This film features Sinbad as a pirate in ancient Greece.  Sinbad isn't a Greek name.  Most of the other people in the film have Greek names (aside from "Spike", the dog, and most of the crew who have salty piratey names like "Kale" and "Rat".  Oh, and the female lead, voiced by Catherine Zeta-Jones, called Marina).  So, maybe they aren't all named after Greek mythology after all.

This is an animated film.  As such, it's intended primarily for kids, but the Masked Reviewer isn't a kid, so he's going to tell you what an adult thinks of it.  Granted, it will be the opinion of a man who wears a mask, but nonetheless, an adult.

First, and most importantly, it must be stated that there are no overweight black comedians in this film.  That will be a huge relief to parents, small children, and everyone else.  That Sinbad is probably too busy working on Houseguest 2. 

The film is more or less your typical animated adventure story.  You've got your action, your big evil bad guy (or gal, in this case voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer), your comedic sidekicks, your love story, and your goofy anthropomorphosized animal.  It's by Dreamworks, so it lacks the DIsney super-sweetness and musical numbers.  More like Prince of Egypt than Aladdin. 

The artwork is great in the film.  They keep with the current trend of combining computer graphics and traditional cel animation, and it is used to good effect in this film.  The computer animation is amazing.  The backgrounds are vivid and rich.  Some people will notice that the color scheme of the movie goes from very bright and vibrant in the beginning to dark and muted for most of the movie.  This is done for dramatic reasons, but for those of you who like your animations brightly colored all the way through, you may be in for a bit of a disappointment.

The voice acting was very good.  Brad Pitt as Sinbad was the highlight.  He brought a bit of Yosemite Sam to the character of Sinbad by stammering and muttering "Oooooooh!" a lot.  An interesting side note to you voiceover trivia buffs...Russell Crowe was slated for the role of Sinbad up until fairly recently, by movie production timetables.  That's it.  That's the extent of the Masked Reviewer's interesting background tidbits for Sinbad. 

Other voices are provided by Joseph Fiennes (does he pronounce his first name correctly, or does he have a pretentious pronunciation like his brother Ralph?) and Dennis Haysbert..

The film features a couple of jokes just for the adults that are chuckle-worthy.  It's probably not the first choice of grown-ups, but it's easy to sit through if you get dragged along to the movies with some snot-nosed kid. 

Kale, Sinbad's first mate has extremely large round nipples.  Just so you know.  They're like buttermilk biscuits.   

Also, he's not really a legend of the seven seas.  He only gets to one, maybe two, tops.

The film seems to have a few too many quiet moments, which won't be noticed by adults until every single kid in the stinkin' theater starts to squirm and cry and yell in their seats.  But those moments quickly resolve into more action and things settle down.

If you like animated features, this one is fine.  A little light on the comedy, more straightforward adventure, but fun nonetheless.  If you loved Prince of Egypt, this is probably most similar to that, or maybe The Road to El Dorado (if anyone actually saw that film).  For what it is, Sinbad is singood.  

Expectation from the Title: A documentary about a former "Star Search" winner doing stand up on the cruise ships.

Mother's Rule (Always Say Something Good About Everything):  Even Brad Pitt's voice is hunky.

The Pros: Not to kiddyish for adults, a couple of funny moments, nice artwork.

The Cons: Other than the 1st Mate's nipples, there's no nudity.