The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Aardman Animation (maker of the "Wallace and Gromit" series) sets sail on a Claymation ocean for this spirited adaptation of Gideon Defoe's The Pirates! in an Adventure With ... series. In this one, the clueless crewmembers find themselves battling a lovelorn Charles Darwin and a pirate-hating Queen Victoria over possession of the world's last dodo bird. Though the film loses some of the surreal, Monty Python-esque zaniness of the books, it makes up for it with some wonderful background details and a pitch-perfect voice cast (Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Salma Hayek, Anton Yelchin and Al Roker!). 88 minutes PG.