The Sinbad films were notable for showcasing the talents of stop-motion animation genius, Ray Harryhausen. Due to the time-consuming intricacies of the his art, Harryhausen was only able to work on a movie every 3 or 4 years. While many of his films pleased both critics and fans (such as JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS), others (like VALLEY OF THE GWANGI) went unheralded. After the failure of GWANGI, Harryhausen went back to roots, and felt the time was right to bring back the adventures of Sinbad. He convinced Columbia Pictures to finance the return of Sinbad, and they recruited celebrated genre director Gordon Hessler, who helmed the UK productions CRY OF THE BANSHEE, THE OBLONG BOX, and SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN.

Harryhausen and Hessler assembled quite a cast for THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, arguably the best cast of all the Sinbad films. John (DANGER: DIABOLIK) Philip Law was cast as the stoic Sinbad. The ex-Dr. Who, Tom Baker, plays the wizard Koura. Super-hot Caroline (AT THE EARTH’S CORE) Munro is the slave girl, Margianna. And Douglas (THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU) Wilmer portrays the noble Vizier. Of course, the true stars of Harryhausen’s films are his own colorful creations, and we get plenty of them, here including the bat-winged Homonculus, a cyclopean Centaur, a flying Griffin, a living masthead, and the incredible six-armed-sword slinging statue of Kali (say that six times fast)!

While out at sea, one of Sinbad's sailors shoots an arrow at a bat-winged creature (called a Homonculus) that flies above the ship. The Homonculus drops a strange gold medallion, which Sinbad ties around his neck. That evening he begins having strange dreams about an evil man in black, and a dancing girl with her face in shadow and an eye tattooed on her palm.

He goes ashore in Marabia and encounters Koura (Baker), the sinister man in black from his dream. Koura diplomatically tries to convince Sinbad that the medallion is his. Of course, Sinbad doesn't give him the medallion; but instead he escapes into the city where Koura dares not go, and meets the Vizier, a man badly burned by Koura’s magic and thus given to wearing a full-head gold mask. The Vizier has another gold piece that fits into Sinbad’s, leaving room for one more. Vizier tells Sinbad of the legend surrounding the medallions, that the person who takes all three and throws them into the Fountain of Destiny on a far-off island will be given phenomenal blessings.

After running into a merchant who pays Sinbad to take his substance-abusing son on board and teach him a trade (and sweetens the deal by throwing in a slavegirl -- Carolyn Munro) Sinbad and the Vizier sail off to find the island of Lemuria, with Koura in close pursuit. Sinbad and the crew must locate the legendary island, and beat Koura there for possession of the fabled Fountain of Destiny.

Though THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD lacks the epic feel of THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, the film still succeeds on many levels, though by no means is it perfect. The script is flawed, especially in terms of plot development and characterization. Fortunately, many of the film’s flaws are covered up by the fantastical special effects sequences. It is interesting to note that Harryhausen’s creations for this film are more human-sized, and not of gargantuan portions like the Roc, the Cyclops, and the Dragon of the first film. These big beasts helped contributed to the epic feel of the original, and perhaps the human-size monsters of THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD make this film less epic-scale.

Gordon Hessler’s direction is right on target. His use of close-ups makes full use of the actors and enlivens the film. Hessler manages to keep the sequences moving at a brisk pace, making the film much shorter than it’s actual 105 minute running time. This is at times a much darker and cerebral film than the other Sinbad films. Despite this added maturity, Hessler includes comic elements that never distract from the sense of adventure. Miklos Rosza’s score adds another dimension to the film. His use of Arabian themes are very appropriate, and complements the action and drama nicely.

John Philip Law makes for stern, yet believable Sinbad (though you don’t need to read Shakespeare for a role of this caliber). Tom Baker practically steals the film with his villainous portrayal. Baker overcomes the flat character development contained in the script. We know not what Koura’s motivations are, or what he has experienced in the past. All we know is that he is supposed to be evil. Douglas Wilmer wears a golden mask to hide his character’s hideous appearance, but his marvelous voice is filled with tonal inflection that doesn’t need facial expressions to make his point. Sadly, Caroline Munro is wasted as Marianna. The script pretty much ignores her except for a few scenes. She is Sinbad’s dream girl, but that revelation is never again mentioned. Munro is always bending over for the camera though; she is great eye-candy.

Harryhausen made a few improvements to his animation techniques which showed much less contrast between the rear projected live-action footage when combined with the stop-motion footage. Many of the sequences are virtually seamless making it impossible to see where the two images are joined. To draw attention to this new process, the Dynamation credits were changed to Dynarama for the release of the movie. Harryhausen tries to tailor the monsters and battles to the classic first film. The Centaur is reminiscent of the Cyclops from THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. The fight between the Centaur and the Griffin is entertaining, but comes off like a retread of the Cyclops/dragon fight from 7^TH VOYAGE. It was obvious at this stage of his career that Harryhausen was starting to run out of ideas.

SIGHT

Columbia Tristar releases THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD in the original widescreen ratio of (1.66.1). The 16x9 enhanced transfer restores the glory of this (pardon the pun) dynamic film. Considering the 1974 vintage, Columbia Tristar has done a great job with the transfer. The image is exceptionally rich and clean. The colors are natural and vivid, and there is no nicks or scratches. We did observe some dirt and speckles, but the film elements are relatively free of damage. There is, of course, a noticeable amount of grain, but far less than I expected. The flesh tones are fully saturated, and the cast all have that authentic Arabian skin textures. The black level is very deep, which contrasts Harryhausen’s colorful creations. The cinematography and set design faithfully preserve that mythological Middle Eastern look, which this transfer lovingly preserves. The detail level is excellent; many effects scenes take place in cavernous interiors (like Sinbad’s boat), and there is great lighting and detail present. The scenes inside the caves are also brilliantly lit with rich and vibrant colors adding to the fantasy element of the film. There were no DVD mastering flaws such as bleeding, chroma noise, edge enhancement or compression artifacts. This is a huge improvement over Columbia’s previous full frame laserdisc releases.

SOUND

Though Columbia’s laserdisc releases of THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD have inferior transfer quality than this DVD, those same laserdiscs boasted stereo sound. Why Columbia Tristar chose to forsake the stereo soundtracks for the Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 here, I don’t know. But it is a big mistake. Having said that, this is a decent Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 soundtrack. The mix delivers a sound that is very clear and natural. There is no hiss, background noise, or audio dropouts. When you raise the volume, there is no distortion. Of course, don’t expect any bass. The lack of a stereo mix only hurts in one area: Miklos Rozsa’s rousing score. The score itself is still pleasing, but it could have been so much better in stereo. Rozsa’s score is full of classical Arabian themes, sitar arrangements, and contemporary orchestrations which blend very well together.

FEATURES

There is a special feature menu that contains the following: The original scratchy theatrical trailer is Full Frame, 2.0 Mono, and runs 2:52. There are talent bios for Ray Harryhausen, Gordon Hessler, and John Philip Law. There is an advertising gallery that contains posters, photos, and lobby cards for THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD. There are also three new featurettes that look at Harryhausen’s films. These featurettes include interviews with the man himself, Ray Harryhausen. The featurettes are for THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER (FF, DD 2.0, 5:21), MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (FF, DD 2.0, 9:05), and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (FF, DD 2.0, 8:37).

CONCLUSION

THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD is one of best films ever for stop-motion animation fans. Ray Harryhausen shows he could upstage today’s expensive digital effects with his creations and his precise execution of stop-motion animation. The sequence with the six-armed Kali remains one of the most memorable moments in film history. When you hear the term ‘fantasy film’, Harryhausen’s Sinbad films immediately come to mind. And it is a film you can share with your kids and not have to worry about violence, nudity, or vulgarity. Columbia Tristar’s DVD presentation restores the film to it’s original theatrical luster for the first time on home video. Let’s hope they keep this momentum going with their future Ray Harryhausen DVDs.

THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD is available from DVDEmpire.com

 THE SINBAD COLLECTION is available from DVDEmpire.com

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