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We've all seen these movies a dozen times as they always seem to be a staple of Christmas TV but the DVD editions of Ray Harryhausen's monster movies are a great buy nonetheless - no more advert interruptions for one thing! The only real problem is that the films themselves are pretty pedestrian and don't live up to the innovation and character of Harryhausen's stop-motion creatures. 7th Voyage definitely has a good crop - the horned Cyclops, the Roc, the Dragon and the living skeleton (a dry run for the unbelievable sequence in the later Jason and the Argonauts). Ray Harryhausen was, amazingly, a one man operation who never even had an assistant to help creating the effects. The great designs and the individual characters he created for the monsters are the reason thirtysomethings like me were over the moon to finally be able to get these films to own. One thing still makes me chuckle - Kerwin Matthews is a pretty white-bread Sinbad with his cleanshaven face and 50's crewcut! By the time of the later Golden Voyage the producers obviously felt comfortable enough to ethinicise Sinbad a bit and give him a turban, beard and funny "arabian" accent. The great addition on this disk in the documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles" narrated by Leanoard Nimoy. It has some fascinating footage of stuff Harryhausen did as a teenager in his parent's garage (which is amazingly professional) and some charming shorts for a series of fairy stories (Hansel and Gretel, etc.) plus the great man himself talking about his career and how he approached the different scenes and creatures he created. This disk is a fine tribute to a master and innovator in the field of special effects and easily one of the most influential film makers in history.Read full review
Worth watching for Ray Harryhausens' classic stop motion animation. His creatures ( cyclops, roc, dragon and living skeleton in this film ) have more character than the vast majority of computer generated effects seen today. The rest of the film is a bit average, featuring a very all American Sinbad, a bland Princess, and an annoyingly cute genie. The villianous magician is pretty good though. The DVD also has a very interesting documentary about Ray Harryhausens' career.
Having seen this as a child in the '70's, I was very glad to have been able to see again on DVD. Rarely shown on tv these days - maybe because the stations think the special effects are outdated? - I don't think so, they are from a classic and timeless era. Todays SFX boffins learnt a lot from Ray Harryhausens ground breaking SFX. Kerwin Mathews is an excellent Sinbad, Kathryn Grant (who later married Bing Crosby) is convincing as the damsel in distress, and there is a great performance from Torin Thatcher as the evil magician. There are many thrills without the need for any great perfomances on the acting side, as the action is swift,without interruption, making it, for me, a very entertaining film.
Had the other two Sinbad films needed the 7Th Voyage to complete the collection,I have been looking in car boot sales for ages then spotted the film on Ebay,good way to remember your youth is to watch films from those years.
The DVD was reasonably priced. Unfortunately, the quality is not very good. The picture freezes on two separate parts of the film. There are also subtitles that are hit and miss. There is one written sentence for every three or four spoken sentences.
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