Steve Coogan, last seen in COFFEE AND CIGARETTES, plays the lead character of Phileas Fogg. Chan plays Passepartout, Fogg's "French" valet. You might wonder how the heavily accented Chan can play a Chinese man trying to pass himself off as French. Passepartout explains that his French father never spoke while his Chinese mother never shut up.

The dual themed plot has Passepartout being chased by an evil Chinese warlord, along with the more traditional part of the story, a wager between Fogg and Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent), the head of the Royal Academy of Sciences. The wager is that Fogg will not be able to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days or less. Set just before "the turn of the century," the slapstick movie is filled with madcap mayhem. Some of the best parts of the picture are some good-spirited cameos, including one by the Governator.

In a type of role that once would have gone to Piper Perabo before she dropped off the radar screen, Cécile De France plays Monique, a hat check girl and would be impressionist painter, who becomes Fogg's other sidekick and his girlfriend.

Perhaps the best part of the production is the way that Disney cuts to magically colorful, animated overlays of street scenes whenever our three world travelers arrive in a new location. AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS is pure fluff, but it's cute.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS runs a tad long at 2:00. It is rated PG for "action violence, some crude humor and mild language" and would be acceptable for kids of all ages.