The Pirates! Band of Misfits - Review
Clever jokes and cheeky humor abound in Aardman Animation’s newest flick, Pirates! Band of Misfits. With an off-the-wall sensibility and spectacular 3D, this is one hysterical animated movie I totally loved.
The aptly named Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) has been trying to win the top prize of Pirate of the Year for a long time now. After his “parrot” is revealed to be a rare and near-extinct species of bird, Pirate Captain travels to London in the hopes of gaining enough booty to finally snag himself top prize.
Like any good Aardman movie, all the trademark snarkiness is here. The witty jokes, situational humor, and side characters, which were the biggest draws the other flicks, are just as superb and spot-on here. As with Chicken Run, there are sections of this where things get pretty dark and disturbing. In particular, the villainess Queen Victoria is pretty creepy and will probably scare younger children. Most of the subtle humor is aimed toward adults though anyway, even though kids will still be chuckling at the quirky characters.
I particularly loved the tap-dancing rats which made appearances in the beginning of the movie and during the credits. It’s random moments like this one that are the glue holding together the plot of this movie, coupled with dialogue like “I’m being squashed by giant barrels of vinegar!” and “I’m using crew in the street sense. Yo!” It’s very rare that you see hugely intelligent jokes in animated movies, but Pirates! manages to be funny without the use of pop culture references that will be dated in months.
The animation is obviously impeccable; the majority is stop-motion-animation, but there is also CGI used in the backgrounds and such. To be honest, you can’t really tell as it is seamlessly incorporated into the bright and colorful world the filmmakers have crafted. Everything pops with the use of the 3D, including several objects and some kooky-looking erupting substances. The music is also downright perfect with just the right mix of bizarro tunes. It’s kind of rare for a non-musical to have songs that fit with every scene (excluding movie scores, of course) but this one suits every single part.
The characters were my favorite thing about Pirates!, and without them, I don’t think it would be halfway as enjoyable. Charles Darwin has a receding hairline and can’t get any ladies (no surprise there), but his “man-panzee” Bobo steals every moment onscreen. Never speaking and using only a series of neverending flash cards, Bobo might be the crowning achievement here. And let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good monkey? As far as the pirates themselves go, every single one of them has a moment in the spotlight, including the Albino Pirate voiced by Anton Yelchin. Queen Victoria just might give me nightmares, particularly in the latter half. The second her dress unfurled and she pulled out some knives, I knew it was all downhill from there. The Pirate Captain takes much of the epic dialogue on display, but my absolute favorite was The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate. A woman in a beard, in a nutshell, managed to pull a laugh of me almost every time she was onscreen. Her attempts to hide her identity are equally as entertaining, especially whilst submerged in a bathtub.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits is a fun and memorable animated movie with plenty of British flair. I still think The Lorax is the best animated movie of 2012 thus far, but this year looks to be strong on that front. If you are in the mood for a good laugh, Pirates! does not disappoint, as it’s yet another fine flick in the strong resume of Aardman Animations. / Rating - A
