Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Animated
Released 2003
Voices Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, Joseph Fiennes, Dennis Haysbert
Directed by Patrick Gilmore, Tim Johnson

This Sinbad (voice of Brad Pitt) bears little resemblance to the adventurer who sailed from Baghdad in the Tales of the Arabian Nights. Instead, he's a pirate from Syracuse who ends up on a journey to the fabled land of Tartarus to steal the Book of Peace from the goddess Eris (Michelle Pfeiffer) before his best friend, Proteus (Joseph Fiennes), the Prince of Syracuse, is executed. Proteus, in an act of blind loyalty, foolishly stakes his life on Sinbad's ability to overcome his mercenary tendencies and recover the artifact before an allotted span of time has expired. The title character is accompanied on the perilous journey by his faithful right-hand man, Kale (Dennis Haysbert), and Proteus' beautiful feisty and beautiful fiancé, Marina (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who, of course, falls for Sinbad.

Summary by James Berardinelli

"Sinbad" has some gorgeous CGI animation. The story is rather pedestrian, but the animation makes up for it. The images of the sirens and Eris' monsters are some examples, but the thing I don't understand is why the dialogue scenes have to look like Saturday morning cartoons while much of the rest is awe-inspiring. I'm sure the CGI must be expensive, but there must be something they can do to merge the two. Also, I'd like to see these movies create more human characters. They're always so smug and fearless that it gets annoying. I'd like to skip some of the one-liners to have the characters acknowledge the enormity of their situations instead of taking everything in stride. --Bill Alward, July 6, 2003