At the Movies: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

The Pirate Captain might not be the best known pirate of the seven seas, but he has a crew that loves him, Ham Night and Polly, his beloved parrot - even if she's a little fat for a parrot. 

But he also wants to gain the respect of his peers, so he decides to enter the Pirate of the Year Award. Only that, while he does have an spectacular beard and rousing pirate songs, he isn't really all that scary nor does he has the biggest bounty.

And, after being humiliated by other three pirates - all front runners for the Pirate of the Year title -  Pirate Captain decides he's not going down without a fight, and sets out to bet enough bounty to show them he's a great pirate.

Eventually, this quest leads him to meeting Charles Darwin and eventually even tangling with Queen Victoria in a series of strange adventures. 

I found The Pirates! A Band of Misfits to be a cute movie in stop-motion (which I LOVE) by the same people who did Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, I found it to be very clean and vibrant in colors and texture, which can be hard to accomplish with stop-motion, but I found this movie to be technically brilliant. 

I loved the cast of mistfits - the Pirate with a Scarf, the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate, etc - and Polly the parrot/dodo. And I loved the villain of the story - Queen Victoria. I found the inclusion of Darwin and his butler monkey Bobo to be a little strange sometimes, but Bobo had some of the best 'lines' and laughs. 

Now, if I have a problem with the story is that it felt a bit sluggish at times, and I thought it was a tad long for a kid's movie. though the kids at the theater where I saw it seemed to like it a lot - and they got pretty involved with the fate of the characters - so maybe it was just me.

Over all, I thought it was a fun movie and I give it a B.