Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Saw Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, a by-now obscure animated film from Dreamworks. It follows the puckish rapscallion Sinbad as he tries to recover a magical McGuffin (The Book of Peace) from the wispy antagonist Eris.  The film is good but forgettable.  It came out in the early naughts and features a billowy, loose sort of animation with everything looking like flapping fabric or billowing smoke.  It's very pretty however and I liked the designs, especially how Sinbad's pants smoothly transition into his boots (are his pants tucked in?)

This film is fairly forgettable however.  I saw it a while ago but I had to re-check the plot to remember what happened.  (This is as much an indictment of my own weak memory as it is a criticism of the movie however.)  There's a love triangle and nice little logic-puzzle twist ending.  The film mostly revolves around whether this Sinbad fella has a heart of gold deep down or if he's just a mean old pirate like he claims himself to be.  Of course, since this is a kid's film, the conclusion is kind of foregone.

I dunno.  It was a good movie.  I remember enjoying it, but not so great a movie that I felt the need to like proselytize for it or anything.  It didn't leave me wondering why it wasn't as popular as Disney films, but it didn't leave me wondering about the low-key affection I see for the film online.  It's an okay film.

I feel like it suffers a bit from too much unbridled, ambient talent.  There's a background cast of pirates, for example, who do not stay in the background.  At one point Sinbad is barking out orders and one of the pirates descends on ropes, receives orders, and then reascends like a puppet or a monkey.  It's weird and distracting.  Who is that guy?  What's his story?  There isn't enough footage in the film for all the pet characters and details the animators want to pack in.  Smacks of unsteady leadership to me.