British actor Hugh Grant will lend his voice to Sony Pictures' latest 3-D animated film "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," as a rag-tag crew, the studio announced on Thursday.

Grant, 50, will voice Pirate Captain, a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less than successful terror of the high seas, in his first stop-motion animated flick to be released on March 30, 2012 in North America.

Along with a team of characters and helped by a haplessly smitten young scientist (David Tennant), Grant beats his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) to the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award.

Aardman Animation, teaming up with Sony, will also feature other actors including Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey and Ashley Jensen.

This is the second animated film made by England-based Aardman Animation since it released Academy Award-winning animated comedy "Chicken Run" in 2000.