The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists
(2012)
Or, if you’re American, The Pirates! Band of Misfits. I was
hitherto unfamiliar with Gideon Defoe’s The
Pirates! Series of novels (the fifth of which was published last year) but
on this evidence (he also wrote the screenplay) he’s a witty and inventive
children’s author, one astutely able to bridge the gap between material
appealing to children and to adults.
Defoe’s main character draws on a number of
British comedy traditions, chief of which is the pompous career man who is
actually inept at his job. There’s more than a dash of Blackadder in the mix
with the Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) too, although in this case the position of
the right-hand man (Martin Freeman) who knows better (as opposed to Baldrick,
who certainly doesn’t) is a mainstay.
Defoe embraces anarchic and surreal humour
throughout, attaching it to the through-line of the Captain’s wish to win the
Pirate of the Year competition (replete with Britain’s Got Talent-esque references; the panel of judges is
highly amusing). Roundly ridiculed by his piratical peers, the Captain sees a
means of attaining glory when Charles Darwin (David Tennant, whose vocals I
didn’t recognise) identifies his pet “parrot” Polly as an extinct dodo. Feting
for this discovery awaits in London, but the reveal of nefarious plans for the
bird by the thoroughly unscrupulous Queen Victoria creates a dilemma for the
Captain.
There’s much that makes Pirates! instantly appealing, not least
Hugh Grant’s enthusiastic rendition of the Captain. Polly is an adorable
character, and hinging the plot around her is a masterstroke. Most of all, the
decision to make the Queen an evil schemer is welcome and unusual, particular for
a kids’ movie that might be expected to reserve some respect for royalty. The
status quo is cheerfully mocked throughout, be it the sovereign rule or scientific
rigour. Charles Darwin is identified as a self-interested nerd who just wants
to impress girls, which half works but his characterisation is one of the few
areas that the screenplay feels a little over-familiar.
This is Peter Lord’s first full-length
feature since he co-directed Chicken Run
with Nick Park in 2000. Mostly, he has restricted himself to executive
producing Aardman releases. If Lord doesn’t quite have the visual flair of
Park, his sense of humour is just as full-bodied. Pirates! is as enjoyable, if not more so, for its incidental sight
gags as it is for the main story. These are abundant, but a few choice ones
include the pictures on the Captain’s wall of previous adventures, Brian
Blessed as the best choice for roaring on the Pirate of the Year awards form, the
hot water bottle/sock parrot-substitute and Bobo the monkey’s entire character
arc.
The script isn’t afraid to dive into
potentially bad taste gags; the Elephant Man appears in a pub, a leper ship
(referred to as plague ship) is replete with limbs dropping off and the Captain
refers to using babies “as squid bait”.
There are also numerous jokes concerning scantily clad ladies (one of the “male”
crew is “surprisingly curvaceous”). If
the results are hit and miss, it’s nevertheless refreshing that the parameters
of taste and decency are considered broader than your average Hollywood ‘toon,
while never becoming more than slightly risqué (and thus something parents
should worry about). The all-embracing attitude (“This makes electricity look like a pile of crap!”) works more often
than it doesn’t because you’re kept unsure of what level the next joke will be
aimed at. But the best moments come from the careful laying of foundations for
a joke earlier within the script (“girl guides disguised as scientists”, the
sea monster “just” being a decoration on all ocean charts).
Aardman’s brand of stop motion (or, in some
cases, CGI that resembles stop motion) animation has tended to prove a more
difficult sell in the US. Their films, Chicken
Run aside, have tended to underperform there. Pirates! was no exception, making three-quarters of its gross in
the rest of the world. It may be incidental, but one of the positives of Pirates! is the sense that this isn’t a
product of focus-group testing. Any moral message is breezily underplayed,
rather than pronounced (I say this with Madagascar
3 fresh in my memory), and as a result what sticks in the mind is the free
rein given to the fun and adventurousness of the tale.
***1/2
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