The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! (Review)

Only the fifth feature film from the Aardman stable in twelve years (and only three of those have been claymation) ‘The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists!’ is adapted from the book of the same name by author Gideon Defoe and is another classic example of a great family film for the Easter period that combines both a funny, well-written and twisty-turny plot and a loving eye for detail and background visual jokes that few other animation companies spend time and effort on.

‘The Pirates!’ tells the story of the Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) who, alongside his crew, sail the seven seas going about their business in the hope he’ll do enough great piratical deeds to earn the Pirate of the Year trophy. Sadly, in pirate circles, he’s a bit of a loser and thus fails to score any booty and becomes humiliated in front of his more successful peers. That is, until thanks to a chance meeting with travelling scientist Charles Darwin (David Tennant) who discovers his faithful parrot is actually the last living dodo, he heads to London to claim a science prize, lots of booty and the award he so longs for. Sadly it doesn’t quite go that away with Darwin and Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) having other plans for the rare bird.

The animation of ‘The Pirates!’ is probably the most ambitious of all the Aardman features so far with lots of love going into each frame. With support from CGI in creating the water, it truly is a beautiful film and the characters animated with much detail. Scenes such as a daring rescue involving a bath-tub and a final showdown on a boat are as thrilling and well choreographed as any action film and running jokes involving Darwin’s revolutionary evolutionary monkey servant and the Pirate Captain attacking ships really make the film.

Voice wise the actors are spot on and each bring a different character to each role with Grant, Tennant, Staunton and many others relishing the role. Charles Darwin in particular is the most interesting of the interpretations, turning the scientist into a depressed loner with a desire to find a girlfriend, leading to many of the jokes of the piece.

Alongside the plot, which is full of twists and turns, exotic locations, and never loses its pace, the film feels much bigger than its 88-minute running time suggests. It also deserves repeat viewing for the amount of background detail and visual jokes, only some of which are covered in the worth-waiting-for credit sequence.

Tightly plotted with throwaway sections early on coming back later with relevance, the period setting of the piece is great but it isn’t afraid to throw in some modern anachronisms to get a laugh, such as the Pirate Captain being street or the name of Victoria’s ship.

It’s perhaps not as laugh out loud funny as the Wallace and Gromit feature or ‘Flushed Away’ but the humour is not to be missed and there are still several belly laugh moments and many jokes that appeal to the adult mind as well as for children. As with any Aardman film there are so many little moments in the film that make you chuckle that it’s difficult to list them all without spoiling the film, but let me just say it’s difficult to watch the film without a constant smile on your face.

The soundtrack is also worth the ticket admittance with a song from Tenpole Tudor sitting beside a ditty from Flight of the Conchords alongside some hilarious sound effects.

My biggest upset with the film is that several of the big jokes were included in the trailer – but this is more of a bugbear with movie trailers in general – but when the alternatives this Easter for a film to see involves a fifteen year re-release of a disaster movie and a kids film that involves kids killing each other, the warmth, hilarity and general time and care that has gone into creating ‘The Pirates!’ makes this a must see film.

(8/10)