'Sinbad' is family fare the entire crew can enjoy

• 'Sinbad' vixens swap real-life tales

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS Stars: Though it features an uneasy blend of hand-drawn and computer-generated animation, this animated action-adventure still has visual panache and a story that will appeal to its core audience — pre-teen boys and girls — without insulting their parents. Featuring the voices of Brad Pitt, Michelle Pfeiffer, Catherine Zeta-Jones. Directed by Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore. DreamWorks Pictures, 87 minutes.

The characters are definitely old-school: Hand-drawn figures, crafted with care, to the point that they almost break out of two dimensions. Almost.

But they're set against backdrops and nemeses that are computer-generated, which has a solidity that the traditionally animated characters lack. The result is a movie whose imagination occasionally outstrips its abilities. It looks great, but the seams show, enough to be distracting at times.

Still, the movie's target audience, pre-teen boys and girls, should have a ball. Directors Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore team up to make a cartoon action-adventure that will please young viewers with its witty imagination.

Brad Pitt voices Sinbad, first glimpsed leading his crew in an attack on a ship carrying a rare treasure: the Book of Peace, which is both priceless and powerful. But when he discovers that he would be stealing it from one of his oldest friends, Proteus (Joseph Fiennes), he backs off.

But the Book of Peace has another stalker: Eris (Michelle Pfeiffer), the goddess of chaos, who wants the book for herself. She tries to tempt Sinbad to steal it for her and, failing that, assumes Sinbad's form to steal it herself.

When Sinbad is imprisoned and sentenced to death, Proteus offers to take his place so that Sinbad can track down the real thief. Sinbad also is forced to contend with Proteus' feisty fiancee, Marina (Catherine Zeta-Jones), when she turns up as a stowaway.

The subsequent journey is a blend of Scheherazade and Homer, bringing together tales associated with Sinbad (such as the giant bird known as the Roc) with ones from "The Odyssey" (like the sailors' encounter with the sirens). And that's not to mention the mammoth CG creatures Eris commands, which she plucks from the constellations and brings to life.

Most of the humor is physical, whether it's exaggerated slapstick or gross-out humor. When the directors aren't joking around, they're plunging Sinbad into sweeping, swooping action sequences, battling a variety of monsters, the ocean and, of course, Eris.

Pitt brings the right note of scoundrel's bravado to the role and Zeta-Jones matches him in voicing a strong-willed character. Pfeiffer imbues the goddess with comic petulance; she just isn't happy unless everything's chaotic. Still, John Logan's script could have used a spin through the word processor of a good comedy writer, to punch up the sometimes anemic punchlines.

"Sinbad" is a terrific movie just the same. It's a comedy that's low on vulgarity (except for a few seasickness jokes) and, rarer still, an action film without violence, one that can thrill younger viewers without jading them.

Rated PG for violence, language and sensuality.

'Sinbad' vixens swap real-life tales

ZETA-JONES

PFEIFFER

Pfeiffer voices Eris, goddess of chaos, a sultry schemer who messes with mortal lives for the heck of it. Zeta-Jones plays a good girl, for once, the spunky Katharine Hepburn type Marina who joins Sinbad (Brad Pitt) on his peril-filled voyage.

Zeta-Jones, 33, arrives at the New York hotel first, all raven locks and postpartum voluptuousness wrapped in a low-cut dress splashed with exotic flowers. Minutes later, Pfeiffer, 45, enters. She's model-slim and suburban chic, with just-so blond curls, dark jeans and a clingy off-the-shoulder black top.

One is dressed for a cocktail party, the other for an upscale soccer match. Yet both share much beyond their professions. They have the essential power husbands: for Zeta-Jones, actor-producer Michael Douglas; for Pfeiffer, TV mogul David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal," "The Practice"). Both have a daughter and a son, though Pfeiffer's children — Claudia Rose, 10, and John Henry, 8 — are far beyond toddler stage.

Baby daughter Carys, now 2 months and at home in Bermuda with her nanny, is "terrific," Zeta-Jones says, while adoring brother Dylan, almost 3, would dearly love to "jump in the crib and hop on the changing table."

For some reason, both were mean to Renee Zellweger while playing jailed killers last year. Zeta-Jones gave her the cold shoulder in "Chicago," while Pfeiffer preyed on her mind in "White Oleander."

Like most voice actors, they did their "Sinbad" parts without meeting each other. Zeta-Jones, an animation newbie, found the experience stimulating if lengthy, with recording spread over four years. "They told me the story, and I knew I was pregnant (with Dylan), and I was like, 'Ah, now I'll be able to show my kids what I actually do for a living.' "

Pfeiffer, by contrast, is a veteran. She was Tzipporah, wife of Moses, in DreamWorks' first animated feature, "The Prince of Egypt," and once vamped Homer on "The Simpsons." But she still found the process jarring.

"It's so weird. When you're acting, you don't really want to be conscious of your voice at all. It's one of the last things you want to be thinking about. This is the exact opposite."

Neither diva appears to have spent her childhood watching Saturday morning TV. Both are stumped when asked to name their favorite cartoon character while growing up. Forget classic Disney.

"I didn't go to the movies when I was a kid," Pfeiffer admits.

"We only had one cinema where I came from," says Zeta-Jones, "and what they showed usually wasn't anything for kids."

Since becoming moms, however, they have made up for lost time.

"The cartoons now are unnerving, but they are kind of brilliant, too," Pfeiffer says. Her kids love "SpongeBob SquarePants."

"He's completely taken over the house. I love SpongeBob. I love Patrick" — SpongeBob's dim starfish sidekick. "He makes me laugh. Thank God they are past the 'Pokemon' thing. ... 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is my son's favorite movie of all time."

The cartoon Bob prominent in Zeta-Jones' life these days is "Bob the Builder," who appears on Dylan's underpants. "And 'Jay Jay the Jet Plane.' We had Jay Jay as the theme for his second birthday."

She and Douglas occasionally peek at the cartoon oldies network Boomerang. "They have shows from 1963. We love watching it with my son sometimes. When it gets to the '70s, you can see all the trippy, wacked-out ones."

So how do they balance a movie career and famous spouses while maintaining a relatively normal environment for their children?

"It's really just a day-to-day improvisation," Pfeiffer says. "I guess you just always try to look at things through their eyes, and what the experience is for them."

"That age is harder," Zeta-Jones says. "My little one just poops and eats and sleeps. But for Dylan, we're just very lucky to be living in Bermuda."

"You live in Bermuda?" asks Pfeiffer, clearly fascinated. She asks how long they have lived there (two and half years), how much time they spend there (as much as they can), why they picked the island as home base (Douglas' mother is Bermudian, so he has Bermudian status), and how long it takes to fly there from New York (about an hour and a half).

But Zeta-Jones, capitalizing on her Oscar success, won't be lolling in the sun much longer. She will soon be shooting "Monkeyface" in Miami and overseas. Douglas will be her co-star in the racetrack-heist thriller directed by Stephen Frears.

She also reveals: "I'm doing a movie for DreamWorks with Steven (Spielberg) and Tom (Hanks), which I can't talk about because it's top secret."

Pfeiffer, meanwhile, is in pursuit of the perfect romantic comedy. "Usually they are not romantic or funny."

And she and Kelley might just be busy looking at some Bermuda property.