by Olivia Stanford
Although advertising depicts “The Pirates: Band of Misfits” as a must-see animated film for children, the best part of the film is not the “Ham Nite” or the “luxuriantly-bearded” captain but the ending, since the film is a weak attempt to make an animated comedy.
“The Pirates: Band of Misfits” uses stop-motion clay animation just like its predecessor “Chicken Run.” Unfortunately, “The Pirates: Band of Misfits” misses the mark. A cute, yet predictable plot greets viewers who pay $10 for the normal movie or $13.50 for the 3D version.
The plot of the ninety-minute movie can be summed up in a thirty second explanation: the main character starts as an outcast; he is accompanied by outcasts; he and his posse go on a dangerous adventure; he messes up and his friends abandon him; he risks his life to rescue something or someone; he returns a victor and a hero after almost dying, only to be saved by those that abandoned him.
Does this sound familiar? Well, it should if you’ve seen DreamWorks’s “Shrek” (2001). The clumsy, idiotic Captain Pirate (Hugh Grant) is the movie’s Shrek as he tramps around with his equally idiotic, yet loyal, pirate crew made up of, well… misfits, which strangely reminds the viewer of a certain donkey with a cat-in-boots sidekick. As for the martial-arts-oriented royal character, “The Pirates” has Queen Victoria Regina (Imelda Staunton) as the main villain who will remind you of Princess Fiona.
This use of familiar characters makes it easy to connect the two movies and their plots, making this movie a waste of time and a waste of a good idea. As the movie says, “Just because you put ‘aaaarg’ at the end of it doesn’t make it ok.”
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