Children’s cinema is a hard nut to crack. By now it should be universally acknowledged that getting a balance between entertaining the kids and keeping the adults amused is really rather difficult. Pixar were the previous standard bearer but, with the uninspired ‘Cars 2’, have fallen slightly from grace of late (I await ‘Brave’ and ‘
Animation fans have therefore waited with baited breath to see the outcome of Blighty’s own; Aardman helmed ‘The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists’ (we’ll just call it ‘The Pirates!’ though).
Our hotchpotch crew is led by the suave and luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) who sets his sights on securing some booty (not the Beyonce/J.Lo kind…) to win the coveted Pirate of the Year Award. After various fruitless raids on useless ships, the crew hijack the Beagle and accidentally run into Charles Darwin (David Tennant), who informs them that, without knowing it, they have been sitting on the scientific discovery of the century.
It is gorgeous to look at. There’s something about those plasticine and chicken-wire models that warms the cockles of your heart. I know that where Aardman are concerned the rose tinted glasses of Britishness descend and many go all misty eyed, however, even through the patriotic haze, there’s no denying this is a quality product. A labour of love, crafted with total affection, I think that’s why Aardman films are so consistently good. Their clay-mation features take so long to make, you’d better have written something worth making!
The visual gags are brilliant; it is Aardman’s little touches that make me smile. I found myself scanning every frame; signs in the background, pictures on the wall of Pirate Captain’s office, eyes darting across the Pirate of the Year application form. They have a great ability to make it seem like they included all these little in-jokes just for you, which makes it so wonderfully personal.
The characters are absolutely superb. Pirate Captain is lovely and you root for him right from the off. Pirate with a Scarf aka Number 2, is voiced by Nerdy Rachel May favourite, Martin Freeman, Pirate with Gout (check out the badge on his hat) is Brendan Gleeson, The Surprisingly Curvy Pirate is Ashley Jensen, Albino Pirate is Russel Tovey, Imelda Staunton is Queen Victoria, Brian Blessed is the Pirate King (never has anyone been so appropriately cast in anything. Ever)… I could sit here all day waxing lyrical about the cast.
It’s, undeniably, a star studded line-up but the brilliant thing is that they don’t trade on it, in fact it’s hardly mentioned in any of the trailers. In a similar way to the ‘Toy Story’ films, every one involved realises that it’s not enough to have Tom Hanks or (in the case of ‘The Pirates!’) Hugh Grant speaking some lines, what matters is making the characters likable and making you care about what happens to them. This is where ‘The Pirates!’ succeeds.
It’s a lovely length; 88 minutes is bob on. Enough time to engage the viewer, enough time to establish a good set of characters but not enough time for Kids to get bored. It’s nicely paced as well, all of the major plot points come at the right time. The gags are non-stop which is great because if there’s one that you miss or falls a bit flat there’ll be another one along to make you giggle a minute later.
Also (as if there weren’t enough wonderful things to say about this film) the soundtrack is awesome. It’s a jukebox soundtrack and some may sneer at that, but the songs are so brilliantly chosen, it’s just perfect. Besides, any film that manages to crowbar in a Flight of the Conchords song is fine by me.
The best way to describe this film is a wonderful assault on the senses. Like being hugged my madness, it’s as if Aardman have grabbed your face in both hands and are snogging it with their eccentricity. It’s fantastically British but I think its mainstream enough to have legs outside the
Right, after that jolly on the high seas let’s continue the merriment with some…
Reasons to be Cheerful
1. The new series of Horrible Histories started on Monday! IT’S SO BRILLIANT!!!! I squealed most of the way through and totally lost it when a few people, whose work I adore, made little cameos. The new series is aired every day this week on the CBBC channel and episode 1 of series 4 will be on the BBC Iplayer until 16.59 on Monday 16th April (the subsequent episodes run out at the same time in the days after), in fact the CBBC channel had a little Horrible Histories marathon on Monday to celebrate the new series and there’s all sort of old episodes on the Iplayer including the absolutely wonderful ‘Horrible Histories Big Prom Party’ (available until 17.29 on Monday 16th April). WATCH IT! You’ve been told!
2. Bored of sending the same birthday cards as everyone else? Have a look at this. Brainbox Candy has an array of highly amusing cards that couldn’t be further removed from the saccharine rubbish you get in most card shops. Who could resist the allure of a Valentines card that says “I love you well loads”?
3. JK Rowling, writer of little known children’s book series ‘Harry Potter’, has revealed that her next book will be an adult novel called ‘The Casual Vacancy’. I must say, for a woman that has earnt enough so that she never has to work again, I think it’s commendable that she’s written another book, proof that if you find something you love, no matter how much you earn, you can’t give it up. Whether the book is any good remains to be seen but it’s sure to be a sure fire hit if only because she wrote it.
4. Is a loved one having a big birthday this year and you can’t think what to buy them? Are they a massive fan of zombies? Look no further! You and some friends can stage your own re-enactment of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ in your own ‘Zombie Shopping Mall Experience’! What could be better than that?!?! Omg, it just looks amazing! I love that I live in a world where this stuff exists :-) And by the way… you’ve got red on you…
That’s all I’ve got for you today.
Next time I’ll be looking at ‘Mirror Mirror’, the first of this year’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs adaptations and the one not starring Kristen ‘face like a smacked arse’ Stewart…
Goodbye till next time :-)
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