Headscratchers / The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

• Why did Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate need to dress in drag? There are certainly other female pirates, notably Cutlass Liz. Is this a holdover from the books? Or perhaps something to do with hiding her crush on the Pirate Captain?
  • She seems to be much more girly than the other female pirates. My guess is that she didn't think she'd be taken seriously in the pirate world if she was a woman.
  • She could also be afraid of constantly being hit on, as she is on a boat full of men who probably don't see women very often. Really, there are a number of reasons she could've chosen to dress as a man.
  • Rule of Funny, especially since nobody ever sees through the Paper-Thin Disguise.
  • Bit of an opposite of a holdover from the books, though, as in the books, Jennifer is quite open with her gender and previous job as a Proper Victorian Lady.
  • Actually, Jennifer and the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate are different characters.
  • She's supposed to be a parody of real-world accounts of women who would disguise themselves as men to get aboard ships.
  • The real-life pirate Black Bart Roberts had a "no women or children" law on his ships. Perhaps the Pirate Captain has this same one as well.
    • Adding to the above, in general real-life pirates (and sailors) generally had a bit of a dim view of women on board ships; outside of a handful of exceptions, lady pirates were the exception to the norm. The Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate might assume that the rest of the crew share this stereotype (of course, they're all so nice they'd probably welcome her anyway, but nevertheless).

• What happened to the other world leaders when Victoria's flagship sank?
  • You can see several lifeboats around the spot where the ship has just sunk in a scene during the credits.
    • Said lifeboats were for the animals, none of which would likely be eager to let the people who wanted to eat them onboard. Either way, the other world leaders deserved it.

• How exactly was the cook on Victoria's ship supposed to know how to prepare dodo, or any other of the nearly-extinct animals she'd intended to serve at the banquet? For all the diners would've known, the chef could've ruined all their dishes out of ignorance.
  • I can't imagine it would be too much different from cooking common animals.
  • There are reports, albeit unconfirmed, that sailors ate dodos. If they did, it's not unsafe to assume the recipe survived down the ages.
  • A dodo is basically just a bird. Cooking one was presumably not massively different from cooking any other bird.

• I can't help but wonder just how exactly did Charles discover the existence of Queen's secret society. He could have snatched the menu from somewhere (which in itself raises a question how and where), but how did he discover the rest? You know, the ship, the world leaders, and where is the ship heading?
  • After Victoria throws him out of the Tower of London, he finds a pamphlet for it in the garbage.

• Why isn't Charles freaking out about all his sciencey stuff being recklessly destroyed by the pirates, including his entire home? You'd think he would be much less easy-going about that.
  • True. On the other hand, by that point in the film he's already completely dodo-obsessed, so perhaps the scope of the destruction doesn't sink in immediately.
  • Plus, in his mind all he knows is: Dodo means he gets Victoria, and he doesn't need his old home anymore if he gets the queen as his girl. Otherwise, she can easily pay for repairs.