ADORING EVERY SECOND: The Pirates! Band of Misfits is genuinely funny.
REVIEW: School holidays soon is it? Must be. The theatres are filling up with kids' films, and I start asking friends if they have a couple of nippers spare for the afternoon, so I can at least pad out my grotesquely uninformed opinions with a bit of a chat with someone who the film is actually aimed at. But with The Pirates! Band of Misfits, I didn't need the assistance of a wise and all-knowing 10-year-old. Within five minutes of the film starting, I was pretty much a 10-year-old myself, gurgling happily away at every joke, loving the inventive and unbelievably pretty animation, slack jawed with appreciation of the plots breakneck twists and turns, and just generally adoring every silly second of it.
The Pirates! is the latest from Aardman animation, home of Wallace and Gromit, and makers of Chicken Run, which was also directed by Peter Lord. And everything we expect from Aardman is present here.
The script is genuinely funny, working at a level that kids love, and that adults can also appreciate the story-telling energy and inventiveness of. Hugh Grant, obviously revelling in a job that doesn't require five hours of botox and builder's plaster every morning so he can still pass for mid-thirties, gives great voice to the mild-mannered pirate captain. More than anything in the world, he wants to win the coveted Pirate of the Year award. But to do that, he's going to have to beat Salma Hayek's Cutlass Liz, and Jeremy Piven's scenery-chewing Black Bellamy. And so begins a perfectly wrought and gleefully deranged chase around the seven seas, quite a bit of sky, and a fair slice of Victorian London. By journey's end, Charles Darwin, Queen Victoria, and even The Elephant Man have all made their way across the screen.
Listen, if you were ever a fan of Wallace and Gromit (and if you're not, then the only possible reason is that you haven't met them yet) or if you just get a bit tired of the relentless sameness of American-made children's' movies, and you want to expose your lovelies to something a bit bolder and less obvious, or if you're just a fully functional grown-up who wants to see a truly funny and anarchic film, then go and have a look at this. Me, I'm in for a second time tomorrow.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (PG) (88 min)
Starring Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven, Imelda Staunton. Directed by Peter Lord.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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