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DVD The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
When the evil magician Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) shrinks Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant) to roughly half the size of a Barbie doll, only one thing can restore her: the egg of a Roc. The Roc, of course, is a gigantic bird that lives on the remote island of Colossa. Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) hires a crew of mutiny-minded convicts and sets sail, Sokurah in tow, but runs afoul of a fire-breathing dragon, a very ticked off Cyclops, and an equally crabby two-headed mutant Roc. This swashbuckling adventure was the first installment of the Sinbad films, and decades later it still has the power to hold viewers spellbound. Thatcher is terrific as the sinister, shaven-headed Sokurah, mugging perfectly for the camera, and Mathews is suitably dashing as Sinbad.
As in all Sinbad films, though, the real stars are the Dynamation creations of Ray Harryhausen. The art of cinematic special effects has taken quantum leaps since 1958, which makes it so amazing that his work still looks as fine as it does. Harryhausen creates a world of fantasy where dragons and grotesque one-eyed humanoids battle to the death, one where it's very easy for adults to suspend their disbelief and watch the action with the wonder of a child. Seventh Voyage not only set the stage for further Sinbad adventures, but was a landmark film in the fantasy genre, opening doors for sword-and-sandal Hercules epics and countless other excursions. Few films, though, have the artistry that Ray Harryhausen's effects display in this movie. For great escapist fare for kids and adults alike, look no further than the first Sinbad film. --Jerry Renshaw
This film was always a favorite of mine since the first time I saw it.
Visually the print on this DVD is extraordinary. The colors are vibrant and the images are incredibly sharp, crisp and clear.
In particular, you can really appreciate Ray Harryhausen's Special Effects that he laboriously produced for this film. They don't look blurred or out of focus as they have on previous prints. They are presented here as they were intended to be seen in their entire splendor and brilliance. It is amazing what he did with an eight-inch tall stop-motion model of a skeleton.
Ken Kolb's screenplay elevates this film beyond the boundaries of what could have been just another fantasy monster movie. He brings depth to the characters and uses dialogue to increase the suspense of the story. Along with director Nathan Juran and all the other filmmakers an epic fairytale unfolds and is preserved on film.
Bernard Herrmann's score is a showstopper and as always accentuates the images on the screen adding mood and enhancing the overall visual effect for the viewer. Herrmann went on to score three more Harryhausen films: "The Three Worlds of Gulliver," "Mysterious Island" and "Jason and the Argonauts." Bernard Herrmann's collaboration with Ray Harryhausen and producer Charles Schneer equaled that of his collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock.
Kerwin Mathews is ever so stoically heroic as Sinbad. He is very good in this role as he brings energy and conviction to the part. He is a man with mission and will not bend or be swayed until he brings it to finality. It is a shame that Mathews never went on to greater screen accomplishments.
Trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Shakespearean actor Torin Thatcher is the consummate evil magician, Sokurah. He too brings conviction to his role as he is dedicated to the forces of evil and darkness.
Visually this is far superior to the Laser Disc version. The Laser Disc was issued in full-frame and not quite as sharp. However, the Laser Disc version was issued with the soundtrack in stereo. I was very disappointed that this DVD was not issued in stereo. That would have made it completely satisfying.
However, the images are so spectacularly presented here it is almost a minor point. Thank the gods for Dynamation.
superb classic adventure film for all ages
If you love classic films and you love special effects, then you are undoubtedly passionate about the films of legendary Ray Harryhausen, and this is one of his best. In this movie, Harryhausen uses his stop-motion technique in color for the first time (and the print here is terrific) to tell the tale of Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) as he sails the seas, forms an uneasy alliance with an evil magician (Torin Thatcher) and battles a Cyclops, a two-headed Roc and a dragon. Other memorable effects include the genie Berani and the interior of his magic lamp, the Princess Parisa being shrunk and the servant woman who is turned into a dancing half-woman, half-snake. The action starts right away and continues throughout the film, and Bernard Herrmann's music is, as always, absolutely perfect.
DVD extras are excellent, and include: a picture of the original poster; trailers from other Harryhausen features; two interview featurettes, each 12 minutes long; a 3-minute featurette about the Dynamation process; and a one-hour feature about Ray Harryhausen. This is a great package -- and for you enthusiastic polyglots out there, the film can be heard in English, Spanish or Portuguese, while subtitles are available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean or Thai!
Having small children who are becoming interested in "scary movies", I've found that the Harryhausen ouevre is a great way for them to find thrills and chills without gore, and a wonderful way for me to reconnect with my childhood joys as well. The whole family has a great time watching these terrific films. I'm really glad they're being re-released in such high quality and with such interesting dvd extras.
Superb!
AND HARRYHAUSEN CREATED...
I am an artist/writer and there was a time when I would not have been able to imagine my being such a thing. My unexpected encounter with the art of Ray Harryhausen played a considerable part in my moving in that direction and it is really remarkable what a great effect it had on my entire life. I was a 7, almost 8, year old poor boy whose heroes were Mickey Mantle and Elvis Presley, when I first saw this amazing film at a small local theater for 25 cents! (I am not joking. I was part of a white minority living in a mostly Hispanic and Black low income neighborhood where Frosty Malts were 15 cents, a Big Hunk was a nickel, movie posters were hypnotizing, and the local theater smelled like old tennis shoes. I mention this only to give a glimpse of the setting in which the miracle occurred.) This first viewing of the film impacted me so deeply, so forcefully, that to this day some 46 years later, my strong memory of its phenomenal colors, forms, and sounds even includes intense particular memories of the dark, shabby, musty little theater interior itself on that very day. Sometimes memories are so powerful they become symbolic for us. This is one of those. I was very far from being an egghead type of kid, but I had considerable powers of concentration, focus, and retaining when something really interested me and from the moment I saw the poster behind the glass advertizing the 'coming attraction' called THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD, I was ready to give it my all. And when that seemingly fated afternoon came, I did so. I took in everything, I listened very carefully to the dialogue, I watched every little movement on that big screen that was so amazing in a neighborhood where many people did not even have a television. Within the first ten minutes of the film I was deeply in love with it and by the time it was over I was madly in love with it. I could think only of seeing it again... and again... It had succeeded in drawing me into its timeless circle of fantasy. With a single viewing I had memorized the entire story line and when I saw the film again ( I begged my mother for the quarter) it was like entering a realm where, though everything was wondrous and new, it was really where I had always lived. And still do. Though in certain ways I understand it better now than I did then, it remains a place where truth is inseparable from wonder and mystery. For my actual review of the film, I am going to focus only on its first ten minutes (from the opening darkling shot of Sinbad at the helm to the crew's escape from the enraged Cyclops back to the ship). I will explain why it so captured me as a boy and why I think it is the most powerful opening ten minutes to ever come out of TinselTown . First of all, it must be understood that all the things that keep a popular film such as this from being categorized as 'high art' of course meant nothing to me then and honestly mean nothing to me now because Harryhausen's genius transcends them all. FIRST, Sinbad's intense calm at the helm and his ability to see land through the seemingly impenetrable, surrounding blue-black darkness that served as a symbol of the crew's lost condition told me immediately that he was a hero. THEN the anxiety of the hungry crew that they might actually find something terrible on the land assured me that they would indeed find something terrible and that Sinbad was ready to face it. So the question was: When it appeared, how exciting and how good would it be, this terrible thing? Well, when the Cyclops emerged from the cave I entered a new world and had a new hero named Ray Harryhausen. In generations to come, art-lovers will laugh that anyone actually ever thought that CGI animation was even in the same league with the art of Harryhausen.
Arguably the most intelligently written film to feature the masterful stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen, Jason and the Argonauts is a colorful adventure that takes full advantage of Harryhausen's "Dynarama" process. Inspired by the Greek myth, the story begins when the fearless explorer Jason (Todd Armstrong) returns to the kingdom of Thessaly to make his rightful claim to the throne, but the gods proclaim that he must first find the magical Golden Fleece. Consulting Hera, the queen of gods, Jason recruits the brave Argonauts to crew his ship, and they embark on their eventful journey. Along the way they encounter a variety of mythic creatures, including the 100-foot bronze god Talos, the batlike Harpies, the seven-headed reptilian Hydra, and an army of skeletons wielding... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Todd Armstrong - Nancy Kovack Director(s): Don Chaffey DVD Release Date: Released the 07 November 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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John Phillip Law stars as the legendary sailor this time around as he finds a talisman and sets sail with his crew for an uncharted island. With a beautiful slave girl (Caroline Munro) in tow, Sinbad takes on the evil sorcerer Koura (Tom Baker), who wants Sinbad's golden talisman to complete a spell. En route to the island, Koura brings the ship's figurehead to life to wreak havoc on the ship and crew. Once there, Sinbad and crew must do battle with a six-armed figure of Kali brandishing a sword in each hand, as well as an enraged Cyclops centaur and a winged griffin, and also deal with the treacherous Koura.
This 1974 entry in the Sinbad franchise is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the film's production values are quite good, and of course the Ray Harryhausen effects are as... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Phillip Law - Caroline Munro Director(s): Gordon Hessler DVD Release Date: Released the 01 July 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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You have a classic tale full of drama, passion, and adventure. A tale of universal archetypes that speak to everyone. A tale that has remained unfailingly popular for thousands of years. Why not spice it up with a wacky mechanical owl? Such was the thinking behind Clash of the Titans. Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, and Harry Hamlin (one of these things is not like the others...) star in a toga-ripper about a valiant hero, capricious immortals, and lots and lots of giant stop-action monsters. Perseus (Hamlin) is the favored son of the god Zeus (Olivier), but he has unwittingly ticked off the sea goddess Thetis (Smith). Just to make things worse, Perseus falls in love with the lovely Princess Andromeda, who used to be engaged to Thetis's son. Soon Perseus is off on one quest after... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Jules Verne's classic adventure is perfectly matched with Ray Harryhausen's timeless movie magic in Mysterious Island. Based on Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, this rousing Civil War-era fantasy begins when a band of Union war prisoners (and one Confederate straggler) escape in a hot-air balloon, which crash-lands on the titular island of mystery. Verne's novel doesn't include any gigantic creatures, but Harryhausen's version--under the capable direction of genre specialist Cy Endfield--features giant oysters, bees, a prehistoric Phororhacos (a giant chickenlike bird!), an undersea cephalopod, a giant crab, and enough danger to keep its resourceful ensemble on constant alert. Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom, ably filling James Mason's shoes) is a third-act hero,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Craig - Joan Greenwood Director(s): Cy Endfield DVD Release Date: Released the 29 October 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This may not be Harryhausen's very best but it is certainly very entertaining. This is one of those movies you can put on as background while you do something else. I give it my undivided attention myself, but it does not require it. Good family fare that should give some light entertainment for a couple hours. I am not quite sure why they did not use the same Sinbad from Golden Voyage, but each has a unique style and neither is bad. If you like Sinbad movies, Harryhausen movies, or Fantasy movies you should enjoy this. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Patrick Wayne - Jane Seymour Director(s): Sam Wanamaker DVD Release Date: Released the 01 July 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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