Hugh Grant said that he would be rarely recognisable both in appearance and voice in Sony Pictures animated swashbuckler 'The Pirates! Band Of Misfits.' However, one thing that is instantly familiar with the English actor is the slew of good reviews that another of his films has gotten. Playing the voice of The Pirate Captain in the film, Grant and the film's bosses can be relieved that the movie's gotten excellent praise from critics.
"A script that consistently finds fresh outlets for its running gags makes for a sufficiently rollicking pleasure cruise from Britain's Aardman Animations..." said The Village Voice, whilst Film 4 commented "A funny, thoroughly enjoyable and oddly subversive film: at a time when Cgi reigns in family films and Elizabeth Windsor celebrates a jubilee, here's a film where puppets battle a fiendish regal villain." Time Out meanwhile said "A brilliant mish-mash of styles and genres, crammed with ideas and intelligence and carried off with a sense of rebellious fun and breathtaking invention not seen since, well, 'The Wrong Trousers'. Glorious."
Bad reviews came from the Boston Phoenix and Slant Magazine, the latter commenting "The film is content as it is to run clever one-liners and 19th-century pop-cultural references into the same comedic whirlpool." There can be no denying though that overall this was a solid film for Grant.