The Sinbad Collection (1958)

A skeleton grabs a sword and slashes viciously at Sinbad. A 9-foot-tall Neanderthal man fights to the death with a saber-toothed tiger. All the while, the boys and girls in the fourth row forget about their popcorn and are hypnotized by the images on the screen. It's hard to believe so many years have passed since the last Sinbad movie held kids spellbound at Saturday matinees. The movies were never perfect, with stories that were sometimes little more than frameworks to drape Ray Harryhausen's special effects over. The performances left a bit to be desired at times, and the direction could be a bit choppy. What they did accomplish, however, was to give countless 8- and 10-year-olds their first taste of the magic that motion pictures were really capable of. Those grade-schoolers, of course, took with them an appreciation of that movie mojo that would extend to films like 2001, Star Wars, and countless other movies in the sci-fi and fantasy genres.

Ray Harryhausen was the preeminent special effects wizard in Hollywood for decades. With credits that date back to 1949's King Kong remake Mighty Joe Young, Harryhausen brought his creatures to life with painstaking stop-motion animation, with a realism that no one else's work could touch. Computers now do all the heavy lifting for cinematic special effects, and although the techniques of CGI are often time-consuming and tedious, they can't match the artistry and warmth of a Harryhausen Cyclops or troglodyte creature. Too often it's tempting to see beyond the eyeball-dislodging effects of a CGI dinosaur and picture a technician toiling away in front of a computer. Considering the tedious frame-by-frame repositioning of stop-motion figures, something like the six-armed Kali figure in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is astonishing in the untold hours of labor that went into giving it life. Even more mind-boggling is the fact that it comes alive with grace and fluidity, without a trace of abruptness or jerkiness.

It's always a good time to revisit the Sinbad series, for all its imperfections and flaws. The movies are still tremendously entertaining escapist fare, still capable of inspiring new generations of budding movie buffs to create imaginary worlds with the magic of movies. --Jerry Renshaw Amazon.com

Nice Sinbad dvd's... but--->

The Sinbad Collection: "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", is the best of the 3, even though some 'cropping' and editing was done to certain scenes. "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" is a close second with very good special effects (the fight with Kali was quite good). "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" was so-so. All in all, the 3 dvd's were quite enjoyable. September 22, 2008

The Sinbad Collection

I have looked forward to a set of Sinbad movies forever. Ray Harryhausen does not disappoint! June 19, 2008

fun fantasy

brings me back to a time in my earlier years of my life when these movies where a lot of fun to watch. It also neat to see the famous john wayne's son patrick play the part of sinbad. Very different from what dad did in the movies. June 7, 2008

Counterpoint to "Eye of the Tiger marred by nudity"

Referring to the critical review titled "Eye of the Tiger marred by nudity":

Just to help clarify the "adult content" in the Eye of the Tiger, there is no nudity in this film. There is partial nudity, consisting of brief flashes of female skin, but at no time is there any frontal nudity and there is nothing remotely sexual in nature. The film is rated "G", after all.

The critical review in question, however, suggests that there is a reason to protect your children from this film. There isn't. There is, on the other hand, reason to protect your children from reviews like that one. May 3, 2008

A Harryhausen hat trick

For a little over twenty bucks you get three movies featuring two of the Doctors from Doctor Who, some beautiful women, the son of The Duke, and a whole bunch of creatures conjured up, by Ray Harryhausen with all of the charm and emotion he always brings to his works. And in the end it really is Harryhausens stop-motion magic that makes these films worth watching. I grew up on this sort of stuff, and even after all these years I still get a kick out of them. While most films today shoot for realism, what you get here is a true feeling of fantasy. The scripts are pretty much interchangable, the acting isn't always great, but in the end they manage to rise above their flaws and deliver a whole lot of fun. July 4, 2007

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