The story follows a collection of pirates during Queen Victoria's attempt to secure the oceans of the world. This particular group is lead by the Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant), and even though he has been passed up for the Pirate of the Year award for many years, he believes that this time, he can claim the trophy.
Too bad the Pirate Captain doesn't seem to have a lot of clout with the rest of the pirate people. Sure, he is loved by his crew, but when it comes to earning the most booty or being the most cut-throat, he doesn't have a peg-leg to stand on. In fact, it seems his biggest asset is his large beard.
Intent on claiming the title, Pirate Captain and his band start going after any ship they see, but nothing goes right until they end up on Charles Darwin's boat. The biologist quickly identifies the crew's odd parrot as a dodo and declares it the scientific find of the century. Darwin (David Tennant) convinces the Pirate Captain and his crew that they must go to London to present Polly to the scientific community and win a major prize.
Lured by the potential prestige, the Pirate Captain takes Darwin up on his offer and the whole lot find themselves under Queen Victoria's gaze while pretending to be scientists. Needless to say, this doesn't go as planned and while the Pirate Captain does find a way to collect a large sum of money so that he can win the Pirate of the Year Award, the ways he goes about it leaves him estranged from his friends and alone.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits has a few twists along the way, and while some are predictable, others seem to come out of left-field. The film's supporting cast does a great job of carrying the rest of the film. These supporting roles include Martin Freeman (Love Actually, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and soon to be Bilbo Baggins in the The Hobbit) as the Pirate Captain's second-in-command and Imelda Staunton as the Queen.
The Blu-ray/DVD combo release comes with several special features including two games, one for the Blu-ray disc and one for the DVD. Other features includes a short film where the Pirate Captain goes over what it means to be a pirate and two featurettes about stop-motion animation. One of those is an in-depth behind-the-scenes concerning all aspects of the film, while the other focuses on one particular, and impressive, scene involving a bathtub full of characters sliding down a long staircase.
The final set of extras includes a pair of short films, both stop-action, created by Director Peter Lord. These two shorts, "Wat's Pig" and "War Story," have optional commentary that should be interesting to anyone interested in this style of film.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits is just a good, family-friendly film and the quality of the film on the Blu-ray disc really shines. If you or your family enjoy Aardman Animation productions, then you won't be disappointed with this movie either.
