Le voyage fantastique de Sinbad

After Sinbad (Jon Phillip Law) happens upon a strange gold "bauble" while at sea, his ship ends up at a town where a similar gold piece is kept by a Vizier (Douglas Wilmer), whose city is threatened by the evil prince Koura (Tom Baker). Sinbad, his crew, the Vizier, and two other people from the town begin an adventure to solve the mystery of the "baubles".

This is a fine fantasy/adventure film, and definitely one worth watching by any fans of the genre, as well as Ray Harryhausen fans. Mostly excellent, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad also has a couple of flaws that brought my score down to an 8 out of 10.

The main problem is that the film tends to meander at times. There are also a few minor problems with direction or editing, such as the less-than-convincing sword fight in the cave near the end of the film. Also, the mostly episodic nature of the script lessens the overall impact. It often feels like a string of short stories arbitrarily strung together, although in the end, the overarching goal ties the film together well enough.

But what "short stories" those are! The script, production/set design and costumes easily propel you into a captivating fantasy world, and Harryhausen's creatures, as always, are a delight to watch. No, they're not exactly realistic--no more realistic looking than cgi, in my opinion--but I'm not looking for realism when I watch a film like this. I'm looking for brilliant artistry, especially if it has a horror edge, and Harryhausen's stop-motion animated creatures fit the bill.

Most of the scenarios in the film are cleverly conceived. They're constantly leading to intriguing puzzles that have to be solved by our heroes, somewhat similar to a fantasy role-playing computer game, which films like this surely influenced. This maintains a gradually heightening suspense throughout the length of the film, as each puzzle tends to be more difficult than the previous one, and most are accompanied by fascinating beasties of some kind.

Although this genre is not usually noted for its fantastic performances, everyone in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad does a great job. Even as a Doctor Who fan who grew up watching the Tom Baker era of that show, it took me awhile to figure out who Baker was here. He is a joy to watch as a slightly campy villain. An even bigger joy to watch was Caroline Munro, who is breathtakingly beautiful. And Law, as Sinbad, is completely convincing and cool.

As long as you don't expect a masterpiece, you should have a lot of fun watching this film.

'Golden Voyage' is much better than the later 'Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger' and equal to the earlier 'Seventh Voyage of Sinbad'.

The Harryhausen creatures are impressive. Stop motion animation does give solidity to the image, more so than the usual CGI effect. There are some fine ones here including a one eyed centaur, a homunculus, a griffin, a six armed statue, a ship's wooden figurehead. The story is standard but the effects, the locations and the plot weave together well. There is also a dry humour in the dialogue which is entertaining. Scenes like the sword fight with the six armed statute (with six swords!) or the final confrontation at the fountain of wisdom (or something like that) are exciting. The great Miklos Rosza's music adds considerably to the atmosphere.

John Philip Law is OK as Sinbad and does attempt an Arabian accent unlike the usual English one, but the role isn't Shakespearean and he does well enough. Caroline Munro looks splendid in her costume, low cut almost everywhere. The rest of the cast support well.

Tom Baker is excellent as the villain Koura. He makes him sympathetic; what drives him is common to all people. He just uses different means to gain his ends. He dominates the scenes he is in and it is a pity that more big screen roles never came his way. He was the best 'Doctor Who' in the BBC series, in my opinion of course.

A good fantasy romp to appeal to the adventurer in all of us. Did I mention Caroline Munro's costume? Oh, I did.

The pic talks about the hero Sinbad and his extraordinary and surprising adventures . Loose retelling of the ¨ 1001 Arabian nights¨ , based on ancient legends , deals with Sinbad The Sailor (John Philip Law) who travels until an island to discover a fountain of fantastic power with the aim to heal a Vizier (Douglas Wilmer) . Simbad sets off in search of the fountain and aboard a ship along with a motley crew (constituted by an enticing Caroline Munro , Martin Shaw , Aldo Sambrell and Kurt Christian) . They will have to face off several dangers : Homunculos , ominous monsters , giant animals and villains (Tom Baker and henchmen) .

In the movie there are mythology , emotions , adventures , fantasy , swashbuckling and it's pretty bemusing . It is an exciting fantasy-adventure full of special effects created by means of stop-motion technique by the magician Ray Harryhausen . The runtime is adequate with various incidents and sub-plots . Harryhausen works his animation magic around a well-developed screenplay and engaging acting by the entire performers . Ray can once again claim credit for the unusual and marvelous mythical creatures springing to life . The confrontation amongst the protagonist and enemies along with monsters is mesmerizing and fascinating : impressive duel between ¨Goddess Kali¨ with amount of arms and Sinbad , great monsters as the centaur and the breathtaking scale models are made by the Dynamation system , by means of stop-motion . The motion picture is the best from ¨Sinbad trilogy¨ : ¨The 7th voyage of Simbad (directed Nathan Juran with Kerwin Matthews and Kathryn Grant)¨ and ¨Simbad and the eye of tiger¨ (directed Sam Wanamaker with Patrick Wayne and Jane Seymour)¨ . The film obtained much success and achieved enough Box Office . Good production by Charles H. Scheneer habitual of Harryhausen's films . Cinematography by Ted Moore is colorful , brilliant and shining and classic music composer Miklos Rozsa creates a magnificent and astounding score . The motion picture is rightly directed by Gordon Hessler . The yarn will appeal to fantasy and fancy imagination movies buffs . Rating : Above average . Well catching .

Other pictures about the great hero Simbad are the following : ¨Sinbad the sailor¨ (1947) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr , Maureen O'Hara and Anthony Quinn ; ¨Sinbad of the seven seas¨ by Enzo G Castellari with Lou Ferrigno and John Steiner and the cartoon movie ¨Simbad the legend of seven seas¨ (2003) produced by Dreamworks , a combo of computer generator and hand-drawn animation by Patrick Gilmore and Tim Johnson with voices from Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta Jones .

Ignore pointless comparisons about how it pales in comparison to Lord of the Rings. This isn't Lord of the Rings, nor is it Citizen Kane. Why some fools insist that every movie must be measured by the yardstick of their own personal favorite I will never understand.

If you're so spoiled by state-of-the-art computer graphics where each creature has an entire team of people working on it, and can't appreciate the human creativity and craftsmanship of great stop-motion animation, don't waste your time on this movie, go watch the latest Pixar release.

Harryhausen's work is remarkable not because it's the most realistic animation ever, but because he was able to achieve remarkable things with sculpture and movement on a budget comparable to today's 30 second ad spots.

Tom Baker steals the movie. He's terrific as the evil sorcerer, villainous but with enough humanity to his character to make him at least somewhat sympathetic.

Contrary to a previous viewer's opinion, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is a wonderful, exciting film. The plot is a bit complex as a malevolent sorcerer races with Sinbad against time to secure a missing piece of an amulet that will insure the holder of powers beyond imagination. John Phillip Law is a pretty decent Sinbad, and the rest of the cast is quite adequate with Caroline Munro busting out of her outfit as both a figurative and literal standout and Tom Baker is very good as the evil magician. The real star once again, however, is Ray Harryhausen. His stop-motion creations are all very good. This time round we get a gargoyle-like homonculus, a wooden siren, a griffin, a centaur, and the image of six-armed Kali. The action sequences are riveting and the pace of the film is nice and brisk. Very entertaining!