Listless album cover artist Sonny Malone becomes infatuated with Kira, a girl he sees while roller skating, and she inspires him enough to paint her into his latest cover. He encounters her again and again, each time by chance, only now Kira seems to be falling for him too. She inspires him to quit his job and, with aging big band legend Danny McGuire, refurbish and reopen a dilapidated dance club called Xanadu. Just when it looks like Sonny's dreams are all set to come true, his inspiration is torn away from him: Kira is actually a muse, inspiration of musicians, artists and poets down through the ages - and her involvement with a mere mortal has brought the unwelcome attention of her father, Zeus. On the eve of Xanadu's opening night, Sunny risks it all to confront the gods and win Kira's love.

Once upon a time, Xanadu was being touted as the last of the red hot movie musicals. It really wasn't - that genre simply left the soundstage and has since become the mainstay of Disney's we-hope-it's-a-classic-because-we're-promoting-it-like-one animated features. But it could be that the less-than-stellar performance of Xanadu at the box office helped chase musicals out of celluloid and into cels.

The heck of it is...it's really not a bad movie. There's a healthy helping of cinematic cheese, yeah, but is that solely a "flaw" of this movie, or the style of moviemaking to which it belongs? It's a musical. I think we can cut it some slack in the reality department.

And where modern-day musicals are concerned, I'll go on the record as saying that Xanadu's light rock opera is more musically satisfying than, say, the latest Peabo Bryson-and-[insert female vocalist's name here] duet for the latest Disney animated insta-classic. Sure, much of the music has become dated, but even so, it's still classic stuff - Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly? ELO? How can you go wrong? And speaking of animation, Xanadu even dips a toe into those waters with a classy short segment by none other than Disney protegè Don Bluth (who went on to score more points in 80s pop culture with the animated arcade game Dragon's Lair). Musically, Xanadu boasts some of ELO and Olivia Newton-John's best, with an all-star lineup of guests, but in another respect it's sad coulda-been story: ELO's Lynne was originally slated to score the movie, not just write songs for it.

On an acting level, I'm not sure anyone shines here - if they do, Gene Kelly comes the closest. Michael Beck is a bit flat in many places as Sonny, but he at least gets the whole lovable lout thing down easy enough. Olivia Newton-John really isn't required to act here, just be herself, only a bit more ethereal.

Overall, it's a likeable little love story, nothing more and nothing less, and with perhaps just a little bit of rose-colored hindsight, it's a lot less formulaic than most films in that category.

• screenplay by Richard Christian Danus & Marc Reid Rubel
• directed by Robert Greenwald
• music by Barry De Vorzon
  songs by John Ferrar and Jeff Lynne
• Cast: Olivia Newton-John (Kira), Michael Beck (Sonny Malone), Gene Kelly (Danny McGuire), James Sloyan (Simpson), Dimitra Arliss (Helen), Katie Hanley (Sandra), Fred McCarren (Richie), Ren Woods (Jo), Sandahl Bergman (Muse 1), Lynn Latham (Muse 2), Melinda Phelps (Muse 3), Cherise Bates (Muse 4), Juliette Marshall (Muse 5), Marilyn Tokuda (Muse 6), Yvette Van Vorhees (Muse 7), Teri Beckerman (Muse 8), Marty Davis (Male Guard), Bebe Drake-Massey (Female Guard), Mickey Mcnell (The Accountant), Aharon Ipale (Photographer), Lisa Lang (Popcorn Girl/Xanadu Dancer), Melvin Jones (Big Al), Matt Lattanzi (Young Danny McGuire/Xanadu Dancer), Ira Newborn (40's Band Leader), Jo Ann Harris (40's singer #1), Cindy Leake (40's singer #2), Patty Keene (40's singer #3), Fee Waybill (80's rock singer), Stephen Pearlman (foreman), Church Ortiz (Worker #1), Randy T. Williams (Worker #2), David Tress (Nick), Madison Arnold (Vargas), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Heavenly Voice - Male), Coral Brown (Heavenly Voice - Female)