Most of the stories written in "A Thousand and One Nights" are very difficult to bring to the big screen, at least successfully. Especially when the stories are made with a modern audience in mind. Aladdin worked because not only was it made in the tradition of many other classic animated movies, but it also had warmth, charm, and delight in the environment the animators created with it. But of all of the most famous stories in the famed Arabian folklore novels, "Sinbad" was quite possibly the hardest to pull off. It's very difficult to make a character like Sinbad likable to a general audience, especially when your studio relies so heavily on rooting for the underdog. Protagonists like Hiccup, Po, and Shrek manage to work for DreamWorks because they are labeled as they underdog and they work with it. Sinbad was never the underdog, always full of himself, and way too arrogant to ever be considered likable by any mainstream animation fan. Disney could have pulled this movie off. DreamWorks? Well...
Plot: Sinbad (Brad Pitt) is a brash pirate off on adventures to seek treasure and fortune. One of his particular targets is the famous "Book of Peace", which is being escorted to Italy by Sinbad's old friend, Prince Proteus (Joseph Fiennes). This leads Sinbad to encounter Eris, the Greek Goddess of Discord and Chaos. Eris (Michelle Pfeiffer) offers Sinbad anything he wanted in exchange for the book, but fail to do so. So the goddess takes on the form of Sinbad and steals the book herself, framing Sinbad and having the people in Italy blame him and want him to pay for his actions.
Sinbad is only spared because Proteus agrees to take his place, and could only be saved if Sinbad could recover the Book from Eris. Teaming up with Proteus's fiance Marina (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Sinbad encounters monsters and all sorts of obstacles on his way to rescuing his friend, while also realizing more about himself in the process.
What's Wrong?: Sinbad: The Legend of the Seven Seas is one of those famous animated films made between 1997-2005 that was trying to please way too many people. Instead of focusing on making the best animated film possible (like Pixar was), DreamWorks was working on pleasing people enough to make money.
For starters, Sinbad is not a hero we can root for. He's way too arrogant and heroic to keep a mainstream audience clinging to and lacks much of the charisma and heart that had made so many of the other lead characters in animated movies so good. This is not Brad Pitt's fault, as he has shown to have great charisma in many of his roles. Personally, I think this is a writing flaw. Not only in the movie, but also in the source material as well.
Eris is also another missed opportunity. As the Goddess of Chaos and Discord, she should have been a good quality villain that could have evoked someone like Maleficent or Jafar. But instead, she serves solely as a plot point to keep the movie going. And when your villain isn't good enough to carry your picture and your lead isn't, who is?
I should also point out that the dialogue is way too modern in a movie like this. Granted, this dialogue worked in something like Aladdin, which Katzenberg worked on, but it worked there because the characters and story had enough charm and simplicity to it that the dialogue could be glossed over, especially when the only two recognizable voices in the movie were two side characters (Robin Williams and Gilbert Gottfried). But when you have Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the same movie giving off this witty banter, it kind of falls out of place.
What's Good?: The animation is still above average. And it was nice to see a quality traditionally animated film in a time when the best of those were made on television. You can see that the animators knew the potential of the source material to have high adventures and escapades while battling many great monsters and powerful villains. This film is very nice to watch...on mute.
Overall: This is not DreamWorks worst movie, but it is definitely the worst I've reviewed so far. It lacks the emotional power of The Prince of Egypt, the charm of The Road to El Dorado and the great quality of animation in Spirit. Still, I do like this movie, mostly for the animation. IT's definitely not a terrible movie, but really nothing to special. You can skip this one.
Final Grade: 75 or C
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