Psycho's Movie Reviews #227: The Pirates: In An Adventure With Scientists (2012)

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (released in North America, Australia and New Zealand as The Pirates! Band of Misfits) is a 2012 3D stop-motion animated swashbuckler comedy film produced by the British studio Aardman Animations and the American studio Sony Pictures Animation as their second and final collaborative project. Directed by Peter Lord, the film is based on the 2004 novel The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, the first book from Gideon Defoe's The Pirates! series. It follows a crew of amateur pirates in their attempt to win the Pirate of the Year competition.

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. The Pirates! features the voices of Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, Jeremy Piven, Salma Hayek, Lenny Henry and Brian Blessed. The Pirates! is the fifth feature film by Aardman Animations, and its first stop-motion animated feature since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2005, and Aardman's first stop-motion animated film released in 3D and shot in 2.35:1 widescreen. The film received generally positive reviews, and was a modest box office success, earning $123 million against a budget as high as $55 million. The film was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Pixar's Brave. It was the second film from Sony Pictures Animation to be nominated after Surf's Up.

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. With his reputation among pirates restored because of the large bounty placed on his head by the Queen, the Pirate Captain and his crew continue to explore the high seas in search of adventure.

Production

Unlike Aardman's last film 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."

Naming

For the release in the United States, the film was retitled The Pirates! Band of Misfits, as Defoe's books don't have "the same following outside of the United Kingdom", so it was not necessary to keep the original title.

Hugh Grant, the voice of The Pirate Captain, said that the studio "didn't think the Americans would like the longer title". Response from the director of the film, Peter Lord, was that "some people reckoned the United Kingdom title wouldn't charm / amuse / work in the United States. Tricky to prove eh?".

Quentin Cooper of the BBC analysed the change of the title and listed several theories. One of them is that the British audience is more tolerant for the eccentricity of the British animators. Another is that the film makers did not want to challenge the United States viewers who do not accept the theory of evolution. He also developed his own explanation, in which he notes that the word "scientist" is rarely used in the Hollywood films due to it not being "cool", representing "the mad scientist or the dweeby nerd that dress funny, have no social skills, play video games, long for unattainable women".

Music

The film's score was composed by Theodore Shapiro who made his animated feature score debut with this film. The score was released digitally by Madison Gate Records on 24 April 2012, and as a CD-R on-demand on 17 May 2012. The film also includes a number of previously released songs by various artists, including "Swords of a Thousand Men" by Tenpole Tudor, "Ranking Full-Stop" by The Beat, "Fiesta" by The Pogues, "London Calling" by The Clash, "You Can Get It If You Really Want" by Jimmy Cliff, "Alright" by Supergrass, and "I'm Not Crying" by Flight of the Conchords.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The Pirates! was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on 28 August 2012 in the United States, and on 10 September 2012 in the United Kingdom. The film is accompanied with an 18-minute short stop motion animated film called So You Want to Be a Pirate!, where The Pirate Captain hosts his own talk show about being a true pirate.

The short was also released on DVD on 13 August 2012, exclusively at Tesco stores in the United Kingdom. As a promotion for the release of The Pirates!, Sony attached to every DVD and Blu-ray a code to download a LittleBigPlanet 2 minipack of Sackboy clothing that represents 3 of the characters: The Pirate Captain, Cutlass Liz and Black Bellamy.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 86% approval rating based on 153 reviews; the average score is 7.30/10. 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 skilfully 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".

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.

Budget $55 million

Box office $123 million

My Review

Having loved Aardman's other work, especially Wallace and Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep, I was much looking forward to The Pirates! And I found myself loving it. Apart from sagging slightly in the pace in the middle with a couple of scenes that could've done with more punch perhaps, it has all the attributes that made me love Aardman in the first place.

For instance, The Pirates! is a marvellous looking film, you could really tell that a lot of creativity and effort went into it. The colours and backgrounds are plentiful and rich with always something interesting to look at, and the character designs are appealing with the title character reminding of a youthful Wallace with hair and a beard. The 3D is one of the rare instances where it enhances the visuals and action rather than detract from it.

Theodore Shapiro's music is enough to rouse the spirit, and does very well conveying a sense of adventure. The songs featured are fun and memorable. I also loved the crispness and wit of the dialogue managing to appeal to children and adults alike, and the story is exciting with lots of charm and heart. The characters appeal because of their larger-than-life personalities, true the names are on the generic side (Pirate Captain, Pirate with gout) but that was probably the intention. I did enjoy seeing the likes of Charles Darwin and Queen Victoria as well, and they especially Queen Victoria added a lot to the film.

As for the vocal cast, the cast itself was one of the film's main attractions and the voice work is first rate. Hugh Grant shows impeccable comic timing, and Salma Hayak voices Cutlass Liz with lots of sass. Jeremy Piven shows that he can do wonderfully with a character that is strongly-written and provides a good contrast to Grant's Pirate Captain. Brendan Gleeson and Brian Blessed give rousing turns, David Tennant's Charles Darwin charms and Imelda Staunton voices Queen Victoria as if she were born to do it.

It's a simply gorgeous film and the man-hours it took to make it are absolutely staggering. It's really nice to see a non-CGI film get recognized (yes, the film has a tiny bit of CGI--but most of what you see what hand-animated). But, the story, though quite funny and clever, is a bit strange and likely to leave some a bit flat. I liked it, however, and as usual, I can't wait to see more from this wonderful studio. And, although I have not seen Frankenweenie, I do think it's the best of the nominees. And, it is conceivable that The Pirates! could win simply because the other films are all CGI (and perhaps taking votes from each other).

Overall, Aardman does it again, a wonderful family film that anybody could enjoy. 9/10