The Pirates! Band of Misfits! (2012)

Directed by Peter Lord. Starring (voices) Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Jeremy Piven, Brendan Gleeson, Anton Yelchin, Lenny Henry, Salma Hayek, Ashley Jensen, Brian Blessed, Mike Cooper, David Schneider. [PG]

Clever, charming stop-motion animated movie from the Aardman Animations studio, based on a series of books by Gideon Defoe. Pic starts out with a crew of hapless buccaneer underdogs striving to win the prestigious Pirate of the Year honorific, but it later turns into a wacky adventure involving the Pirate Captain’s odd-looking parrot (not really a parrot…), the nefarious Queen of England, and a bizarre society that truly likes their food served, ahem, rare. A likable, broadly-played comic swashbuckler—the kind where distractions like “plot” just get in the way—although like most of Aardman’s output, its combination of visual gags, sharp wit, and silliness is usually more “cute” than hysterical, and the story runs out of steam a touch too early. Still, it’s a lot of good fun, the cartoon-y designs and animation are a treat for the eyes, and the sly asides and unexpected story developments will keep older viewers on their toes; it takes a special kind of bold irreverence, after all, to turn Charles Darwin into a villain. In Aardman’s British homeland (and most international markets), the film was released as The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!, and curiously, a few of the voice actors were different despite everyone speaking the same language (e.g., Anton Yelchin voices the Albino Pirate in the U.S. version, but Russell Tovey plays him in the original UK release).

71/100