The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (released overseas as The Pirates! Band of Misfits) is a 2012 stop-motion animated swashbuckler comedy film produced by the British studio Aardman Animations and the American studios Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation as their second and final collaborative project; it is Aardman's first book-based movie as well as their first stop-motion feature film since Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), and Sony Pictures Entertainment's first stop-motion film. Directed by Peter Lord, written by Gideon Defoe, based on DeFoe's 2004 novel The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (the first book from The Pirates! series), and featuring the voices of Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Martin Freeman, Salma Hayek, and Jeremy Piven, it follows a crew of amateur pirates in their attempt to win the Pirate of the Year competition.
The Pirates! was distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing and was released on 28 March 2012 in the United Kingdom, and on 27 April 2012 in the United States. The film received generally positive reviews, and was a modest box office success, earning $123 million against a budget as high as $55 million. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was the second film from Sony Pictures Animation to be nominated after Surf's Up.
Plot
In London, 1837, Queen Victoria is told by the Navy that England rules the entire ocean, with the exception of pirates, whom she despises. Meanwhile, The Pirate Captain leads an unorthodox group of amateur pirates who are trying to make a name for themselves on the high seas. To prove his worth, The Captain enters the annual Pirate of the Year competition, with the winner being whoever can plunder the most treasure. After several failed attempts to plunder mundane ships, they come across HMS Beagle and capture its lone passenger, Charles Darwin, who recognizes the crew's pet "parrot", Polly, as the last living dodo bird. Darwin recommends that they enter Polly in the Scientist of the Year competition at the Royal Society of London, and The Captain accepts, believing that winning the competition can help him win the Pirate of the Year award, despite his assistant, The Pirate with the scarf, advising him not to. Allowing The Pirate Captain and his crew to stay at his house for the night, Darwin plans to steal Polly for himself in order to impress Queen Victoria, whom he's smitten with. He has his trained chimpanzee, Mr. Bobo, steal Polly, but the plan fails.
The next day, the pirates disguise themselves as scientists to enter the competition, and the dodo display wins the top prize, which turns out to be a meeting with the Queen. The Queen requests that Polly be put in her petting zoo, but the Captain refuses and accidentally reveals his true identity. The Captain is about to be executed when Darwin reminds the Queen that Polly has been hidden and only the Captain knows where. The Queen pardons the Captain of his crimes and orders Darwin to find Polly by any means necessary. Darwin and Mr. Bobo take the Captain to a tavern, get him intoxicated, and steal Polly, but The Captain chases them into the Tower of London, where the Queen is waiting. She dismisses Darwin and Mr. Bobo and offers The Captain enough treasure to ensure his win for Pirate of the Year in exchange for Polly. The Captain accepts the offer and returns to his crew, assuring them Polly is still safe.
At the Pirate of the Year ceremony, the Captain is announced as the winner, but rival pirate Black Bellamy finds a newspaper revealing the Queen's pardon and explains that if pardoned, one is no longer a pirate. The Captain is stripped of his treasure and pirate attire and admits to his crew that he sold Polly to the Queen for the treasure, prompting them to abandon him. The Captain returns to London and reunites with Darwin, who has discovered that the Queen is part of a society of world leaders that dine on endangered creatures, and Polly is to be served at their next banquet. The Captain and Darwin work together to steal an airship and find the Queen's flagship, the QV1, while Mr. Bobo sets off to retrieve the Captain's crew members.
Aboard the QV1, the Captain and Darwin find Polly before she's cooked and eaten, but the Queen finds them and attempts to kill both of them. Mr. Bobo and the crew come to their aid, but while fighting the Queen, they accidentally mix the ship's stash of baking soda with vinegar, causing a violent reaction that explodes and breaks the ship in two. The Queen tries to escape with Polly in the airship that the Captain and Darwin came on. Polly causes her to rip a hole in the airship and drop Polly, and the Captain catches her before she falls into the ship's propeller. The Captain, along with Darwin, Mr. Bobo and the rest of his crew escape safely, leaving the furious Queen behind on her deflating airship. Due to their actions, the Captain is targeted with the highest bounty known to pirates, with 100,000 Doubloons placed by the Queen, restoring his pirate reputation as well as marking him as the most dangerous pirate alive. Darwin stays on an island to study more exotic animals, and The Pirate Captain continues his exploits with his crew, now joined by Mr. Bobo.
Voice cast
Hugh Grant as the Pirate Captain
Martin Freeman as the Pirate with a Scarf/Number Two
Imelda Staunton as Queen Victoria
David Tennant as Charles Darwin
Jeremy Piven as Black Bellamy
Salma Hayek as Cutlass Liz
Lenny Henry as Peg-Leg Hastings
Brian Blessed as Pirate King
Russell Tovey as Albino Pirate (United Kingdom)
Anton Yelchin as Albino Pirate (United States)
Brendan Gleeson as Pirate with Gout
Ashley Jensen as Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate
Ben Whitehead as Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens (United Kingdom)
Al Roker as Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens (United States)
David Schneider as Scarlett Morgan
Mike Cooper as Admiral Collingwood
Mitchell Mullen as Gameshow Host
Additional voices by Tom Doggart, Sophie Jerrold, Sophie Laughton, Kayvan Novak, David Schaal, Ben Whitehead and director Peter Lord
Production
Aardman Animations, who primarily use stop-motion animation, extensively used computer graphics to complement and enrich the primarily stop-motion film with visual elements such as sea and scenery.
The project was originally envisioned as a CGI animated film, but when Sony executives saw the models of the Pirate Captain and his cabin that had been created as references for the animators, they requested that it be made in stop-motion.
Director Peter Lord commented, "With Pirates!, I must say that the new technology has made Pirates! really liberating to make, easy to make because the fact that you can shoot a lot of green screen stuff, the fact that you can easily extend the sets with CGI, the fact that you can put the sea in there and a beautiful wooden boat that, frankly, would never sail in a million years, you can take that and put it into a beautiful CGI scene and believe it."
Naming
For the release in the United States, the film was retitled The Pirates! Band of Misfits, as author/screenwriter Gideon Defoe's books do not have "the same following outside of the United Kingdom", so it was not necessary to keep the original title.
Hugh Grant, the voice of the Pirate Captain, said that the studio "didn't think the Americans would like the longer title". Lord's similar response was that "some people reckoned the United Kingdom title wouldn't charm / amuse / work in the United States. Tricky to prove eh?"
Quentin Cooper of the BBC analysed the change of the title and listed several theories. One of them is that the British audience is more tolerant for the eccentricity of the British animators. Another is that the film makers did not want to challenge the United States viewers who do not accept the theory of evolution. He quoted science writer Jennifer Ouellette's 2010 statement at the Science & Entertainment Exchange that scientists are undesirable in American popular culture, being represented as "the mad scientist or the dweeby nerd that dress funny, have no social skills, play video games, long for unattainable women".
Controversy
In January 2012, it was reported that the latest trailer of The Pirates! attracted some very negative reactions from the "leprosy community". In the trailer released in December 2011, the Pirate Captain lands on a ship demanding gold, but is told by a crewmember, "we don't have any gold, old man. This is a leper boat!" before his arm falls off.
Lepra Health in Action and some officials from the World Health Organization claimed that the joke depicted leprosy in a derogatory manner, and it "reinforces the misconceptions which leads to stigma and discrimination that prevents people from coming forward for treatment". They demanded an apology and removal of the offending scene, to which Aardman responded: "After reviewing the matter, we decided to change the scene out of respect and sensitivity for those who suffer from leprosy. The last thing anyone intended was to offend anyone..."
LHA responded that it was "genuinely delighted that Aardman has decided to amend the film", while the trailer was expected to be pulled down from websites, and the final version of the film has "leper boat" replaced with "plague boat".
Music
The film's score was composed by Theodore Shapiro who made his animated feature score debut with this film. The score was released digitally by Madison Gate Records on 24 April 2012, and as a CD-R on-demand on 17 May 2012. The film also includes a number of previously released songs by various artists, including "Swords of a Thousand Men" by Tenpole Tudor, "Ranking Full-Stop" by The Beat, "Fiesta" by The Pogues, "London Calling" by The Clash, "You Can Get It If You Really Want" by Jimmy Cliff, "Alright" by Supergrass, and "I'm Not Crying" by Flight of the Conchords.
Release
Home media
The Pirates! was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on 28 August 2012 in the United States, and on 10 September 2012 in the United Kingdom. The film is accompanied with an 18-minute short stop motion animated film called So You Want to Be a Pirate!, where The Pirate Captain hosts his own talk show about being a true pirate.
The short was also released on DVD on 13 August 2012, exclusively at Tesco stores in the United Kingdom. As a promotion for the release of The Pirates!, Sony attached to every DVD and Blu-ray a code to download a LittleBigPlanet 2 minipack of Sackboy clothing that represents 3 of the characters: The Pirate Captain, Cutlass Liz and Black Bellamy.
Reception
Box office
The film has grossed $123,054,041 worldwide. $26 million came from United Kingdom, $31 million from the United States and Canada, along with around $92 million from other territories, including the United Kingdom. As of 2017, it is the fourth highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time.
In North America, it ranked fifth on its opening day, taking in $2,749,959, slightly higher than Arthur Christmas $2.4 million opening day. The film eventually made $11.1 million on its opening weekend and reaching second at the box office behind Think Like a Man while averaging $3,315 through its 3,358 theatre’s, on its second weekend, it dropped by 50.6%, ranking fourth with $5,502,482, then to seventh place with $3,143,442, dropping by 42.9%.
In the United Kingdom, it opened to third with $3,486,095 behind The Hunger Games and Wrath of the Titans, averaging $6,443 through its 554 cinemas, it saw a 1.3% decline on its second weekend with $3,486,280, averaging $6,240 per cinema, and bringing the UK gross to $12,251,022.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has approval rating based on reviews; the average score is . The website's consensus reads, "It may not quite scale Aardman's customary delirious heights, but The Pirates! still represents some of the smartest, most skillfully animated fare that modern cinema has to offer." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 73 based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".
Accolades
Cancelled sequel
By August 2011, Aardman had been already working on a sequel idea, and by June 2012, a story had been prepared, awaiting Sony to back the project. Eventually, Sony decided not to support the project due to insufficient international earnings. According to Lord, "it got close, but not quite close enough. I was all fired up for doing more. It was such fun to do! We actually have a poster for The Pirates! In an Adventure with Cowboys!. That would have been just great."
References
External links
– official site (US)
2012 films
2012 3D films
2012 animated films
2012 action comedy films
2010s adventure comedy films
2010s American animated films
2010s children's comedy films
2010s historical comedy films
Aardman Animations feature films
American 3D films
American action adventure films
American action comedy films
American adventure comedy films
American children's animated action films
American children's animated adventure films
American children's animated comedy films
American children's animated fantasy films
American fantasy adventure films
Advertising and marketing controversies in film
Animation based on real people
Film controversies
Film controversies in the United Kingdom
British 3D films
British adventure comedy films
British children's adventure films
British children's animated films
British children's comedy films
British children's fantasy films
British fantasy adventure films
British historical comedy films
Clay animation films
Cultural depictions of Charles Darwin
Cultural depictions of Queen Victoria on film
Films set in 1837
Animated films set in London
Pirate films
British swashbuckler films
American swashbuckler films
2010s stop-motion animated films
Columbia Pictures animated films
Columbia Pictures films
Sony Pictures Animation films
Films directed by Peter Lord
Films scored by Theodore Shapiro
3D animated films
2012 directorial debut films
The Pirates!
2010s English-language films
2010s British films
2010s British animated films
British animated comedy films
Animated films set in the 19th century