The Pirates! Band of Misfits- New stop motion film from Aardman

If I remember right, her name is Cutlass Liz or something. She's a super-feared pirate in the books.

The American release date just got pushed back to April 27th.

On the other hand, the UK release date is still March 28th.

Well, that leper joke riled up a few lepers. They changed it to scientists.

That's... a heck of an overreaction given just how many bits-falling-off leprosy jokes there are in animation alone.

So now scientists are outcast from society to be quarantined on their own islands and treated by religious folk with a martyr complex?

edited 25th Jan '12 9:41:49 AM by Bur

That's more or less what happens to Darwin in the book.

And here I was thinking that whole thing was a joke. Man, people will get insulted by anything...

You just sold me on the book.

You'd think they'd get that it fits the time period of the film, when they couldn't treat or cure it and didn't know what to with them. That's what I inferred when I saw the trailer. They even said that it wasn't meant to offend anyone.

Heck, there's a nudist joke, but did people make a tizzy about that? No.

edited 25th Jan '12 12:03:30 PM by MrW

Not yet.

But hey, this is Aardman. They got away with Wallace wearing a cardboard box over his business with the label "contains nuts."

edited 25th Jan '12 12:32:25 PM by MrW

But of course, Dream Works distributed that one and Katzenberg loves edgy.

The Facebook page has a soundboard.

Most of them are quotes we've already heard from the trailers, but there are some good new ones here. This one is my favorite.

Darwin: (in full deadpan mode) And now, I'm being attacked. By pirates.

edited 15th Feb '12 9:00:35 PM by Mort08

Hey has anybody seen the videos being released to promote the film? You can see them at Sony's YouTube page.

Personally I like the fact that they're focusing on the behind-the-scenes stuff instead of just releasing a bunch of clips. It's educational, and it ensures that we haven't already seen most of the film by the time it comes out.

While it looks good, would it have killed Aardman to think of a more original name?

The UK version has the book's title, which is The Pirates In An Adventure With Scientists. It's been said that the title was changed for the US release because the book isn't that well-known here, but it might also have to do with the fact that there are people here who gladly burn Charles Darwin at the stake if they could. The less they know, the better.

Perfect time to resurrect the thread, because the movie is now out in the UK. Any English tropers seen it yet? I'll be watching it as soon as I can get ahold of a torrent. And then I'll see it here in a month's time, because I'll want to watch it properly.

(checks Wikipedia for the umpteenth time) GAH! Still no plot summary!!

edited 28th Mar '12 3:09:59 PM by Mort08

Apparently, the dodo with be important to the plot, so I HOPE it doesn't get too Evolutionism-y, NOT because I'm pious, but because I know that there are more religious people in the US than the UK.

edited 28th Mar '12 4:40:49 PM by Shota

The dodo is important simply because it's the last dodo. And because Queen Vicky thinks it would taste good...

There are a few evolution jokes; Darwin's theory regarding Mr. Bobo, for example, goes from page to screen intact. And PC asks if they're related at one point.

edited 28th Mar '12 4:44:39 PM by Mort08

I have not seen the movie yet!

-Alan Rickman-: "Do NOT. Dissappoint me."

Neither have I. But that'll all change once it gets online, because I am NOT waiting another month for this masterpiece. It's currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. There's only 16 reviews, but still.

edited 28th Mar '12 4:45:54 PM by Mort08

That is a VERY good sign!

• Hilarious in Hindsight: "Hey! Remember when those hacks at Dreamworks prohibited us from making Flushed Away a pirate movie????"

edited 28th Mar '12 4:47:09 PM by Shota

I hope they can stick with Sony as a distributor. From what I've heard, they pretty much let Aardman do whatever the hell it wanted with this project. Which is freaking awesome of them.

EDIT: Damn, this thing is taking its sweet time to get on the web. How long does it take to add a synopsis to the Wikipedia article, anyway?

I know. It's just that the movie has technically been released.

edited 29th Mar '12 10:34:13 AM by Mort08

That's how it usually is, actually. Summaries don't pop up there until the movie is released. People want to know how it ends and so they wait to watch it for themselves before writing a complete summary.

edited 29th Mar '12 8:00:25 AM by kyun

Can someone explain what was removed regarding lepers? The film still has the sequence where the Pirate Captain boards the leper ship, and that one leper's arm falls off. The only change is that it's now a "plague ship", not a "leper ship". I don't know what you mean by saying "Well, that leper joke riled up a few lepers. They changed it to scientists.", since the only ship with any scientists is the one with Charles Darwin aboard.

As for a synopsis, spoilers:

The Pirate Captain (PC) wants to be the Pirate of the Year, but he's a bit ... crap. The ship goes out to capture more loot, and captures Charles Darwin, who recognises Polly the ship's "fat parrot" as a dodo. They decide to exhibit the Dodo at the Science Competition at the Royal Society in London. On arriving in London, Darwin tries to steal Polly with the help of his monkey butler, but is thwarted. The PC exhibits the dodo at the Royal Society, and wins. Sadly, the prize isn't the pile of cash he thought, but an audience with Queen Victoria, who hates pirates. The PC is spared and pardoned, and after some more hi-jinks, sells Polly to the Queen in exchange for a massive heap of gold. The crew return to the pirate island, where the PC becomes Pirate of the Year. However, he is disqualified and exiled when his pardon is revealed - if he's pardoned, he's no longer a pirate. On discovering he sold Polly, the rest of the crew leave him. The PC return to London to rescue Polly, only to find out from Darwin that the Queen didn't want Polly for a pet - she wnted to eat her. The PC and Darwin go to rescue Polly, and are joined in the nick of time by the other pirates. Victoria is defeated and her enormous warship sunk, and everyone lives happily ever after - the monkey butler rejoins the crew, the PC learns the value of friendship and loyalty and Darwin finally finds a girlfriend on the Galapagos islands

We've got BRIAN BLESSED as an Elvis-impersonating Pirate King, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey and Martin Freeman as pirates (with gout, albino and with a scarf, respectively), cameos from Admiral Collingwood, Jane Austen and Joseph Merrick and a selection of visual gags in the background. It's really very good.

edited 29th Mar '12 3:44:38 PM by AndrewGPaul

Those little geniuses.

I suppose the thing about the scientists was either a reporting error or a lie on Aardman's part. To be fair, animating a whole new sequence would have been a pain.

And thank you for the synopsis. I really wanted to find out what happened and was starting to go a bit nuts.

BTW, look at this Hunger Games parody trailer.

edited 29th Mar '12 7:57:42 PM by Mort08

They changed 'Leper'?

Curses.

It's a small thing, really, and the footage itself is still in there. Something which my friend who went nuts over its supposed removal will be very pleased to know.