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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Much Better Film Than Given Credit For, November 5, 1999
The third of Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad films has gotten a bad rap over the years for Beverly Cross' script (which Harryhausen co-authored) and some of the performances, notably Patrick Wayne as Sinbad. The rap is largely unfair, for the film is quite entertaining, though admittedly flawed (mostly because of Sam Wanamaker's choppy direction), thanks to a strong cast and Ray Harryhausen's always-pleasing animation.The story revolves around Kassim, the caliph of Baghdad, who mysteriously disappears around the time of his coronation. Sinbad, arriving in Baghdad both to sell cargo and also to see the caliph's sister (Jane Seymour, who here plays a princess and still looks like one 22 years later), is drawn into a trap by Rafi (Kurt Christian) and his evil mother, the witch Zenobia (Margaret Whiting). Barely escaping an attack by three sword-wielding fire mutants (Harryhausen's stop-motion swordfights always seemed to get better with each passing film), Sinbad finds Kassim's sister and a baboon - Kassim, turned into such by Zenobia. To break Zenobia's spell, Sinbad and crew enlist a wizard, Master Malanthius and his daughter Dione (Taryn Power), and must sail for Hyperborea, a land at the North Pole immune to the polar region's frost. But Zenobia and Rafi are following, aided by a mechanical beast known as Minaton. This film features quite a bit of character animation by Harryhausen. His monsters have always had distinct personalities - only Harryhausen could make a rampaging Allosaur like Gwangi villainous and completely sympathetic all at once - but here he imbues them with ever greater warmth, not only in the baboon Kassim (the most chilling scene comes when the animated Baboon sees himself in a mirror, and is driven to grief. Some have criticized the scene because Kassim has known he was a baboon for a great deal of time, but it makes sense that he would still come to grief upon actually seeing himself in a mirror) but also in Trog, a prehistoric giant who "is as frightened of us as we of him," as Malanthius notes. Kassim and Dione befriend Trog, and when Kassim is finally liberated of Zenobia's spell, we feel genuine regret as Trog is killed by Zenobia, now taking the form of a Smilodon (the titular tiger). This battle is unusually gruesome, and ranks a close second to Gwangi vs. the styracosaur as Harryhausen's finest animated clash. An unusually high number of matte FX shots are used, adding nicely to the fantasy element of the film. In all, the film succeeds quite well.
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