The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists: Film Review
Sony / Aardman
When Skwigly first caught a tantalising glimpse of the Pirates! film last June at the Annecy animation festival, the director, Peter Lord, was quick to dismiss the idea that Aardman Animations, the company he co-founded with school chum David Sproxton, had a specific style. “Except in spirit,” the twice Oscar nominated director announced. I can confirm that this is a film that is high in that Aardman spirit from start to finish.
This is the first stop motion title to surface since Aardman signed with Sony in 2007 and the third stop motion feature (Arthur Christmas and Flushed Away were CGI) in total counting the 2001 debut “Chicken Run” and 2005’s “Wallace and Gromit “Curse of the Were-Rabbit” both co-produced by Dreamworks. If any Dreamworks “influence” could be detected in any of Aardman previous features I can say that Sony have not gone down the same route. This is Aardman off the leash, and I daresay it is the film that the company has wanted to make for many years, free from any outside influence.
The film is loosely based on the hilarious book “The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists” by Gideon Defoe, so my first concern, and I believe a concern that anyone who has enjoyed the unique comedic styling of his book was for it to be translated successfully. One of the things that links Aardman and “The Pirates!” series of books is the “Britishness” or perhaps the “silliness” in style. If you find these aspects kept you entertained in the books you will be happy to see them translated with abundance here. The books knowing humour may well be difficult to portray in film without the assistance of the author’s narration, so in place of searching for a near impossible cinematic device that could translate this style of writing, the director has opted to take a different route and concentrate more on visual jokes and character humour. The film is loaded with character, even the Pirate ship has character, as it darts and skips around the ocean like a teenager on a moped.
Sony / Aardman
Hugh Grant plays “The Pirate Captain” in what can quite easily be described as his finest comedic performance to date. Mainly due to the fact that this is not a poorly written rom-com and that the performance was engineered by some of the finest stop motion animators in the world. Nonetheless he voices the character very well and offers a great lead role. Before we continue it may well be worth noting that all the Pirates are known by their attributes as opposed to their names and that this reviewer has not lost his notes. Voicing alongside Hugh Grant are Martin Freeman as “The Pirate with the scarf”, the Captains long-suffering number two, playing the Ernie Wise role to The Pirate Captains boisterous and buffoonish Eric Morcambe. Brendan Gleeson plays the infirmed “Pirate with Gout”, Ashley Jenson is “The Suspiciously Curvaceous Pirate” and Russell Tovey steals scenes as “The Albino Pirate”. Of all the voices, Toveys lends itself to animation extremely well. Alongside the Captain and his crew we also meet geeky scientist Charles “Chuck” Darwin voiced by David Tennant and the vain and villainous Queen Victoria played by Imelda Staunton, returning for her third vocal performance with the studio. Jeremy Piven plays Black Bellamy, The Captains arch-nemesis, always first to pour scorn on the Captains pitiful efforts. Selma Hayek plays the deadly and beautiful Cutlass Liz and Brian Blessed bellows his way through his performance as the Pirate King, a man who seems to travel everywhere exclusively by giant Clam. And if you spot a police officer with some sandwiches under his hat he is voiced by the director, Peter Lord.
So what do you get when Aardman gets free reign over a feature? You get a film filled with infectious joy and laughter throughout. I cannot pick a moment when the film had a lull. Even during the supposed sad parts of the film the audience are kept in fits of laughter by the hundreds of gags that pepper the screen both as part of the script and as part of the wonderful sets. There are also some excellent musical cues and both modern and classical music is used throughout. Look out for The Flight of the Conchords accompanying the Pirate Captain during his most troubled moment (a particular highlight for the couple sat next to me who nearly fell off their chairs laughing).
One of the most remarkable things about this film is the sheer scale of it. The pirate ship alone stands at an incredible 15 feet tall and there are 112 individual characters featuring throughout. By comparison, 112 actors in any film may not seem like much, but considering each one has to be designed, engineered, developed and then animated adds to the appreciation you may have for the enormous task they have undertaken. The scale is further boosted by the enormous range of sets. As well as the Ships we also get the poor dockside areas and the posh regal areas of London, Buckingham Palace, the Academy of Science and Blood Island (twinned with Weston Super Mare!) to name but a few and each one is filled with glorious detail and character. The art department’s role in this production really shines brightly. One stand out moment of the film comes in Darwin’s creepy house, filled with stuffed animals and plenty of different bedrooms, bathrooms, hallways and staircases which host a spectacular chase in a bathtub that is reminiscent of the train set chase in Nick Park’s “The Wrong Trousers” due to its barmy humour and frantic pace whilst still staying original. Another chase on a penny farthing is less comparable to earlier Aardman works but just as entertaining. All this detail can be a little distracting in the nicest possible way and I predict a lot of people will be pressing pause when the Blu-Ray is released and taking hours to get through the film. If you fear for missing out on any of detail, fear not as the end credits forgo the traditional black background and white text for a scrolling merger of all the sets in the film, keeping the audience in their seats whilst they can see all the detail that they may have missed. The only slight problem with this is that you may completely ignore the names of all the hardworking team that made this film whilst you are busy enjoying all the jokes from the film!
Those following the “Leper” saga may (or may not) be pleased to know that the scene has been dubbed over and not removed from the film altogether, with an equally funny joke put in its place. Having seen the original cut of that scene at Annecy I wish they would have kept it, but this film is not missing out on anything by changing it. It is quite endearing of Aardman to bow to the pressure of those suffering from the disease and to those who just shouted and made a fuss as if they suffered from it. I suspect many of my ancestors are now ghosts but I did not take any offense to the ghost ship joke. Luckily I cannot see any other elements of this film that would cause offence to anyone watching it.
Unlike Wallace and Gromit, “The Pirates!” employed a 3D printer to create all the mouths of the characters after modelling them in 3D software. No doubt as a way to cope with the sheer volume required. This may be my only gripe about the film. Plasticine animation has tactile warmth to it that we have all grown used to having watched the likes of Peter Lords “Adam” or “Wat’s Pig” and Co-Director Jeff Newitt’s “Loves Me…Loves Me Not”. My first thoughts were that the film lacked that warmth and the cast seemed too plastic or even doll-like when compared to earlier works. However my only minor complaint about the production melted away as the film got going by some of the finest puppet animation and character animation I have ever seen in an animated film of this kind. The puppets are animated with all the warmth and affection for the craft of stop-motion as you could wish for leaving my earlier criticism about the lack of plasticine rather redundant. The feature boasts some rather hilarious 2D animation as well, as we watch the boat navigating a traditional treasure map taking every opportunity to squeeze out as many jokes as possible. If I were to compare the film to anything other than another animation I could easily compare the experience as the same as reading the Beano when I was younger. I would spend hours howling with laughter and could easily re-read old comics to find gags in the background that I had missed on a first reading. This film will take anyone who enjoyed such comics back to their childhood and entertain them with a familiar style of fun.
The major difference between this film and its nearest comparable film “Curse of the Were-Rabbit” is that the story. Although well structured and enjoyable is secondary to the huge array of jokes, which could easily spell doom for a film of lesser quality, but in this instance (and only this instance) it is successful, although “Were-Rabbit” contained jokes it did not have the same rate of fire as this film does. Rarely have I enjoyed an animated film so much and wanted to see a sequel. Usually when a film achieves this level of accomplishment I want it to be left alone as a classic but I could not get enough of this and would love to see more from the Pirate Captain and his crew in future classics!
Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt have managed to make a film with the same “spirit” as earlier Aardman successes but also a film that deserves its own independent status as a genuine, stand-alone Aardman achievement, possibly their finest. “The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists” is a side-splitting, swashbuckling feast for the eyes. Fabulously detailed, heartwarmingly hilarious and fun from start to finish.