Simbad e o Olho do Tigre

A film with animation by Ray Harryhausen. It's a pity he couldn't have animated Patrick Wayne, who's bland performance means he comes across as the least interesting Sinbad. It is Patrick Troughton's excellently enigmatic Melanthius and Margaret Whiting's icy Zenobia who are the real stars of this show.

Sinbad travels to find a way to break the spell which has turned a prince into a baboon, but Zenobia, who has plans to ensure her son is crowned king in the prince's place, calls upon the help of various mythical creatures. The minotaur is by far the best of these and ought to have faced Sinbad and his crew rather than just being crushed in an ignoble exit. Other memorable creatures include a giant walrus, insectoid-faced demons and a sabre-toothed cat. Though the central character of the title is somewhat lacking, this is still first-rate entertainment and genuine escapism, two things somewhat lacking in more recent films.

After having re-visited Harryhausen's Sinbad trilogy recently, I have decided that this one, overall, compares very favourably with the other two. It is the most epic of the trilogy and has the most ambitious storyline (POSSIBLE SPOILER) involving a voyage into a lost world hidden behind the ice sheets at the North Pole (no doubt an idea partly influenced by Disney's 1974 'The Island at the Top of the World').

The creatures in this one are the least spectacular of the trilogy (THE SEVENTH VOYAGE & THE GOLDEN VOYAGE have better and more spectacular ones) but Harryhausen's artistry is as great as ever and he really should have been given a special accolade for imbuing Kassim the Baboon and the Troglodyte with so much character. It really is remarkable watching them 'act'. Demanding kids may find the creatures disappointing but now that I am older I can appreciate the fine work that went into realising them. Harryhausen's puppet work possesses a tangibility that CGI is only just now coming close to emulating.

I also find that I care about the characters in this film and what happens to them. The woodenness of the acting and the dialogue of the previous 2 films in some way stopped me from caring very much. This picture does not suffer in the same way, as both acting and dialogue, while nothing special, are better here. Jane Seymour is also very easy on the eye and is the best looking Sinbad girl of them all.

Overall, highly recommended for young (but not very young) children and for adults who were kids when it first came out and want to recapture some nostalgic vibes. I feel that this one is best for a sense of epic adventure and empathetic characters, THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD is best for the monsters and THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD is quite possibly the best of the trilogy overall.

Sinbad the Sailor voyages to the mythic northern realm of Hyperborea to restore a caliph from an evil witch's transformation.

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the follow-up to the classics The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, is an uneven conclusion to Ray Harryhausen's celebrated "Sinbad Trilogy". The troubled production began with a draggy script, budgetary restrictions and an inexperienced director; the film as released suffers from choppy editing, over-length and routine music scoring. One animation highlight (the giant walrus) is obscured by an optical snowstorm. The attractive cast performs listlessly and the villain is campy rather than truly menacing, although former "Doctor Who" Patrick Troughton is delightful as a befuddled wizard.

Yet, for all its flaws, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger remains an entertaining escapade in the old-fashioned Saturday-Matinée tradition. Costuming and settings are colorful and the film looks handsome in widescreen. The quest for the mystical Shrine of the Four Elements has a particularly epic quality with the usual eclectic blend of mythical elements set against the backdrop of the Arabian Nights.

Most importantly, Harryhausen's realistic stop-motion animation is as extraordinary as ever, with two of the animated-puppet creatures -- Kassim the Baboon and Trog the Troglodyte -- successfully functioning as actual communicative characters within the body of the story. Other wonders include insectoid demons, an over-sized mosquito, Minaton the Brass Minotaur and the saber-tooth tiger of the title.

Genuine movie fantasy is a rare commodity, and Ray Harryhausen's vision and conviction shine through the circumstances of production to make this a satisfying final visit to the land beyond Beyond.

I haven't seen many Sinbad movies, but this one I liked very much. I remember seeing the preview when I was younger. And I said to myself, "This movie looks like fun!" The animation in the movie gave it plenty of character. And Sinbad(Patrick Wayne) was a fine man as well. The witch(Margaret Whiting) was a very fiendish woman. She makes all other witches look like amateurs, especially when she used her sorcery. Her only flaw is when her re-transformation from a bird didn't complete itself. It's when her right foot is still a bird's. The growth formula was something when one of the bees drank it. and was later killed by Sinbad. Jane Seymour does a great job playing Princess Farah. She really knows how to control, and tame things that Sinbad couldn't do. The giant walrus, the golden minotaur, and a the vicious saber-tooth tiger gives the movie something to see. I think this movie is very watchable, and very entertaining. I wished it had gotten better reviews than it did. 3 out of 5 stars!

(Minor Spoilers)

Let's be honest and a tad realistic about this film, shall we?

By TODAY'S standards, this is a "cheesy" kinda film compared to what technology we've got. And I think at the time of this release we had gotten "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Star Wars" so our expectation levels were running higher for "special effects" and "whimsy" than this.

But I still can get entertainment out of this film.

How?

By remembering how old I was when I saw it and WHOM I was with when I saw it. My family.

I was a child. This film wasn't in my all time top ten, but it was...fun. It was one of those movies local channels threw on Sunday afternoon before or after a televised ball game..or when a ball game was rained out. Come on, admit it..you remember!

And that's the point. This film's special effects were nice..not spectacular..not even up to Ray Harryhausen's standards, but the Harryhausen mark was there which made it entertaining (Admit it, you LOVED the walrus scene!! How 'bout that Cyclops?!?! As a child this was all good! You remember!!).

For very young girls, this Sinbad was REALLY nice to look at back then. For the very young guys, so was Miss Jane Seymour and Miss Taryn Power. Then there was the story which was kinda fun, the adventure which was kinda whimsical and the happy ending where the bad guys got theirs'.

This was done at a time of assuming children would love this kinda stuff. Back then, more would have. Now, most children don't even think "Spy Kids" can give them a buzz.

This movie is about childhood and remembering what it was like to have an imagination and watch a story unfold for nothing but the sheer enjoyment of it...the fun of eating "Good 'n' Plenty", "Snowcaps", "Malted Milk Balls" and Popcorn without thinking about calorie content to make this even more fun to watch...and the "eye candy" of Wayne, Seymour and Power help a so-so story that's really better than a lot of stuff I've seen today that they charge ya $10 a ticket for! Parents may not have liked it as much as the children but that too is part of the fun!

Have a heart when watching this. Watch this as a "fun" romp....as remembering when families watched shows together (..or in my case my dad mumbling under his breath about how the game was due on and he had to sit through this 'crap' first!), the pre-teen tingles of watching a handsome Wayne, young Seymour and/or Power (...ya know...before having breast implants and weighing 95 pounds was mandatory in Hollywood for women to do this kind of film work?!?) and telling your parents you were REALLY interested in the story...really.

Maybe I've got a more "nostalgic" view about this film..its because I'm not looking for academy award winning material with this kind of film, but it does its job of...entertaining...and if you have children and want them to be children for a tad longer, this may be the film fare for them. Or just for you, if you want to curl up with some popcorn and remember "the good old movie fluff days" where special effects were done by hand and stop motion photography by the "grand-daddy" of the genre and a Sinbad movie where Sinbad actually looked like you might imagined him to look like back then and evil characters who were evil and got theirs....pretty much simplified.

Open your mind and when you have a moment...enjoy. Don't take it seriously just sit back... watch...and HAVE FUN..with your children, as a family.