The Film
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, released in North America and Australia as The Pirates! Band of Misfits, is a British-American stop-motion animated adventure comedy film produced by Aardman Animations in partnership with Sony Pictures Animation. It was directed by Peter Lord, the director of Chicken Run.
The film is based on the first two books from Gideon Defoe's The Pirates! series, The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! in an Adventure with Whaling. It is the fifth feature film by Aardman Animations, and its first stop-motion clay animated feature released in cinemas in 3-D.
The film, set in 1837, relates the story of the Pirate Captain, who leads a close-knit, rag-tag group of amateur pirates who are trying to make a name for themselves on the high seas. Other characters in the film include Charles Darwin, Queen Victoria and a trained chimpanzee named Mr Bobo!
The Pirates! is distributed by Columbia Pictures, and was released on 28 March 2012 in the UK and on 27 April 2012 in the US. The film features the voices of Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven and Imelda Staunton.
US Cinema Trailer
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Production Despite being a stop-motion film, Aardman Animations extensively uses computer graphics to complement and enrich the film, with visual elements such as sea and scenery. Peter Lord commented, '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 CG, 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 CG scene and believe it.' |
Music The score to The Pirates! is by Theodore Shapiro. The film also includes a number of previously released songs by various artists, including: 'The Swords of a Thousand Men' by Tenpole Tudor 'Ranking Full-Stop' by The Beat 'London Calling' by The Clash 'You Can Get It If You Really Want It' by Jimmy Cliff 'Alright' by Supergrass 'Not Crying' by Flight of the Conchords |
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Cast • Hugh Grant as the Pirate Captain • Martin Freeman as the Pirate with a Scarf • David Tennant as Charles Darwin • Salma Hayek as Cutlass Liz • Jeremy Piven as Black Bellamy • Imelda Staunton as Queen Victoria • Lenny Henry as Peg-Leg Hastings • Brendan Gleeson as the Pirate with Gout • Ashley Jensen as the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate • Brian Blessed as the Pirate King • Russell Tovey as the Albino Pirate • Anton Yelchin as the Albino Pirate (U.S. Edition) • David Schneider as Scarlett Morgan • Mike Cooper as Admiral Collingwood |