Plot: Pirate Captain is determined to win Pirate of the Year, in order to up his peers. He believes his opportunity has come when a young Charles Darwin persuades Pirate Captain to bring Polly, the parrot who is actually the last living dodo bird in a science competition where Charles Darwin hopes to be crowned Scientist of the Year. Pirate Captain looses his way as he tries to get to the top. Can he get out?
Review: This is a good, entertaining animated film.
I did like the story. I think that the story and characters appeal to both kids and adults. We have the setting of London in 1837, which some of the older viewers might enjoy seeing for it's accuracy or inaccuracy. We have fun characters that will lure in the kids and non-fictional characters that will lure in the adults.
I was actually surprised by the historical characters that were used in the film. In the film, we have a young Charles Darwin and Queen Victoria. For the kids that will be seeing this, they will more than likely have no idea who they are. But for the parents that are taking their kids to the movie, they will. The film is an adaptation from a series of books that I hadn't heard of, so I was genuinely surprised by the appearances of these two characters. Are they realistic portrayals of these historical figures. Of course not. But they're still entertaining to watch.
I felt that there wasn't an equal focus on all of the characters. Like Pirate Captain's crew. There's one pirate who's pretending to be a man. It's a good gag, but I wish we'd know more about this character and her motives about why she's pretending to be a guy. That annoyed me. The same thing goes for the other crew members. They all have good lines and provide good gags, yet we don't know about them as characters.
I liked the blend of humors in this. There's physical comedy, a couple of decent jokes for the parents, Charles' monkey with the caption cards and amongst others. So I did like the different types of humor. I also don't recall toilet humor, which I was relieved by because there are too many kids movies now that rely on farts in order to get a laugh. So I appreciate that the writers and everyone decided to take different comedy types and mix it all into one. And although they didn't always work, the ending result was good.
The animation is flawless like all of Aardman's films. Clay animation, as most of us know, is extremely time consuming and requires great attention to detail to make it work. These guys know what they're doing. It shows in every film. They made this film in 3D and sadly I was only able to see it in 2D.
So despite my praise for their work, there are times when the film is slightly boring, which is something I haven't said about a film from Aardman Studios to day. This is the studio that helped create the Wallace & Gromit films and Chicken Run, all funny and highly entertaining films. The plot is sometimes cliche and you can see the outcome coming and how everything will end. So I will say that maybe I had my expectations a little too high with this.
Whilst The Pirates! isn't Aardman's strongest film to date, it is still entertaining and good fun for the family.
Rating: 3/5
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