This is the character sheet for the Sony Pictures Animation/Aardman film The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.
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The Pirate Captain's Crew
As a whole
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the original book, the pirates are rather disdainful of each other and even casually execute one of their own when the crew becomes too large. In the film, they're True Companions.
- Broken Pedestal: When the crew find out that the Captain sold Polly for a bunch of gold in order to win Pirate of the Year, they are completely disillusioned with him to the point of leaving him.
- Cloudcuckoolander: All of them, with the exception of The Pirate with the Scarf.
- Cool Boat: They may not be the most ideal Pirates, but you can't say they don't have a nice ship. Though as Cutlass Liz points out, it's coming to pieces.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": They're only named by whatever characteristic they have.
- Historical Villain Downgrade: They are criminals of the sea, but not exactly the type of Pirate you would envision.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Pirate Captain and the crew (even Polly!) disguise themselves as Girl Guides when they first arrive in London, due to Victoria's hatred of pirates. They later disguise themselves as scientists, though the latter disguise is much more convincing.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The Pirate Captain's crew consistently fails to board a ship worth stealing from, though not for lack of trying.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Their favorite food is ham. So much so that they get together for small occasion known as "Ham Night".
- True Companions: The Pirate Captain and his crew members.
The Pirate Captain
- Voiced by: Hugh Grant
- Adaptational Nice Guy: The Pirate Captain in the book was a
Designated Hero while the movie makes him more likeable. - All the Other Reindeer: The Pirate Captain is looked on with contempt by the other pirates, and is such a failure that the price on his head is "12 doubloons and a free pen".
- The Atoner: He soon decides to rescue Polly after he hits rock bottom trying to sell baby clothes, a career that goes nowhere.
- Badass Boast: He is prone to giving these.
- Blatant Lies: Much like the above-mentioned Badass Boast, he is quite prone to these.
- When his fellow pirates notice him in the bar at Blood Island, he states that he didn't notice they came in, when in reality they each made a grand entrance.
- A few minutes later, when Black Belamy notcies his discarded Pirate of the Year application, he tries to deny that he's entering, before sheepishly saying that he is.
- When his crew abandon him after confessing that he sold Polly, he says he doesn't need them, but the meekness in his tone of voice says otherwise.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: "There's a sea monster in the way."
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: His primary motivation is to be seen as an equal among his fellow pirates but due his ineptitude, they ridicule him.
- Fatal Flaw: His need to be respected by others soon causes him to give up his beloved pet Dodo and later his whole crew abandon him for this.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: When Queen Victoria offers him a lifetime of gold (which could make him a shoo-in for Pirate of the Year) in exchange for Polly, The Captain makes a difficult choice...he chooses the gold. When his crew find out about it, they are completely upset.
- Idiot Hero: Is it any wonder that he's not the best pirate around?
- The Leader: He isn't called The Pirate Captain for nothing.
- Villain Protagonist: Downplayed. He is a pirate and a criminal, but to say that he's an outright baddie is an exaggeration.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: He has a naïve sense of wonder.
The Pirate With a Scarf A.K.A. Number Two
- Voiced by: Martin Freeman
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: The Pirate with a Scarf is quite smarter than the Pirate Captain.
- Ignored Expert: He is the smartest of the crew, but there are points in the film where the Pirate Captain dismisses his concerns when they meet Charles Darwin.
- Meaningful Name: A two-fer for his name and nickname of 'Number Two'. He wears a scarf and is the second-in-command of the crew.
- Only Sane Man: Among the crew, he is the most intelligent and has a lot more common sense.
- Pet the Dog: When trying to make Charles Darwin walk the plank, he genuinely apologizes for it.
- Undying Loyalty: While he leaves the Captain along with the crew after it's revealed the Captain sold Polly to Queen Victoria, he later comes to the Captain's rescue when Mr. Bobo tells them of what he and Charles Darwin are up to.
The Albino Pirate
- Voiced by: Anton Yelchin (U.S.), Russell Tovey (U.K.)
- Affably Evil: He's a pirate, but is very happy go-lucky.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Due to his young-looking appearance and childlike innocence, he fits the description of this trope.
- Meaningful Name: He has white skin, living up to his name.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted. He might be a pirate and a criminal but he isn't that bad of a guy, like the rest of his crew.
- Token Minority: Not of race, but of a rare skin condition.
- Too Much Information: In one of the credit scenes, when presenting the Pirate Captain with a makeshift Pirate of the Year award, he awkwardly asks if a squid tentacle is really a part of it (which it is). The Albino Pirate confirms it and also says he put some of his ear wax on the trophy as well.
The Pirate With Gout
- Voiced by: Brendan Gleeson
- Big Fun: He's bulky but very fun-loving.
- Meaningful Name: He has gout.
The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate
- Voiced by: Ashley Jensen
- Hartman Hips: She certainly lives up to her name with large hips and a shapely buttocks.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Her "disguise" consists of simply wearing a fake orange beard, one that doesn't match up with her natural blonde hair color, and not much else.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: She's obviously a woman pretending to be a male pirate, but no-one in the film seems to work this out.
The Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens
- Voiced by: Al Roker (U.S.), Ben Whitehead (U.K.)
- Generic Guy: Has the least amount of personality of the captain's crew.
- Gentle Giant: He is a big guy, but considering that he loves sunsets and kittens, he must be really friendly.
Polly
- Living MacGuffin: A lot of the film's conflict stems from the good guys and bad guys trying to get her.
- Team Pet: For the main pirate crew.
Real-Life Characters
Charles Darwin
- Voiced by: David Tennant
- Butt-Monkey: He is a constant victim of the movie's slapstick.
- The Dog Bites Back: In the final battle, Darwin turns on his former crush Victoria after suffering from her manipulation and abuse. He helps the Pirate Captain knock her down a shaft, bringing about her initial defeat and (inadvertently) blowing up her warship, which they were fighting on.
- It's All My Fault: He says this verbatim when he reunites with the Pirate Captain and explains Victoria's true motivations.
- Love Makes You Dumb: His desire to be Queen Victoria's boyfriend has caused most of the film's conflict.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He regrets trying to take Polly from the pirates when he finds out that Queen Victoria wants to eat her.
Queen Victoria
- Voiced by: Imelda Staunton
- Age Lift: The film refers to Queen Victoria as an old lady despite it taking place in 1837. During that time, she would have been 18/19 years old and was just crowned that year. To put this into perspective, this was before she was married to Albert and was not even a mother yet.
- Axe-Crazy: You have no idea.
- Big Bad: Of the movie.
- End of an Age: She hates pirates due to them being outdated in a civilized world. It's implied that this is the reason why she eats endangered animals as well. In her mind, since they're dying out anyway, they're better off being eaten.
- Exotic Entree: She's the leader of a secret dining society composed of world leaders. They gather on her flagship, the QV-1, to eat the rarest and most endangered creatures they can find. And poor Polly the dodo is next on the menu.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: She's the Ax-Crazy Big Bad of the film, and also the Queen of England.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: She's shown to be a highly skilled fighter who dual wields katanas in the finale. It is plenty obvious though that Queen Victoria wasn't a highly skilled martial artist and swordswoman in real life.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The real Queen Victoria was not an eater of rare animals.
- Hypocrite: Queen Victoria claims that the main reason she hates pirates so much is how archaic and outdated they are, despite royalty and monarchs arguably being even more archaic.
Other Pirates
Black Bellamy
- Voiced by: Jeremy Piven
- The Ace: He's a highly competent pirate who is able to use a whale as a ship and also able to steal mountains of gold with ease.
- Always Someone Better: His pirating prowess really does a number on the Pirate Captain's confidence.
- The Bully: To the Pirate Captain, though he mostly goes for mocking him rather than intimidating him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's not a nice guy, which goes without saying, yet he is right about how the Pirate Captain shouldn't receive the Pirate of the Year trophy since, due to being pardoned by Queen Victoria, he is automatically a pirate no longer.
- Jolly Roger: He has a skull-and-crossbones on his hat.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He has the Pirate of the Year trophy taken away from him in the Creative Closing Credits when the Pirate Captain receives a lucrative bounty on his head, which is most likely his comeuppance for how he treated the Pirate Captain.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Presumably he's named after the legendary Golden Age pirate Black Sam Bellamy.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Unlike in Chicken Run, where the character with an American accent was explicitly explained to be American, Jeremy Piven's American accent for this character is never explained, and ends up sticking out like a sore thumb.
- The Stool Pigeon: He publicly reveals the Pirate Captain's pardon from Queen Victoria when he is about to be handed the Pirate of the Year trophy in order to have him disqualified.
- Villainy-Free Villain: Doesn't try to do any malicious deeds like Queen Victoria but gives mean insults towards the Pirate Captain.
Cutlass Liz
- Voiced by: Salma Hayek
- Beauty Is Bad: Please don't be taken in by her attractive looks. She is a pirate after all.
- Jolly Roger: She has a skull and crossed cutlasses on her hat.
- The Smurfette Principle: She is the only known competent female pirate.
- Sore Loser: As seen when the Pirate Captain briefly wins the Pirate of the Year award, she stabs an offscreen pirate.
- Spicy Latina: She's an attractive Spanish pirate.
Peg-Leg Hastings
- Voiced by: Lenny Henry
- Ambiguously Brown: Nothing about his ethnicity is particularly stated, but given that he's voiced by Lenny Henry, a black man, alongside having some black facial features, mainly his nubian-shaped nose, it's most likely that he himself is a black man, like his voice actor.
- Flat Character: Apart from having a flashy outfit and a Large Ham appeal, there's barely any depth to the guy.
- Large Ham: He has a larger-than-life personality.
- Meaningful Name: He has a peg leg.
- Token Minority: Among the three Pirates who could potentially win the trophy, he's the only one with brown skin color.
The Pirate King
- Voiced by: BRIAN BLESSED
- Large Ham: What else were you expecting with Brian Blessed?
- No Indoor Voice: Most of his dialogue is just him shouting.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's very obviously based off of Elvis Presley in his later life when he gained weight.
- Serious Business: He sees getting pardoned by Queen Victoria as the worst offense a Pirate can do. The Pirate Captain learned this the hard way.
Other Characters
Mr. Bobo
- I Choose to Stay: He ends up joining the Pirate Captain crew in the end.
- Intelligent Primate: A chimpanzee that Charles Darwin taught how to communicate by using signs.
- The Speechless: He uses flashcards to talk to humans since he cannot do it in their language on account of being an animal.
