The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

7/10

Starring the voice of

Hugh Grant
Martin Freeman
Imelda Staunton
David Tennant
Jeremy Piven
Salma Hayek

Directed by Peter Lord

One thing I can tell you is that you will cherish the time spent watching this movie.

Pirates is a stop-motion animation with CGI added. It was done by Aardman Animation, who were also responsible for the 2000 hit movie Chicken Run and the financial hit Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). Peter Lord, the director and co-founder of Aardman, has had long practice with clay-motion through the Wallace and Gromit series, so from the get-go of this movie Pirates, you just never expect anything to go wrong.

One thing that really got my attention is the way Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) was able to blend with each situation no matter how hopeless it may seem. He kind of reminded me of Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Pirate Captain always had a quick word for everything. You will never catch him speechless, but the best part of this was, he was as foolish as a goat.

The plot is simple. Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) wants so badly to be taken seriously in the pirate world and the world in general. He also has his eyes set on the Pirate of the Year award, an award he dreams of winning one day.

But Pirate Captain's booty was nothing compared to the other pirates gunning for the award, like Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek), whose booties were more than 50 times what Pirate Captain could bring in.

With the aid of his crew and his parrot Polly (which happened to be the last dodo alive), they set out on a quest to get as much booty as possible.

This quest leads them to meet Charles Darwin (David Tennant) and his love interest Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton). This also leads to a science fair where Pirate Captain makes the most remarkable discovery ever.

Pirates has Hugh Grant starring in his first animated role as the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain. If what I saw in this movie is something to write home about, then the news of Lord and Aardman planning a part two of Pirates is something to look forward to.

The animation is predictable, and there are no surprises waiting for you when you watch it, but the voice cast was good, so if you can overlook the predictability and the drop of pacing in the middle, you will love this movie.

I feel it in my bones that Aardman has a movie that is built for a trilogy. I mean, an animation that has you laughing from scene to scene, with remarkable twists and turns that make you look forward to the next thing that will happen, who wouldn’t want to see a part two of that?