Sinbad's biggest enemy might be a little fish named Nemo. In the shadows of that swimmingly brilliant kids' movie, this big-sea adventure seems barely passable. The hand-drawn animation rarely pops like Pixar's CGI magic, and the story is retro-square. But, like the adventure serials of yesterday, it does have its charm, when Sinbad (voiced by Brad Pitt) heads out to steal the valuable Book of Peace from his good friend Proteus (Joseph Fiennes)--and he also has his eyes on Proteus' girl, Marina (Catherine Zeta-Jones), not that she minds.
The movie makes serious waves--and looks its best--when the swashbuckler faces off with gothic, gigantic, grossly malformed sea monsters. But other than that, kids might not care to soak in this one.