Aardman Animation have got quite a treasure chest of releases. From Chicken Run to their flag ship franchise of Wallace and Grommit, the studio really hasn’t missed a beat. Does this non beat missing trend continue with some high seas hijinks? Well….unfortunately (here we go) not exactly.
With a vocal cast including Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson and Jeremy Piven The Pirates tells the story of the Pirate Captain. A “loser” Pirate, who for years has tried to win the Pirate of the year award, so with one more attempt at winning the coveted award, said Pirate Captain and his crew set off to plunder as much booty as possible. After a number of failed plundering attempts, including a Ghost ship and a plague ship, they board a ship full of Scientists. A certain Charles Darwin convinces them that their parrot, polly is their ticket to riches galore. Squeeze a Queen Victoria and a few hidden agendas into your porthole and you get what is arguably an incredible disappointment.
The story itself is all over the place, as it jumps from scene to scene with a bizarre and disjointed storyline. It’s so erratic at times that keeping tuned in is a feat in itself. There is just too much going on and Pirates would have benefitted from a far simpler storyline. And even with so much going on, if it developed each tangent a bit more, it might have some hope. For the best part surely a story about Pirates should rotate around some high seas plundering, not spend most of its time in London? If it stuck to its original idea instead of meandering off into Darwin territory and science competitions, we might well have a different movie on our hands.
Visually though, Aardman have done an amazing job. The attention to detail is simply staggering and far surpasses many CGi creations that have gone before. The set pieces are brilliantly executed and the sets themselves are rich and diverse. This is a movie which is full of minute touches and is obviously created with alot of time, energy and effort. One example of this comes when a young (ish) Charles Darwin has a run in with some flour and vinegar. Simply brilliant as is the throwbacks to the likes of Jane Austen etc. It’s hard not to be impressed by what unfolds on the big screen, visually at least. But amazing visuals cannot save a movie that is for the best part, unfunny and contrived.
The vocal cast do an adequate job for their stop motion counterparts and Hugh Grant and Brendan Gleeson in particular are incredibly likeable. At the same time, nobody is breaking a sweat here either.
The Pirates is a double edged cutlass. On one side, it is visually brilliant. On the other side, as a piece of entertainment it’s better off left lost at sea. A huge disappointment!
