Aardman Animation’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits packs the frame with sight gags, constantly throws out clever asides, and has more wit than a dozen other animated family films combined.  And yet, it’s rarely laugh-out-loud funny.  Being clever, witty, and fun usually lead to a film that constantly has you gasping for air from laughing so hard, but those hard laughs never come in The Pirates!.  Instead, the movie generates both admiration for the intelligence of its jokes and the frustration that those jokes can only muster grins and chuckles.

If you’re a fan of Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Run, and Flushed Away), I’m pretty sure you have April 27th circled on your calender.  That’s because on that date, we finally get a new movie from one of the best animation companies in the world.  In their latest film directed by Peter Lord, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Hugh Grant stars in his first animated role as the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain who is trying to win the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award with his rag-tag crew (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen).  However, with a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and bitter rivals like Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) trying to stop him, it’s not going to be an easy task.  David Tennant is also along for the ride as the voice of Charles Darwin.  For more on the film, here’s a featurette, behind-the-scenes images, and my set visit.

I recently got to speak with Peter Lord in both a group setting and on my own.  During the interviews Lord talked about how the project came to him, the challenges of making the film, how Aardman’s relationship with Sony actually works, why the UK and the US have different titles, Easter eggs, the music, voice casting, and a lot more.  In addition, I’ve picked out a few of the highlights of the interviews and created a ten things to know about the film.  It’s all after the jump.

If you’ve seen the trailers for Aardman Animation’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits, you know we’re most likely in for another comedy gem from the studio that brought us Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit.  However, you might not be aware that the stop-motion animation process used to bring The Pirates! to life was an arduous task that spanned 18 months.  We’ve already brought you a featurette giving us a peek into the filming process, as well as coverage from Steve’s visit to the set and interview with director Peter Lord, and now we’ve got new behind-the-scenes images to share with you that detail how The Pirates! was brought to life.

Hit the jump to check out the images. The film features the voices of Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Jeremy Piven, and Imelda Staunton. The Pirates! Band of Misfits opens in 3D on April 27th.

Sony Pictures’ The Pirates! Band of Misfits have launched a new interactive site with lots of visual goodies for fans of The Pirates! and Aardman Animation. If you’re not familiar with the name, you’ll probably still recognize their previous works, such as Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run and Flushed Away. Aardman has a unique and appealing animation style that Steve got to take and up-close-and-personal look at when he visited the set.

Directed by Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt (Chicken Run), The Pirates! Band of Misfits stars Hugh Grant, in his first animated role, as the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain who is trying to win the Pirate Of The Year Award with the help of his rag-tag crew (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen).  To win, Pirate Captain must contend with a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and bitter rivals like Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek). The Pirates! Band of Misfits opens April 27th. Hit the jump to meet the pirates. 

In a non-descript office park about an hour and a half outside of London, the magicians of Aardman Animation are hard at work bringing their next stop-motion movie, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, to life.  At least they were back in October, when I got the chance to visit the studios.  If you’re not familiar with the name Aardman, they’re one of the best animation companies in the world and they’ve made great music videos, short films, TV shows, and feature films like Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Run, and Flushed Away.  Quite simply, when you see the name Aardman, you know you’re going to get something special and it’s going to be unlike anything else out there.

In their latest film directed by Peter Lord, which is based on The Pirates! book series by Gideon Defoe, Hugh Grant stars in his first animated role as the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain who is trying to win the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award with his rag-tag crew (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen).  However, with a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and bitter rivals like Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) trying to stop him, it’s not going to be an easy task.  Hit the jump for more.

A new featurette for the upcoming animated comedy The Pirates! Band of Misfits has gone online. The film comes from Aardman Animations, the studio behind Chicken Run and Arthur Christmas, and if you think all their wacky jokes and oddball humor are amusing, just wait until you see what goes into putting that goofiness onscreen. The stop-motion animation process for The Pirates! took 18 months to shoot. That’s a year and a half spent filming one movie. This featurette takes you behind-the-scenes of the incredible work the people at Aardman do and reveals just how difficult it is to put together a stop-motion film of this magnitude

Hit the jump to watch the featurette. The film features the voices of Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Jeremy Piven, and Imelda Staunton. The Pirates! Band of Misfits opens in 3D on April 27th.

If the name Aardman Animation sounds familiar to you, it’s for good reason. While not as prolific as DreamWorks or Pixar, the studio turns out fantastic animated films. Past Aardman flicks include Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit, and at this year’s Comic-Con, the studio gave a preview of their two upcoming releases The Pirates! Band of Misfits and Arthur Christmas. Hit the jump for our full recap from the panel.

Aardman Animation has assembled an impressive voice cast for their upcoming stop-motion 3D animated film The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.  Variety reports that Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Salma Hayek, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Jeremy Piven, Brendan Gleeson, Brian Blessed, and Ashley Jensen will all lend their voices to the film.  The movie will be the first voice acting role for Grant and he’ll play the lead role of a “bearded Pirate Captain who travels far and wide in a quest to win the much coveted Pirate of the Year Award.”  I’m already smiling at the thought of someone with Grant’s signature foppish, befuddled delivery playing a pirate.   Chicken Run co-director Peter Lord will direct alongside Jeff Newitt.

While Pixar is usually dubbed the “Animation Studio with the Perfect Track Record” I’ve always been incredibly charmed by Aardman’s films.  They’ve only done three feature films to date (Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Flushed Away) and I’ve enjoyed all of them.  Their latest film, Arthur Christmas, opens in 3D on November 23rd.