Pirate's Passage is a 2015 made for television animated film hailing from Canada written, starring and produced by Donald Sutherland and is based on the novel of the same name by William Gilkerson.
Pirate's Passage is set in Grey Rocks, a town on the south shore of Nova Scotia that was famous as a favoured port of pirates. It's 1952 and our protagonist is a 12-year-old lad who is about to become a wonderful man. Jim Hawkins (Gage Munroe) suffers daily the wartime death of his father at sea and the schoolyard bullying son of his widowed mother Kerstin's (Carrie-Anne Moss) nemesis, Roy Moehner (Kim Coates), the man conniving to foreclose on their livelihood, the town's storied Admiral Anson Inn. This is a battle his mother's losing until a small sailboat on the storm-tossed waves of a November night arrives with Captain Charles Johnson (Sutherland) at her helm. Life changes for everyone when this perennial Pirate ensconces himself in the Inn, for he's been there before in Grey Rocks, in 1717. What he knows about the Inn and her tunnels, about Pirates and a just life, gloriously informs Jim, his mother, our story, us all.
This movie can currently be watched on Netflix for American subscribers.
Examples:
- The Bully: Todd Moehner, Captain Johnson even identifies him as such by his shifty eyes.
- Horny Vikings: Helmets are completely absent, horned or otherwise, and we are instead treated to a historically accurate depiction of Viking age piracy when Captain Johnson gives Jim a lesson on Surprizal.
- Historical Domain Character: Captain Charles Johnson himself, believed to be pen name of Daniel Defoe, was a real person. Calico Jack and his wife, Anne Bonny appear as well when Captain Johnson teaches Jim about pirates.
- Identical Grandson: Identical descendant, actually. The Hawkins family has been in Grey Rocks since the 18th century with Jim resembling his ancestor James at the same age.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Captain Johnson looks more like Donald Sutherland than he does Daniel Defoe, initially. After the haircut, he looks like Ernest Hemingway, which Jim lampshades.
- Pirate: Captain Johnson teaches Jim about the different kind of pirates as well as mentioning the modern ones: capitalists, profiteers and the like.
- Precision F-Strike: "Bastard", "Son of a bitch", "Jesus Murphy". There is a reason this has a PG rating.
- Shout-Out: To Treasure Island, what with the protagonist's name and all.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The Moehners own a dog named Grendel. Naturally, Captain Johnson is surprised that they named their dog after one of the most famous monsters in all of literature.
