Ripley's Believe It or Not! The Riddle Of Master Lu

Before tabloid tales of aberrant human behavior and space aliens littered supermarket checkout lanes, cartoonist Robert L. Ripley was plying his sketches of contortionists, dubious facts, and bearded ladies. Ripley's Believe It or Not! The Riddle of Master Lu eschews the sensational, instead focusing on Ripley as a globe-trotting 1930s adventurer in search of curiosities. In this Indiana Jones-meets-Charlie Chan tale you direct the action, wending your way through animated scenes, solving puzzles, and evading foreign assassins. Although the interlaced video and animation are adroitly executed, there's not enough humor or Sunday-matinee mystery to make you care about finding the buried treasure. Maybe this disc could have used a bearded lady or two after all. B-