FILM · 2012 · UK
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
31 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (31)
- #001
While the exiled Pirate Captain is trying to sell baby clothes in London, he passes a man wearing oddly shaped gloves and a bag with a single eyehole over his head. This is a reference to Joseph Merrick, also known as the Elephant Man, a severely deformed man who lived in England in the 1870s and became a kind of national celebrity; Merrick was a victim of Proteus syndrome and wore the outfit seen in the film in public.
- #002
The inhabitants of the "plague ship" are clearly shown to be lepers, and the trailer names them as such. Following complaints from a leprosy charity, the word leper was removed from the finished film.
- #003
In the below-decks scene in the Pirate Captain's office, a list of boat rules is visible by the door when Number 2 enters. It reads: Boat rules: 1. The Captain is always right. 2. Players must take turns rolling the dice. 3. Do not use pigs as cannonballs. 4. Do not use excessive accessories. 5. Do not rain on the Pirate Captain's parade. 6. No Parade. 7. Use your inside voice below deck. 8. No snail balancing. 9. Do not throw away empty yoghurt pots; they are perfect containers for small plants. 10. No matter how much they cry, no matter how much they beg, never feed them after midnight.
- #004
Brian Blessed is printed above the checkbox representing the best choice for "Roarer" at the 'Pirate of the Year' awards. Blessed voices the Pirate King.
- #005
The Pirate Captain's final advice to Charles is to grow a beard. Although his physical appearance in the film is an accurate representation of the real man at that stage of his life, Charles Darwin did indeed grow a rather large beard later in life.
- #006
Charles Darwin offers to pay ten pounds for Polly. At the time the film was made, the ten-pound note issued by the Bank of England featured Charles Darwin and the Beagle on its reverse.
- #007
The film is full of background jokes. There are several shops in the port of Blood Island; one is named "Hopalong Hawkins: Bespoke Crutches and Wooden Legs", and just below the sign is a barely legible line reading "Limp on in". Another shop reads "Napoleon Blownapart" and sells gunpowder, dynamite and party poppers. Next to Barnacle's Face is a sign reading "Live Sports: Crab Racing on Thursdays". Inside the Mussel's Face is a sign reading "Salty Salad Bar, All You Can Eat for a Doubloon! Except Big Eric- He's Barred!"
- #008
The film is set in 1837; in the summer of that year the Beagle set sail, while Charles Darwin himself was not part of that voyage.
- #009
The film is adapted from Gideon Defoe's novel 'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!' (in which the pirates meet Darwin and Bobo) and 'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Whaling' (in which the pirates confront Cutlass Liz).
- #010
While the Pirate Captain is selling baby clothes in London, the scene behind him looks extremely similar to the scene in Oliver! (1968) when Oliver arrives in London: a marketplace with a railway bridge behind it and a church behind that. Even the train is the same colour.
- #011
Throughout the film, the hat of the Pirate with Gout, played by Brendan Gleeson, bears a Blue Peter badge. This badge was given out on the series Blue Peter (1958), whose name comes from the flag flown by ships leaving port.
- #012
This is the first Sony Pictures Animation film to feature a female villain.
- #013
Although set in 1837, the film deliberately commits various anachronisms to make it resemble a caricature more closely: references to framed photographs of famous characters (Queen Victoria, Charles Darwin), car alarms, ironclad ships, and stereotypical images of posh English people and pirates that are either far too modern or far too old for the setting. All of this is clearly intentional, however.
- #014
The film is set in 1837; Queen Victoria was 18 at the time, an age not clearly depicted (she became Queen that year after her 18th birthday).
- #015
This was the last Aardman film distributed by Sony Pictures Animation before Lionsgate took over in 2014.
- #016
Queen Victoria's ship, an iron-hulled paddle steamer, appears to be based on Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 'The Great Eastern'. The onion domes on deck resemble those of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, England.
- #017
Both Queens emerge from an elevator near the end of the film, an overt reference to James Cameron's Aliens.
- #018
In the books the film is based on, Cutlass Liz is described as resembling Julie Christie in Billy Liar (1963) or Darling (1965).
- #019
David Tennant voices Charles Darwin, who meets Queen Victoria. Tennant also meets Queen Victoria as the Tenth Doctor in the Doctor Who episode Tooth and Claw (2006).
- #020
This was the first score Theodore Shapiro composed for an animated film.
- #021
This is Aardman's first animated film produced in the 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio; all of the company's previous films were shot in 1.85:1.
- #022
The line "lock up your daughters," spoken by Peg Leg Hastings when he enters the pirate tavern, is a reference to the Slade song of the same name.
- #023
Imelda Staunton and Peter Lord had previously worked together on Chicken Run, in which Staunton voiced the character Bunty and Lord co-directed with Nick Park.
- #024
The "grog" barrel in the tavern on "Blood Island" is an overt reference to the Monkey Island pirate adventure video game series, in which grog is the most common pirate drink, "Blood Island" is visited in the third chapter, and a cocktail is drunk in the fourth chapter. The game was inspired by the Disney Pirates attraction and parts of Pirates of the Caribbean, and appears to have contributed to some of this film's designs and setup.
- #025
It is the first fully animated film released in theaters by Sony Animation without an accompanying short since Open Season (2006), released six years earlier.
- #026
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje was originally set to play Peg Leg Hastings.
- #027
The film is set in 1837, with a Dodo as the pirate's companion. Yet the last confirmed sighting of a dodo in the wild was in 1662, though the species probably went extinct around 1690.
- #028
This is Jeremy Piven's second animated film, after Cars (2006), released six years earlier.
- #029
Charles Darwin really did complain a great deal in his diaries. He wrote that he felt "stomachy" and hated himself and everything else, though the former feeling stemmed from a medical problem.
- #030
It is Brian Blessed's third animated film released in theaters, after Freddie in F.R.O.7 (1992) and Tarzan (1999), and the first film in which Nigel Hawthorne does not appear or voice any villain.
- #031
Martin Freeman, who voices The Pirate with a Scarf, and David Tennant, who voices Charles Darwin, both appeared in the "Nativity" series; Freeman played Paul Maddens in the first film, Nativity! (2009), and Tennant played Donald and Roderick Peterson in the second, Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger! (2012).
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