OLIVIA MARNE
Aardman Animation’s “Pirates! Band of Misfits”, opening later this month, features Hugh Grant 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!” (That’s what the press notes tell me, anyway; you cheat Liv!).
The latest trailer for the film seems to spoof “The Hunger Games”, currently the number one film around the world (well, in most parts), and does a tremendous job of that. Now… which one is Haymitch!?
The family-friendly “Pirates” gang aren’t the first troupe to tickle the “Hunger Games” series; for the release of the DVD and Blu-ray release of “The Muppets”, the Henson’s company’s puppets came up with a short funny.
I see there’s quite a few funny “Hunger Games” spoofs – some professionally done, some backyard handy-cam – on YouTube, I’ve embedded a few below.
