Hungry for fame and the approval of rare-animal collector Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), Darwin deceives the Captain and his crew into believing they can get enough booty to win the pirate competition by entering Polly in a science fair. So the pirates journey to London in cheerful, blinkered defiance of the Queen, a hotheaded schemer whose royal crest reads simply “I hate pirates.”
The journey north from Taitung to Kuanshan is enchanting. The narrow gauge diesel train winds between hillsides covered with pineapple and sugar plantations.[…]At Kuanshan Pastor Lu is in charge of the Bible School for Bunun and Ami girls.
The ground rose on each side like a wall, but hung with natural tapestry—the creeping plants which in the South take such graceful and wreathing forms in their foliage.
