Western Animation: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists
Places to Pillage, People to Skewer.
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! is a Claymation film directed by Peter Lord and made by Aardman Animations based on the pirate stories of Gideon Defoe. It's Aardman's first full-length stop-motion film in seven years.Outside the UK, the film is being marketed under the title of The Pirates! Band of Misfits.The film features a nameless crew of pirates (who are only referred to by description, as in "The Pirate With Gout," "The Albino Pirate," and "The Pirate Who Likes Kittens and Sunsets") who aren't very good at piracy but are incredibly enthusiastic about it. The Pirate Captain is obsessed with winning the Pirate of the Year Award so he can at last earn the respect of his peers, but his incompetence renders this almost impossible.To earn the prize, the crew navigates a ridiculously exaggerated caricature of Victorian London, running afoul of Charles Darwin, Jane Austin, and the Elephant Man, and braving the hellish wrath of Queen Victoria (whose official royal motto is "I hate pirates!")
Affably Evil: These are the most friendly, loveable terrors of the high seas you will ever meet.
All Love Is Unrequited: Darwin has a crush on Queen Victoria, who couldn't care less about him. Also, the promotional materials seem to imply that The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate has feelings for The Pirate Captain, who has no idea she's even female. Darwin gets over Victoria, while Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate's plotline is left unresolved.
According to Peter Lord, The Pirate Captain has a bit of an unrequited crush on Cutlass Liz which is hinted at in his Dream Sequence.
All There in the Script: The Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens is named only in the credits.
Americanitis: At least two characters got overdubbed by American actors for the US release, not to mention some risque jokes getting cut.
Anachronism Stew: The movie states at the very start that the year is 1837, which instantly confuses a few things. Victoria was queen at this point, but only just. Darwin was already famous in scientific circles by now. The film also features cameos from Jane Austen and Joseph Merrick. In 1837, the former was already dead and the latter was yet to be born.
Darwin did not publish, let alone receive recognition for the Origin of Species until 1859, 22 years after the setting of the film.
Big Entrance: The Pirate Captain's competitors for Pirate of the Year show up in the Barnacle's Face tavern in Reverse Order of Awesomeness. Peg Leg Hastings swings through the door. Cutlass Liz blows a hole in the wall with a hand-held cannon. Black Bellamy arrives inside a whale full of gold doubloons.
The Pirate King's principal method of travel seems to be by giant, Vegas-esque clam shell.
Black Comedy: Just by the trailers there seems to be a lot of it.
Black and Gray Morality: On one hand, we have the murdering, looting pirates that want nothing but fame in the pirate world, on the hand we have the Queen of England, who is definitely not shown in a sympathetic light.
"We could have made that with a good wind behind us, except there's this great big sea monster in the way".
The best thing about the airship being that it allows its users to look down women's tops.
When depressed about being mocked at the Pirate of the Year Award signups, The Pirate Captain makes a crack about "getting into baby clothes" instead. Guess what he's doing after being cast out of pirate society?
Buffy Speak: "Fire those long things that go bang!"
Call Forward: At the scientific conference, Darwin gets caught in an explosion of vinegar and baking soda, which makes him look like he has his trademark beard.
Similarly, the Pirate Captain tells Darwin to grow a beard.
Captain Obvious: After changing into their Paper Thin Disguises (both of them), the pirates feel the need to remind Darwin that it's really them.
Card-Carrying Villain: The pirates in the movie are so proud of being pirates they hold a "Pirate of the Year" awards and pirates who receive pardon for their crimes are disqualified for the prize and banned from Bloody Island. When Queen Victoria revoked Pirate Captain's pardon and set the reward for his capture to be higher than the reward for any other pirate on the world, Pirate Captain actually liked it.
On the other side of things, Victoria's royal crest literally says "I Hate Pirates!"
Chain of People: Formed by the crew to rescue the Captain near the end.
Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: On two separate occasions, Darwin (and the camera) look away from the crew for a few seconds, only for them to all be wearing matching disguises when he looks back.
Cultural Cringe: The reason behind the Executive Meddling. For the American release, they changed the title so it didn't have the word "scientists" in it, dubbed over Albino Pirate's lines with an actor known by American audiences, replaced one other announcer character with Al Roker, and took out any jokes that were deemed too inappropriate.
Epic Fail: Whenever the Pirate Captain boards a ship to demand gold. Special mention goes to the part where he boards a ghost ship and ends up falling through the ghost deck.
Epic Movie: By Aardman's standards. It's by far the studio's largest and most technologically complex film to date.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: The Pirate Captain and his crew (which include The Pirate With A Scarf, The Albino Pirate, The Pirate With Gout, The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate, and The Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens).
Evil Albino: Averted. Apart from his skin condition, the Albino Pirate is a normal guy (for a pirate, anyway) and probably one of the more good-natured pirates on the crew.
Evil Is Hammy: Queen Victoria throws a lot of hissy fits.
Executive Meddling: Besides the title change, the American release cuts out a few of the more risque jokes and redubs the Albino Pirate's lines with Anton Yelchin for apparently no reason.
Exotic Entree: A recreational hobby for all the world's leaders. Queen Victoria somewhat uses this in an Eviler than Thou speech aimed at the Pirate Captain.
For the Evulz: Queen Vicky has an obsession with eating endangered animals to extinction, seemingly just because she can. And judging from her rant in the opening scene, she also has rather petty reasons for hating pirates, citing their shanties, hats and roaring as reasons for their extermination.
The source of Mr. Bobo's seemingly endless amount of notecards.
The Pirate Captain's luxuriant beard is revealed to be Hammerspace Hair.
Hartman Hips: Cutlass Liz and the Queen, but especially Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate, necessary because her large fake beard covers almost all evidence of other possible curves. (The occasional side and back shot reveals that she's actually curvy all over.)
Harmless Lady 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.
With assorted other cameo appearances by real-life people, such as Joseph Merrick and Jane Austen.
Historical In-Joke: The Pirate Captain tries to refuse Darwin joining the crew due to his "nose being too big for his face." Darwin almost got refused his position on his historic expedition because the captain, a firm believer in physiognomy, thought Darwin's nose meant he was lazy.
Before that of course, Charles gets a temporary beard of Vinegar-Baking Soda foam.
Historical Villain Upgrade: Despite many atrocities across the British Empire including in India and Ireland during her reign, Queen Victoria herself was not a vicious, bloodthirsty psychopath.
I Am Big Boned: Before Polly is recognised as a dodo, the Pirate Captain gets mocked for having such a fat parrot. He claims that she is just big boned.
Idiot Ball: If the Pirate Captain picked up any more of them, the story would plummet straight into Downer Ending territory.
Idiot Hero: The Pirate Captain. Oh god, the Pirate Captain.
I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The island where all the pirates meet up for the contest is named Blood Island. Not because of a history of bloodshed, but because it's "exactly the same shape as a bit of blood".
It's All My Fault: Darwin says this word-for-word when he encounters the Pirate Captain after learning Victoria's true plan for Polly.
Jabba Table Manners: Queen Victoria talks with her mouth full while discussing plans with Admiral Collingwood.
Katanas Are Just Better: Victoria wields two of them during a fight scene. Probably because she thinks they're better than ordinary, pirate-related swords.
Mythology Gag: In the Plundering Montage, the pirates go to America and get chased by cowboys and Native Americans. This is a nod to a Noodle Incident from the first book.
Offscreen Villainy: The pirates, so as to retain sympathy, never actually commit any successful crimes on-screen. Unless impersonating scientists is a crime.
Given his whopping twelve doubloons-and-a-pen bounty, It's doubtful if he's ever committed any serious crimes.
He does say something about using babies as squid bait though...
Only Sane Man: The Pirate With A Scarf and Mr. Bobo.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Twice. When they arrive in London, the pirates disguise themselves first as Girl Guides, then as scientists.
Up to Eleven: When disguised as Girl Guides, even the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate keeps her beard on.
It doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out that the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate is a Sweet Polly Oliver.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The Pirate Captain is trying really hard to avert this, but just keeps failing so miserably that he remains firmly in this category. The crew, incidentally, are quite happy to be this, and it's the Captain who keeps pushing them into robbing and plundering (or at least trying to.) Admittedly, this is sort of required for a kids' movie that's based on pirates being the protagonists.
Scenery Porn: Aardman certainly went all out on detailed backgrounds and sets.
Sea Dog Beard: Several of the pirates. The Pirate Captain's is frequently drawn attention to, with the word "luxuriant" being used repeatedly.
Shout Out: Plenty of the usual Aardman sight gags, like one of the Pirates having a Blue Peter badge.
There was also a reference to Astérix at the beginning. Queen Victoria asked about Gauls, albeit she had better results than Julius Caesar on that front. However, the pirates became reason for her control of the world be almost complete.
Shown Their Work: The meeting place of the Royal Society closely resembles Somerset House, where the group really was based at the time of the film. A subtle example, but quite impressive for a film that indulges in Anachronism Stew.
Silent Snarker: Bobo. Remember, this is the same studio that gave us Gromit. When Darwin is explaining his plan, Mr Bobo holds up a "BUT..." card. When Darwin hushes him, he rolls his eyes and changes it to a "But..."
A Simple Plan: Take Polly to London, show her off to the Royal Society, get some money out of it and use that booty to snag the Pirate of the Year award! What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Darwin gets this treatment in the American trailers; he only appears for three or four shots, is never named and gets almost no lines.
Arguably, this is justified, since there are people who... rather strongly dislike Darwin and his theories. And that's all we'll say.
The Pirate Captain briefly seems to think (or hope) the Pirate With A Scarf is one, but he's mistaken.
Sweet on Polly Oliver: The Pirate Captain seemingly tries to invoke this when he asks the Pirate With A Scarf if he's really a woman.
Symbol Swearing: When The Pirate Captain decides to board the QV1 and save Polly, Mr. Bobo responds by running off and leaving behind a series of cards reading "Are you out of your [Symbol Swearing] mind?!" The Captain reads them out loud as "Are you out of your... oh my!" — and an elephant sounds in the pause after "your", acting as a Sound Effect Bleep.
Albino Pirate: She's like an auntie! With a beak...
Technology Marches On: Aardman previously switched Flushed Away to an All CGI Cartoon due to the amount of water required. Come the announcement of a stop-motion film, and there's a lot of water to be seen.
Tempting Fate: When the Pirate Captain decides that there's a sea monster on their route because there's a drawing of one on the map, Darwin remarks that the drawings are only there for decorations. At the end of the film, the aforementioned sea monster jumps out of the water and swallows the ship... only to spit it out again.
Token Good Teammate: The Pirate With A Scarf is the closest thing this movie has to a truly good character. He's loyal to his friends, never does anything openly evil and although he's a pirate, he would rather go on adventures than plunder ships.
Travel Montage: Three of them; the pirates searching for treasure (which doubles as the opening credits), the pirates and Darwin sailing to London and the Pirate Captain and Darwin chasing the QV1 across Europe. The latter two include the vessel's path being shown on the map as a trail of red dots — intercut with a shot of the vessel in which someone is actually dropping a series of red circular objects off the stern.
The Unreveal: We don't see what the Suprisingly Curvaceous Pirate looks like without her beard. The one time she's seen without it, her face is blocked by bubbles
World of Ham: It's got BRIAN BLESSED in the cast! Hugh Grant also turns in a deliciously hammy performance as The Pirate Captain. And he sure likes his ham.
On the Pirate of the Year entry form, the highest class of shouting is "BRIAN BLESSED"
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