Final Rating: 4/5
Blu-Ray Recommendation: Enthusiastic Recommend
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, directed by Nathan Juran, is a throwback to an era when epics and swords and sandals movies ruled the box office. Despite the genre mostly being dead for the better part of the last four decades, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has now raked in over $1.5 billion dollars worldwide using the same template. While the film has Nathan Juran listed as the director, the real creative driving force was Ray Harryhausen, who was making his feature length colour film debut after working on such Black and White films like It Came from Beneath the Sea and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
The plot of The 7th Voyage is adapted from the well known Sinbad the Sailor character, who appeared in the collection of stories “One Thousand and One Nights”, being added sometime in the 18th or 19th centuries (at least 500 years after the collections first publication). Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews), the Prince of Baghdad and world renowned sailor is returning home from a voyage when he stumbles upon the island of Colossa. There he meets a magician named Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) who helps Sinbad and his crew escape, using his magic lamp, a giant cyclops that is trying to eat them. In the ensuing struggle to flee the island, the cyclops takes control of the lamp leaving Sokurah devastated.
Back in Baghdad, Sinbad prepares to marry the Princess of Chandra, Parisa (Kathryn Grant), as the leaders of the two lands know this will mean peace between them. Sokurah is desperate to return to Colossa but the Caliph of Baghdad does not want to give him a fully crewed ship to return to such a dangerous island. In retaliation, the magician curses the Princess and shrinks her down. The only way to return her to normal size is on Colossa where they must get an egg shell from a giant monstrous bird and other secret ingredients. Sinbad agrees to lead the journey back to the island despite knowing the dangers involved.
Once back on the island of Colossa, Sinbad and his men (along with miniature Parisa tucked safely in a jewel box) begin their treacherous journey. Along the way they must attack and defend themselves from the giant cyclops, a fire breathing dragon, several large two headed birds and a re-animated swashbuckling skeleton.
While the classic hero’s journey story is as old as time itself, what separates this film from others is the stop motion animation creature design from Harryhausen. The man whose best known works comes later in his career (Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans), gets the chance to show off his impressive creature designs.
Using rear projection to make stop motion animation on top of what was already filmed is still nothing short of breathtaking. The way the giant cyclops can seamlessly pick up a sailor and tie him to a spit roast while Sinbad and the rest of the crew look on in horror still looks incredible.
The family friendly film ensures we always know who the good and bad guys are, and that our hero is never truly in danger, but it is all about how the danger is highlighted. At the climax, Sinbad must sword fight a skeleton, which is the pinnacle of the film. The two look ripped from an Errol Flynn movie and is done so seamlessly that Harryhausen upped the ante with Jason and the Argonauts where the titular character fights off an army of skeletons.
This is a 4K UHD upgrade and the film is beyond stunning. The photography that took place in Granada (famous for historically blending Muslim, Christian and Jewish architecture and design) with the natural beauty of Mallorca gives the film a breathtaking quality. Combining practical locations with studio built sets gave the filmmakers the ability to achieve everything they could have dreamed of.
The technical standouts of the film are impressively long. The bold and colourful costumes and jewelry set the stage of a fantastical world while the score from Bernard Herrmann brings gravitas and whimsy. While the stop motion animation is the star of the show, shrinking down the Princess allowed the props department to get creative. When Parisa first shrinks in her bed, she is sitting on her pillow and in order for her to look tiny on it, a 30 foot version was erected to go along with a larger than life bowl of grapes.
The restoration of the film is a work of art. The special features use plenty of clips from the film before it was upgraded and you can tell a massive difference in quality. It goes down as one of the more impressive upgrades I’ve ever seen.
The bonus features appear to all be compiled from previous sources with nothing seemingly being new to this edition, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable or noteworthy. In one featurette entitled “A Look Behind the Voyage” Harryhausen talks about his entire process of conceptualizing, building and animating and calls skeletons his “best friends”. There is a special from Herrmann’s biographer talking about the composer’s career and partnership with Harryhausen.
There is much more including a Harryhausen commentary track, an interview with the animator conducted by John Landis, a short about Dynamotion (a marketing name given to Harryhausen’s films), a music video for a promotional song (“Sinbad May Have Been Bad, But He’s Good To Me”) that theatre owners were encouraged to play to advertise the movie and plenty of interviews with cast and crew.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is a film that I can only imagine how much it thrilled children and young audiences upon release and with this new restoration, should continue to charm viewers for a very long period of time. It is a testament to innovation of cinema and holds up remarkably well. You can see its immediate impact it would have had on the careers of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and the Godzilla franchise over in Japan.
Thank you Allied Vaughn and Movie Zyng for the screener.
Buy your copy of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad here: https://moviezyng.com/bxfthe
