Pirates Band of Misfits

The Pirates! 

Band of Misfits

Publisher: Aardman Animation          

Year: 2012

Media: Film   Rating: PG

Genre:  Adventure

Subjects/Themes:  Pirates,

Plot Summary:  After years of trying, the Pirate Captain has never won the Pirate of the Year Award.  He wants to enter the contest but is laughed at by the other pirates.  Despondent He is determined to win the prize.  After he attacks the ship of Charles Darwin, he is takes his band of pirates back to London and with his crew embark on an adventure where he learns to value friendship over fame.   

Review:  A silly film with sight gags galore to keep you giggling.  The movie is based on The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe.  Best for younger audiences.  The stop motion animation is fantastic but the story may leave adults longing for something more.

If you like this film you may also like:  Flushed Away (2006), which was fantastic on so many levels, and Wallace & Gromit.

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Calvin & Hobbes
By Bill Watterson

Text from video:  Welcome everyone.  The book I am going to tell you about today is called Calvin and Hobbes.  It is written by Bill Watterson.  The book is a collection of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip that was published in the late 1980s.  Calvin and Hobbes are best friends who get into all kinds of scrapes both at school and at home.  It doesn’t matter that Hobbes is a stuffed tiger and only Calvin sees him as real.  Together they explore the world and create more mischief than Calvin’s parents, and teacher can sometimes handle.   

Calvin caught Hobbes in a tiger trap rigged with a tuna fish sandwich.  Sometimes the pair are in school working on math problems like 7 +3, which is seventy-three according to Hobbes. Sometimes they are wondering what the mystery food is at the dinner table as it transforms into alien life forms.     Calvin even has an alter ego, the valiant Spaceman Spiff, who battles aliens with his neutralizer gun.  The imagination and creativity of these two characters is limitless.

Calvin has a frienemy at school named Susie.  Calvin is not on his best behavior with Susie and although he sends her a valentine, it is not very nice.  Susie gets Calvin back with a snowball. 

Calvin and Hobbes is a funny book you can read little bits at a time.   It is super imaginative and the best thing about it is that the fun continues in Bill Watterson’s 18 other books including Something Under the Bed is Drooling and Yukon Ho.  

Title:   Calvin and Hobbes

Author:  Bill Watterson

Publisher: Andrews and McMeel

Year:  c 1987

ISBN:  0-8362-2088-9

Genre: Fiction/Comics

This book is for Ages:  8 and up

Subjects/Themes:  Humor, Imagination