The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

Following their collaboration with DreamWorks that ended with Flushed Away, Aardman began a new partnership with Sony that began with Arthur Christmas. Whereas their previous two films were done in CG, their next feature, and their final feature collab with an American studio, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (The Pirates!), would see them return to stop-motion in adapting the book of the same name by Gideon DeFoe, who also wrote the screenplay in a rare case of the author also writing the adaptation. Although I had seen an international cut of the movie before, I had at one point become curious about seeing the original British versions of some films that were edited for America, with The Pirates! being one of them, and so imported a UK Blu-ray of the film. While the movie as I saw it originally was already good, I can safely say that it’s even better seeing it as originally intended.

Despite losing every year, the Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) decides to enter the Pirate of the Year contest, believing that having so many losses in a row will improve his chances of winning this year. Feeling inadequate after seeing how much more successful his competition is, the Pirate Captain begins raiding ships for treasure with no success, only to feel defeated after raiding a ship resided by Charles Darwin (David Tennant) when said ship has no treasure. While being made to walk the plank to make the Pirate Captain feel better, Darwin informs them that the pirate crew’s parrot, Polly, is actually a dodo bird and a priceless scientific discovery. Presented with this new information and that Polly has a high chance of winning the Scientist of the Year competition, both the Pirate Captain and Darwin have their own ideas of how to take advantage of the situation.

 

The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) wants to be Pirate of the Year, but nothing seems
to go right for him.

Although I have not read the book prior to watching the movie, it being written by the original author gives me the impression that the book has a similar comedic tone, with the film featuring a particularly British sense of humor that isn’t overbearing on the plot. Some of said humor also comes from the fact that, while a bit scrappier compared with other pirates, the pirate crew are much cleverer than they might seem, including how surprisingly good they are in the area of disguise. While the film is a comedy, and a funny one at that, the main focus is a heartfelt story that effectively explores the theme of friendship and whether achieving a great reward is worth the sacrifice. As for the main cast, there is a good balance between the more prominent of the Pirate Captain’s other crewmates in terms of screen time and development, though the Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens gets noticeably the least, making him come off a bit more generic.

As usual for Aardman, the stop-motion is excellent and still holds up today, with any imperfections only serving as a reminder that it was made with care and patience by human hands. That said, the movie does use a blend of CG when necessary, chiefly the water effects for ocean shots as well as some smoke effects, though some clearly hand-made shots involving wet paper and fabric are impressive in their realism. For some travel scenes involving map shots, there is some great and clever usage of traditional animation blended perfectly with CG. In true Aardman fashion, much of the humor is in the good number of visual gags that may take multiple viewings and/or a frame-by-frame analysis to notice, but being able to spot them only adds to the experience.

The film is also well-cast, with Hugh Grant, who is not known for voice acting, doing fantastically as the Pirate Captain, complemented well by Martin Freeman as the Pirate with a Scarf. David Tennant, perhaps best known as the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors, also does well as Charles Darwin, while Imelda Staunton and Brian Blessed respectively leave an impression as Queen Victoria and the Pirate King, the latter despite having far less screen time. The movie also has a good selection of licensed tracks to complement the action at certain points, however the use of “London Calling” by The Clash to establish a transition to London comes off a bit cliché, if only due to its frequent use in media for that same purpose.

 

Internationally, this film was released under a different title, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, which I mentioned previously as the version I watched before seeking out the UK original. In addition to the name change, this version also sees a few edits in an attempt to make it more marketable for an American audience. The most noticeable of these changes is recasting the Albino Pirate with Anton Yelchin (Russell Tovey in the UK version) and The Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens with Al Roker (Ben Whitehead in the UK version). While it can be guessed that the latter choice was made just so the film could be promoted on NBC’s Today show, the former remains a mystery. That being said, the new voice actors do a good job capturing the same delivery as the originals, with Roker even trying to put on a voice similar to Whitehead’s, the voices are still noticeably different and their American accents stand out amongst the other British VAs.

 

The Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens (left) and the Albino Pirate (center) were
recast in the American version, the latter for no discernible reason.

The Band of Misfits version also features some dialogue changes, some of which change the intent of certain scenes, which I picked up on after watching the two versions back-to-back and directly comparing specific scenes where I noticed differences. To start with, a general edit is changing any instance of “Girl Guide” to “Girl Scout,” with the redubbing being a little obvious, however this change is more excusable as simply a form of localization. Other changes veer more into censorship due to toning down some lines, making them arguably less funny, such as Darwin’s thought when he’s being walked off a plank, "Will die without reaching second base with a lady" being altered to "Will die without ever kissing an actual lady." The biggest dialogue change is related to the invention of the hot air balloon; whereas the UK version had the presenter say "... it's for looking down ladies' tops," the international dub instead has him say "... it's a massive lady magnet," going so far as to have a different accompanying visual and reanimated mouth movements. This change also affects Darwin’s callback to the line in the third act: instead of exclaiming "It's true, you can see down ladies' tops," he now says "It's true, this is a lady magnet."

Among Aardman’s catalog, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! is an overlooked gem, with plenty of laughs and incredible animation that have an unapologetically British flair. While it may be easier for an American viewer to watch the Band of Misfits edit, I would still recommend watching the British version over that if possible. Either way, for those seeking more, the related short So You Want to be a Pirate! is also worth watching alongside it.