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. To see how The Pirates! stop-motion was done, check out this featurette. Or, just watch the trailer here before checking out the new images below. Here's the official synopsis for The Pirates! Band of Misfits:

In The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Hugh Grant stars in his first animated role as the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain – a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas. With a rag-tag crew at his side (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen), and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) to the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award. It’s a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. Along the way they battle a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and team up with a haplessly smitten young scientist (David Tennant), but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure!