The Pirates! Band of Misfits also known as The Pirates! in an Adventures with Scientists is a is a 2012 British-American 3D stop-motion animated swashbuckler comedy film produced by Aardman Animations and
Sony Pictures Animation as their second and final collaborative project. It was directed by Peter Lord. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures and was released on 28 March 2012 in the United Kingdom, and on 27 April 2012 in the United States.
Summary[]
With the Pirate of the Year award approaching, The Pirate Captain is determined to win the award but also has to avoid the Queen herself and protect his pet DoDo Polly and his crew, along the way he meets Charles Darwin and Bobo his monkey.
Plot[]
In London, 1837, Queen Victoria is told that England rules the entire ocean, with the exception of the pirates, whom she despises. Meanwhile, the Pirate Captain leads a close-knit group of amateur pirates who are trying to make a name for themselves on the high seas. To prove his worth, the Captain enters the annual Pirate of the Year competition, the winner being whoever can plunder the most gold. After several failed attempts to plunder mundane ships, they come across HMS Beagle and capture its lone passenger, Charles Darwin, who recognizes the crew's pet "parrot," Polly, as the last living dodo. Darwin recommends that they enter her in the Scientist of the Year competition at the Royal Society of London in hopes of impressing Queen Victoria, his love interest.
The pirates disguise themselves as scientists to enter the competition, and the dodo display wins the top prize, which turns out to be a meeting with the Queen. The Captain hides Polly just before the meeting. She requests that Polly be put in her petting zoo, but the Captain refuses and accidentally reveals his true identity. The Queen orders him executed, but Darwin steps in to spare the Captain's life, telling the Queen that only he knows where Polly is hidden. The Queen pardons the Captain and orders Darwin to find Polly by any means necessary. Darwin takes the Captain to a tavern with Mr. Bobo, his trained chimpanzee, and they steal the bird. The Pirate Captain chases them into the Tower of London, where the Queen is waiting. She dismisses Darwin and instead offers the Pirate Captain enough treasure to ensure his win as Pirate of the Year in exchange for Polly. He accepts the offer and returns to his crew, assuring them Polly is still safe in his beard.
At the Pirate of the Year ceremony, the Captain is announced as the winner, but rival pirate Black Bellamy reveals the Queen's pardon and explains that if pardoned, then one is no longer a pirate and, as such, cannot be Pirate of the Year. The Captain is stripped of his treasure and pirate attire and admits the loss of Polly to his crew, who abandon him. The Captain returns to London and decides to rescue Polly. He reunites with Darwin, learning that the Queen is a member of an exclusive society of world leaders that feast on endangered creatures, and that Polly is to be served at their next banquet. The Pirate Captain and Darwin work together to steal an airship and find the Queen's flagship, the QV1, while Mr. Bobo sets out to find the rest of the Captain's crew to enlist their help.
Aboard the QV1, the Queen locates the Captain and Darwin and attempts to kill both of them, but Mr. Bobo and the crew come to the rescue and defeat her. They accidentally mix the ship's stash of baking soda with vinegar, causing a violent reaction that breaks the ship in two. The Captain rescues Polly and they escape safely, leaving behind the furious Queen. His action earns him the highest bounty known to pirates, 100,000 Doubloon bounty placed on his head by the Queen, restoring his pirate reputation as well as marking him as the most dangerous pirate alive. the Pirate Captain and his crew continue to explore the high seas in search of adventure.
In the credit, Black Bellamy jealously looks at the new bounty of the Pirate Captain resulting in the loss of his newfound award.
Cast[]
- Hugh Grant as the Pirate Captain
- Martin Freeman as the Pirate with a Scarf/Number Two
- Imelda Staunton as Queen Victoria
- David Tennant as Charles Darwin
- Jeremy Piven as Black Bellamy
- Salma Hayek as Cutlass Liz
- Lenny Henry as Peg-Leg Hastings
- Brian Blessed as Pirate King
- Russell Tovey as Albino Pirate (United Kingdom)
- Anton Yelchin as Albino Pirate (United States)
- Brendan Gleeson as Pirate with Gout
- Ashley Jensen as Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate
- Ben Whitehead as Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens (United Kingdom)
- Al Roker as Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens (United States)
- Mike Cooper as Admiral Collingwood
- David Schneider as Scarlett Morgan
- Mitchell Mullen as Gameshow Host
Production[]
Unlike Aardman's Flushed Away, which was computer animated in the style of claymation, Aardman extensively used computer graphics to complement and enrich the primarily stop-motion film with visual elements such as sea and scenery. Peter Lord commented, "With Pirates!, I must say that the new technology has made Pirates! really liberating to make, easy to make because the fact that you can shoot a lot of green screen stuff, the fact that you can easily extend the sets with CGI, the fact that you can put the sea in there and a beautiful wooden boat that, frankly, would never sail in a million years, you can take that and put it into a beautiful CGI scene and believe it."
Reception[]
The film itself did well at the box office and has grossed $123,054,041 worldwide. $26 million came from United Kingdom, $31 million from the United States and Canada, along with around $92 million from other territories, including the United Kingdom. As of 2017, it is the fourth highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time. In North America, it ranked fifth on its opening day, taking in $2,749,959, slightly higher than Arthur Christmas’ $2.4 million opening day. The film eventually made $11.1 million on its opening weekend and reaching second at the box office behind Think Like a Man while averaging $3,315 through its 3,358 theatre’s, on its second weekend, it dropped by 50.6%, ranking fourth with $5,502,482, then to seventh place with $3,143,442, dropping by 42.9%. In the United Kingdom, it opened to third with $3,486,095 behind The Hunger Games and Wrath of the Titans, averaging $6,443 through its 554 cinemas, it saw a 1.3% decline on its second weekend with $3,486,280, averaging $6,240 per cinema, and bringing the UK gross to $12,251,022.
Critical response[]
The critics also enjoyed the movie very much. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 86% approval rating based on 153 reviews; the average score is 7.3/10. The website's consensus reads, "It may not quite scale Aardman's customary delirious heights, but The Pirates! still represents some of the smartest, most skillfully animated fare that modern cinema has to offer." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 73 based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".
Trivia[]
- The film actually caused some controversy after the release of its later trailer as it made a terrible depiction of Leprosy but Aardman made the change from leprosy to plague afterwards the controversy stopped.
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