Columbia Tri-Star Home Video
Length:
92 mins.
Certificate: U
Region:
2
Format: Anamorphic
Widescreen · 1.66:1
Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese
Subtitles: English,
French, Spanish
Extras: Interviews; Documentary and Featurette; Trailers;
Talent Files and Poster
Kerwin Mathews.... Sinbad
Kathryn Grant.... Princess Parisa
Richard Eyer.... Baronni the Genie
Torin Thatcher.... Sokurah the Magician
Alec Mango.... Caliph
Danny Green.... Karim
Harold Kasket.... Sultan
Alfred Brown.... Harufa
Nana DeHerrera.... Sadi
Nino Falanga.... Gaunt Sailor
Luis Guedes.... Crewman
Virgilio Teixeira.... Ali
Directed by
Nathan Juran
Writing credits
Ken Kolb
Produced by
Ray Harryhausen .... associate producer
Charles H. Schneer .... producer
Original music by…Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography by…Wilkie Cooper
Film Editing by…Edwin H. Bryant Jerome
Thoms
Art Direction by…Gil Parrondo
Production Management
Luis Roberts .... production supervisor
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pedro de Juan .... assistant director
Eugenio Martín .... assistant director
Special Effects by
George Lofgren .... technical assistant
Stunts
Enzo Musumeci Greco .... stunt supervisor
Other crew
Bob Gill .... title designer
Ray Harryhausen.... creature-fx
Henri Jaffa.... color consultant: Technicolor
Production Company
Morningside Movies
I have always appreciated Ray Harryhausen’s work and his fantastic
films have entertained me for years – in fact since, as a child, going to the
cinema in the late 1950’s – seeing his name in the credits always meant
there was something special to look forward to. Over the years I have re-watched
films like “Jason And The Argonauts”, “Clash Of The Titans” and the
Sinbad series again and again knowing that in all these films Ray Harryhausen
was in charge of bringing the fantastic and mythical creatures to life through
his Dynamation/stop-motion animation techniques. Ever since I saw these films,
the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of Medusa, is his writhing
version of the snake-woman. Whenever I think of a cyclops, I inevitably see the
ones from “The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad”. Therefore
you can understand that I was looking forward to seeing how this
particular film turned out on DVD in this release from Columbia Tri-Star Home
Video.
On his way home to
marry the Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant), Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews), rescues the
diabolical magician Sokurah (Torin Thatcher), but Sokurah loses his magic lamp.
In Baghdad for the wedding Soukurah secretly casts a spell on Parisa that reduces her to the size of 5 inches.
In agreeing to help restore Parisa, Soukurah has Sinbad take him back to
the island of Colossa. There Sinbad and his men confront a frightening
assortment of dangerous mythical monsters. Cyclops wander the island and
Sokurah’s hidden castle is guarded by a fire-breathing dragon and armoured
skeletons. Sinbad has to make his
way through the island to obtain the final ingredient that can break the spell
on the Princess, a piece of eggshell from a Roc, a ferocious two-headed bird. In
the meanwhile Sokurah has made his preparations to rid himself of Sinbad and his
crew. Only the genie of the lamp can help now - if only Sinbad and Parisa knew
how to evoke it.
“The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad” is a classic tale taken from “1001
Arabian
Nights”. It
is a colourful adventure that takes you to exotic and colourful Baghdad,
combining the Arabian culture with black magic and ultimately the breathtaking
mythical creatures that challenge Sinbad and his men. Considering the age of the
film and the fact that this was Ray Harryhausen’s first use of his stop-motion
techniques in a colour film, the effects are spectacular. With ‘Henri Jaffa as
color consultant: Technicolor’ the charm the film creates and the masterful
presentation of the creatures is still a showstopper after more than 40 years.
Harryhausen’s genius is evident in every frame that he painstakingly animated
and arranged. Charles Schneer and Ray Harryhausen always managed to attract good
directors to their films, a surprise really as they must have know that their
live action direction would be superseded by Ray Harryhausen’s Dynamation.
(Nathan Juran had already directed their ‘20 Million Miles to Earth’)
Spectacular seanary and
interesting camera angles and dramatic editing further enhance the effect
that helps to bring life to the creatures when they appear.
Columbia Tri-Star Home Video is presenting “The 7th Voyage Of
Sinbad” in 1.66:1 ratio. The transfer is enhanced for 16x9 televisions and
shows a great level of detail. The transfer contains a bit of grain in certain
scenes, which due to the technical limitations of the time, but other than that,
“The 7th 
Voyage
Of Sinbad” has never looked better. The film’s powerful colours are vividly
reproduced, bringing out the best of the lavish production design and the
film’s flamboyant and exotic costumes. The presentation on this release has an
outstanding colour balance, ranging form the darkest shadows to the brightest
highlights. It is evident that Columbia has put some effort and labour into this
transfer, and it clearly shows. The compression on the disc is equally good,
without any compression artefacts anywhere in the presentation. “The 7th
Voyage Of Sinbad” contains monaural Dolby Digital soundtracks in English,
German, Italian, Spanish and French. The English soundtrack has been digitally
remastered for the occasion. The audio is surprisingly good and clear without
hiss, or pops. Although the dynamic response of the track is still somewhat
limited, due to the audio track’s general age, the noise floor is surprisingly
low, which is evident especially in the passages carried by Bernard Herrman’s
musical score. The DVD contains 21 subtitles, ranging from English, German,
Spanish and French to Arabic, Finish and Icelandic.
The disc also contains a number of special features, all of which focus on Ray
Harryhausen’s work and are extremely interesting and insightful. Two
interviews with Harryhausen take you behind the scenes of “The 7th
Voyage Of Sinbad” and “Jason And The Argonauts”, covering some technical
challenges of these particular productions. You will also find a small
featurette on the disc, called “This Is Dynamation”. It is a
three-and-a-half minute advert for stop-motion animation techniques from 1958,
presented to advertise the then impending theatrical release of “The 7th
Voyage Of
Sinbad”.
The undisputed highlight of this DVD - apart from the film itself of course - is
a one-hour documentary called the “Ray Harryhausen Chronicles”. It is an
extensive voyage through his work, from his early attempts in his parents’
garage all the way to his last film “Clash Of The Titans”. The major
milestones in his career are covered and highlighted with stories and anecdotes,
told by Ray Harryhausen himself or his friends, they have been nicely captured
in this documentary that will give everyone the chance to see and understand the
genius that hides behind these fierce monsters.
To round up the spectacular presentations on this release, Columbia have
included trailers from “Jason and the Argonauts” and “The Golden Voyage Of
Sinbad”.
“The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad” is a classic of a film – Nothing can
replace Harryhausen’s unique style and the enigmatic charm of his films. They
just don’t make films like these any more – replacing the individual
signatures of people like Ray Harryhausen or Willis O’Brien with computer
generated creatures that have no charm or soul.
If you are anything like me, a lover of these magnificent masterpieces then you
will cherish this disc and give it a special place in your collection.
Back to DVD List
review done 2001