For the record, it's English. I was born in Tilbury, Essex, made temporarily 
American citizen?"
After the seasonal release of their
In this world, the splendidly bearded Pirate Captain – voiced to surprising perfection by Hugh Grant – is not exactly the most successful or feared pirate captain of the open seas. All he wants is the recognition he so obviously doesn’t deserve, and that’s to win the Pirate of the Year award. The annual presentation and ceremony becomes something of an obsession for him, and he embarks on an adventure that will put him and his ragtag crew in conflict against a villainous Charles Darwin – don’t ask - and an even more villainous Queen Victoria, who can turn on a menacing snarl at the drop of a Victorian top hat.
The real strength of Pirates is in its look. The widescreen adventure, with its attention to the smallest of details, is a colorful feast for the eyes. There is hardly a second of film that wouldn’t look good framed and hanging as a picture on a bedroom wall. Plus its silly sense of subtle and decidedly British humor is the kind that keeps its audience consistently amused. It possesses no big laughs in the way that Chicken Run did, but the dialog, Hugh Grant’s pompous and sometimes hesitant delivery, and the constant eccentric asides by all the characters guarantees the kind of continuous grin that after awhile feels permanently plastered on your face until the final credits roll. “Behind every captain, there’s a crew,” the Pirate Captain states when delivering a pep talk to his motley band of ocean-going misfits. “Sure, some of you are as ugly as a sea cucumber, some of you are closer to being a chair or a coat rack than a pirate, and some of you are fish I’ve just dressed up in a hat…”
As is the trend in all animated features these days, all voices belong to famous names. Salma Hayek is the murderous Cutlass Liz, Jeremy Piven is Black Bellamy, Anton Yelchin is The Albino Pirate, and Al Roker is the unlikely named Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens. Imelda Staunton – perhaps less well known stateside than on her British home turf – is a perfect Queen Victoria, and David Tennant, better known as TV’s Dr.Who, is unrecognizable as Charles Darwin.
The wonderful thing about the product Aardman Productions produce is that it is so unique; there is literally nothing else like it, plus its story-telling manner appears to have mastered the secret of appealing to both children and adults without compromising the humor of either age group; in other words, nothing is ever dumbed down, the absurdities work equally well for all. The Pirates! Band of Misfits is a sublime pleasure.
Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking to director Peter Lord about his film when he dropped by our studios. For an encore presentation of that interview, where Peter talked about the challenges of filming claymation characters in widescreen, how he came up with the star-studded voice talents, and why the original British released title of The Pirates ! In an Adventure with Scientists was changed to a Band of Misfits for the American release, Click Here
