Saturday 31 March 2012

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!


It is a testament to the quality of 21st century animation when you find yourself walking out of an Aardman film feeling short-changed. But sadly, that is the case with Pirates.

In many ways, this comes as a surprise because Aardman appear to be sticking to their formula: lovingly-crafted claymation, an eccentric bunch of characters, cute animals, a voice cast of big-name British actors, lots of good clean humour and chaotic slapstick action.


If anything, the only complaint about Pirates should be that director Peter Lord is sticking a little too closely to the Aardman formula that gave him such a winning result with Chicken Run.


Aside from the ships and cutlasses, we have seen all of this before in previous Aardman films: we have Mr Bobo the monkey, a mute but clever animal breaking the fourth wall (Gromit); a bewildered hero (Wallace); a psychotic female villain who wields blades and likes eating cute animals (Chicken Run's Mrs Tweedy); a chaotic chase scene (every Aardman creation to date); a hero dangling from a rope at the film's climax (Chicken Run); machinery over-filling and then exploding (Chicken Run again); and a plot involving the pursuit of a Macguffin (here a Dodo but a giant marrow in the case of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit).


A generous review would accuse Aardman of lacking originality, resting on their morels but creating an enjoyable piece of British animation nonetheless. And due to the popularity of Aardman and the loyalty critics feels to Wallace and Gromit, expect to see plenty of four or five star reviews for Pirates.


However, as an Oscar-winning animation studio, Aardman deserve to hear some some criticism.


The chief flaw with Pirates is that it lacks the belly-laughs of Chicken Run or Were-Rabbit. In fact, the adult gag-rate seems to be the only thing that they haven't taken from previous Aardman films. Young viewers will enjoy themselves but - aside from the monkey and some inventive map jokes - adults will do little more than smile appreciatively.


The characters also fail to inspire. For starters, very few of them have anything to do accept utter idiotic one-liners, such as Russell Tovey's Albino Pirate and Brendan Gleeson's Pirate with Gout. Meanwhile, Selma Hayek's beautiful but deadly Cutlass Liz and Ashley Jensen's Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate are wasted entirely. The audience will be waiting for their stories to go somewhere (look how prominently they feature on the poster!) but they only have two or three lines each. Admittedly, Pirates is based on a series of books by Gideon Defoe so maybe their stories will be explored in a sequel. But don't expect a Chicken Run-style love story. This is strictly a bromance on a boat, like The Boat That Rocked but without the laughs.


All of this is a shame because the Aardman visuals have never been better. This is Aardman's first claymation venture in 3D so expect cutlasses pointing into the camera and a Jolly Roger with springy googly-eyes. Also, this is their most epic adventure to date. The sheer size of some of the scenes is unlike any previous Aardman film, notably when one pirate makes his entrance via a whale and again later as Queen Victoria's QV1 is overflowing with baking soda. Furthermore, the detail packed into every shot is impressive and Blu-Ray owners will spend hours freeze-framing so they can read every joke written on the signs in the background of each scene. Technically, Aardman have come a long way since 1989's A Grand Day Out.


But the technical side is the least important in any film. If only they had spent less time with the clay and more time on the story and character and script. 


Unlike Pixar, those unbeatable leaders of world-famous animation, Aardman prefer to play it safe and stick to what they know. This is particularly frustrating because Aardman should have hit their stride following the Oscar-winning Were-Rabbit. It is high time they tackled something a little more challenging. They need to make a WALL.E or an Up or a Ratatouille, all of which tackled adult themes in a sophisticated but entertaining way. If not, Aardman films will keep falling off the radar into pleasant-but-hardly-essential territory (does anybody even remember Flushed Away?) and it will be Pixar films that we will continue to watch twenty years from now.


Until then, Aardman will keep sticking to their formula. Their reputation alone will guarantee that Pirates will be a box office success and many Wallace and Gromit loyalists will treasure an Aardman adventure on the open seas. 


But don't expect any gold.


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