The Pirates! Band of Misfits (The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! in the UK) is a 2012 British-American stop-motion animated swashbuckler comedy film produced by Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation. Peter Lord directed, and among the featured voices are those of Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven, Imelda Staunton, and David Tennant.
Based on the combined stories of the first two books from Gideon Defoe's "The Pirates!" series: "The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists" and "The Pirates! in an Adventure with Whaling."[1]
It is Aardman Animations' first stop-motion clay animated feature to be released in Digital 3D and their first stop-motion film since "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and "Chicken Run".
The film was released in the UK on March 28, 2012, and was released in the United States on April 27, 2012.
Plot[]
In 1837, the Pirate Captain, inexpert in the ways of pirates, leads a close-knit, rag-tag group of amateur pirates who are trying to make a name for themselves on the high seas. To prove himself and his crew, the Pirate Captain enters the Pirate of the Year competition, with the winner being whoever can plunder the most. After several failed attempts to plunder mundane ships, they come across the Beagle and capture its passenger Charles Darwin. Darwin recognises the crew's pet Polly as the last living dodo, and recommends they enter it in the Scientist of the Year competition at the Royal Society of London for a valuable prize. Secretly, Darwin plans on stealing Polly himself with the help of his trained chimpanzee, Mr. Bobo, as to impress Queen Victoria whom he has a crush on; the Pirate with a Scarf becomes suspicious of Darwin's motive after one failed attempt to steal Polly.
The pirates disguise themselves as scientists to enter the competition, and the dodo display wins the top prize, which turns out to be minuscule trinkets and a meeting with the Queen. The Pirate Captain hides Polly before the meeting. There, the Queen requests that the Pirate Captain donate Polly for her petting zoo. The Pirate Captain refuses and accidentally reveals his true self. Now knowing on who he is, an enraged Queen Victoria immediately sentenced him to death. Just as the Pirate Captain was about to be executed, Darwin steps in to spare his life, secretly telling the Queen that only the Captain knows where Polly is kept. In response, the Queen pardons the Pirate Captain and orders Darwin to find Polly by any means necessary. Darwin takes the Pirate Captain to a tavern and coaxes out of him that Polly is stashed in his beard. Darwin and Mr. Bobo are able to steal the bird, leading on a chase into the Tower of London where the Queen is waiting. She dismisses Darwin, and instead offers the Pirate Captain a large sum of treasure from her royal treasury in exchange for Polly, which for the Pirate Captain would be enough to assure his win as Pirate of the Year. He accepts the offer and returns to his crew, assuring them Polly is still safe in his beard, though the Pirate with a Scarf is suspicious of his newfound wealth.
At the Pirate of the Year ceremony, the Pirate Captain wins the grand prize from the Pirate King, but his long-time rival Black Bellamy, who is also the most wanted pirate alive, reveals the Queen's pardon to all and explains that if the Pirate Captain has been pardoned, then he is no longer a pirate and, as such, can't be Pirate of the Year. In disgrace, the Pirate Captain is stripped of his prize, treasure, pirate attire, and his pirating license and is banished from Blood Island by the Pirate King. Shortly after, things turned sour when the Pirate Captain reveals to his horrified crew that the Polly that is in his beard is not the real one. When he confessed that he had sold her to Queen Victoria for the treasure, they proceeded to abandon him.
Now all alone, The Captain returns to London where he was forced to make a living by knitting baby clothes. However, after seeing a billboard which shows him with Polly after they had won the Scientist of the Year Award, the Pirate Captain decided to make things right and set out to get her back. Upon sneaking inside the royal zoo, he discovers that the Polly is not there. Instead, he finds Darwin and Mr. Bobo, whom both had become poor and homeless. Darwin reveals to the Pirate Captain, that Queen Victoria is a member of an exclusive dining society of world leaders that feast on animals who are on the brink of extinction and that Polly is likely on her flagship, the QV1 to be served as the next meal. The Pirate Captain and Darwin work together to steal an airship to travel to the QV1 while Mr. Bobo goes to find the rest of the Captain's crew to enlist their help.
Aboard the QV1, the Queen locates the Pirate Captain and Darwin and attempts to kill both of them, but together they managed best her. In the battle, they accidentally mix the ship's store of baking soda with vinegar, causing a violent reaction that breaks the ship in two, causing it to sink. The Pirate Captain rescues Polly and they escape safely, leaving behind a furious Queen Victoria. The next day, the Pirate Captain and his crew leave Darwin on an island so he could continue to discover new animal species, but was also given the advice to grow a beard of his own. Meanwhile Queen Victoria was in danger of being eaten by the same animals she captured. With his reputation among pirates restored because of the large bounty now on his head, which is a total of 100,000 doubloons, the Pirate Captain becomes the most wanted and dangerous pirate in all the high seas. Because of his newfound infamy, he is reinstated as a Pirate and was allowed to return to Blood Island. Consequently, for Black Bellamy, this caused the Pirate King to strip him of his Pirate of the Year trophy. Back on their ship, the crew present the Pirate Captain with their own homemade Pirate of the Year trophy. They then immediately set out to continue their exploits.
Cast[]
- Hugh Grant as the Pirate Captain (the captain of the ship)
- Martin Freeman as the Pirate with a Scarf (member of Pirate Captain's crew)
- Jeremy Piven as Black Bellamy (greatest arch-rival of Pirate Captain in piracy)
- Imelda Staunton as Queen Victoria (the main antagonist of the film)
- David Tennant as Charles Darwin
- Lenny Henry as Peg-Leg Hastings
- Brendan Gleeson as the Pirate with Gout
- Salma Hayek as Cutlass Liz
- Ashley Jensen as the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate
- Brian Blessed as the Pirate King
- Russell Tovey as the Albino Pirate (UK)
- Anton Yelchin as the Albino Pirate (US)
- Al Roker as the Pirate who likes Sunsets and Kittens
- Mike Cooper as Admiral Collingwood
- David Schneider as Scarlett Morgan
Additional Voices[]
- Tom Doggart
- Sophie Jerrold
- Sophie Laughton
- Peter Lord
- Kayvan Novak
- David Schaal
- Ben Whitehead
Production[]
Even though it's a stop-motion movie, computer graphics have been used extensively to complement and enrich the movie's visual elements such as seawater 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 CG, 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 CG scene and believe it."[2]
Avoiding discrimination[]
A particular trailer of The Pirates! Band of Misfits attracted some very negative reactions from the leprosy community due to its portrayal of leprosy-stricken seafarers. The trailer in question - released in December 2011 shows The Pirate Captain landing on a ship and demanding gold. He is then told by a crew member, "Afraid we don't have any gold old man, this is a leper boat. See," and then his arm is shown to fall off.[3] Lepra Health in Action and officials from the World Health Organization, expressed that the joke depicts the illness in a derogatory manner, and "reinforces the misconceptions which leads to stigma and discrimination that prevents people from coming forward for treatment." An apology was demanded along with the removal of the offending scene.[4] Aardman apologetically responded: "After reviewing the matter, we decided to change the scene out of respect and sensitivity for those who suffer from leprosy. The last thing anyone intended was to offend anyone...". L.H.A. responded that it was "genuinely delighted that Aardman has decided to amend the film." The trailer was expected to be pulled down from websites[5], and in the theatrical version of the film, the word "leper" was replaced with "plague."
Reception[]
Rating[]
The Pirates! Band of Misfits is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for mild action, rude humor, and some mild language, making it the third Aardman Animations movie to use this rating and is the first stop-motion film from Aardman to receive this rating. In the UK it has been rated U by the BBFC for very mild language, violence, threat and innuendo.[6]
Academy Award nomination[]
On January 10, 2013, The Pirates! Band of Misfits received a nomination for Best Animated Feature from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It lost to Pixar's Brave.
Box office[]
The film 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[]
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".
Cancelled Sequel[]
On August 14, 2011, Peter Lord tweeted on Twitter that an idea for a sequel to The Pirates! Band of Misfits is already in the works. By June 2012, a story for this sequel has been prepared and Sony was awaited to backup the project. Unfortunately, however, because of insufficient international earnings, this was not met. On January 13, 2013, Lord responded to a question on Twitter that the sequel is no longer going to happen, at least "not in the forseeable future".[7] He had revealed that he was all ready to continue the Pirate Captain's adventures and further revealed that Aardman has a poster for the sequel, which is officially called The Pirates! In an Adventure with Cowboys!.
Release[]
Home media[]
- Main article: The Pirates! Band of Misfits (video)
Trivia[]
- This is the first Sony Pictures Animation's stop-motion film.
- This is the second Sony Pictures Animation's to be produced in a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, after Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
- This is also the first film by Aardman Animations to be produced in a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, unlike all of the company's previous films we're produced in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
- This is the second and last film to be co-produced by Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation, Arthur Christmas.
- This is the first Sony Pictures Animation film to not be computer-animated.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Exclusive! New "Pirates!" Trailer
- ↑ http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=81049
- ↑ Trailer #2
- ↑ Wallace and Gromit creators in leprosy row
- ↑ http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/the-pirates-aardman-to-change-scene-after-outcry-from-leprosy-orgs/
- ↑ http://www.bbfc.co.uk/CFF280780/
- ↑ Update from Pete Lord on the sequel