While others upgrade their servers to create bigger, better, computer generated special effects; Aardman stays firmly and wonderfully rooted in the past using a format first popularized making Gumby in the 50s. The British animation studio isn’t one to jump on the latest trends. They’ve made computer animated films, but what’s the point, since even though Flushed Away was done with computers they ended up using all that computer animation to make it look like it was stop-motion.
Aardman’s movies, at their best, are like no other. I want them to stay rooted in a world that’s totally out of step with what everyone else is doing. I like the idea that they’re out there, ignoring the trends and making movies about a bachelor who loves cheese and his problems with vegetable-eating were-rabbits. So what are they doing making a movie about pirates, in 3D no less?
I’m not sure. This seems suspiciously like Aardman trying to latch on to something that’s cool. People like pirates, pirates are cool. I don’t want Aardman making movies about things people automatically like. I don’t want them trying to be cool. But here it is anyway, the trailer for their next stop-motion movie The Pirates! A Band of Misfits, in 3D no less.
Well it still looks like an Aardman film and though 3D is starting to wear out its welcome, if you’re going to use it on anything it always seems to work best on these stop-motion movies. Anyone remember Coraline 3D? That was wonderful.
Look for the awkwardly named The Pirates! A Band of Misfits in theaters around March 30, 2012.
