What happens when a major studio decides to remake a film classic? Often, the result is disaster, especially, it seems, when the film in question is a genre piece.

Look what happened to a related remake, King Kong (1976). Naturally, the Dino De Laurentiis-produced version lacked the technological advantages available to filmmakers today. Yet its script was grievously lacking, as De Laurentiis, in assuming he could best the original through sheer force of dollars alone, instead packaged an infamous exercise in cinematic arrogance.

And of technology? Godzilla (1998) proved that the most advanced effects in the world couldn't save a badly conceived remake.

So it was with surprised delight that I sat through Disney's update of Mighty Joe Young.

The original 1949 film is a joy, a brilliant fusion of pathos, adventure, wonder, and the beautiful stop-motion of effects pioneer Willis O'Brien of King Kong (1933) fame. The new version's promise of smoothly updated cutting-edge effects did not necessarily give me hope that they would bear out the quirky personality of the original stop-motion primate Joe, nor that the script would survive modernization.

For these effects, Disney worked with the best in the business. Dreamquest Images provided the stunning computer animation. In their crusade for realistic detail they created a piece of software called "Yeti" which individually rendered each piece of Joe's hair, all three-and-a-half million of them. When blown by a breeze, for example, each hair moved independently. For closer shots which combined human and ape, massive animatronics were called for in the form of three hydraulic "Big Joes" that weighed 4,000 pounds each. These gargantuas were brought to life by Rick Baker's company Cinovation, the foremost experts in creating eerily realistic apes for film, having done so for Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan and Gorillas in the Mist. In creating an expressive and realistic ape, Baker's team gave the film the extra spark it needed. Indeed, the entire success of Mighty Joe Young is predicated on having a title character who is utterly sympathetic and conveys believable depth of character; a lot to ask from a hydraulic puppet. The resulting fusion of a gorilla-suited actor, animatronics, and computer animation is so seamless and convincing, and Joe such a dimensional persona, that you very quickly cease looking for cracks in the effects and simply accept what you see.

Like all Disney films ever made, or ever will be made, there are moments of emotional manipulation, musical cues designed to make you weep, and cartoonish motivations galore. But seeing Joe up there, onscreen, makes all the bad things go away.

For me, I felt as if I had stumbled onto a lost vein of matinee moviedom, a time-warp into old-style adventure filmmaking with heart. Its environmental message is certainly a modern touch, but its chest-pounding moments of action are pure pulp old-school. In short, while sitting in the theater audience for this film, a wonderful and rare epiphany happened; it made me feel like a kid again.

After reviewing film for any length of time, a person tends to become quite cynical. But at heart, reviewers are film-addicts who snagged a cool gig that lets them see for free the movies for which they have had an overwhelming love since childhood. Reviewers adore films, and really want to feel that sentimental, tangible magic thrill that films gave them when they were young. But as world-weary adults who have become sometimes bitterly jaded filmgoers, this magic comes few and far between.

Mighty Joe Young is not high art -- it's the exact opposite, and that's just what it should be. It's film as crowd-pleasing mass entertainment, that most democratic of mediums that merely aims to please, not to enlighten. This is neither one of the best films of the year, nor an event of earth-shaking cinematic importance. But it is a popcorn-and-licorice, scrunch-down-in- your-seat, suspend-your-disbelief, lose-yourself-in-the-moment kind of film. And that almost puts it in a class by itself.

In addition, it's always gratifying to see a film that meets my Occam's Razor criteria of sincerity. It's a simple test; a film's got it, or it doesn't. Mighty Joe Young is wholly sincere and damn entertaining. And the ape makes it work.