Book to Big Screen: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

This is a feature where I highlight books that upcoming movies are being based on. Today, I’m highlighting The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, a humorous book by Gideon Defoe that the new movie, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, is partially adapted from.

Title: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe

Publish Date: Oct. 2004
Publisher: Pantheon
Movie Title: The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Movie Release Date: March 27, 2012
Genre: Comedy, Adventure

Goodreads Summary: Not since "Moby-Dick." No, not since "Treasure Island." Actually, not since Jonah and the Whale has there been a sea saga to rival "The Pirates In an Adventure with Scientists," featuring the greatest sea-faring hero of all time, the immortal Pirate Captain, who, although he lives for months at a time at sea, somehow manages to keep his beard silky and in good condition.

Worried that his pirates are growing bored with a life of winking at pretty native ladies and trying to stick enough jellyfish together to make a bouncy castle, the Pirate Captain decides it's high time to spearhead an adventure.

While searching for some major pirate booty, he mistakenly attacks the young Charles Darwin's Beagle and then leads his ragtag crew from the exotic Galapagos Islands to the fog-filled streets of Victorian London. There they encounter grisly murder, vanishing ladies, radioactive elephants, and the Holy Ghost himself. And that's not even the half of it.

After receiving a bad tip from another pirate, the Pirate Captain takes his crew south to the Galapagos Islands where they attack the Beagle, a ship they believe carries gold. Instead, they badly damage a scientific vessel with no gold but instead carries Charles Darwin. Darwin is on a mission to find and train a monkey to behave like a man, in essence, creating the first man-panzee. Feeling poorly for destroying Darwin’s ship, the Pirate Captain offers to take Darwin back to England, help get Mister Bobo (Darwin’s man-panzee) accepted into Victorian high society and rescue Erasmus, Darwin’s brother, who is being held captive by the evil Bishop of Oxford.

I usually don’t read comedy but maybe I should more often. I had no expectations of this book but it actually had me laughing out loud a couple of times. The Pirates! is one of those books this is not politically correct but the storyline is so over the top, it’s hard to be offended.

The Pirate Captain is portrayed as the suave, player type whose beard is always silky and well groomed. Darwin, on the other hand, is a geeky scientist who wants to be a success so he can attract ladies and he annoys other scientists with his theories. The villain of the story is the Bishop of Oxford who, by holding a large stake in P.T. Barnum’s Circus of Freaks, wants no competition from Darwin and Mister Bobo. In addition to holding Erasmus hostage, the nefarious Bishop is up to other unsavory activities as well.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits movie is actually based on Defoe’s first two books in the series (The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab: The Novel). I only read the first. Since this is an animated movie about pirates, I’m guessing the movie makers will forgo some of the more adult content (reference to the Pirate Captain being exhausted after entertaining a lady in his cabin for hours; the scarf wearing pirate hoping a girl will put out for him; the Bishop’s illegal activities; people getting run through with cutlasses; a pirate putting on a sheet pretending to be the Holy Ghost and performing wrestling moves) and while this content is mild, it is still not appropriate for younger children. 

As I mentioned before, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is surprisingly funny. While I wouldn’t recommend it for children, more mature teens and adults will find it a quick, laugh-out-loud read. I will be checking out the movie review for The Pirates! Band of Misfits at Plugged In before deciding if I will take my kids to see it.

Have you read either book that the movie is based on? What did you think? Do you plan on seeing the movie?

Content: References to adult situations and violence.

Movie Review: John Carter

Movie Title: John Carter

Movie Release Date: March 9, 2012
Genre: Science Fiction

Synopsis: War-weary, former military captain John Carter is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris. In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Edgar Rice Burroughs’ sci-fi classic A Princess of Mars. After reading the book, I was excited to see John Carter, the movie based on A Princess of Mars, and curious to see how Disney would handle the violence, racism and sexism in the book.

John Carter is a much more fleshed out version of A Princess of Mars. In the book, Carter can’t remember his childhood or much of his past. We also never get much of an explanation as to how he travels to Mars. In the movie, we see Carter as a broken confederate soldier who has lost his wife and child and just wants to move on with his life. We also see exactly how he is transported to Mars and it makes more sense than how the event was written in the book.

Carter’s character is also much more likable in the movie. He is not egotistical or disparaging to the Native Americans and green Martians as he is in the book. Additionally, the back story about the death of his wife and child really humanizes him. 

Dejah Thoris’ character is also much more likable in the movie than the book. The big screen version of her is smart, a formidable fighter capable of defending herself and she does not use “female logic” to rationalize anything she does not understand.

The movie does introduce the Therns, characters that were not in A Princess of Mars but are present in the next book in the series, The Gods of Mars. Since I haven’t read the second book, I’m not sure how accurately the Therns are portrayed. Another big difference in the book vs. the movie is Tar Tarkas’ role in his tribe and how his friendship with Carter develops. The book does a much better job of telling Tars Tarkas’ story and I am a bit disappointed that it was altered for the movie.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. I would recommend it to sci-fi fans and especially to anyone who read Burroughs’ Barsoom series and ever imagined the book coming to life. So many things were exactly like how I pictured them, especially the green Martians and the airships.

While this is a Disney movie and there were lots of little kids at the showing I attended, John Carter has tons of violence and while it’s not all gory, the body count is high. I would not recommend this movie for younger children.

Content: Kissing and heavy violence

I'm Guest Blogging Today!

Hi everyone! Today I am guest blogging at Black Fingernailed Reviews about my favorite movie based on books. Check it out and let me know what your favorites are!