My Movie Review on The Pirates! Band of Misfits · 2:36pm Oct 24th, 2020
Ahoy, me harteys!
This be your jolly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, for the 8th installment of my "Spook Spectacular", I'm gonna give you guys my take of "The Pirates! Band of Misfits".
Here be the rundown of this tale from the high seas *clears throat to stop talking like a pirate*:
After years of failing to win the Pirate of the Year award and being a laughing stock to fellow pirates, The Pirate Captain becomes doubtful of ever winning and is considering retiring from piracy. When he later meets the famous Charles Darwin, though, The Captain learns that his pet bird, Polly, is the rare Dodo bird. Perhaps even the last of her kind.
Inspired by Darwin, The Captain decides to enter Polly in a contest at a science convention in London. However, going to London will be a risk where his life hangs by a thread, because England is ruled by the pirate-hating Queen Victoria.
I know that this movie isn't a thriller, mystery, or horror film, but I figured that since pirates can be considered quite scary this would be a great entry for this year's "Spook Spectacular". Besides that, I've been wanting to do an analysis on this movie for quite some time, and I watched it twice in preparation for it.
The one thing I will admit is that the comedy aspect was a 50/50 venture for me. In many ways, it felt like Aardman was trying too hard to make the film funny and many of the jokes were falling flat in the process.
Other than that, though, I really must say that this movie provided a rollicking good time.
For instance, the direction by Peter Lord, and the screenplay by Gideon Defoe (which was based on the book he made), were quite enjoyable.
I know what I said about the comedy earlier, but there were still tons of jokes that were excellently-executed and hilarious. Plus, the film wasn't without heart, emotion, and moral, and the plot tied itself together perfectly.
The animation was astonishing, if I may add. As the very first stop-motion animated movie by Aardman where they combined actual props and characters made from clay with computer-generated effects used for the visual elements, Aardman did a fantastic job at showing how well they mixed together. The special thing about it is that they proved that stop-motion animation isn't a dying art and that it can continually evolve even when people least expect it, and the movie was well-crafted enough to encourage continual interest in the style. Also, the animation used for the map sequences were amazingly entertaining to watch.
The voice acting, casting, characters, and character development were dynamically spot-on, if I may add.
I can definitely see why Imelda Staunton was nominated an Annie Award for her vocal work as Queen Victoria. Every step of the way, she sounded like she was literally giving her all, incorporating powerful emotion and an unexpected theatricality. Queen Victoria herself was an intimidating force to be reckoned with.
In addition, Hugh Grant did a smashing job portraying The Pirate Captain, and so did Martin Freeman as Number Two. Both characters were deeply lovable and intriguing focuses, and they had brilliant development throughout the film.
Finally, the music by Theodore Shapiro was magnificent. Making his debut in composing for animated films starting with this very movie, his music carried a deep sense of something enormously cinematic. His melodies matched flawlessly with the concept, and they brilliantly reflected the emotions of the characters while giving a great feeling of high stakes and adventure.
In conclusion, "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" may not be at the star-studded quality that makes "Chicken Run" and "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" instant classics, but it's still a very fun movie. As the second and last film by Aardman distributed by Columbia, it's definitely better than "Arthur Christmas".
So, I rate "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" 4½ out of 5 stars.
To Peter Lord & Gideon Defoe: Even though you guys cancelled on the idea after your partnership with Columbia ended long ago, I encourage the lot of you highly to make sequels to this movie, because I think this movie holds a great amount of franchise potential. Perhaps since Aardman has been doing a lot of negotiating with Netflix and StudioCanal as of late, they could be the ones to distribute the sequels.
I suspect the humour works somewhat better for a British audience (given that it was made by a British team in a British studio in Britain). Not that this diminishes your commentary; I agree with your review here.
This film was definitely an awesome and hilarious treat to watch. My favorite part was the scene where the giant ship got split in two a combination of baking soda and several barrels of olive oil.
This happens to be one of my favorite Aardman movies, next to Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
I have to see this movie.