Pirates! Band of Misfits! (***)

What director Peter Lord calls “a schoolboy version of history” with a gloss of silliness is the unifying principle of British author Gideon Defoe’s series of novels, the first of which Lord has adapted here in appropriate cartoon form.* In Defoe’s history, Charles Darwin is a short geek wishing he had a girlfriend and employing a well-trained monkey butler/henchman who, in one of the funniest contrivances, communicates via title cards. (It’s also anachronistic, as Darwin had by the date provided, 1837, concluded his sailing days.) Queen Victoria is a wobbly, pirate-hating Machiavellian who, incidentally, looks nothing like Emily Blunt.**

The pirates themselves are led, naturally, by the Pirate Captain, whose crew includes the Albino Pirate, the Pirate with Gout, and so on. They are not all fearsome so much as not fearsome at all. The Pirate Captain is unusually kind and unusually bumbling. He’s the sort of pirate who, were this a live-action film, might be played by Hugh Grant, who instead merely lends his voice.

Though Defoe himself has crafted the screenplay, the movie differs with the book in important particulars. For example, in the book, the Pirate Captain’s crew conclude that the best part of being a pirate is the sea shanties, whereas, in the movie, they agree that it is “Ham Nite.” However, in both cases the humor, frequently, stems from infusing the story with modern sensibilities. The “pirate of the year” and “scientist of the year” presentations, upon which much of the plot revolves, become parodies of awards show. The latter is held on Blood Island, so named “because it’s the exact shape of some blood.” That bit also gives the flavor of the amusements.

Visually, the film has much appeal. The 3-D theatrical release is nice and bright, and the animation seemed flawless. As with Lord’s previous film, Chicken Run, it employs stop-motion animation. It’s remarkable that most of this was done shooting puppets frame by frame, yet you may well not notice and assume it was done by computer. I enjoyed these Pirates! but, although the comedy, as with Rango! or Bugs Bunny, has some elements pitched more at adults than kids, its appeal is slightly on the “cute” side, a problem I didn’t have with the superior Chicken Run.
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* Gideon called his book Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! That title was used for the UK version of the film. Perhaps it was thought that Americans (and Australians) might be frightened by the (unfounded) suggestion that there was actual science in the film.
** …who played her in Young Victoria.

IMDb link

viewed 4/17/12 at Rave UPenn [PFS screening] and reviewed 4/17–4/28/12