The Pirates! - A Bunch of Strange Guys 3D

Peter Lord, one of the leading lights at Aardman, the animation studio made famous by Wallace & Gromit, is once again sending distinctive plasticine men to the big screen twelve years after his last directorial effort, Chicken Run - Hens Run, to keep viewers thoroughly entertained with quirky humor and original animation. And he succeeded in this endeavor with The Pirates! - A Bunch of Strange Guys more than convincingly succeeded.

True, the pirate captain (voiced by Hugh Grant in the original) looks like a real pirate. But even if he likes to see himself as fearsome, the right success as a terror of the seas does not really want to come. All of his recent raids have been unsuccessful. And so his chances of being awarded Pirate of the Year are naturally very slim, especially as his competitors Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz can boast considerably more successes than he can. But when the pirate captain and his crew meet the young scientist Charles Darwin, who recognizes in Dodo, the captain's feathered companion, an extremely rare species that could make its owner famous, the pirate is persuaded to sail to London with Darwin. Too bad that there reigns the diabolical Queen Victoria, who hates nothing and no one more than pirates. And this just can't end well...

The Pirates! - A Bunch of Strange Guys, while not quite as charming and clever as Aardman's flagship Wallace & Gromit. But the animated film, shot with stop motion technology, is certainly fun. The humour oscillates between subtle gags and slapstick that almost borders on the clamorous, although much of the wordplay of the original English version is inevitably lost in the German dub. Nevertheless, the good German language version of course also offers quite a few really good laughs, as most of the gags work very well even across the language barrier.

The best thing about the film, however, are the countless little details to be discovered. It's worth not focusing on the characters acting in the foreground, but also paying attention to what's going on in the background or the decor in the rooms, in the captain's cabin, in Charles Darwin's house or on the queen's ship. This is where some of the best gags are hidden, which probably only reveal themselves in their entirety after watching this enjoyable adventure film several times.

With lots of quirky but somehow endearing characters and plenty of typical British humour, the detail-oriented creative minds at Aardman show that you can create worlds not only with computers but also with your own hands, which work really well not only in two-dimensional visuals but also in the popular 3D. Even though the three-dimensional visuals aren't really mandatory for viewers to have fun with the lively goings-on on the screen, the 3D effects are at least used well enough to make the extra cost and the wearing of the glasses, which can be a bit distracting for some, well worth it.

The Pirates! - A Bunch of Strange Guys amusingly plays with numerous clichés of classic pirate and adventure movies, but never degenerates into a flat spoof comedy, but always remains a charming comedy that scores with an extremely high gag density and some very original ideas. Sure, not all of the jokes hit the mark and at times the action seems a bit over the top. But all in all, these points of criticism can be neglected in comparison to the many positive aspects, the numerous successful laughs and the many adorable little details. Therefore applies: Who liked films such as Hennen rennen or Wallace & Gromit, which can safely enter the next cinema and be entertained for almost 90 minutes in the best way. Worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp