Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Overlooked Movies: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Six years ago, I had a few comments about a book called The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.  The book's now become a movie called The Pirates! Band of Misfits in the U. S., though in Britain it retained the original title.  It's really a great-looking animated film, and though I don't think it got much of a chance in U. S. theaters, I found it fast-moving and funny with some really nice action sequences.  

The plot's simpler than the one in the book.  The Pirate Captain wants to be "Pirate of the Year," even though he hardly has a chance against the really great pirates.  After all, he's barely a midlist pirate.  By chance he meets up with Charles Darwin, who discovers that the Pirate Captain's parrot is actually a dodo.  Darwin suggests the possibility of great reward for the scientific discovery.  Hilarity ensues.  Or it did for me if not for the majority of movie critics.  Favorite line: "You can't make everything all right just by saying 'arrrr' at the end of a sentence."

You know you can't trust my opinion about movies, especially pirate movies.  After all, I liked Cutthroat Island. Let the viewer beware.

3 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Well, for some reason audiences couldn't be lured to this Aardman film, with no revolutionary chickens nor Wallace nor Grommit. Perhaps Johnny Depp poisoning took its toll on all things piratical. And, of course, the lackluster promotional campaign didn't help.

But, hey, I came around on CUTTHROAT ISLAND, so everyone else less bullheaded than I has a chance to dig this, yet. (I'm still not sitting through a Disney/Depp, mind you.)

pattinase (abbott) said...

My knowledge of pirates has just been improved by a Dr. Who episode but other than that, I am woefully behind in pirate lore.

Fred Blosser said...

CUTTHROAT ISLAND wasn't a bad flick, but it was sunk at the outset, for box office take, when Michael Douglas dropped out as the leading man and the bland Matthew Modine took his place.