The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)-The Pirates! All Outcasts on Deck (2012)

Directed by: Peter Lord, Jeff Newitt | 88 minutes | animation, adventure, family | Original voice cast: Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Piven, Brian Blessed, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, David Tennant, Ashley Jensen, Russell Tovey | Dutch voice cast: Daniel Boissevain, Mark van Eeuwen, Nicolette Kluijver, Karin Bloemen, Levi van Kempen, Horace Cohen

Whether you’re a pirate or a scientist, in the end it’s all about the fame, the loot or a nice girl. That is, if we consider the 3D animated film ‘The Pirates! Band of Misfits’ may be believed. In it we see how a failed pirate tries to become Pirate of the Year and how Charles Darwin discovers a strange parrot that will bring him fame and hopefully a girl. And we see an English queen who doesn’t like pirates but loves endangered species.

‘The Pirates!’ we owe to the combination of Aardman and Sony Pictures, which produces a film of Anglo-American style. The English is in the accents of the voice actors, the atmospheric streets of 19th century London and the sparsely appearing absurdist humour. The American is in the unavoidable morality and in the kind of postmodern humor that we know from (especially) Dreamworks. For example, we see a 19th century scientist fighting a Rubik’s cube, there is a witty reference to Oscar broadcasts and a poster appears that mentions an Anti Piracy Act. Besides those postmodern witticisms, ‘The Pirates!’ plenty of physical humor and language jokes.

You won’t hear anyone complain about the story either. From the moment Charles Darwin steps in, ‘The Pirates!’ from a simple pirate story to a deliciously wacky tale of endangered species, betrayal and heroism. Without getting serious for a moment.

Less successful is the 3D glasses that you have been sniffing for 90 minutes, because 3D hardly adds anything to these adventures. The 2012 viewer may have been spoiled after the fantastic ‘Hugo’, but in ‘The Pirates!’ even the inevitable chase isn’t spectacular. And it really only lasts a few seconds.

All this makes ‘The Pirates!’ a successful animation, which only scores poorly on innovation and originality. The fact that he doesn’t come close to earlier Aardmanwerk like ‘Chicken Run’ and the complete Wallace and Gromit output is therefore no reason to skip him. Jack Sparrow has a serious competitor for the title Pirate of the Year.