A Cursed Engagement Ring
Picking up where MI2 left off — at least in terms of the characters if not the ambiguous ending — The Curse of Monkey Island opens with Guybrush trapped in a bumper car floating through LeChuck's ghost ship. He escapes, rescues Elaine from a voodoo curse, and inadvertently traps her in a golden diamond ring — transforming her into a golden statue.
To break the curse, Guybrush must replace the cursed ring with a genuine diamond, necessitating a voyage to Blood Island and encounters with the Goodsoup family, the Voodoo Lady, and a Caribbean cruise gone spectacularly wrong.
Murray the Demonic Talking Skull makes his debut, becoming one of the series' most beloved recurring characters — a skull of tremendous ambition and negligible physical capability.
The Hand-Painted Caribbean
Directors Jonathan Ackley and Larry Ahern chose a hand-painted visual style that leaned into the series' comedic roots — bolder colours, more expressive character designs, and animations that recalled classic cartoons more explicitly than the realist-ish pixel art of the originals.
The result was distinctive and warmly received. Critics praised the art's consistency and richness; the Caribbean islands — Plunder Island, Skull Island, Blood Island — feel lived-in and visually inventive.