ANI-MOVIES, *The Pirates: Band Of Misfits

Originally titled The Pirates In An Adventure With Scientists, this UK animated film was created by Aardman Animations, most noted for the Wallace And Grommit films. Based on Gideon Defoe's first Pirates book, Peter Lord again directed this production which was largely popularized due to Disney's Pirates Of The Carribean series, but managed to maintain its own signature among filmgoers who were tired of the whole "pirates" genre.

Set in the mid-19th Century, a crew of no-name pirates lead by their captain, Pirate Captain, who hopes to finally win the coveted Pirate Of The Year after dozens of failed attempts. Several failed raids lead them to crossing paths with Charles Darwin on another of his expeditions. Darwin is surprised to find that the pirates' parrot is in fact the last known dodo bird, and convinces them to take the endling England for a science exposition. Pirate Captain and his crew manage to win while disguised as scientists, but their deception is uncovered when confronted by the pirate-hating Queen Victoria. However, the Queen offers a treasure trove to Pirate Captain for the dodo to be part of her personal zoo. Pirate Captain takes the booty, and wins Pirate Of The Year, but his status as a pirate is revoked by his fellow swashbucklers with they find out the Queen pardoned him. Pirate Captain meets up with a dejected Darwin to learn the Queen actually took his dodo to a special meeting of world leaders that dine on endangered animals. Pirate Captain, Darwin, and the rest of the crew get back together to save their feathered friend, and really stick it to the royalty.

This wasn't exactly geared towards the youngsters with some cheeky adult humor thrown in here and there. The Pirates: Bands Of Misfits works better as another humorous Aardman creation for film lovers. There's a tremendous cast of talent behind it, including Hugh Grant, David Tennent, Martin Freeman, and Brian "effing" Blessed! The stop-motion animation is in good form, although still not near the epic levels of Laika. Fans of most Aardman films will enjoy it, but might appeal to fans of sporadic British madcap comedy.