San Diego Reader

• Rated PG | 1 hour, 28 minutes
• View trailer
• Official website

Aardman Animations makes a solid case for its brand of gussied-up claymation (contra the grandeur of Pixar and the flash of Dreamworks) with this story of a foppish swashbuckler who just wants to be Pirate of the Year. You could spend a good chunk of your time just studying the magnificently detailed backgrounds. Unfortunately, the story is scattered enough that you may be tempted to do just that. The humor runs both high and low: a fad-happy Jane Austen and a steampunk Queen Victoria. Plus Charles Darwin and his manpanzee butler. 2012.

— Matthew Lickona