A certain non-Disney theme park in the Orlando area advertises itself as a place where its visitors can 'Ride the Movies'. Now as we all know, Disney's parks have always allowed their guests to do this, right from the earliest dark rides based on Walt's animated classics. But in more recent times the company has had an increasing tendency to take things in the other direction too, allowing the cinema-goer to 'Watch the Ride' (as it were) with a series of movies based upon Disney theme park attractions.

First up was the 1997's Tower of Terror starring Steve Guttenberg and a young Kirsten Dunst. Now officially this was a TV movie, but as it's now available on DVD I'm including it in this list. Despite the absence of any Twilight Zone references, this actually followed the theme of the ride pretty closely and the tie-in with the attraction was quite strong; so much so in fact that it is still being sold in the theme parks. And while I'm sure neither of its stars would place it at the top of their résumés, it's an entertaining enough film.

The same can't be said for Mission to Mars (2000) though. Actually, I'm not really sure if this should even be included in this column, as the Brian de Palma / Gary Sinese effort had little in common with the Walt Disney World attraction apart from its name. Even if it had, the park would probably want to distance itself from this dull affair.

The next ride-to-movie conversion was The Country Bears (2002). Now I'm not sure about you, but I never really warmed to this film. I tried to, but couldn't get past the idea that these huge bears looked kind of… well… scary. Nothing at all like the cuddly critters in the animatronics attraction. You wouldn't want to meet these guys in the woods with their dead eyes and too-wide mouths. It doesn't even have the redeeming feature of a great soundtrack to fall back on, but it does star the wonderful Christopher Walken, so it would be churlish to be too hard on it.

And then we come to The Haunted Mansion (2003) starring Eddie Murphy as Jim Evers. If this were just a standard Murphy romp set in a generic haunted mansion it would be quite acceptable; possibly even enjoyable. But by linking it to the beloved attraction Disney misjudged audience reaction badly, and they voted at the box office.

These last two in particular gave rise to complaints that the company was simply cashing in on the names of their classic rides. For a while it seemed that all a film needed was the name of a Disney ride in the title and it was guaranteed a release. But predictably Disney Studios executive Nina Jacobson took a different view. "There would be no point in making these movies if you didn't think they had the right to exist on their own terms, otherwise they'd be commercials, not movies," she claimed.

Studios chief Dick Cook agreed, saying "This just seemed to be so natural that we'd be crazy not to pursue it. These are Disney icons. They just lend themselves to movies." And the trend seems set to continue, with recent reports of an upcoming movie based on that perennial favourite, The Jungle Cruise. Apparently the film will follow a group of explorers trekking through the jungle in order to find a cure for a friend who has fallen ill.

Undisputedly the most successful attraction to movie conversions have been the films based on a ride that opened at Disneyland back in 1967. The first, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, came out in 2003 and starred Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. It was a huge success, and filming soon commenced on a pair of sequels.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) followed, and the final part of the trilogy (which may or may not be titled Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End) looks set to be one of 2007's biggest blockbusters. It will apparently begin with Jack Sparrow in Davy Jones' locker and is set to feature Chow Yun Fat as a new oriental villain.

There's no disputing that these films are great fun, but they're moving further away from the stories behind the Pirates theme park ride. Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow, Davy Jones and Captain Barbosa have all been added to the ride. With the films' continued remarkable success I guess we can't rule out further amendments to the attraction to accommodate the next movie's scenes.

This latest twist neatly brings the story full circle. Disneyland was initially inspired by the movies with rides depicting scenes from Disney's classic movies - Peter Pan, Snow White etc. Then, as discussed above, we had films that have taken the park's rides as their starting point. Now we have a movie based upon a ride which has, in turn, caused changes in its parent attraction.

Inspired business move over sacrilegious tampering? That's for each of us to decide for ourselves. I know that many will disagree but I think that, in theory at least, Walt Disney himself might have approved.