Director: Peter Lord – 2012 – UK – Cert. PG – 87m
Victorian era, stop-frame marvel about… yes… pirates, scientists and adventure – back out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 10th
This latest offering from Bristol-based Aardman Animations is a remarkable feature that pushes the art of stop-frame plasticine animation to new heights. Director Lord, creator of Morph, has been working with the medium for several decades via shorts, music videos and commercials and although the independent studio he co-founded with the David Sproxton (like Lord himself, one of the film’s producers) has made four prior features, this one is Lord’s first feature as director.
Much care has gone into the script by Gideon Defoe, an adaptation of his own book, upon which sure foundation Lord, co-director Jeff Newitt and their team’s artistry and impeccable sense of comic timing has built an impressive edifice. Like other stop frame outings, it looks more impressive still in 3D, a medium which favours shooting on miniature model animation sets.
The Pirate Captain (voice: Hugh Grant) has scant chance of wining the coveted Pirate Of The Year Award because ruthless rivals Black Bellamy (voice: Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (voice: Salma Hayek) are much more ruthless and have plundered far more booty than he.
Although loved by his faithful crew and dedicated to piracy, he is in some sense a bit of failure: witness the hilarious montage in which he picks for plunder ships carrying respectively naturists, the plague and Charles Darwin (voice: David Tennant): not quite bright enough to notice either that his cherished parrot Polly is in fact a Dodo or that the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate (voice: Ashley Jensen, who voiced Bryony the elf in Aardman’s recent Arthur Christmas) is in fact a girl with a fake beard.
Darwin spots the Dodo and wants them all to go to London so he can present the bird, hitherto believed extinct, to the Royal Society. Unfortunately for Captain and Crew, as welcome to London signs announce, Queen Victoria (voice: Imelda Staunton) hates pirates…
Refreshingly, this does not feel like a film made primarily to suit an audience demographic, rather it’s a work made by artists passionate about their craft. Aardman, as a studio, have always had a gentleness about their work (which is surely why Nick Park / Wallace And Gromit have found a home there) and this film is no exception.
Behind the superlative special effects, including a CGI sea, and beneath the extraordinary sight gags (many of them mere details in the background in passing), the core of this film is the Pirate Captain and his crew, which also includes The Pirate With A Scarf (voice: Martin Freeman), the Captain’s number two who is constantly reminding him not to let his enthusiasm for piracy get the crew into situations where they face certain death.
Each character has been lovingly written, designed and animated in a way which greatly respects their humanity. The Captain, for instance, is a foolish character but one we sympathize with rather than belittle and laugh at. There is great spiritual truth here.
Many will, I’m sure, dismiss this as animation and children’s fodder. But while it contains nothing to offend kids – indeed, they’ll love it – it’s a film that plays more than adequately to grown-up sensibilities. Its technical achievements are a triumph, nay a landmark, plus it’s hilariously funny. (And I haven’t even mentioned the awards ceremony MC The Pirate King, voiced by a scene-stealing Brian Blessed.)
But all that pales beside the film’s ethos, its rare respect for its characters. This is my favourite film of the year so far- not animated, but film, period. And one which will, I’m sure, repay multiple viewings.
Trailer:
Original UK release date 30/03/2012.
Review originally published in Third Way.