The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists - Review

Sometimes, I wonder with the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, why pirates haven't become a sub-genre of their own? Then of course, you have to think back to the days of where pirates were on the hollywood list of things to avoid at all costs (as Roman Polanski, Disney prior to PotC and Renly Harlin have discovered the hard way).

So it's a little surprising to see rustic and charming animation studio Aardman Animation dabble their putty covered hands into the genre. After dabbling in computer animation for their last two big screen releases, the studio return to the routes of painstakingly slow stop-motion animation with The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (or The Pirates! Band of Misfits for those in the states).

The plot sees a motley/amateur crew of nameless pirates (lead by a captain called The Pirate Captain (voiced by an almost unrecognisable Hugh Grant) who are aiming to win the annual Pirate of the Year reward and, to do so, they need a lot of gold for the entry free. To do this, the crew go on an aforementioned adventure with scientists (mainly a pre-evolution discoverer Charles Darwin) and will see them battle Queen Victoria's appetite.

So yes, the plot is slightly crazy, but it's surprisingly well balanced and well structured. There's no mindless filler fluff, all the scenes serve a purpose to drive the story which makes a nice change from your normal kids movie.

The film itself is standard for Aardman Animation in that it looks gorgeous. For anyone who saw Were-Rabbit or Chicken Run, the character models are unique, the settings are incredibly detailed with visual puns by the dozen and, even now, in the age of CGI being the standard format for animated features; it's a unique yet very immersive looking film.

There is a problem with the film in that, for all it's swashbuckling, it's likeable cast of characters, it's surprisingly effective soundtrack consisting of The Clash and Flight of the Conchords (to name a few), it simply can't escape.

The problem being; it's not very funny.

Oh sure, there's your odd moment of innuendo, an effective Gilligan's Cut, a random cameo of the Elephant Man that's absurd as it is brilliant, but there's a lot of things thrown in that simply aren't funny. There's a few too many one liners that lead to nothing, there's an odd bit of Americanisation in the script which, for the film does, is by far the strangest inclusion.

There's also the lack of development from the three actual pirates seen early on. Although Black Belamy is hinted as a major antagonist, he has one moment of bettering our hero and doesn't really do anything else. Whether we'll have an further look in the inevitable sequel is anyone's guess, but they simply act as talking props, used to further develop the universe, but very rarely add anything to the plot.

Whilst I didn't like the film as much as Aardman's earlier stop-motion features, it's a pretty solid children's movie with a few moments thrown in to keep adults entertained. It has fantastic set-pieces, a fantastic cast and is a very interesting looking film, but it's severe lack of humour hinders it's entertainment value.

7/10

H