A kidnapped orphan, an arrogant pawn shop owner, a band of friendly, inquisitive small animals and a fabled pirate's treasure come together in a nameless bog, somewhere off the Atlantic coast. General chaos ensues, with frequent breaks for a soft musical interlude.

As Disney features go, this one's kind of a drag. Sluggishly paced, dark and drained in appearance, spiritually down-tempo, it's a bit of a black sheep for the studio. I'm generally a fan of the expressive Don Bluth animation style, and his fingerprints are all over this one, but the budget seems unusually tight and the plot often dwells on long scenes of expository dialog. Not the most visually-fertile subject matter, in other words; it put my kids to sleep. The animation team does its best to overcome these defects, flooding the background with quaint little details and going for broke in their rendition of the spastic, reckless villainess, Madame Medusa, but it's a struggle. One Bluth evidently despised, as he bristled under the experience and soon left Disney to form his own competing studio.