Product Description
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Set sail for a fun-filled voyage and hilarious pirate antics
with the biggest Band of Misfits on the seven seas! When the
infamous Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) is shunned once again by his
rivals Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz, he sets his s to win
the coveted Pirate of the Year Award! With his trusted dodo,
Polly and rag-tag crew at his side, the Pirate Captain will need
to battle a diabolical queen, save a young scientist and never
lose of what a pirate loves best: Adventure!
.com
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The wizards of stop-motion mirth at Britain's Aardman Animations
have significantly stepped up their art, craft, and storytelling
style in The Pirates! Band of Misfits. Commonly known as
Claymation (though the elaborately rendered miniature sets and
figures are constructed with high-tech Plasticine), the process
involves painstaking manipulation of physical forms to create the
smooth movements and clever nuance of character that made Aardman
famous with their iconic Wallace & Gromit shorts and the features
Chicken Run and Flushed Away. The source material is a series of
books by Gideon Defoe that are of the for-kids-and-grownups-alike
variety, which means The Pirates! is perfect family fare that has
plenty of intelligent asides to counterbalance the wacky and
slapstick shenanigans. The story is set on the tropical high seas
and in the heart of Victorian London, where Queen Victoria
herself (voiced by Imelda Staunton) has a starring role. The
movie takes giddy pleasure in making her out to be a nefarious
no-goodnik who has plenty of secrets, though none of the lacy
unmentionable variety. The real star is the Pirate Captain (a
husky-sounding Hugh Grant) who's more interested in procuring
cured pork for his ship's regular "Ham Nite" feasts than
plundering for valuable booty. This becomes kind of a problem
when he enters the Pirate of the Year contest and finds himself
up against the stiff competition of Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven),
Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek), and Peg Leg Hastings (Lenny Henry),
all of whom have oodles of jewels and doubloons to back up their
bids. But the Pirate Captain has a bird in the hand that may win
him the prize yet. His ship's mascot Polly is not a parrot as he
and the crew believe, but rather the world's only surviving dodo,
so identified by Charles Darwin (David Tennant) when his famous
ship the Beagle is attacked by the pirates. Darwin assures the
captain that Polly is worthy of winning him Scientist of the Year
and untold riches. So it's off to London and into the malevolent
schemes of both Darwin and Victoria. A madcap series of events
leads to an air-sea showdown of breathtaking proportions that
blends meticulous stop-motion technique with top-flight CG
effects. Throughout the movie the attention to detail is
sensational, even in the most throwaway gags. An underlying
cleverness is woven into every precisely composed scene, adding
to the overall sense of comic timing and the meticulous elements
of story that imbue every movement. The laughs come fast and
furious, especially in several elaborate set pieces that include
a wild bathtub ride down a seemingly endless staircase, and the
bravura finale that swoops and soars through, over, and around
Victoria's behemoth of a steampunk sea vessel. The speed of the
jokes and the sophisticated action never overshadow the wildly
amusing story and dotingly-thought-out character details. Among
the lovable and eloquently voiced ensemble pirate crew are the
Pirate with a f (Martin Freeman), the Albino Pirate (Anton
Yelchin), the Pirate with Gout (Brendan Gleeson), the
Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate (Ashley Jensen), and the Pirate
Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens (Al Roker). But more than anyone
it's codirectors Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt who are primarily
responsible for deftly keeping The Pirates! afloat in what could
easily become another memorable Aardman franchise. --Ted Fry