The Pirates! review

My next review: The new Aardman film based on Gideon Dafoe's The Pirates! books, (the first two to be exact), starring Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Jeremy Piven, Imelda Staunton, Selma Hayek, Brendan Gleeson, and David Tennant.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits:

The cast are very good in their roles. The voice cast are great,with several famous British actors, Hugh Grant (Love Actually, Bridget Jones, About A Boy), Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter, Troy, In Bruges, 28 Days Later, Braveheart, The Treaty, Gangs of New York), Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter, Vera Drake), and David Tennant (Harry Potter, Dr. Who), and several actors that are to make the film more marketable to American audiences like Jeremy Piven (Entourage) and Selma Hayek (From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado, Frida). Wow, a lot of actors from Harry Potter. The plot follows a pirate crew (no names mentioned) trying to win the Pirate of the Year Award, presented by "The Pirate King". They are made fun of for being stupid, and bad at looting. They then accidentally raid the ship of Charles Darwin, who reveals their pet parrot "Polly" is actually a rare dodo species. They then try to win a science award, while avoiding the psychotic, pirate-hating Queen Victoria. The film is full of subtle humor, in fact, in the words of Mathew Buck of "Projector" on That Guy with the Glasses and Blip-TV, "Black Adder-esque". (I recommend watching his review). The humor is also very British humor, and goes for being subtle, rather than the way American films go for toilet humor. The sets and animation are great, obviously taking a long while, as Aardman's been working on this film for years. The inclusion of Charles Darwin is avoided in all ads, because many fundamental Christians will probably not take their kids. In fact, the ads make the film seem like it has no plot. The UK title and the original book title is The Pirates! In an adventure with scientists, so are Americans just intolerant of movies about scientists? Mathew Buck also made a great point about changing titles: what's gonna happen if they make a sequel, based on The Pirates! In an adventure with communists? (Yes, that's a real book, the third book in the series.) Also, the leprosy community, yes, there's a leprosy community, got upset about jokes made about the disease in the trailer and film. Get over it people, this is worse than the hyena controversy from The Lion King. All in all, the direction, animation, subtle humor, and great cast makes The Pirates! worth the watch! 3/5 stars.