The Three Musketeers

Contrary to the advertising blurb on the video jacket, which boldly asserts that "Alexander (sic) Dumas' classic novel comes to life in this fun-filled animated movie," this lame adaptation of the beloved French swashbuckler is little more than a slice of the novel, and a poorly done slice at that. After joining up with his fellow swordsmen, young d'Artagnan and the three musketeers put their rapiers to the task of saving the Queen from a nefarious plot hatched by the evil Cardinal. To this end, they cross swords with the Cardinal's henchmen roughly every 10 minutes. While the filmmakers have tried to make the material kid-palatable by tossing in an owl sidekick who often saves the day, The Three Musketeers suffers from the same malaise that characterizes most children's animated fare: weak animation (many of the parts of the fighting sequences are reused throughout), overuse of music, and simple lack of imagination. In this regard, The Three Musketeers is not terrible, it's merely mediocre. Not a necessary purchase. (Available from most distributors.)