The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! Jeremy Piven, Salma Hayek, Lenny Henry and Brian Blessed. The film is loosely based on "The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists", the first book from Gideon Defoe's "The Pirates!" series. It follows The Pirate Captain and his crew of amateur pirates in their attempt to win the Pirate of the Year competition. "The Pirates!" is the fifth feature film by Aardman Animations, and its first stop-motion animated feature since "" in 2005, and Aardman's first stop-motion clay animated film released in 3D and shot in 2.35:1 widescreen. The film received positive reviews, while it was a modest box office
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! the film has been retitled to "The Pirates! Band of Misfits". The official explanation from Aardman was that Defoe's books don't have "the same following outside of the United Kingdom," so it was not necessary to keep the original title. Hugh Grant, the voice of The Pirate Captain, said that the studio "didn't think the Americans would like the longer title." Response from the director of the film, Peter Lord, was that "some people reckoned the United Kingdom title wouldn't charm/ amuse / work in the United States. Tricky to prove eh?" Quentin Cooper of the BBC analysed the change