Sin is not that Bad

Disney's latest 2-D animated movie is a stunning hotch-potch of myth and folklore that contrives to combine the Arabian Nights with Greek mythology and wrap it up in the ribbons of Yo Dude-ism.

The result provides a fabulously good-looking cartoon backdrop with terrific clouds and great rolling seas (coupled with excellent CGI monsters) in which the "human" characters flap and flounder with far less conviction than the scenery.

Eris, Goddess of Discord (voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer, doing her husky Jessica Rabbit thing), has stolen the Book of Peace, a document that apparently prevents the world from collapsing into chaos.

Nautical vagabond Sinbad (Brad Pitt) must retrieve the book from Eris's lair or else his best friend, Proteus (Joseph Fiennes), will be beheaded. Also aboard for the quest is Proteus's betrothed, Marina (Catherine Zeta Jones), who soon proves that she is a match for any adventurous sailor.

After an exciting start, things settle down to a series of "encounters" with mythical beasts or things (many of them hijacked from the myth of The Golden Fleece or The Odyssey) while Sinbad and Marina become awkwardly, if inevitably, attracted.

I found the deliberately anachronistic dialogue a little tiresome after a while and John "Gladiator" Logan's script lacks the comic finesse of Disney's Aladdin or Hercules.

A little more depth of characterisation in the screenplay and a lot more in the animation of Sinbad and friends might have catapulted this into classic status.

Great sets, shame about the characters.

Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas
Cert: certU