Saturday, May 26, 2012

Movie Review: The Pirates! Band of Misfits


Not a bad kid's movie. Not a bad kid's movie at all. From the makers of Wallis and Gromit and Chicken Run comes clay-mation film The Pirates! Band of Misfits. The movie is about the Pirate Captain and his band of misfits who are down on their luck after a series of unsuccessful raids. After almost giving up hope, the Pirate Captain stumbles upon Charles Darwin during a raid and finds out that his fat parrot is actually a Dodo bird. The pirate, his crew, and Charles Darwin then face a number of wacky hijinks in attempt to get the glory and the gold.

The plot's not too bad for a kid's movie, certainly not on Pixar's level, but still well enough to compete with the likes of some other Disney films. The animators do an excellent job, so no complaints there. There were actually quite a few recognizable songs throughout the movie, nothing like most of the subtle background tracks and occasional top 20 songs you usually hear in movies nowadays.

Some of the characters were pretty clever, while others seemed extremely one-dimensional. One of the pirates was a woman dressed up as a man, and they never really built on that. It seemed like an unnecessary plot-point, but I guess it wasn't really a plot-point in the first place since it had nothing to do with the plot. But I digress, the three or four main characters had plenty of personality, so that was good.

Overall, it was pretty good. Not the best, but definitely not bad either. I give The Pirates! Band of Misfits a 7/10.

17 comments:

  1. The children movies get better all the time, they throw in some jokes for adults as well as more clever humor. Don't think I'll ever watch this on my own but enjoyed your review of it.

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  2. It's refreshing to watch children's movies once in while.

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  3. It's refreshing to watch children's movies once in while.

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  4. Gonna have to get my nephews this....

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  5. Eh, I don't think I'll be seeing this

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  6. It does sound pretty mixed. But it's always good to see claymation and real animation still around.

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  7. Sounds like a good mix of everything, will give it a watch for sure at some point.

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  8. I'm a bit confused by the comments above. This isn't really a kids' movie :) It's a British animated movie made mostly for the adult audience, thus such humour and wit in it. I'd give it 9 out of ten just for being different and creative.

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  9. I love wallace and gromit and liked chicken run, but this doesn't appeal to me. Nothing piratey does anymore. Pirates of the Caribbean well and truly massacred my love for pirates :(

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  10. Have to see this, great review.

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  11. This is nothing like I thought it was. I'll try anything once :) Deff needs to be watched!

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  12. Never heard of this before, but nice review.

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  13. I liked Chicken Run quite a bit... in fact I like the whole Claymation movie genre... in fact I thought Coraline was a pretty good one.

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