threatening to destroy the world unless their demands are met.
 * Cut His Heart Out With a Spoon: This is most of Murray's dialogue.
 * Dead Mans Hand: If Guybrush keeps losing against King André and then looking at the losing hands, one of the random comments he'll make is "Aces and eights... that can't be good."
 * Death By Despair: Minnie 'Stronie' Goodsoup died of a broken heart after her fiancee left her at the altar.
 * Did Not Do the Research: The Caber Toss is a contest of how straight the log can be made to fall in relation to the participant ("Twelve O'Clock" being a perfect score) after doing a single flip, rather than sheer distance as Haggis McMutton claims. That Guybrush could defeat Haggis by replacing his own caber with a rubber tree log and causing it to bounce out of frame is fairly banal. Then again Haggis claims he will join Guybrush by virtue of his apparent strength rather than actually being beaten in a fair game.
 * Don't Try This At Home: Before downing a spiked drink, Guybrush breaks the fourth wall long enough to remind players that mixing medicine and alcohol is a stupid and potentially lethal thing to do.
 * Dramatic Landfall Shot: Played with in the intro movie.
 * Ear Worm: The main theme is this in-universe. It even drove most of the crew of the Obsessive-Compulsivo to suicide.
 * Easier Than Easy: Like in the previous game, the game has a lite mode with many puzzles dummied out. Megamonkey is the normal mode.
 * Everythings Better With Chickens: In this game especially. The very name Puerto Pollo, capital of Plunder Island, takes ruthless advantage of pollo being an Inherently Funny Words that just happens to be the name (in Spanish) for the inherently funny animal.
 * Exact Words: The hangover cure must contain "the hair of the dog that bit you". In this case they mean actual hair from a dog. And it must bite you.
 * Failed a Spot Check: In the introduction, a sea-stranded Guybrush mentions several things he could really do with right now, and exactly everything he mentions floats by a few feet away. Moments later, he looks up from writing in his diary to find he's floated into the center of an enormous battle.
 * Faux Death: Guybrush fakes his death with a combination of alcohol and a homemade hangover cure. Twice. At least. Insurance Fraud ensues
 * The Ferry Man: There is a Lost Welshman who needs to be summoned by the lighthouse's light; once he appears, he sometimes eats a sandwich, yet when Guybrush speaks with him, he needs a compass so that he can send Guybrush to Skull Island.
 * Feuding Families: The Goodsoups and the VanSalads.
 * Fission Mailed: "Funny. I didn't think you could die in LucasArts adventure games. The developers must be trying something different"
 * Fluffy the Terrible: Apparently, "the name pirates fear the most" is Edward "Snugglecakes" Van Helgen.
 * Fortune Teller: Madame Xima.
 * Glove Slap: The way to invoke a duel.
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: Played with in this game, making it the only game to get an "Everyone" rating, even though the word "hell" as a place is mentioned a few times (it does say, either in the instruction manual or on the back of the box cover art, that LeChuck's Beard of Evil is made of "pure demonic heckfire").
 * Got Me Doing It: In the pirate song, one of the dialogue options will result in Guybrush himself adding a stanza. His expression when the crew breaks into refrain indicates he definitely didn't mean to.
 * Grave Humour: Several puzzles are based on faking the death and crypts so...
 * The Gunslinger: Elaine, Edward Van Helgen, and even timid little Wally are very quick on the draw.
 * Hair of the Dog That Bit You: This is one of the literal ingredients in a hangover cure!
 * Hand in The Hole: Parodied.
 * In general, and specifically a parody of a Hand in The Hole scene in The Dig, which actually did require the solution Guybrush jokingly exclaims.
 * Harmless Villain: The dread pirate Bloodnose.
 * Hideous Hangover Cure: An egg, some pepper, and the hair of the dog that bit you.
 * Homage: Naval battles and sword duels between the captains directly refer to Sid Meier's Pirates!.
 * I Am Big Boned: There is one scene when two pirates look at themselves as newly-formed skeletons:

"Guybrush: That diamond belongs in a museum!
 * I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Blood Island, Skull Island, Carnival of the Damned.
 * Interface Screw: After Guybrush consumes a spiked drink, the colors and sound start to get... weird.
 * Island Base: Skull Island.
 * Yeah, but if you sorta squint and turn your head...
 * It Belongs in A Museum: Guybrush can say this to King André regarding the diamond:

André: So do Postimpressionist paintings, Mister Threepwood. So do Postimpressionist paintings.

Guybrush: What the heck is THAT supposed to mean?

André: One day... you will understand."

"Mr. Fossey: [irritated] AGAIN with the sneaking on board the ship! I don't know how or why you came back on board... but the next time you walk the plank will be your last!"
 * Jedi Mind Trick: Guybrush can do this on the Cabaña Boy who is keeping him from getting into the Brimstone Beach Club.
 * Lava Is Boiling Kool Aid: The barbeque.
 * Also the volcano itself. Apparently it's safe enough to stand precariously above it to toast marshmallows.
 * Least Rhymable Word: "We'll surely avoid scurvy if we all eat an orange."
 * Em... Door-hinge...?
 * Lighthouse Point: Spooky one on Blood Island.
 * Make It Look Like an Accident: In Monkey Island 2 Rum Rogers Sr. died in a bathub thanks to his habit of bathing while eating toast. In Curse Lechuck reveals that he killed him there and made it look like an accident.
 * Man in A Kilt: Haggis McMutton.
 * Marilyn Maneuver: Again, Haggis McMutton, when his kilt starts getting blown upward in a windy storm at the beginning of Part IV, and he presses his kilt back down.
 * Murphy's Bed: It had already claimed at least one victim...
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Madame Xima.
 * Mythology Gag:
 * Examining the crack in the Goodsoup crypt causes Guybrush to pop-up from the inaccessable stump of The Secret of Monkey Island in Melee Island (the one with the often misunderstood joke Insert Disk #absurd_number). The original -now crude by 1997- EGA graphics and SMI-music are used and Guybrush mentions that he feels like he’s been here before, maybe in a dream. Luckily he can't exit to the other side, because he isn't aware that a killing horde is in his way.
 * Interacting ad-nauseam with the beach with the sharks will eventually transport Guybrush to the underwater idol Easter Egg from The Secret of Monkey Island in time to watch his own Have a Nice Death unique moment.
 * The Name Is Bond James Bond: Guybrush can introduce himself to King André this way, either under his own name or other aliases; but no matter which other aliases he chooses, André will know Guybrush's name anyway by calling him "Mister Threepwood".
 * The Napoleon: Wally tries to be one of these but isn't quite successful.
 * Nice Job Breaking It Hero: The cursed ring Guybrush gives to Elaine. Guybrush spends four acts to undo his own action.
 * Noodle Incident: Guybrush reveals he has a fear of porcelain (which is something of a running gag throughout the rest of the game) and never explains why other than that it's "a long story".
 * Fans speculated that it was because he had a porcelain vase smashed over his head during the off-screen fight with Shinetop in the first game. Sadly, Lucas Arts shot down that theory.
 * Not so sad, as such speculation ignored Guybrush's neutral reactions to porcelain in Elaine's room in Monkey Island 2.
 * What exactly happened between LeChuck's Revenge and Curse?
 * If you try to combine the dog hair with the scissors, Guybrush will mention he's avoided dog grooming due to an incident with his aunt's poodle. It's never further elaborated on.
 * Making it a Poodle Incident?
 * Not Even Bothering With the Accent: The Lost Welshman.
 * Oh God With the Verbing: If the player doesn't have Guybrush saw off the plank the first time he boards the Sea Cucumber, and then gets walked off the plank, he will climb on board the ship after sawing off the plank and get this exchange after monkeys surround him again:

"You say you're nasty pirates,
 * Parasol Parachute: Landing in the cave. Else he'd fall, crash with the rocks and the bottom and splash on the water ...just to surface at the shore seconds later to try again.
 * Pig Latin: Cruff to King André: "Ix-nay on the evil an-play."
 * The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything:
 * This game has pirates roaming the seas and plundering other ships; unlike the previous stories there is not an external force (LeChuck, Largo) scaring the grounded sailors.
 * The trope is lampshaded by Guybrush during The Mutiny song A Pirate I Was Meant To Be

Scheming, thieving, bad bushwhackers?

From what I've seen I tell you,

You're not pirates! You're just slackers!"

"Lost Welshman: Lost for years in the mist. Oh how I hate that blasted mist.
 * Poke the Poodle:
 * Dread Pirate Bloodnose (also known as Wally B. Feed) "drinks milk straight from the carton!"
 * Murray "I will hide your keys beneath the cushions of your upholstered furniture, and NEVERMORE will you be able to find socks that match! "
 * Portrait Painting Peephole: Guybrush looks through the blank eyeholes of a painting and manages to convince the hotel landlord that he's a distant relative because he has the same eyes as the guy in the painting.
 * Powder Trail: Part of a puzzle on Plunder Island.
 * Punny Name Tons of them: The Goodsoups, the VanSalads...
 * Quicksand Sucks: Subverted, as Guybrush doesn't totally sink in it, just remains stuck up to his waist.
 * But it does suck all the cool stuff he found out of his pants, which is apparently a rather odd sensation.
 * Hang out long enough, though, and that chicken on the left starts to go under.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Guybrush's unfortunate encounter with a snake.
 * Riding Into the Sunset:
 * Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Guybrush is made Walk the Plank but avoids falling into the sea. Lechimp remarks "That's odd, I didn't hear any splash" . Guybrush quickly reacts and utters a loud SPLASH!! for reassurance.
 * Shout Out:
 * The title of Part 4, "The Bartender, the Thieves, His Aunt, and Her Lover", is a spoof on the film title, The Cook the Thief His Wife And Her Lover.
 * Also, the title of Part 5, "Kiss of the Spider Monkey", is a spoof on the title of Manuel Puig's 1973 novel, Kiss of the Spider Woman.
 * Named After Somebody Famous: Mr. Fossey, who hears voices in his head and interacts with the monkeys at Danjer Cove, is named after American zoologist Dian Fossey, who is known for saving the mountain gorillas from extinction and from poachers in Rwanda, and who met her sudden, untimely demise on December 26, 1985. Most of her life is described in her 1983 bestselling book, Gorillas in The Mist, most of which was made into a motion picture adaptation 5 years later, with Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey.
 * There's a special scene after the credits, in which
 * When Guybrush uses his Ventriloquism skills with Captain LeChimp he does a Captain Kirk / William Shatner impersonation, hams, random speech rhythm etc. LeChimp's (a gorilla) golden and purple attire deliberately resembles a Starfleet uniform.
 * When Guybrush tells the Lost Welshman I'm not afraid, he replies You will be... you will be. The dialogue is lifted from Luke and Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back.
 * Guybrush introduces himself to King André in the surname-firstname-surname style of James Bond with a Sean Connery-like accent.
 * A later conversation choice references a famous line from the Bond film Goldfinger, with Guybrush asking Do you expect me to talk? and André replying No Mr. Threepwood, I expect you to buy.
 * Mort has a book titled Zombies Ate My Neighbors
 * Playing with the lights in the theatre enough will result in a Sam and Max illumination on the stage
 * In Blondbeard's fried chicken restaurant, there is a skeleton that looks like Manny Calavera and he has a button that says "Ask me about Grim Fandango".
 * Exiting and entering the crypt an absurd amount of times in a row rewards you with an unsettling Easter Egg; a protagonist from The Dig being devoured by a spider.
 * The banjo duel is a family friendly Homage to Deliverance.
 * Guybrush is still "selling these fine leather jackets"
 * Shout Out to Shakespeare:
 * A character decides to rewrite various Shakespeare plays to better suit the local pirates' tastes, mangling not only famous Shakespeare quotations but entire plotlines, resulting in lines such as "Wherefore art thou treasure, Romeo?", "Spot, ye blasted dog, get out of me bloomin' garbage! Out, Damned Spot!!" and "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him...and his two pals!", the latter spoken while juggling three skulls (one of them being Murray, of course).
 * Alas Poor Yorick: If you try to use Murray, Guybrush will say, "Alas, I can't use Murray with that"
 * Spiritual Successor: Ghost Piratesof Vooju Island
 * Taken for Granite: Elaine.
 * Take That: This subtle... or maybe not so subtle jab:

Guybrush: Really? I like mist. I think it's pretty.

Lost Welshman: Well SURE, mist is pretty! But EGAD is it dull."

"Guybrush: This makes the drink oh so much more appealing."
 * Tampering With Food and Drink: At one point in the game you are required to drug yourself by mixing hangover medicine with alcohol.

"Guybrush: No, honest! I WAS dead for a really long time!
 * Tar and Feathers: Guybrush is tarred and feathered by monkey crew members of a pirate ship. He later uses this to pose as El Pollo Diablo, a giant chicken who has terrorized the area.
 * Tarot Troubles: "I've got five Death cards. That can't be good."
 * That Reminds Me of a Song: A Pirate I Was Meant To Be
 * Which actually turns into a pseudo-puzzle, where you have to stop the pirates, who all rhyme on a dime, from singing by feeding them the line "We'll surely avoid scurvy if we all eat an orange."
 * Though, really, anyone who skips straight to that line as soon as it pops up just doesn't get the premise of the game.
 * The Spanish (or any other foreign language) version of the game doesn't have the pirate song segment. It skips directly to sea navigation.
 * The Three Trials: Find a map, a ship, and a crew in the second act. A ring, a diamond and hand lotion in the fourth act. Each object demands a lengthy expedition and perilous adventure - yes, even the hand lotion.
 * Together in Death: One of the game's puzzles involves reuniting two dead lovers (a ghost and a skeleton, respectively). When the heartbroken ghost discovers that her lover had never intended to abandon her, their spirits are shown reuniting and then vanishing happily together.
 * Tonight Someone Dies: The game really, really wants the player to believe that Guybrush is going to kick the bucket, not only by having the Voodoo Lady tell him he's going to die on Blood Island, but also with the fortune teller, who deals him five Death cards.
 * Unexplained Recovery: Discussed only by Guybrush:
 * Unexplained Recovery: Discussed only by Guybrush:

Stan: And you just "got better?"

Guybrush: Well, yes."

"Guybrush Threepwood: If I gave you your arm back, what would you do with it?
 * Un Paused: Elaine is gearing up to punch Guybrush right before
 * Variable Mix: iMuse at its finest. Depending on the interlocutor the background music would segue smoothly into a remixed version; the Barbery Coast theme would gain an accompaniment of accordion when talking to Captain Rene Rottingham, and when on the Sea Cucumber, steel guitar, steel drum, and atmospheric seagulls would be added to a more upbeat version of the Sea Cucumber theme when Mr. Fossie came to harass you
 * Verbal Backpedaling: One exchange between the hero and the villain:

Murray, The Mighty Demonic Skull: I'd terrorize the South Seas! I'd torture the living! I'd demolish the... er...

[Beat]

Murray: What I meant to say was I'd use it to pet kittens.

Guybrush: *(Laugh)* Nope. You blew it.

Murray: Drat."

"Guybrush: You're a madman!
 * Viewers Are Geniuses: One of the most important puzzles in the game hinges on the player knowing that alcohol and medicine should not be mixed under any circumstances. While for most people this is a no-brainer, younger players are a lot less likely to know that this is a bad idea since, you know, they don't drink alcohol.
 * Violation of Common Sense. "Violation of Common Sense, Part III": As expected. Guybrush's lines about mixing medicine and alcohol provide the quote for the trope, right below Voltaire.
 * Walk Don't Swim: Guybrush does this in one of the Easter Egg rooms.
 * What Happened to The Mouse: Wally's fate. This trope MAY have been invoked intentionally, since Guybrush makes a point of saying that he needs to save Wally and all of the monkey slaves (but then the theme park explodes). It's hard to say though, because other stuff clearly WAS cut out due to Executive Meddling.
 * Wheel of Pain: Turned by monkeys.
 * With This Ring... Guybrush invokes Finagles Law; he proposes Elaine with an expensive looking diamond ring he just got out of LeChuck's vault, the ring turns out to be cursed and turns Elaine into a golden statue. To break the curse he has to get a ring more expensive than the cursed one and put it in Elaine's hand.
 * A Winner Is You:.
 * The X of Y
 * You And What Navy?: Guybrush can say this as one of his options to Wally to talk him into defeat when he threatens to shoot our hero.
 * You Fight Like a Cow: As you'd expect from the franchise that named the trope, the Insult Swordfighting minigame returns...but with a twist: Because the fights take place at sea, the comebacks have to rhyme with the insults.
 * You're Insane: There is a scene when smuggler King André believes that the Goodsoup Family Diamond and its energy flowing though it is the key to his power, and you can choose this:

André: Am I mad? Am I? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Is it madness to sit in a cave at the top of a deserted island, accumulating vast amounts of gold and jewels and stuffed animals, stockpiling plunder from across the Caribbean and passing the savings on to you? Is that madness? Or GENIUS?!?

Guybrush: [shrugs] Good point. I take it back.

André: I'm not crazy -- my prices are!"


 * Your Mom: One of René Rottingham's rhyming swordfight insults is "Your mother wears a toupee!", to which Guybrush can respond, "Oh, that is so cliché", which is the same response to a pirate's "En garde! Touché!"
 * Zip Mode: If you double click on an exit the game will skip the repetitive, boring and long proccess of Guybrush having to phisically walk to there..