Fantasy Flix: Arabian Nights (2000)

Long ago, the Sultan Schariar has gone mad after his traumatizing near assassination in which his wife collaborated and died at his hands as a result. Now he has a paranoid suspicion of women which he plans to express in a diabolical plan, and that is to marry a woman from the harem and then have her executed the very next morning. To prevent this, the Grand Vizier's daughter and a childhood friend of the Sultan, Scheherezade, offers herself to be that bride. Now, she must gamble that her plan will work as she tries to cure his madness by telling him story after wondrous story which include the tales of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp. All the while, the Sultan's villainous brother is making plans of his own and Scheherezade's stories are more useful against him than anyone can anticipate.

This TV mini-series gets a lot of love. At least from the ratings on IMDB. While, I thought it was pretty good, I did not think it was fantastic. Overall, it is a very well made mini-series. The pacing is good, but I did find myself bored with some of the stories, especially with the main one. The stories Scheherezade tells are definitely more interesting than the story of Scheherezade herself.

The acting is very good. I really have no one to complain about and not much to say on this subject.

Arabian Nights is very family-friendly. Almost too family friendly for me. There is some killing, but it is done in the most family-friendly way possible. The women are very covered so don't expect to see any of the erotic parts of the original stories.

The special effects are quite well done for a 2000 TV mini-series. Many of them are better done than a Syfy original today. I did enjoy most of the fantasy elements to the stories.

Grab your kids and watch this with them. Heck, grab your spouse, make some popcorn and sit in front of a fire and enjoy this. This is good clean family entertainment.