Everybody knows Sinbad, the legendary pirate of Arabian Knights fame.

This isn't exactly the same one.

In the latest animated action-adventure from Dreamworks, the high-seas-and-gem-loving rogue, who is comically voiced by movie hunk Brad Pitt, must decide between retiring to Fiji with the crew of his ship The Chimera or saving the life of his childhood friend Proteus, Prince Of Syracuse (voiced by Joseph Fiennes).

Making things difficult for him along the way is Proteus' feisty firebrand fiance Marina (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a stowaway on The Chimera, and the sexy, scene-stealing Eris, the Goddess of Chaos (Michelle Pfeiffer), who does everything she can to prevent Sinbad from retrieving the Book Of Peace and restoring order.

That's when the real fun begins.

The movie opens with the scheming Eris, ensconced in her starry, otherwordly lair of Tartarus, surrounded by her constellation-like monsters.

She wastes no time in wreaking havoc with Sinbad's journey to Syracuse by throwing a gigantic squid in the sea to battle The Chimera and its crew, led by bald, beefy and shirtless first mate Kale (Dennis Haysbert).

"Put a shirt on -- you could take an eye out," cracks Sinbad to Kale at one point after an Eris-created ice storm stops the ship in its tracks.

Comedy aside, the movie's stunning combination of hand-drawn 2D animation and CGI works well in all of the action sequences -- and there are many.

It's almost non-stop, in fact.

Particularly exciting are those scenes featuring Eris assuming Sinbad's identity, the battles with both the squid monster and a bird of prey, and the rolling ocean ride after The Chimera mistakenly becomes harpooned to a gigantic whale.

Tartarus is also wonderfully rendered as rolling sand dunes with scary-looking oversized scorpions.

In the warm and fuzzy department there is Sinbad's devoted dog, the slobbering but lovable bull mastiff Spike.

"Hey, where did he get the carrots?" one crew member wonders when Spike throws up on deck after the wild whale ride. (All they have on board to eat are eggs and pickles.)

Pitt's Sinbad is hardly the perfect anti-hero -- and that's refreshing.

After one fight scene he walks away from the camera and we see his naked backside through his torn pants.

And it's Marina -- not Sinbad -- who saves the ship after Eris-sent sirens make the crew drunk with love.

The pacing of the movie is swift and should prove to be just the right amount of time for the kiddies to sit still, clocking in at under 90 minutes.

The cast, while at first distracting given their collective star power, quickly disappear into their characters, who look nothing like their real-life counterparts.

Given the off-screen genes shared between Pitt, Zeta-Jones and Pfeiffer that could be seen as a missed opportunity, but it works here.

Pfeiffer, in particular, shines in her deliciously devilish role.

(This film is rated G)

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