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The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

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Wikipedia article




'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!' (released in North America, Australia and New Zealand as 'The Pirates! Band of Misfits') is a 2012 3D stop-motion animated swashbuckler comedy film produced by the British studio Aardman Animations and the American studio Sony Pictures Animation as their second and final collaborative project. Directed by Peter Lord, the film is based on the 2004 novel 'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists', the first book from Gideon Defoe's 'The Pirates!' series. It follows a crew of amateur pirates in their attempt to win the Pirate of the Year competition.

The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures and was released on 28 March 2012 in the United Kingdom, and on 27 April 2012 in the United States. 'The Pirates!' features the voices of Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, Jeremy Piven, Salma Hayek, Lenny Henry and Brian Blessed. 'The Pirates!' is the fifth feature film by Aardman Animations, and its first stop-motion animated feature since 'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' in 2005, and Aardman's first stop-motion animated film released in 3D and shot in 2.35:1 widescreen. The film received generally positive reviews, and was a modest box office success, earning $123 million against a budget as high as $55 million. The film was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Pixar's 'Brave'. It was the second film from Sony Pictures Animation to be nominated after 'Surf's Up'.

Plot



In London, in 1837, Queen Victoria is told that England rules the entire ocean, with the exception of pirates, whom she despises. Meanwhile, the Pirate Captain leads a close-knit group of amateur pirates who are trying to make a name for themselves on the high seas. To prove his worth, the Captain enters the annual Pirate of the Year competition, the winner being whoever can plunder the most gold. After several failed attempts to plunder mundane ships, they come across 'HMS Beagle' and capture its lone passenger, Charles Darwin, who recognizes the crew's pet "parrot", Polly, as the last living dodo. Darwin recommends that they enter her in the Scientist of the Year competition at the Royal Society of London. Allowing the Pirate Captain and his crew to stay at his house for the night, Darwin plans stealing Polly for himself in order to impress Queen Victoria, his love interest.

The pirates disguise themselves as scientists to enter the competition, and the dodo display wins the top prize, which turns out to be a meeting with the Queen. The Queen requests that Polly be put in her petting zoo, but the Captain refuses and accidentally reveals his true identity. The Queen orders him executed, but Darwin steps in, telling the Queen that Polly has been hidden and only the Captain knows where. The Queen pardons the Captain and orders Darwin to find Polly by any means necessary. Darwin takes the Captain to a tavern with Mr. Bobo, his trained chimpanzee, gets the Captain intoxicated, and steals Polly. The Captain chases them into the Tower of London, where the Queen is waiting. She offers the Captain enough treasure to ensure his win as Pirate of the Year in exchange for Polly. He accepts the offer and returns to his crew, assuring them Polly is still safe in his beard.

At the Pirate of the Year ceremony, the Captain is announced as the winner, but rival pirate Black Bellamy reveals the Queen's pardon and explains that if pardoned, then one is no longer a pirate and, as such, cannot be Pirate of the Year. The Captain is stripped of his treasure and pirate attire and admits the loss of Polly to his crew, who abandon him. The Captain returns to London and reunites with Darwin, who tells him that the Queen is a member of a dining society of world leaders that feast on Endangered creatures, and that Polly is to be served at their next banquet. The Pirate Captain and Darwin work together to steal an airship and find the Queen's flagship, the 'QV1', while Mr. Bobo sets out to find the rest of the Captain's crew.

Aboard the 'QV1', the Queen locates the Captain and Darwin and attempts to kill both of them, but Mr. Bobo and the crew come to their aid and defeat her. They accidentally mix the ship's stash of baking soda with vinegar, causing a violent reaction that breaks the ship in two. The Captain rescues Polly and they all escape safely, leaving behind the furious Queen. His action earns him the highest bounty known to pirates, 100,000 Doubloons, placed on his head by the Queen, restoring his pirate reputation as well as marking him as the most dangerous pirate alive. The Pirate Captain and his crew, along with Mr. Bobo, continue to explore the high seas.

Voice cast



in April 2012 at the film's premiere in Sydney, Australia

Production



Unlike Aardman's 'Flushed Away', which was computer animated in the style of claymation, Aardman extensively used computer graphics to complement and enrich the primarily stop-motion film with visual elements such as sea and scenery.

Peter Lord commented, "With 'Pirates!', I must say that the new technology has made 'Pirates!' really liberating to make, easy to make because the fact that you can shoot a lot of green screen stuff, the fact that you can easily extend the sets with CGI, the fact that you can put the sea in there and a beautiful wooden boat that, frankly, would never sail in a million years, you can take that and put it into a beautiful CGI scene and believe it."

Naming

For the release in the United States, the film was retitled 'The Pirates! Band of Misfits', as Defoe's books do not have "the same following outside of the United Kingdom", so it was not necessary to keep the original title.

Hugh Grant, the voice of The Pirate Captain, said that the studio "didn't think the Americans would like the longer title". Response from the director of the film, Peter Lord, was that "some people reckoned the United Kingdom title wouldn't charm / amuse / work in the United States. Tricky to prove eh?"

Quentin Cooper of the BBC analysed the change of the title and listed several theories. One of them is that the British audience is more tolerant for the eccentricity of the British animators. Another is that the film makers did not want to challenge the United States viewers who do not accept the theory of evolution. He quoted science writer Jennifer Ouellette's 2010 statement at the Science & Entertainment Exchange that scientists are undesirable in American popular culture, being represented as "the mad scientist or the dweeby nerd that dress funny, have no social skills, play video games, long for unattainable women".

Controversy

In January 2012, it was reported that the latest trailer of 'The Pirates!' attracted some very negative reactions from the "leprosy community". In the trailer that was released in December 2011, The Pirate Captain lands on a ship demanding gold, but is told by a crew member, "Gold? Afraid we don't have any gold, old man. This is a leper boat!" His arm then falls off, and he says "See?"

Lepra Health in Action and some officials from the World Health Organization claimed that the joke depicted leprosy in a derogatory manner, and it "reinforces the misconceptions which leads to stigma and discrimination that prevents people from coming forward for treatment". They demanded an apology and removal of the offending scene, to which Aardman responded: "After reviewing the matter, we decided to change the scene out of respect and sensitivity for those who suffer from leprosy. The last thing anyone intended was to offend anyone..."

LHA responded that it was "genuinely delighted that Aardman has decided to amend the film", while the trailer was expected to be pulled down from websites, and the final version of the film changes the line in question to "Gold? This is a 'plague' boat, old man! I'd give my right arm for some gold!" and when his arm falls off, he instead says "Or my left!"

Music



The film's score was composed by Theodore Shapiro who made his animated feature score debut with this film. The score was released digitally by Madison Gate Records on 24 April 2012, and as a CD-R on-demand on 17 May 2012. The film also includes a number of previously released songs by various artists, including "Swords of a Thousand Men" by Tenpole Tudor, "Ranking Full-Stop" by The Beat, "Fiesta" by The Pogues, "London Calling" by The Clash, "You Can Get It If You Really Want" by Jimmy Cliff, "Alright" by Supergrass, and "I'm Not Crying" by Flight of the Conchords.The film's credits

Release



Home media

'The Pirates!' was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on 28 August 2012 in the United States, and on 10 September 2012 in the United Kingdom. The film is accompanied with an 18-minute short stop motion animated film called 'So You Want to Be a Pirate!', where The Pirate Captain hosts his own talk show about being a true pirate.

The short was also released on DVD on 13 August 2012, exclusively at Tesco stores in the United Kingdom. As a promotion for the release of 'The Pirates!', Sony attached to every DVD and Blu-ray a code to download a 'LittleBigPlanet 2' minipack of Sackboy clothing that represents 3 of the characters: The Pirate Captain, Cutlass Liz and Black Bellamy.

Reception



Box office

The film has grossed $123,054,041 worldwide. $26 million came from United Kingdom, $31 million from the United States and Canada, along with around $92 million from other territories, including the United Kingdom. As of 2017, it is the fourth highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time.

In North America, it ranked fifth on its opening day, taking in $2,749,959, slightly higher than Arthur Christmas $2.4 million opening day. The film eventually made $11.1 million on its opening weekend and reaching second at the box office behind Think Like a Man while averaging $3,315 through its 3,358 theatres, on its second weekend, it dropped by 50.6%, ranking fourth with $5,502,482, then to seventh place with $3,143,442, dropping by 42.9%.

In the United Kingdom, it opened to third with $3,486,095 behind The Hunger Games and Wrath of the Titans, averaging $6,443 through its 554 cinemas, it saw a 1.3% decline on its second weekend with $3,486,280, averaging $6,240 per cinema, and bringing the UK gross to $12,251,022.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has approval rating based on reviews; the average score is . The website's consensus reads, "It may not quite scale Aardman's customary delirious heights, but 'The Pirates!' still represents some of the smartest, most skillfully animated fare that modern cinema has to offer." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 73 based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

Accolades



Cancelled sequel



By August 2011, Aardman had been already working on a sequel idea, and by June 2012, a story had been prepared, awaiting Sony to back the project. Eventually, Sony decided not to support the project due to insufficient international earnings. According to Lord, "it got close, but not quite close enough. I was all fired up for doing more. It was such fun to do! We actually have a poster for 'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Cowboys!'. That would have been just great."

References




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