I’m not here today to tell you “Fern Gully” is a lost treasure of animation. Most fans of animated feature films will offer you a list and an argument of their overlooked favorites, but mine does not include “Lilo & Stitch” or “Tarzan.”
Once in a while, though, my 6-year-old son stumbles across a well-done and solidly entertaining animation that I never got around to seeing, because he wasn’t born yet when it first came out, or my older girls were past the cartoon stage, or it disappeared too fast for anyone to recommend it.
That’s how “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas” arrives at today’s “In” box for a video discovery. We put on a movie for the swordfight-addicted son during an afternoon vacation break, and minutes later I was wandering back to see what had him so riveted. Hearing the distinctive voices of Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and the always-alluring Michelle Pfeiffer further piqued my interest.
And it turns out “Sinbad” is a fun, and even somewhat educational, adventure story. It’s box office failure apparently helped shove DreamWorks out of the old-fashioned animation business, but there’s enough combat, Greek mythology and narrow sea escapes to make for a great evening.
Pitt plays the titular Sinbad, first seen stealing the valuable Book of Peace that protects the Greeks living in Syracuse. He’s a rogue looking for a quick gold piece, but soon gets drawn into an epic battle where the goddess Eris (Pfeiffer) insists on messing with the minds of the mortals.
The animation is fantastic and inventive, creating outlandish creatures as obstacles to the quest, and climaxing in a terrific set piece at “the edge of the world,” where the ship has to sail through a mid-air gateway. Along the way, the kids will find vivid scenes of legends they may have already heard, including the will-crushing Sirens.
Maybe there wasn’t enough banter among cute animal sidekicks to propel “Sinbad” to box office treasure. But the voices, scenery and action are more than enough for movie night.
“Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas”
Rated: PG, for animated action sequences
Best suited for: Boys who love a good swordfight, and fans of Greek mythology mixed with “Arabian nights”
