I guess I can't fully turn off my brain during a fun movie. And I'm not sure that's a bad thing.
I don't think that's a bad thing at all. It's too bad, however, that the filmmakers didn't turn their brains *on* when they were making the damn thing. But in an awful way it's fascinating to me that such a portrayal can be 'okay' in this day and age (sorry, this is my anthropology schooling rearing its head). What does it say about our currently 'accepted' views of the Other (and the supposedly enlightened views of Hollywood)?

For example, the pirates could have thought the Calinago were cannibals, but we - the audience - could have known differently and laughed with the Calinago at the stupidity of the pirates.
That's what I would have expected to see. That would have been a clever treatment. Oh, but it would have been too *confusing* for the masses. /sarcasm