Documentary humorist Morgan Spurlock explores the lighter side of international terrorism in "Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?"

The man who gorged on junk food for a month in "Super Size Me" this time takes on a more perilous task, tracking the elusive Taliban leader across Jordan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan. And he deserves credit for his innovative approach, asking pedestrians everywhere, "Where's Osama?" and calling every bin Laden in the Saudi phone book.

The driving force behind the search is Spurlock's soon-to-be-born child. "What kind of a world are we bringing this child into?" he wonders, as he and his wife, Alexandra Jamieson, become animated cutout figures moving through a gantlet of cartoon floods, famines and assorted geopolitical disasters. The sequence cleverly taps into the anxiety that new parents feel, while lightly mocking their paranoia.

Spurlock's one-man war on terror isn't intended to locate Osama, but to pinpoint the attitudes of Middle Easterners about Americans and vice versa. He finds we're not so different; wherever he goes, there are passionate fans of American wrestling. "It's fixed," he gently explains to a shop owner. "You are right. But when they fight for the belt, it is not fixed," the man insists.

Spurlock seems to be an ideal goodwill ambassador; most interviewees say they have problems with U.S. foreign policy, but they like Americans, and some like Spurlock well enough to invite him home to dinner. If we could clone him, our national image overseas might be improved quite a bit.

The movie also delivers some sobering images of nations we consider allies but scarcely understand. He stands on the drainage grate of the Saudi square where beheadings are carried out in the morning and kids kick soccer balls in the afternoon. And he walks along illegal Israeli settlements with a guide who assures him that the land belongs to the chosen people, because God told them so.

The film holds out hope that increased understanding and education may one distant day lead to peace. The most telling comment, though, comes from a man who compares the Mideast battles to a game of musical chairs where someone is always angry because they lost their seat.

Spurlock ends on an upbeat note with the birth of his son. Yet there's no guarantee that when the boy is grown, we will have moved on from no-win games.