What Pixar is to computer animated children’s fare Aardman is to the stop motion variety; they always manage to make profitable films of high quality that the whole family can enjoy. It’s one thing to try and pander to kids, ala Ice Age, but it’s another to make a good film in the category that doesn’t completely insult or bore their parents. Usually American studios do the former and rarely make engaging, intriguing material. Leave it to the guys behind Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run to craft a film that parents and their children can enjoy.
It’s a fairly simple premise. The Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) leads a crew of misfits on the high seas that are high on adventures but short on actual booty captured. Every year he comes up short at the “Pirate of The Year” competition to better competition and he strives to get that one award. Enter Charles Darwin (David Tennant) and a scientific competition that promises him untold fame and fortune. It’ll be up to the Captain to sail into unfriendly waters in London and try to win the competition while exploring things about him in the process.
Combining slapstick comedy and sight gags with strong character work, Peter Lord has crafted a great film because of its simplicity. This is a film designed with children in mind, thus there aren’t complex emotions or story-telling devices, but it works because they’re strongly developed. This isn’t pandering, either. It’s a simple concept, of a man who’s lost so many times that he wants to win badly enough to sacrifice something he normally wouldn’t, played to perfection. While everything is necessarily toned down from more adult themes to make it worthy of an audience geared towards children it still is accessible for their parents.
It also benefits from a terrific voice cast as well. In any other film it’d be trumpeted as a group of stars, of course, but in this case it’s a matter of the actors being cast for having particularly strong vocals for the part as opposed to their star power. It’s a film you don’t notice that it’s made up of recognizable talent until the credits begin to roll for the most part.
Pirates may not have had the highest grosses of an animated film in 2012 but it should’ve; it’s the best of the lot.
There’s a Commentary Track by Lord and his editor, a game your children can play, a “mini movie” aimed more at children and some printable activity pages make up the extras.
In a year where family films have been impressive at times, the high point is The Pirates! Band of Misfits .
Sony Animation presents The Pirates! Band of Misfits . Directed by Peter Lord. Written by Glenn Defoe based on his novel “The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists.” Voice Cast: Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, Jeremy Piven, Salma Hayek, Lenny Henry, Brian Blessed Running time: 88 minutes. Rated PG. Released: August 28, 2012 Available at Amazon.com.
