Anyone who has listened to more than, say, 20 minutes of one of our podcasts will know that I am a huge nerd for 80s flicks–as a child of HBO, there’s buckets of movies that I watched over and over again, memorizing the dialogue and, often, the songs.

I had no knowledge of Gilbert and Sullivan at that age–but I suuuuuure knew 1982’s  The Pirate Movie, a “modern” “rock retelling” of their classic opera, Pirates of Penzance. While Kevin Kline brought the true pirates to the screen, I gravitated towards Christopher Atkins and Kristy McNichol’s “chemistry” as they fall in love, sing cheesy ballads (I’m a sucker for both “Hold On” and “How Can I Live Without Her?”), and frolic with animated fish, as seen below in the show-stopping number “Pumpin’ And Blowin.’” Directed by Ken Annakin, the same guy, YES THE SAME GUY, that directed the Disney classic Swiss Family Robinson and the war actioner The Battle of the Bulge, it’s a truly horrendous yet absolutely mesmerizing product of it’s time. There’s nods to the Star Wars films and a good ol’ fashioned “the whole thing is imagined due to falling overboard” plot. Long out of print and rare on VHS, the good folks at Anchor Bay released it on DVD and I’ve been enjoying it ever since. And yes, I managed to find the soundtrack online, and have a lot of explaining to do when “We Are The Pirates!” pops up on my iPod at random at a party.

Anyone else have mad love for this movie? Let me know in the comments!

–Cole

p.s. Found this online, and I’m sure one Vanessa Ragland would approve…