+ Q&A with director Peter Lord
‘I loved pirate stories when I was a boy – particularly Treasure Island,’ says two-time Academy Award nominee Peter Lord, a co-founder of Aardman and the director and a producer of the studio’s new stop-frame animated feature, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! ‘Real pirates probably weren’t that great to be around, but these stories turned them into something glamorous, swaggering, and colourful – pirate stories revel in the tropical seas, the blue skies, the cannons and costumes. It’s a magical irresistible world. So when we found this story about a crew of relentlessly optimistic pirates, I felt we were telling a story in a sort of classic tradition, but turning everything up a notch.’
The story does that in its characters: a collection of extremely hapless pirates that has got to be the most incompetent crew any captain could ask for. ‘They’re just rubbish at it – they are really, really, really bad at piracy,’ says Hugh Grant, who takes on his first animated role in voicing the Pirate Captain. ‘But the Captain is perpetually optimistic, and because of that, his crew is with him all the way. He loves his crew, he loves the ship’s parrot – or, rather, what he thinks is the ship’s parrot – and he is very vain about his luxuriant beard.’
The Pirate Captain has one goal that has eclipsed all others: to be named Pirate of the Year and be acknowledged as one of the great pirates of his day, like Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz. ‘It’s like a sort of Oscars for pirates,’ says Grant. ‘He’s entered many times, but he’s always come in last. You win by having the most booty, but his booty haul is always tragic.’ Still, Lord says, the Captain might be looking for love and respect in all the wrong places. ‘None of that matters to his crew – they’re like his family, very loyal, loving and trusting – if a little foolish,’ says the director, who previously directed Aardman’s first animated feature film, the 2000 hit Chicken Run. ‘But when he goes off chasing this flashy prize, he risks losing what is most dear to him.’
The Pirate Captain’s crew is loaded with misfits, from the childlike Albino Pirate to the Pirate with Prosthetics (who is seeing his anatomy constantly replaced with various pieces of flotsam and jetsam) to the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate, who nobody seems to notice is a woman. Even the supposedly highly serious real-life characters of Charles Darwin and Queen Victoria get the Aardman treatment and become hilarious and ridiculous, all in the name of a good time. ‘Finding these people in a context you wouldn’t expect them is always more fun,’ says Defoe. ‘Luckily, our pirates are masters of disguise, so they can pass themselves off in almost any situation.’
It is also Aardman’s first stop-motion film in 3D, which Lord says is a perfect medium for Aardman’s visuals. ‘For example, take the captain’s cabin,’ he says. ‘We’ve filled it with amusing, engaging, delightful things – they’re jokes, but they’re also expressive of his character. Now, in 3D, you feel like you’re right in that space, immersed in that world, and that’s a wonderful feeling. Or an action shot – when the ship crashes through the waves, you get the sheer impact of it.’
Production notes
THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS!
Directed by: Peter Lord
©: Sony Pictures Animation Inc.
Production Company: Aardman
Presented by: Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation
Executive Producer: Carla Shelley
Produced by: Julie Lockhart, Peter Lord, David Sproxton
Screenplay by: Gideon Defoe
Based upon the book by: Gideon Defoe
Director of Photography: Frank Passingham
Senior Animation Supervisor: Jay Grace
Animation Supervisor: Loyd Price
Visual Effects Supervisor: Andrew Morley
Edited by: Justin Krish
Production Designer: Norman Garwood
Supervising Art Director: Matt Perry
Music by: Theodore Shapiro
Voice Cast
Hugh Grant (The Pirate Captain)
Martin Freeman (The Pirate with a Scarf)
Imelda Staunton (Queen Victoria)
David Tennant (Charles Darwin)
Jeremy Piven (Black Bellamy)
Salma Hayek (Cutlass Liz)
Lenny Henry (Peg-Leg Hastings)
Brian Blessed (The Pirate King)
Anton Yelchin (The Albino Pirate)
Brendan Gleeson (The Pirate with Gout)
Ashley Jensen (The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate)
Al Roker (The Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens)
Mr Bobo (himself)
Mike Cooper (Admiral Collingwood)
David Schneider (Scarlett Morgan)
UK-USA 2012©
88 mins
Digital
STOP MOTION: CELEBRATING HANDMADE ANIMATION ON THE BIG SCREEN
Fantastic Mr Fox
Thu 1 Aug 12:30; Fri 2 Aug 20:30; Sun 25 Aug 16:15
The Tale of the Fox Le Roman de Renard
Fri 2 Aug 18:15; Tue 13 Aug 20:30
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
Sat 3 Aug 14:00; Thu 29 Aug 20:50
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Sat 3 Aug 15:50; Sun 25 Aug 14:30 BFI IMAX; Fri 30 Aug 18:20
Frankenweenie
Sat 3 Aug 18:00; Sun 11 Aug 14:30 BFI IMAX; Fri 30 Aug 20:30
Jason and the Argonauts
Sun 4 Aug 12:10 (+ intro by Alan Friswell, conserver and restorer of Ray Harryhausen’s models); Wed 14 Aug 18:00
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Sun 4 Aug 14:50 (+ intro by Alan Friswell, conserver and restorer of Ray Harryhausen’s models); Wed 14 Aug 20:30
Chicken Run
Sun 4 Aug 13:00; Sat 24 Aug 11:40
The Emperor’s Nightingale Císaruv slavík
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ParaNorman
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The Boxtrolls
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Journey to the Beginning of Time Cesta do praveku
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Isle of Dogs
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Kubo and the Two Strings
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Missing Link
Fri 9 Aug 12:30; Mon 26 Aug 15:20
Coraline
Fri 16 Aug 12:30; Sat 17 Aug 15:30; Wed 21 Aug 12:15; Thu 22 Aug 14:20
Stop-Motion Shorts Scene – BFI Backed + Q&A
Fri 16 Aug 18:10
Funday: Stop-Motion Children’s Favourites
Sun 18 Aug 12:20
Stopmotion + Q&A with director Robert Morgan
Wed 21 Aug 20:40
Aardman Shorts
Sat 24 Aug 14:30
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Tue 27 Aug 20:40
LAIKA: Frame x Frame
Embark on a journey behind the scenes of LAIKA, one of the world’s foremost pioneers in stop-motion animation. This immersive new exhibition will transport you into the boundary-pushing art and science behind every one of the nearly one million meticulously constructed frames that bring each of LAIKA’s five groundbreaking feature films to life.
Opens Mon 12 Aug
Thanks to Jez Stewart, BFI National Archive
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