Sinbad - Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)

One for Dad

The legend of Fa Mulan was one of my favorite stories as a Chinese-American growing up in San Francisco some decades ago. I now live abroad and generally make it back to the Bay Area every summer. The year that "Mulan" was released, I didn't get to San Francisco until after its initial theatrical run. I did find it at a smaller neighborhood theater and my father immediately agreed to see it with me. To my great surprise, what we saw was a special version dubbed in Cantonese. My Chinese wasn't good enough to catch most of it, but I could understand enough to not have to pester my father with questions throughout the movie. About halfway through, he asked if I could recognize the voice of the captain. I couldn't, and with a smile he told me it was Jackie Chan. My father passed away almost three years ago, so that is now a very cherished memory. However, leaving it at that would diminish the impact that the movie had on me on its own merits: I was very impressed by its depiction of the rite of passage against enormous odds of a conflicted protagonist who just happened to be a non-Caucasian. Eddie Murphy was outstanding, Jerry Goldsmith contributed one of his last great scores, and my father didn't complain TOO much about the watering down of the original story. As entertaining as "Kung-Fu Panda" is, it absolutely pales in comparison to the style and grace of "Mulan." And Jackie Chan's part is much meatier anyway! November 2, 2008

Pretty good

This is not one of Dreamworks better known animated movies, but it's worth seeing nonetheless. The graphics are quite good, and the story entertaining enough. The title is a misnomer-there's little of the authentic Sinbad from the Arabian Nights tales, rather the Sinbad character in the movie is closer to Odyesseus and Johnny Depp- but who cares, it's good fun. October 20, 2008

Why do people like this?

I was not at all impressed by Dreamwork's take on Sinbad. This movie is a cheese and baloney sandwich *with the exception that a cheese and balony sandwich is somewhat filling* because it has has some of the cheesiest lines ["lets get wet!"]["Who's bad Sin-bad"] and full of baloney. Why would Marina choose Sinbad over Proteus anyway, oh thats right she wanted AN ADVENTURE ON THE HIGH SEAS! OH WHOOPIE! And oh boo hoo Proteus is so boring, Proteus who was willing to die for Sinbads crimes when Sinbad would probably just leave him hanging. Sinbad is irresponsible and cocky so his suddenly "seeing the light" never fully convinced me as a viewer.
Sinbad: a SINfully Bad movie August 25, 2008

Surprisingly fantastic!

Some of you may remember the preview for this movie being something like this: "From the creators of Shrek--- fart jokes!" I thought I would hate this movie. I was absolutely wrong.

It's deep. It's emotional. It's entertaining for all ages, has beautiful art, animation and design, great music, and a profound message. Why can't more movies be like this? July 3, 2008

A Poor Rewrite

Now as I recall, Sinbad was an Arabic sailor out of Basra and his religion Muslim.

So you have to wonder why the whole shebang was rewritten and transported over to ancient Greece. Not that I'd accuse the studio of pandering to prejudice.

Watch a real adventure: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, with John Phillip Law and Tom Baker. It's imaginative, fun, and not afraid to show other parts of the world. May 21, 2008

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