The Pirates! Band of Mistfits was a great deal of fun! I don’t recall the last time I’ve so thoroughly enjoyed a movie. Aardman animation have produced another charming, entertaining, and very funny film, based on the novel The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe (who also provided the screenplay).
The Pirates! finds our hero, The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant), trying to win the prestigious Pirate of the Year, despite not being anywhere near as successful as his competitors. After boarding The Beagle looking to pillage treasure, The Pirate Captain is informed by Charles Darwin (David Tennant) that his rather fat parrot Polly is in fact the last dodo. And what better way to claim a fortune in loot than by showing off Polly in London at the Scientist of the Year awards? Adventure awaits. Along the way we learn the value of friendship and the power of believing in one’s self, but the film never allows itself to be dragged down by the message, and is an awful lot of fun throughout.
A number of simple and amusing gags, from the pirates being “masters of disguise” to monkey butlers to Queen Victoria on a donkey all give this film an exquisite daftness that is further enhanced by the characters names – alongside The Pirate Captain, his crew members are called The Pirate with a Scarf, The Albino Pirate, The Pirate with Gout, The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate, and (my personal favourite) The Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens.
The cast is full of solid, entertaining performances all-round. Hugh Grant makes for a charming and likable Pirate Captain and Tim Freeman does his best Tim Freeman as the trusty right-hand man. It’s a cracking cast all-round really – Imelda Staunton, Tennant, Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek all put in enjoyable turns, but special mention (and perfect casting high-fives) must go to Brian Blessed as The Pirate King. I mean, seriously, is there another voice out there that could possibly do justice to a character called The Pirate King? No. No there isn’t.
Immediately after watching The Pirates! Band of Misfits, I wanted to watch it again. I can’t think of a higher recommendation than that really.
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