The story starts when a crew of scallywag pirates respond to a fire in the distance, where they find our title character stranded on an island. Aboard their pirate ship Robinson Crusoe proceeds to tell them the story of how he became stranded and the many tales of misfortune that have plagued is attempt to be rescued.
Now, just like my beloved horror genre the market is over saturated with lifeless, boring, animated movies which populate the shelves at supermarkets hoping to pick up a sale on the strength of some exciting cover art but after watching the first 15 minutes of Robinson Crusoe you realize that this movie is slightly better. Firstly, there is the very impressive CGI, it isn't quite your colourful pixar'esque cutesy animation but it is very clean & crisp, the action sequence near the start when the storm breaks is very nice to look at, the rain and water effects are very realistic and look wonderful in HD. I often found myself more interested in the subtle lighting shimmering of the water and the rocks than I did the story, a bit like when you first play a next-gen video game and you take in all the surroundings and how lush they look.
I guess this is where the movie is flawed, there is no feeling of grand adventure and the excitement and peril come from small set pieces on the island which never really add towards a great escape for our stranded soul. If I was being picky I would mention things like how Robinson is more interested in making a working plumbing system in his shelter than building a raft to escape, but none of this really matters when you got lots of animals & other creatures littering the screen keeping the kids entertained.
I was surprised to see this movie had a budget of £13,000,000 with a limited cinema release and without a stand out character to ratchet up the merchandise sales it was always going to struggle to reach the masses and although it doesn't have the depth and emotional weight of a Disney movie and is probably 15 minutes too long it is well worth its 3 star rating.