DVD Reviews:  Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Quite frankly one of the best video transfers I have seen in a long time, Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas is an absolute delight to watch and listen to.

Breathtaking animation and a vibrant soundtrack that certainly helps the entire feature come to life are just some of the attributes that this disc has to offer. Top notch voice talent and a great storyline are also on offer, making this disc one of the true winners of the year, in a year that has seen some exceptional DVDs released.

The story revolves around the Book of Peace that is being brought to Syracuse under the eye of nobleman Proteus, who is unaware that Sinbad, captaining the mighty ship, The Chimera is hot on his tail and very intent on stealing the book for the massive ransom that it will get for him. It turns out that the two men are old childhood friends who need to band together to stop the machinations of the goddess of chaos Eris who wants to steal the book so as it cannot provide the protection for the twelve cities that it was designed to.

Having made it safely to Syracuse, Eris frames poor Sinbad to make it appear that he has stolen the Book and he is sentenced to death for the crime. Proteus claims the right of substitution and is locked up whilst Sinbad is able to try and retrieve the book from the realm of Chaos itself.

What follows is a truly amazing adventure, brought to life with cutting edge animation and computer generated images, melded together to present a wonderful voyage that you and your family will be more than happy to revisit time and time again on this great DVD. Voiced by some very famous names, (Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer and Ralph Fiennes) Sinbad is a laugh a minute animation that exudes the amount of time and quality put into its creation.

The video transfer on this title would have to come the closest to flawless that I have had the privilege of watching in some time and I couldn't pick a fault with it even if I wanted to desperately. As far as I could see at no stage during the feature, did I see anything that even vaguely constituted a fault. Absolutely perfect and a real delight to watch.

Audio is something else as well on this title where they have upped the ante for an animated feature. Included is a magical DTS 5.1 mix that has to be heard to be believed. For those without a DTS decoder, a great 5.1 Dolby Digital has been added as well. All channels are used to great effect during the movie and the entire soundtrack has been mixed perfectly with background sound never getting in the way of character vocals, which were crisp, clear and ambient enough to be believable. The score has been handled with proper care by Harry Gregson-Williams who has done a number of big title scores, however for myself my favourite work of his was the work he did for the Playstation 2 title Metal Gear Solid 2.

Extras abound on the title which is a relief when you've been confronted with so much goodness on the main feature. Everything you could possibly imagine has been included on this disc from commentaries all the way through to games for the kids to play where they can help Sinbad save the Twelve Cities. One thing that I did find funny was that even though the commentary featured many of the people behind the feature, there were still many places that there was silence. Odd. The Voice of Spike is possibly the standout feature on the extras, albeit a very short one where they show how they recorded the dogs vocals and the process that it entailed.

I'd recommend this disc as a contender for animated feature of the year (on DVD) and definitely as one of the best transfers to this format for the year also. Both kids and adults are going to get caught up and lost in the magic of Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, time and time again. Highest Recommendation!