The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)

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General		Extras
Category	Adventure	Gallery-Vintage Advertising Filmographies-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:52) Trailer-Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger; Jason and the Argonauts Featurette-Mysterious Island (9:06) Featurette-The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (5:21) Featurette-Earth vs. The Flying Saucers (8:37)
Rating
Year Of Production	1973
Running Time	100:42
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Gordon Hessler
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	John Phillip Law Caroline Munro Tom Baker
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	Miklos Rozsa

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    It has almost been an eternity since I last managed to get hold of one of those classic B-grade adventure/fantasy films for review on DVD. It is only when you sit down to review one of these films that you really understand what was so exciting about the Saturday afternoon matinee as a kid. The lack of a serious story was never an impediment to the enjoyment of these romps through the fantasy worlds created. Back in those days of our youth, we really did not comprehend the full impact of the effects wizard that weaved his magic over these films: Ray Harryhausen. This master of visual effects performed miracle upon miracle in just about every film he was ever associated with. It might not look like it now, with the breathtaking digital effects that can seemingly pull off anything anyone can even dream of. I guess that is especially drummed home here: finished in 1973 and released in 1974, this predates by a mere four years the groundbreaking Star Wars: A New Hope that relegated the master's work almost to the scrapheap. The digital age really makes the master's work look second-rate, but if you can cast your mind back to indulge those wondrous days of the pre-digital age, this is nostalgia plus.

    A strange creature comes into sight of the ship of Sinbad (John Phillip Law) and drops upon its deck an unusual gold object, which Sinbad promptly calls his own. Despite the warnings of some of his crew, he keeps the object. After a strange occurrence with some bad weather and some rocks, Sinbad makes landfall at Marabia, whereupon he is met by the evil Prince Koura (Tom Baker) who claims the object as his own. After dodging Koura, Sinbad finds himself in the presence of the Grand Vizier of Marabia, who relates the woes of Marabia to Sinbad as they apply with respect of Koura. The Vizier also happens to have possession of another object that just so happens to mate with the one held by Sinbad. A leap of deductive reasoning sees the nature of the objects revealed and so Sinbad has a quest - with the Vizier in tow, along with a beautiful slave girl Margiana (Caroline Munro). A quest, a beautiful girl, a villain and a map - what more do you need for high adventure? And so it is that this unlikely collection go in search of the legendary lost island of Lemuria and whatever awaits them there.

    A very simple story, but the framework upon which the legendary master Ray Harryhausen could toss his latest wizardry with the effects. Done on a shoe string budget, there is nothing here that really ascends above B-grade - and that is why I love it so much! John Phillip Law could not act his way out of a paper bag, Caroline Munro does the beautiful slave girl to perfection (very, very easy on the eye!) and Tom Baker (he of Doctor Who fame) overacts so much that it borders on cringe-inducing. But what the heck - it is all done so well that I for one don't care, I just go along for the ride.

    This is not about great screenplays, nor about great scenery, magnificent cinematography or superb directing: this is all about Ray Harryhausen's effects and the nostalgia of those long since past days of the Saturday afternoon matinee. More please!

Video

    This is quite clearly an unrestored transfer, as it features a fair dabbling of indications of its age. Still, it is by no means the worst that I have ever seen and the necessary allowances are readily made in order to enjoy the film as it was intended.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced. This is of course the widescreen compromise of the original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1.

    The transfer is pretty sharp throughout, and quite consistently so. Detail is quite good with only the odd scene here and there that displays something in the way of average shadow detail. This is entirely in keeping with expectations for the film - my recollection of this on VHS tape was pretty ordinary (being very polite). Grain is as usual a bit of an issue at times - this was an almost inevitable consequence of the effects work it seems. It gets especially bad around the 29:20 mark and is a tad distracting. Clarity as a result is somewhat reduced, but not unreasonably so.

    The colours are showing their age a little, with the general tone being a little understated. I would guess that this is the result of the age of the film, which is unavoidable short of a restoration. I did not find this much of an issue overall, but it is mentioned for completeness sake. At times, the transfer does display something approaching the bright tones that would have been seen during the original theatrical run of the film. Obviously blacks could do with a chunk more depth to them, but again this really does not impact the film that much. There is some obvious colour bleed during the final scenes at the fountain around 96:52, when the red colour gets a little intense.

    Quite surprisingly, the transfer is quite free of any obvious MPEG artefacts - the source material might not be the best, but care has been taken with the encoding. There is nothing that can be done about the plethora of film artefacts present during the transfer though. Specks, nicks, film damage, hairs - you name it, they are probably here. Only occasionally did these create disturbing blemishes, but their constant presence does wear thin. Film-to-video artefacts comprised some aliasing, such as in the trumpets at 10:40 and the steps at 13:49. They were not really that bad, but you may just notice them as I did.

    This is apparently an RSDL formatted DVD but I failed to notice where the layer change occurred.

    There is a good selection of subtitles on the DVD. Regrettably, the English efforts are not exactly on the mark. Quite a few times, the dialogue has been twisted to make it easier to get the subtitles on the screen - but this has come at the cost of changing some of the quaint English actually used in the film, slightly twisting the tone of the film accordingly.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are five soundtracks on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, a French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, an Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Whilst I only briefly sampled the other soundtracks, they all sound like the English effort in being mono efforts.

    The dialogue is generally okay and easy to understand, although the spells of Koura are obviously nonsensical anyway (and reputedly are a couple of inane sayings spoken backwards). The ravages of time on the mono soundtrack have robbed the dialogue a little though. Audio sync seemed to generally okay but with just a few hints here and there that it was not quite right (and almost certainly due to the source material).

    The music score comes from Miklos Rozsa, a well known composer of film scores over the years. This is quite decent but hardly the greatest and most memorable you will ever hear.

    The bottom line is that the sound for all its minor problems is probably as good as we could expect without a complete remastering and remixing (which I know some would have huge exception to, even though I would not). There is nothing in the way of obvious blemishes to really detract from the soundtrack, just an overall feel that this is an oldish, original soundtrack. There certainly are no remarks noted in my notebook to indicate any particular problems during the whole review session.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Not a bad package, although there really is not much that actually relates to the film!

Menu

    Nothing really exciting here, but at least it is functional.

Gallery - Vintage Advertising

    One still of the film poster and eight stills of lobby cards (remember those things?). Interesting in a nostalgic kind of way.

Filmographies - Cast and Crew

    One would have thought that this could at least extend past Ray Harryhausen, Gordon Hessler and John Phillip Law - after all, the main cast only comprised two more persons.

Theatrical Trailer (2:52)

    Presented in what is presumed to be a Pan and Scan format, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with some rather ropey Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. The soundtrack features a bit more distortion than what we would normally expect, which adds to a video transfer that is decidedly showing its age. Plenty of film artefacts and some paucity in the quality of the colour really mean that this looks its age.

Trailers - 2

    Featuring a couple of other Ray Harryhausen classics: Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger (2:08) and Jason And The Argonauts (1:26). The former is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. It is well blessed with film artefacts and grain. The latter is presented in a Full Frame format, also not 16x9 enhanced and also with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. This is the re-release trailer and really should be better looking than it is here. The latter film is of course featured on the very first DVD I ever reviewed for this site and in itself recalls some nostalgic moments.

Featurette - Mysterious Island (9:06)

    Obviously nothing to do with the reviewed film, which sort of begs the question of "why?". Still, anytime Ray Harryhausen speaks, it is well worth listening to. This obviously deals with the making of the film Mysterious Island. This, and the two following featurettes, are all presented in the same format: Full Frame, not 16x9 enhanced and Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Interesting look back at a film that I have not seen for a very long time.

Featurette - The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver (5:21)

    An interesting look at the problems of making the film, notably how to cheaply deal with the obvious size difference between Gulliver and the Lilliputians. Of course, the master's workaround for that problem was simple enough - just get your lead actor to position himself 200 yards in front of the rest of the cast so they all look in perspective from side on. Simple, cheap and effective - and probably not used in film since then! Nowadays, it would be blue screens, digital matting and god knows what else - at a cost that would be well and truly beyond the total budget for The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver.

Featurette - Earth vs The Flying Saucers (8:37)

    Rather than just Ray Harryhausen talking, this time we have Joe Dante asking the questions. Don't know that the presentation is any better as a result, but it remains an interesting recollection of the effects work on the film. Did they really just paint the wires that hold the model flying saucers out actually on the camera? Unbelievable!

    The equivalent Region 1 release of this DVD was released some time ago. As far as I can ascertain, the Region 4 release misses out on:

• Full Frame version of the film

    Unless you desperately need a Full Frame version of the film, there is nothing to choose between the Region 4 and Region 1 releases - but its presence does mean the long available Region 1 version is, at least in theory, the version of choice.

    The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad is another of those gorgeous evocations of a bygone age when a kid's life was ruled by the Saturday afternoon matinee. In its way, it is a classic - a classic by the simple expediency of being the sort of film that always had me thoroughly entertained for an afternoon. In the cold light of reality, the effects work is decidedly dated and the film itself is not really that terrific. But the work of Ray Harryhausen is always worthwhile checking out, just to marvel at what he could do with a budget that would not even cover the cost of the coffee cups at Industrial Light and Magic today. I cannot in all honesty say that I did not enjoy seeing the film again. Probably not one to keep The Matrix generation happy with, but for the slightly less young amongst us a wonderful trip down memory lane...

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall