Pirate's Passage

My husband and I happened upon this movie this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it! The animation is good and the pirate storyline was really well written! Great for the whole family!

I missed the first few minutes of this animated production and focused in when I heard Donald Sutherland's voice, as I try to watch anything he has participated in. I found myself easily drawn into a simple story with some clever ideas. As the movie progressed, I felt it would have been wonderful to have my grandson watching with us.

The story felt like a Hanna-Barbera movie, but the animation is a totally different style. A young Nova Scotia boy is helped by a ghost pirate to discover about local history, and how to deal with a school bully. His home is a small mansion/inn run by his widowed mother, whose mortgage holder also covets the site for his own plans. Our young boy discovers there are bullies outside of school-yards as well.

Parts of the story unfold in a predictable fashion -- which is desirable in a movie like this. Still there are enough changes and creative areas for all ages to enjoy. You may even learn a thing or two about pirates of the Atlantic.

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this movie and the animation reminded me of all the Don Bluth movies I watched as kid like Secret of Nimh and the American Tail films. It was mysterious and interesting enough to hold my 6, 9, and 10 year-olds, but I should have known things were going to get gritty after the first "damn" reference in the first 5 minutes. I hung in there with my kids until one of my kids finally complained about the language and I knew I had made the wrong choice. I wished there had been more kid- friendly reviews when I was researching this and I actually created an IMDb account just so I could edit the Parental Guide and help some other parents make a more informed decision than I did. It's sad when you have great voice talents and an interesting story ruined by language that should not be in an animated movie. Mind you Netflix had this rated for ages 7-10. I will be more cautious about their guidance in the future. If not, for the unnecessary language, I would have made it through more than half of it.

I liked this movie a lot, but there were some things that I thought deserved to be explained more (e.g., why did Meg have such a chip on her shoulder and why was bringing an American auto to Nova Scotia through Newfoundland considered smuggling?), so I bought and read the novel "Pirate's Passage" by William Gilkerson, upon which the movie was based.

After reading the novel I would say that the movie was inspired by, rather than based on the book, as the main characters are the same, but the plots are much different. The book gives sufficient back story for Meg for the reader to understand the chip on her shoulder. The auto does not even occur in the book. I thought that the plot of the book was far better than that of the movie, so if you liked the movie you should read the book.

This movie started off with a lot of promise. The animation is lovely at times. But the movie is really really dreadfully slow. It's just this old guy who kinda has these whimsical comments to this kid - and I guess they sorta go back in time or something and see some pirate stuff? Mostly the film is a close up of the Donald Sutherland character. Then there is this business tycoon is like a real life pirate but he's not a pirate he's just some guy? I dunno. I fell asleep.