The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (Aardman Animations)

I had to thank Tumblr for referring me to this one a couple of months back.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! was a 2012 British American 3D stop-motion animated, adventure-comedy film directed by Peter Lord and produced by Aardman Animations in partnership with Sony Pictures Animation ... that was a mouth full. Based loosely on book author Gideon Defoe's first book from the Pirate! series, it focuses on a captain and his amateur (But very loyal) pirate crew going all out to win him the Pirate of the Year competition.

Aardman Animations/Studios was founded in 1972 and is based in Bristol, United Kingdom and is known for using stop-motion clay animation techniques, but you probably already know that especially if you have watched Chicken Run, Flushed Away, and of course, Wallace and Gromit. This film would be their second stop-motion clay animated feature since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and would be the first to be released in 3D.

Though a stop-motion film, CG was also used in enriching visual elements such as sea and scenery, and also allowed plentiful green screen usage, making the film much easier to make as compared to past projects as well as allowing usually difficult or even impossible actions to be accomplished far more easily with their stop-motion models.

In terms of animation techniques, I felt that Aardman Animations did a really nice job in mixing clay stop motion with a tinsy bit of CG, it just shows how well things can work if you know how to combine traditional and modern techniques together without overusing the complimenting one over the main one, and hey if it does make the stop-motion process a little easier as well as allow some things that can't be done previously, why not? 

And in terms of everything else, honestly what is not to like about this film? It has a fantastic voice cast, great british humor (A crew with pirate names like Pirate Captain, Pirate with Scarf, Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens, etc.), a great adventure story and its characters.. oh good lord its characters...

... you can't not love them... (Also the song choices were pleasantly surprising)

But yes have a look see if you hadn't yet!