Rating: 6/10
Review date: September 5, 2003
Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos, stole the Book of Peace to let chaos reign in the world while letting Sinbad take the fall. Proteus, a longtime friend of Sinbad, decided to be punished to death in exchange of Sinbad�s freedom. Since nobody would believe Sinbad�s words, he is given ten days to bring back the Book of Peace or Proteus will die. The journey was further complicated when Marina, Proteus� fianc�e, tagged along for the ride.
Based on the trailer that this movie has to offer, I was actually not expecting much for this animation film from DreamWorks SKG. Even though I end up not giving it a very good rating, Sinbad is actually a good movie with some flaws that prevents it from achieving its full potential.
The movie is quite short actually with a running time of merely 86 minutes. Its short duration means another thing, less humor and action to keep the audience engaged or to make the movie more memorable.
The animation is nicely done although there�s nothing new in this department, just another good-looking 2D animation that has some substance to offer. I like the music as well (composed by Harry-Gregson Williams) which is very fitting to whole movie.
The voice acting is also excellent with Michelle Pfeiffer being the most memorable one. Her voice coupled with the nicely drawn animation only serve to make Eris looks downright evil and seducing (that�s supposed to be good). Sinbad himself is voiced by Brad Pitt who did a very good job of sounding like� well, Sinbad. Catherine Zeta-Jones voiced Marina who managed to sound convincing as the tough female lead, ready to take control of the situation when needed. The chemistry between Sinbad and Marina is also quite developed.
The characters (both lead and supporting) do provide some comic relief in some scenes but I feel that it is not enough somehow. The same thing can be said for the action which is also quite scarce and not really memorable at all. As I said earlier, this might be due to the short running time.
Sinbad is a solid effort from DreamWorks SKG although it falls short in some areas. Even so, a number of themes are actually addressed such as friendship, trust, betrayal and love. I guess the movie may receive commendation on the ground that the producers managed to include all these themes, considering the short running time.
Judging from how the movie ends, I believe it is inevitable for a sequel to spawn in the future. Should that happen (most probably); I really hope to see more humor and action to complement the otherwise perfect voice acting and musical score.
Memorable quote: �Who�s bad? Sinbad!�
-Brad Pitt as Sinbad (voice)-
(c) Martin Taidy 2003