Sunday was a fun day for us as I took my husband and son to the movie premiere of Pirates! Band of Misfits which hit theatres on 4/27/12. This movie is a 3-D stop-motion animated film produced by Aardman Animations in partnership with Sony Pictures Animation. It was directed by Peter Lord, the director of Chicken Run. This film is based on the first two books from Gideon Defoe‘s The Pirates! series, The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! in an Adventure with Whaling.

In The Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D, Hugh Grant stars in his first animated role as the determined bearded Pirate Captain. With a rag-tag crew at his side 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 the 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!

Personally, I thought this was a great movie for all ages! It teaches about determination, dedication and teamwork while providing a cute story filled with fun and adventure. The characters are reminiscent of the old school claymation movies and provide a nice change to most of the current animated films. At first I thought the movie was going to be a “traditional” piracy movie where the scenery was primarily dark and pirates capturing prisoners. This was not the case at all, it was upbeat, fun and adventurous. I had an allegiance to the Cutlass Liz character because she shares my name! Since I’m also a huge chimpanzee and monkey fanatic, I loved the cute chimpanzee Bobo! He was a great addition! Throughout the movie my son, Andrew kept on enthusiastically saying “I like this movie”, “This is a great movie. If you want to have a fun adventure, I would definitely recommend this movie for all!