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| Aardman returns to theaters, but not with their signature team of Wallace and Gromit. |
It was just a mere six years ago when pirates were seemingly relevant; plundering and pillaging amidst a revival of classic iterations of operatic swashbuckling fests. Granted since then, Disney’s staple franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean is nearing its end after a decade and interest in a good old-fashioned high seas adventure has waned in the past few years. Yet that hasn’t prevented Aardman Animations from staying faithful to what they do best – mashing groundbreaking stop-motion with quirky British humor and ultimately tying it all together with a hearty thematic tale of excitement and camaraderie.
After spending several years unsuccessfully branching out into the realm of CG animation, Aardman finally returns to its roots with The Pirates! Band of Misfits. This adaptation, loosely based on the first two Gideon Defoe books, follows the voyages of the ambitious Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) and his loyal ragtag crew with one goal, taking home the Pirate of the Year Award, which will in turn earn the respect of their fellow sea raiders. It doesn’t make matters any better when a pirate-hating Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) and then-nobody Charles Darwin (David Tennant) complicate the situation.
After spending several years unsuccessfully branching out into the realm of CG animation, Aardman finally returns to its roots with The Pirates! Band of Misfits. This adaptation, loosely based on the first two Gideon Defoe books, follows the voyages of the ambitious Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) and his loyal ragtag crew with one goal, taking home the Pirate of the Year Award, which will in turn earn the respect of their fellow sea raiders. It doesn’t make matters any better when a pirate-hating Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) and then-nobody Charles Darwin (David Tennant) complicate the situation.
Aardman’s animators have mastered their craft to the point where it’s questionable in the audience’s minds whether or not these characters and environments continue to be animated via stop-motion. Visually, The Pirates! Band of Misfits invests the majority of its focus capturing every facet of intricate care from a single curl in the Pirate Captain’s beard to the lively buccaneer paradise of Blood Island and even the chase sequences throughout the vast expanse of Victorian London.
Even with all these impressive leaps in stop-motion, The Pirates! Band of Misfits spends too much time getting the aesthetics near perfection that it neglects the quality of storytelling praised in its predecessors, Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Director Peter Lord excessively hones in on creating dynamic personalities for a self-deluded Pirate Captain, a semi-deranged Queen Victoria and a peculiar Charles Darwin that a hefty portion of the Pirate Captain’s crew and rival pirates are simply part of a sea of one-dimensionality.
Likewise, Lord depends on one too many anachronistic jokes that pull the audience out of the moment of a fun seafaring voyage and venture into the occasional absurdity. For every stale awards show parody and usage of street vernacular, we do however are entertained with more appropriate antics from the bumbling Pirate Captain. Even with minimal voice acting experience under his belt, Hugh Grant still brings to life a wonderful, relatable protagonist to this film. Grant’s Pirate Captain comes off for the majority of the film as someone who continuously has something to prove even after hitting rock bottom. Despite displaying his incompetence in a montage of plundering worthless plague, nudist and ghost ships, the Pirate Captain’s delusional drive towards becoming Pirate of the Year keeps the story afloat.
Likewise, Lord depends on one too many anachronistic jokes that pull the audience out of the moment of a fun seafaring voyage and venture into the occasional absurdity. For every stale awards show parody and usage of street vernacular, we do however are entertained with more appropriate antics from the bumbling Pirate Captain. Even with minimal voice acting experience under his belt, Hugh Grant still brings to life a wonderful, relatable protagonist to this film. Grant’s Pirate Captain comes off for the majority of the film as someone who continuously has something to prove even after hitting rock bottom. Despite displaying his incompetence in a montage of plundering worthless plague, nudist and ghost ships, the Pirate Captain’s delusional drive towards becoming Pirate of the Year keeps the story afloat.
But the real scene-stealer of The Pirates! is Imelda Staunton as young Queen Victoria, who unlike her inexperienced historical counterpart, rules with an iron fist and has a chortling personal vendetta against said pirates. All of that prim and proper royal rigamaroo is nothing more than a facade for some unexpected villainy. Staunton is ideal in the role, fully able those hit to screeching authoritative octaves that an audience alone with her character might be worse than a trip to the gallows.
Equally fitting for his role is David Tennant as naturalist Charles Darwin, who gets mixed up in the world of pirates when his famed ship, the Beagle, is captured by the Pirate Captain and his crew. Director Lord safely plays Darwin as nothing more than a loner scientist and naturalist, omitting his notable claims of human evolution. Joining Darwin is an intelligent man-panzee ironically named Mr. Bobo, who comically communicates via cue cards. With all of these voice actors consistently on the same page, one can forgive some of the anachronisms and uneven pacing as The Pirates! Band of Misfits is a bit more than a tradeoff of advancing technology at the expense of straying away from the source material and crafting an unnecessary diverting tale.
Equally fitting for his role is David Tennant as naturalist Charles Darwin, who gets mixed up in the world of pirates when his famed ship, the Beagle, is captured by the Pirate Captain and his crew. Director Lord safely plays Darwin as nothing more than a loner scientist and naturalist, omitting his notable claims of human evolution. Joining Darwin is an intelligent man-panzee ironically named Mr. Bobo, who comically communicates via cue cards. With all of these voice actors consistently on the same page, one can forgive some of the anachronisms and uneven pacing as The Pirates! Band of Misfits is a bit more than a tradeoff of advancing technology at the expense of straying away from the source material and crafting an unnecessary diverting tale.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits was presented with the difficult task of harmonizing alongside Aardman’s previous stop-motion endeavors. And even though it falls slightly short of Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit, Peter Lord and company should still be commended for moving the technological bar for future stop-motion projects.
GRADE: B (8/10)
This review is also available on Blu-Ray.com
Definitely has its moments where it was funny and witty, but other times, it just felt a bit tired and unoriginal with its joke. That whole monkey character that would talk through cue-cards, seemed like something I would see in Looney Tunes. Good review.
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