Blueghost When I saw this film the first time around, I was inundated with a lot of "life stuff", and so I sat in the audience not really reacting to much of anything, and thinking and feeling that I could predict every gag and story point that came me. I was just in the wrong frame of mind, and so I failed to enjoy my first viewing.A few days ago I checked out the DVD, and man I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time.Yes, this is borderline cliché in terms of a Pirate-Genre send-up, but it has a lot of good British subtlety in the humor to be both very fresh and highly humorous. Everything from the expressions of background characters, to obvious names for characters, to the occasional British talent of understatement in the dialogue.There is no historical accuracy here, and the pirating is kept appropriately G-rated for a family outing, though the film and its humor occasionally skirt into PG territory.Surprisingly Hugh Grant plays the lead role of the Pirate Captain, and the Hobbit's own Bilbo Baggins in the form of Martin Freeman plays his first mate Number Two, showing the audience that indeed talented actors can do anything, even play stop motion animated pirates for a children's film.The big act III escapade is appropriately Aardmanesque (whom seem to take quite a few of their cues from Lucas's Star Wars and Indy Jones films) as we see the characters do battle to right wrongs and resume their brand of ill-conceived piracy.Good laughs, good animation, lots of subtle and intelligent humor mixed in with good old fashioned gags, this film should entertain everyone in the family on some level.Enjoy.

john44233 This movie had a mediocre story line, while still being able to portray some annoying parts. The pirate Captain was mainly the most annoying character in the film which is disappointing because he's the main character. The captain somehow plays the dumbest character in the film. No idea why he's the captain of anything.The story started out very well, with the captain wanting to become the pirate of the year. However soon after he enters the pub to submit the pirate of the year application, things start to go downhill a bit. Just the way he goes about becoming pirate of the year, and then when they find out about how he supposedly cheated into being able to win the title they get mad and take all of his belongings away from him......including his own gold? Right when they took away his gold, that was in fact his, I started to hate the movie. No reason to take that away. Take away his award, but not those things that are his.I'm disappointed with this movie. It had great potential to be a great film, yet started to fall short 20-30 minutes into it. I can understand how hard it can be sometimes to portray a character. There's a fine line between arrogance and stupidity. The pirate captain is nothing short of stupidity. However if you can get around the poor display of the captain, then this film may have some replay value for you. I do enjoy replaying this film, I just skip over the annoying parts and it turns into a decent movie.

Stompgal_87 As a fan of animation who has enjoyed other works from Aardman such as Wallace and Gromit, 'Chicken Run' and 'Flushed Away,' this appealed to me without shadow of a doubt. When I finished watching it whilst renting the DVD, it was better than I thought it would be but found some of its elements anachronistic and somewhat historically inaccurate such as Polly the dodo, some characters eating popcorn and drinking pop from modern containers in the audience of the science award show and a scientist playing with a Rubik's cube backstage at the show.Anachronisms aside, this film had a lot of positive elements such as its animation, characters, dialogue and music. The stop-motion is nearly as good as that in the Wallace and Gromit franchise and 'Chicken Run' but a bit choppy in places although the character designs are completely different from those in other Aardman stop-motion works. Stop-motion is not the only animation technique here; CGI (to animate the sea for instance) and 2D (for the map segments that reminded me of those used in 'A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures') are also used, thus giving this film a fine mix of hybridity. The main characters are not your average pirate crew. The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate who disguises herself as a man is funny and the Pirate Captain is a superb leader if he is involved in a typical hero's tale. Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin are the most surprising additions to the cast of characters but they are highly relevant for the historical period of the film while Mr. Bobo the monkey is also hilarious, especially when he displays speech on cards. Cutlass Liz is sexy but she has very little screen time unfortunately. The story combining pirates with scientists is fresh, thus making it completely different from other films featuring pirates such as 'Peter Pan,' its sequel 'Return to Never Land' and 'The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.' I also liked the humorous uses of the vinegar and baking soda accidents. The dialogue is mostly family-friendly but the mention of "scantily-clad mermaids" is somewhat adult. Although the majority of incidental music is not memorable, it did have some standout pieces such as a typical piratey-sounding tune, a seductive melody and uses of angelic, haunting choral vocals. I also liked the use of Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 3 (and its brief accompanying drum and accordion notes for comical effect), the song played during the opening credits, The Clash's 'London Calling,' 'I'm Not Crying' by Flight of the Conchords, Desmond Decker's 'You Can Get It If You Really Want' and 'Alright' by Supergrass. The voice acting is full of clarity and expression. While Hugh Grant was unrecognisable in his first animation role as Pirate Captain, Salma Hayek was equally sexy as Cutlass Liz, Imelda Staunton and David Tennant (best known for his role in 'Doctor Who') were impeccable as Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin respectively and Brian Blessed was triumphant as the Pirate King.All in all, I have seen slightly better from Aardman but this is a worthwhile treat from the masters of UK stop-motion animation nonetheless. 8/10.

RocketeerFlyer Although I'm a fan of the "Wallace & Gromit" short films I must admit to being disappointed by the longer made feature films from Aardman Animation (Both "Chicken Run" & "Curse of the Wererabbit" left me a bit cold) so colour me surprised when I picked this up as an impulse buy, popped it into my machine and found myself simply shocked as to how much I enjoyed it.THE PIRATES in AN ADVENTURE with SCIENTISTS is without doubt the BEST British Animated Film of ALL-TIME and these Pirates would put up a great fight with most others.Hugh Grant is awesome as the Pirate Captain as is the hilarious Imelda Staunton as Queen Victoria.Your kids are gonna love the MONKEY too.This movie is always amusing and is filled with great humour & characters, the imagination of the makers runs riot in this film & the animation (mainly stop-motion in the same brilliant vain as Ray Harryhausen's) is nothing short of brilliant.Had I not made this impulsive buy I might have had to wait years to have seen this truly amazing film (it probably helps if your British or a fan of British culture but I still think the humour is World-Wide) Who would have thought a cheap impulse buy would have turned out to be one of my all-time favourite films...for I shall watch this MANY MANY MANY Times in the future as i'm sure there's tons of jokes, quips and in-jokes that I missed first time around.THIS IS A BEAUTY & Rates as one of the BEST Children's / Family Films I've ever seen.If your British expect to see this on Christmas Day on BBC1 probably around 2015 as it's one for ALL the Family to enjoy.WELL DONE AARDMAN ANIMATION....Any chance of a PIRATES 2? RocketeerFlyer Rating of an UP UP & AWAY 9/10