****          From the Land Beyond Beyond… or so they say.

The stop-motion animation effects of Ray Harryhausen were quite successful during the 1950's with all those spiffy sci-fi movies. This one is the last to be released in the 50's, but it also marks a transition to more of a mythical fantasy basis. It's also the first to be shot in color, and it features a bit broader range of creatures than usual. All combined makes this movie of "firsts" one of the first really good ones.

Right after the adventures in his 6^th voyage, the legendary Sinbad the Sailor, Prince of Baghdad, has his ship go a tad off course to the island of Colossa. Not only does the crew find food and water, they find a giant cyclops monster to! It's on the heals of Sokurah the Magician, who somehow by chance just stole a magic lamp from the cyclops. Sinbad saves him, but not before the cyclops gets the lamp back of course. Once back in Baghdad, Sokurah tries every trick up his cloak to get back to the island to get the lamp, including promises of money, showing off of magic tricks (the nifty "snake-women" scene), and false prophecies. Well none of those work so he shrinks Sinbad's bride-to-be, Princess Parisa of Chandra, to a really small size with a spell that can only be cured by a potion using the eggshell of a Roc (that just so happens to nest on the same island). Nobody in their right or wrong mind would go to an island filled with cyclopses, so Sinbad is forced to get people from a local prison by giving them a choice between being hanged or being eaten by giant monsters. They obviously mutiny during the trip, but after going a little to near an island full of screaming demons that drive people mad and being saved by Sinbad, they kind of change their minds. Once back to the island, they make their way to the roc nest, but of course they meat the cyclops first (Sinbad pokes it in the eye and lures it off a cliff). For some reason the crew gets hungry, so once to the nest they fry up a huge drumstick from a newly hatched roc chick. Meanwhile Parisa hops in the lamp and meets the genie, learning that catchy phrase that calls him. Momma roc comes back not to happy, and of course flaps around and brings Sinbad to the main nest (even though there is no chicks there to feed him to). Once all the disposable extras are killed, Sokurah kills Sinbad's first mate and runs off with Parisa. After waking up Sinbad uses the genie to find the location of Sokurah's hidden layer, and goes down to it (and gets past the guard dragon to). Once in, Sokurah makes Parisa "normal sized" again, and then of course attacks Sinbad with an animated skeleton. Well that of course doesn't work, so Sinbad and Parisa get free to chuck the lamp into a conveniently placed river of lava (fulfilling some sort of thingy that fits the adventure to a tee). Sokurah aint too happy about loosing his lamp, so he sicks the dragon on them (after the dragon fights another cyclops {which is obviously a different one because it has two horns instead of one}). After being impaled by a giant crossbow (which was meant for a cyclops), the dragon falls on Sokurah and then later dies. Sinbad and the rest sail away, with the genie somehow ending up as Sinbad's new cabin boy. He's a real boy now!

As you can tell from the longer then normal "Spoiler-Ridden Plot Synthesis", this movie has quite the plot for something that's less then an hour and a half! It's quite good, quite detailed, and quite the adventure. Not exactly an epic, but the plot does fill up all available spaces quite well. Sure, there are some parts that are a touch to convenient, but as a whole the plot is a lot better then most of the ones in this type of movies (Attacked-By-Various-Monsters Movies). It does seem to be based on some sort of classic Arabian folklore, and that seems to be the inspiration for a lot of the plot, but it's still well-converted with a lot of good new ideas thrown in. So basically it’s a fun little classic adventure whose surprisingly detailed plot makes it seem a lot longer then 88 minutes. Even so, there is a ton of cool stop-motion sequences. Lets see here… first there's the sequence near the beginning if the cyclops on the beach. It's very well done and is actually one of the better ones. Then there is the "snake-lady" thing. It's a touch to tough to see at times, but it is very smoothly animated. Then there is the second cyclops thing with the cyclops squishing people with trees and stuff. Looks a little fake at times but it does have some nice touches (like the cyclops licking his lips when roasting someone). The roc chick is pretty good, but the fuzz kind of flutters. The parent roc is a little better, but kind of has a habit of staying in one spot. The dragon is one of the better creations, looks real cool how it spits fire. Its battle with Mr. Two Horns is one of the better monster vs. monster stop motion sequences. However, the best sequence of the whole lot is the fight with the skeleton. Probably the biggest plot hole in the movie is the question on why Sokurah wouldn't take the opportunity to steal the lamp during the roc sequence (he instead seemed to put it back on the rock where it was earlier). Well my theory is that he really wanted to try out his skeleton creature. This of course is the theory because that skeleton is cool man! It is a very well choreographed sequence, with a lot of different camera angles and different "moves" for the skeleton to do. It's very well animated and definitely one of the better stop-motion sequences made. Not as good as the one with SEVEN skeletons in the "Jason and the Argonaughts" movie, but it's still real neat. My only complaint is the real dumb music in the background, with all that "clipity-claping" and stuff.

As a whole this is a great movie. There are a few quirks with it, such as the fact that the main characters don't exactly look like they come from Arabia. This of course is explained by the fact that when the movie was made, that was the norm. Other quirks include the fact that the ship is actually a recreation of the Santa Maria (ever hear of Columbus?), and "Baghdad" is really in Spain. As said at the beginning, this movie is the first one Ray did in color. The black and white processes where practically perfected, but color is a whole lot different. Despite the new medium, the special effects still fit in with the movie really well. There is not much difference from this one and ones made decades later. Because of this and the part about the quirks being exceptable due to time period and lack of funds, this movie is still a really good one. Quite recommended if you're willing not to pick on the unrealistic parts. One of the best stop-motion movies made, and one of the better monster movies made.

Great Plot

Terrific special effects

A wonderful little adventure

A lot of really good stop-motion sequences

For something that is only 88 minutes it sure feels longer, and that’s a good thing

All those unrealistic quirks

So whatever happened to Voyages 1^st through 6^th?

I never knew Sinbad was a Spanish swashbuckling adventure

The lamp is siting right there and he doesn't bother to take it?!

Will you turn that annoying music off; I'm trying to watch a skeleton fight!

I know he isn't, but that genie sure does look like the kid from "Leave it to Beaver"!

Credits