The Pirates! An Adventure
with Scientists or
Band of Misfits as
it is known outside the
UK
for some reason, is the latest stop-motion feature from Aardman Animations, the
studio behind the likes of
Wallace and
Gromit and
Chicken Run. It is
based on the first two novels in the
Pirates!
Series by Gideon Defoe.
Set in 1837, the story follows the adventures of a pirate
captain called Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) in his attempts to win the Pirate of
the Year competition for the first time. Despite being mostly deluded and incompetent
he is actually kind at heart and has the respect of his crew. He is really up
against it through when it comes to winning the competition because he is a
pretty rubbish pirate and is up against the cream of the piratical world which
includes Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) and Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven). While
attempting to rob a ship, Pirate Captain has a chance meeting with Charles
Darwin (David Tennant) who notices that the ship’s parrot, Polly is in fact the
world’s last Dodo. Darwin, the Captain and his
crew travel to London
to show the Scientific community their discovery but while there risk bumping
into the staunchly anti-pirate, Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton).
As you’d expect from an Aardman production, the film is full
of both subtle and not so subtle humour. One of the first things that made me
laugh was the names of Pirate Captain’s crew. There is The Pirate with a Scarf
(Marin Freeman), so named because he wears a scarf, The Pirate with Gout (Brendan
Gleeson) who is fat, the Albino Pirate (Russell Tovey) and the best of them
all, the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate (Ashley Jensen) who is a woman in a
fake beard. They are great names which bought a smile to my face each time they
were used. A lot of the humour comes from the book on which the film is based
but it is liberally laced with Aardman’s trademark subtlety. Every shop sign or
wanted poster features a pun and there are nods to the likes of Blackadder. It’s the sort of film that
will take several viewings in order to see all of the jokes.
The animation is top notch, as it should be. Aardman are the
masters of their art and having dabbled in stop-motion animation myself
(my most popular video can be seen here), I
understand the time and effort that must go into making a stop-motion feature.
Aardman has come a long way from the rough and ready clay models of
The Wrong Trousers but the models still
maintain their distinctive style and it is obvious that care has been taken
during each of the millions of frames.
The voice cast is excellent. Most of the actors are
instantly recognisable but David Tennant puts on a convincing accent for his
interpretation of Charles Darwin. The actors help to make the scrip very funny
and I’m pleased to see that the filmmakers have stuck with a mostly British
cast and stayed away from an A-List star.
 |
| Pirate Captain isn't a fan of wearing 3D glasses |
The soundtrack is enjoyable and uses songs which are not
only great but fit the story perfectly. You can expect to hear the likes of The Clash, Flight of the Concords and Blur.
While my girlfriend, most of the adult audience and myself
enjoyed the film, the young children in the audience seemed a little bored by
it. I don’t think there was enough in the film to keep the young children
entertained and a lot of the humour was going over their head. It is almost
like the film has been pitched at an adult audience, which is fine and worked,
but with a U rating and an Easter release, lots of children will go and may be disappointed.
This is not Aardman’s best work but it was an enjoyable 88
minutes that featured plenty of laughs and a fairly interesting but in the end
throw away plot. I would definitely go back to watch the sequel and will watch
it again when it is inevitably shown on TV during a future Christmas period.
7/10
