The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)

Pirate Captain sets out on a mission to defeat his rivals Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz for the Pirate of the year Award. The quest takes Captain and his crew from the shores of Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. [imdb]

Nominated for 1 Oscar:

Best Animated Feature

This is one of the three Animated Feature nominees I've seen so far, and it's the one I liked best from the ones I've seen (more on the other ones later). A reason for this might also be that I had very little expectations going into it - it was the animated film no one was predicting for a nomination, because it opened early in the year and the reviews were not that great. 

But hey - while it's nothing groundbreaking, there were definitely some good jokes in it, and I did laugh outloud a couple of times (something that rarely happens to me). The funniest character and the source of humour is "Queen Victoria", who is actually the villain of the story. There is a particularly funny scene involving a painting of hers that was so-so funny. 

There are weaker moments in the film, mostly connected to the morals of the story. But even then, the film is totally watchable. Curious if it'll be my favorite after seeing all 5 nominees. Anyway, just to make it clear: objectively it has zero (!) chances of winning the Oscar a month from now. The producers should be happy it got nominated.

My rating for the film: 7.5/10. I like a lot this Wallace & Gromit type of animation.