Another Aardman gem

The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists (U) - Film review
Rating: ****
Effortlessly charming and funny, The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists (U) is an absolute joy, and another gem from Aardman Animations.
Hugh Grant provides the voice for the cutlass-wielding, beard-sporting Pirate Captain, an enthusiastic but rather hapless terror of the high seas whose main career goal is to win the “Pirate of the Year” award (complete with BAFTA-esque golden-skull trophy).
However, all is not well on Blood Island (the pirate HQ, so named “because it’s the exact shape of blood”). Three other dastardly pirates are also in contention for the award, and an iron-corseted Queen Victoria (personal motto: “I Hate Pirates”) is determined to crush the Captain and his piratical kin.
A classic underdog story then, but what really provides the film’s impetus is a sharp and witty script, replete with playful send-ups of the traditional pirate yarn. Particularly satisfying is Aardman’s refusal to Americanise their humour, giving the film a distinctly British flavour. Gags about the pirate crew stocking up on cheap booze at Calais will not, I suspect, translate perfectly to the US audience, but the film is no weaker for targeting a British market.
Hugh Grant is also important in this respect, delivering the sort of self-deprecating performance that characterised his glory days, and providing a funny and charismatic focal-point for the picture.
The film’s second great joy is its preponderance of clever visual gags. These range from the immediately obvious (cannonballs, like snooker balls, are dispensed upon insertion of two doubloons), to the more subtle details of the costumes and background (keep an eye out for a Blue Peter badge among the pirates’ regalia).
I’m not sure why stop-motion animation seems to lend itself so well to this type of humour – perhaps the obsessional method of film production, where a few seconds of footage can take a whole day to capture, gives the director more time for fine-tuning – but Aardman has brought the “sight gag” to new levels of ingenuity and wit. Only the DVD release, and judicious use of the pause button, will enable us to spot them all.
In the mean time, The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists is irrepressibly good fun, and essential family-viewing at the cinema this month. With summer just around the corner one fears a glut of sub-standard kids’ animations in the coming weeks, so I suggest getting this film in early (if only to remind you what a good family comedy looks like).
Highly recommended.