The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)
Places to pillage. People to skewer.
I say it all the time - I love stop animation. We are also out of October now, so I can probably lay off the spooky stuff some as well - as not everyone has the tolerance for it as I do. So, combining these two thoughts I managed across something I could stream (and not have to set up my bluray player again) to make my life a little easier while I get over whatever Klendathu-sector bug I’ve been given from the flu shot (of which I also apologize for any noticeable quality drop in the audio read for this one). Strap on you very model pantaloons, tonight we check out The Pirates!
The pirates is a (mostly) family friendly romp of stop animation that follows a pirate captain (name exactly that) on his quest to become pirate of the year and the journey of realization it takes him on. That might sound deeper than it is - it’s a family movie, the main character almost always ends up learning something like “the power of friendship” or family or whatnot though. Still, it gives us plenty of time without overstaying it’s welcome in the process, tackling plenty of blanket stereotypical things that might get someone offended across it’s run as the pirates continually mess up and eventually one super nerdy Charles Darwin gets caught up in it all with is main motivation being “scientist never gets any of the girls.” Yeah, it’s dumb, but it provides for entertainment value - and that’s really what you are looking for.
The funny part is, the story is basic enough that it feels fitting for a family movie - which isn’t to say that all stories in family oriented films need to be dumb or not touch on important things, it’s a great way for younger folks to learn important morals without directly needing to experience the situations themselves - but the simplicity of the characters is actually more leveraged for entertainment then the story could ever hope to be. The main pirate crew, for example, don’t even really get names. in the credits, you get “Pirate with a scarf” or “Pirate with Gout”, and even the captain is named Pirate Captain. You have such simple one-note characters that are named after something, and even end up being used as jokes at some point - such as the final line about girls disguising themselves as men, despite everyone being oblivious to the fact that one of the pirates has been doing it the entire time. And yet, regardless of how simple the motivation and the characters, it still manages to let the captain have a quick jaunt of change, where he sees the error in his ways brought about essentially by the greed of being number one pirate.
Now, it’s a bit hard to go into how much the actors play into it, given you only get their voices - but what you hear is pretty good. They do a good job with line delivery, and you rarely don’t get the emotion they are trying to get across when they say something - even when it’s just suspicion or that feeling of buzz kill. Still, the actors all do a good job with reads and deliveries, and whether it came before or after the animation they had to work with, it blends in quite nicely to the visual components. Of course, that visual component is a bit more suited for our next talking point - the effects work.
The crew.
I always have a little bit of a hard time deciding if the medium should be considered effects work when it makes up the entirety of the film. Like, if the entire movie is a CG animation, is it considered effects at that point? Sure, if it’s largely live action and you have a little CG robot running around, it’s totally effects work at that point, but if everything is hand drawn, is it effects work or just the type of movie? In that regard, I’m still not entirely sure with stop motion - heck, places have even used some CG to help touch things up at some points, but the good stuff you wouldn’t even tell the difference anyways, and the last legs of stop motion are totally up there. Part of my appreciation for it is probably from knowing the amount of time and effort that goes into it - we could be talking hours to days for a shot that doesn’t even last a minute. Part of it might just be I grew up a the tail end of it - seeing it in things like Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, and things like Wallace and Gromit. It’s something that I appreciate on multiple levels, but still realize it can be done pretty poorly.
Here, it’s done splendid. Facial expressions especially seem like they have improved from back in yester-year, perhaps due to better techniques being developed in the field. Characters move well, express well, and plenty of absolutely bizarre things go about on screen. It essentially feels like your watching a live action cartoon, except instead of being real people it’s 3D figures with that little bit of stop-flair. Admittedly, the stop motion side of it might be a bit much for people, despite it looking quite smooth, because some people just don’t really like stop motion or general animation in the first place. Still, bright colors, lively models and outfits, fantastical goofy scenes - it’s an entertainment extravaganza.
Audio is all balanced well, and there is a surprising lack of shanties and musical numbers considering the whole family movie thing. There’s also a good bit of violence, although nothing graphic really there and usually played up for comedy. Comedy, of course is always subjective, but I had a good few laughs in this one. It’s a good little spirit uplifter if you need it, and there’s plenty of slapstick, puns, a few other jokes in there. Sure, some jokes will be funny and some won’t depending on the person, and they miss probably the lowest hanging pirate joke I can think of, but it’s some good stuff.
A whale of a tale.
Are you looking for fun? Are you looking for colorful and entertaining? Well, this movie is as good as any, and you can probably even bring you kids down to watch it. Everyone likes pirates, and the slew of entertaining jokes should keep plenty laughing.