Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (also known as Sinbad) is a 2003 American animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. The film uses traditional animation with some computer animation. It was directed by Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore (in Gilmore's feature directorial debut) and written by John Logan, and stars the voices of Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Joseph Fiennes. The film covers the story of Sinbad (voiced by Pitt), a pirate who travels the sea with his dog and his loyal friend Marina (voiced by Zeta-Jones) to recover the lost Book of Peace from Eris (voiced by Pfeiffer) to save his childhood friend, Prince Proteus (voiced by Fiennes), from accepting Sinbad's death sentence. The film blends elements from the 1001 Arabian Nights and classical myths.

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTim Johnson
Patrick Gilmore
Produced byMireille Soria
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Written byJohn Logan
Based onSinbad the Sailor[1]
StarringBrad Pitt
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Michelle Pfeiffer
Joseph Fiennes
Music byHarry Gregson-Williams
Edited byTom Finan
Production
company
Distributed byDreamWorks Pictures
Release date
  • July 2, 2003 (2003-07-02)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60 million
Box office$80.8 million[2]

The film was released on July 2, 2003 and received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the voice performances but criticized the CGI animation and storyline. Grossing $80.8 million on a $60 million budget, Sinbad was a box office bomb. DreamWorks suffered a $125 million loss on a string of films, which nearly bankrupted the company. It is, to date, the final DreamWorks film to use traditional animation, as the studio abandoned it in favor of computer animation.[3] DreamWorks did, however, bring 2D animation back for the 5-minute short film Bird Karma in 2018.

Plot

Sinbad and his pirate crew attempt to steal the magical "Book of Peace" that protects the kingdom of Syracuse, Sicily and hold it for ransom as one last job before retiring to Fiji. Sinbad is surprised to see it is being protected while on board to Syracuse by Syracuse’s Prince Proteus. Proteus was once Sinbad's best friend as a child, but Sinbad apparently drifted away from him, giving no reason why. Proteus then tells Sinbad if their friendship ever meant anything he can prove it. Sinbad tries to steal the book anyway, but is prevented when Cetus attacks the ship. The two work together to fight off Cetus and for a moment reaffirm their bond. Just when it seems the beast is defeated, Sinbad is dragged off the ship. Proteus goes to save Sinbad, but is stopped by his crew.

Drawn underwater by Cetus, Sinbad is saved by the beautiful Goddess of Discord, Eris, who offers him any boon he desires in exchange for bringing the Book of Peace to her realm of Tartarus. Sinbad and his crew go to Syracuse to steal the Book, but leaves without doing so after seeing Proteus with his fiancée, Lady Marina. Anticipating this, Eris impersonates Sinbad and steals the Book. Sinbad is sentenced to death, whereupon Proteus sends Sinbad to retrieve the Book instead, placing himself as a hostage, and Marina goes to make sure that Sinbad succeeds. To prevent them from succeeding, Eris sends a group of mythical sirens, who entrance and seduce the men aboard Sinbad's ship with their hypnotic singing voices, but do not affect Marina, who pilots the ship to safety. While on the ship, Marina and Sinbad’s views clash with each other and fail to get along, especially when Marina gains the favor of the crew simultaneously. Eris then later sends a Roc which captures Marina. Sinbad tries to rescue her, but hampers Marina's escape. They are able to flee the Roc by chance, sliding down the snowy mountain in which they found themselves.

After these and other incidents, Sinbad and Marina talk in a brief moment of peace - Marina reveals that she's always dreamed of a life on the sea, and Sinbad reveals that he distanced himself from Proteus 10 years earlier because he fell in love with Marina, even though he knew she was engaged to Proteus. They then reach Tartarus, where Eris reveals that her plan was to maneuver Proteus into Sinbad's place, leaving Syracuse without an heir. When Sinbad insists on taking the book back, she makes him a deal: if he answers one question truthfully, she will give him the book and let them go. She gives him her word that she will honour the bargain, making it unbreakable even for a god. Eris asks Sinbad what he will do if he doesn't get the book- will he flee Syracuse to live with Marina or return to die in Proteus' place? When he answers that he will return, Eris calls him a liar, withholds the book, and returns him and Marina to the mortal world. Ashamed, Sinbad admits that Eris is right, truly believing deep down that he is a selfish, black-hearted liar. Marina pleads for Sinbad to leave, admitting her feelings for him, but ultimately Sinbad makes his decision.

In Syracuse, the time allotted to Sinbad has elapsed. Proteus readies himself to be beheaded, but at the last minute, Sinbad appears and takes his place. Before he is beheaded, however, an enraged Eris appears suddenly and saves Sinbad by shattering the executioner's sword. Sinbad, shocked but later pleased, realizes that this was still part of her test and teases that he has beaten her by proving his answer to be true after all. Eris is furious but cannot go back on her word and surrenders the Book to Sinbad before leaving to cause chaos elsewhere. With the true culprit revealed, Sinbad is absolved of the crime of stealing the Book and is now well-respected.

With the Book restored to Syracuse, Sinbad and his crew prepare to leave on another voyage, leaving Marina in Syracuse. Unbeknownst to him, Proteus sees that Marina has fallen deeply in love with Sinbad and life on the sea and releases her from their arranged engagement, sending her to join Sinbad's ship. Marina surprises Sinbad by revealing her presence on the ship just as it begins to sail, and the two share a kiss. Now together, they and the crew set out on another long voyage as the ship sails into the sunset.

Voice Cast

Production

Development

Shortly after co-writing Aladdin (1992), screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio came up with the idea of adapting the story of Sinbad the Sailor in the vein of the story of Damon and Pythias before settling on a love triangle.[4] They wrote a treatment that was inspired by screwball romantic comedy films in which Sinbad was depicted as a reserved apprentice mapmaker who joins Peri, a free-spirited female smuggler, on an adventure and fall in love.[5][6] In July 1992, Disney had announced they were adapting the story into a potential animated feature.[7]

Shortly after writing Gladiator (2000), John Logan was approached by Jeffrey Katzenberg to write the script for an animated film. When he was offered the story of Sinbad, Logan researched the multiple tales of the character before settling on depicting the Greek and Roman versions. He described his first draft script as "very complex, the relationships were very adult – it was too intense in terms of the drama for the audience that this movie was aimed at."[8]

Casting

Russell Crowe was originally going to voice Sinbad, but he dropped out due to scheduling problems.[9] He was replaced by Brad Pitt, who wanted to make a film his nieces and nephews could see. He explained: "They can't get into my movies. People's heads getting cut off, and all that."[9] Pitt had already tried to narrate DreamWorks' previous animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, but "it didn't work," with Matt Damon taking over the role.[9] Pitt's purist intentions worried him that his Missourian accent would not be suitable for his Middle Eastern character.[9] Despite that, the film-makers persuaded him that his accent would lighten the mood.[9]

Michelle Pfeiffer, who voices Eris, the goddess of chaos, had struggles with finding the character's villainies. Initially the character was "too sexual," then she lacked fun. After the third rewrite, Pfeiffer called Jeffrey Katzenberg and told him "You know, you really can fire me," but he assured her that this was just part of the process.[9]

Animation

In January 2001, it was reported that DreamWorks Animation would completely transfer their animation workflow into using the Linux operating system. Previously, their animation and rendering software had used Silicon Graphics Image servers and workstations, but as their hardware began to show slowness, DreamWorks began looking for an alternate platform for superior optimal performance in order to save hardware costs.[10][11] In 2002, they decided to partner with Hewlett-Packard for a three-year deal for which they used their dual-processor HP workstations and ProLiant servers running Red Hat Linux software.[10][12][13] Starting with Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), they had replaced its entire render farm with x86-based Linux servers.[11]

With Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, it was the first DreamWorks Animation production to completely utilized Linux software, in which more than 250 workstations were used.[10] Starting with storyboards, the artists first sketched on paper to visualize the scene which are later edited into an animatic. For the character animation, the rough character sketches are passed through the ToonShooter software, which digitized the sketches. From that point, the animators can easily integrate the animation into existing scenes.[11] Production software lead Derek Chan explained, "ToonShooter is an internal tool we wrote for Linux. It captures low resolution 640 x 480 line art that the artists use to time the film."[14] The animated characters were then digitally colored using the Linux software application, InkAndPaint.[14]

For the visual effects, DreamWorks Animation had used Autodesk Maya to create water effects. However, the rendering was found to be too photorealistic, in which senior software engineer for advanced R&D future films Galen Gornowicz sought to modify the effects to closely match the movie's visual development renderings.[14] Craig Ring, who served as digital supervisor on the film, sought four major approaches to water used in the film. The approaches were to composite ripple distortion over the painted backgrounds; create fluid simulation; develop a rapid slashing technique used to create a surface and then send ripples through the surface; and better integrate the 3D visual effects with stylized, hand drawn splashes.[15]

Release

Marketing

A PC game based on the film was released by Atari, who worked closely with one of the film's directors, Patrick Gilmore. It was released before the VHS and DVD release of the film.[16] Burger King released six promotional toys at the time of the film's release, and each toy came with a "Constellation Card".[17] Hasbro produced a series of Sinbad figures as part of its G.I. JOE action figure brand.[18] The figures were 12" tall and came with a mythical monster.[19]

Home media

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas was released on DVD and VHS on November 18, 2003 by DreamWorks Home Entertainment.[20] The DVD included a six-minute interactive short animated film Cyclops Island, featuring an encounter with the eponymous Cyclops.[21] In July 2014, the film's distribution rights were purchased by DreamWorks Animation from Paramount Pictures (owners of the pre-2005 DreamWorks Pictures library) and transferred to 20th Century Fox[22] before reverting to Universal Studios in 2018; Universal Pictures Home Entertainment subsequently released the film on Blu-ray Disc on June 4, 2019 with the Cyclops Island short removed.[23]

Cyclops Island

Cyclops Island (also known as Sinbad and the Cyclops Island) is a traditionally animated interactive short film that acts as a sequel to Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, taking place shortly after the events of the previous film.

Instead of travelling to Fiji, Sinbad and his crew decide to spend their vacation on the tropical island of Krakatoa. While attempting to find a source of fresh water on the island, Marina and Spike run into a tribe of Cyclops who they have to defeat with the help of Sinbad, Kale and Rat. When Sinbad dislodges a large boulder during the fight, a volcano erupts and the island goes down in flames. Marina then suggests looking for a nicer destination for their next holiday, such as Pompeii.

While watching the short film on DVD, the viewer can choose to follow different characters to see different angles of the same story. The viewer can follow Sinbad, the duo of Kale and Rat, Marina, or Spike. Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Haysbert, and Adriano Giannini all reprised their roles from the original film. On VHS releases, the short film takes place after the movie ends before the credits roll and is placed in its entirety.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 45% based on 128 reviews with an average rating of 5.63/10. The site's consensus reads: "Competent, but not magical."[24] Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, has a score of 48 based on 33 reviews indicating "mixed or average reviews".[25]

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film writing that "Sinbad is a cartoon that does what matinee moviemakers of old never had the resources to do: allow their imagination to run amok in an ancient world that never existed -- but should have." He praised the animation and backgrounds as "lushly rendered by the animation artists, displaying details not only from the world according to Ray Harryhausen; but from the Greco-Roman world and Middle East. As with all good animation, these serve as backdrops to the comedy and adventure the characters encounter every second."[26] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3​1⁄2 stars and concluded that "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is another worthy entry in the recent renaissance of animation, and in the summer that has already given us Finding Nemo, it's a reminder that animation is the most liberating of movie genres, freed of gravity, plausibility, and even the matters of lighting and focus. There is no way that Syracuse could exist outside animation, and as we watch it, we are sailing over the edge of the human imagination".[27]

Claudia Puig, reviewing for USA Today, summarized that "Sinbad is a swashbuckling adventure saga that probably will appeal more to older kids. But it's not a wondrous tale. The effects are competent, the action has exciting moments and the story is interesting enough, but the parts don't add up to a compelling sum."[28] Todd McCarthy of Variety opined that "A passably entertaining animated entry from DreamWorks that's closer to The Road to El Dorado than to Shrek, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas tries too strenuously to contemporize ancient settings and characters for the sake of connecting with modern kids."[29] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times panned the film suggesting the film featured a "boatload of celebrities slumming through another not-quite-thawed adventure story." Additionally, he claimed "More thought and care were lavished on the design of the monsters than on the hand-drawn lead characters, who have the same kind of sketchy features as the stars of those animated Bible story cartoons sold on late-night infomercials."[30]

There was additional criticism for the film's departure from its Arabic origin.[1] Jack Shaheen, a critic of Hollywood's portrayal of Arabs, believed that "the studio feared financial and possibly political hardships if they made the film's hero Arab", and claimed that "If no attempt is made to challenge negative stereotypes about Arabs, the misperceptions continue. It's regrettable that the opportunity wasn't taken to change them, especially in the minds of young people". At one point, Shaheen asked Katzenberg to include some references to Arabic culture in the film. According to Shaheen, "[h]e didn't seem surprised that I mentioned it, which presumably means that it was discussed early on in the development of the film."[31]

Box office

On the film's opening weekend, the film earned $6.9 million and $10 million since its Wednesday start. It reached sixth place at the box office and faced early competition to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Finding Nemo, and Hulk.[32] The week after its release, the similarly themed film Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl premiered, in which Sinbad grossed $4.3 million finishing seventh.[33] The film closed on October 9, 2003, after earning $26.5 million in the United States and Canada and $54.3 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $80.7 million.[2]

Following the film's box office run, DreamWorks Animation suffered a $125 million loss on other projects that were not offset by Sinbad, leading Katzenberg to comment, "I think the idea of a traditional story being told using traditional animation is likely a thing of the past."[3][34]

Soundtrack

All music is composed by Harry Gregson-Williams, except as noted.

No.TitleLength
1."Let the Games Begin"3:04
2."The Book of Peace"1:41
3."The Sea Monster"3:32
4."Sinbad Overboard"3:27
5."Syracuse"1:16
6."Proteus Proposes"1:12
7."Eris Steals the Book"1:53
8."Lighting Lanterns"1:29
9."The Stowaway"2:35
10."Setting Sail"1:40
11."Sirens"3:22
12."Chipped Paint"2:52
13."The Giant Fish"1:05
14."Surfing"3:04
15."The Roc"2:00
16."Heroics"2:11
17."Rescue!"2:18
18."Is It the Shore or the Sea?"3:28
19."Tartarus"10:12
20."Marina's Love / Proteus' Execution"2:02
21."Sinbad Returns and Eris Pays Up"7:45
22."Into the Sunset / End Credits"2:22
Total length:1:04:30

Video game

A video game based on the film developed by Small Rockets and published by Atari was released on October 21, 2003 for Microsoft Windows.[35][36]

References
  1. Clarke, Seán (July 23, 2003). "Why Hollywood drew a veil over Sinbad's Arab roots". The Guardian.
  2. "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  3. Eller, Claudia; Hofmeister, Sallie (December 17, 2005). "DreamWorks Sale Sounds Wake-Up Call for Indie Films". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 11, 2013. The company nearly went bankrupt twice, Geffen said during a panel discussion in New York this year, adding that when the animated film "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" flopped in 2003, the resulting $125-million loss nearly sank his company.
  4. Rossio, Terry. "The One Hundred Million Dollar Mistake". Wordplayer. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  5. "Sinbad: 2/8/94 Treatment". Wordplayer. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  6. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (April 27, 2013). "Interview: Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio" (Interview). Interviewed by MJ Simpson. Blogger. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  7. "'Odyssey,' Sinbad, Pocahontas Getting Disney Treatment". Los Angeles Daily News. Chicago Tribune. July 2, 1992. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  8. Scott B. (July 1, 2003). "An Interview with John Logan". IGN. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  9. "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas Preview". Entertainment Weekly. April 25, 2003. Retrieved January 18, 2014.
  10. Galli, Peter (July 1, 2003). "Linux Plays Starring Role in Sinbad". eWeek. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  11. Butcher, Matt (April 24, 2002). "The stallion and the penguin: DreamWorks uses Linux to create new animated film". Linux Journal. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  12. Perez, Juan Carol (July 1, 2003). "Sinbad and Linux brave the high seas". InfoWorld. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  13. Shankland, Stephen (January 30, 2002). "DreamWorks switches to HP, Linux". ZDNet. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  14. Rowe, Robin (May 28, 2002). "Linux Dreamworks Redux". Linux Journal. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  15. Desowitz, Bill (July 16, 2003). "'Sinbad' Sets Sail on a New Journey into Water Surfaces". Animation World Network. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  16. DreamWorks SKG (May 12, 2003). "Atari Brings the Action of Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas to the Home PC; New PC Game To Be Based on Upcoming Major Motion Picture". Business Wire. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  17. "Sinbad Sails His Way Into Burger King" (Press release). ToyMania. Burger King. June 26, 2003. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  18. "DreamWorks, Hasbro in 'Sinbad' Toy Deal". Los Angeles Times. June 10, 2002. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  19. DreamWorks SKG (June 10, 2002). "DreamWorks SKG and Hasbro Team Up for Action-Packed G.I. JOE Figures Based On The New Animated Feature Property, 'Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas(TM)'". PR Newswire. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  20. Ball, Ryan (November 18, 2003). "Sinbad Sails Home". Animation Magazine. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
  21. Simon, Ben (November 10, 2003). "Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas". Animated Views. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  22. Chney, Alexandra (July 29, 2014). "DreamWorks Animation Q2 Earnings Fall Short of Estimates, SEC Investigation Revealed". Variety. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  23. "Flushed Away and Shark Tale Heading to Blu-ray (UPDATED)". Blu-ray.com. April 12, 2019. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  24. "Sinbad - Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  25. "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas". Metacritic. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  26. Honeycutt, Kirk (June 30, 2003). "Film Review: Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 7, 2003. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  27. Ebert, Roger (July 2, 2003). "Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas". Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  28. Puig, Claudia (July 1, 2003). "'Sinbad' is good but not legendary". USA Today. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  29. McCarthy, Todd (June 30, 2003). "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas Review". Variety. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  30. Mitchell, Elvis (July 2, 2003). "FILM REVIEW; A Selfish Adventurer With a Selfless Mission". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  31. Clarke, Seán (July 23, 2003). "Printing the legend". The Guardian. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  32. "He's back: 'Terminator 3' tops box office". Kitsap Sun. Associated Press. July 7, 2003. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  33. "Weekend Box Office Results for July 11-13, 2003". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  34. M. Holson, Laura (July 21, 2003). "Animated Film Is Latest Title To Run Aground At DreamWorks". The New York Times. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  35. Scott, Jonathan (October 21, 2003). "Sinbad Sails Into Stores". IGN. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  36. Krause, Staci (January 23, 2004). "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas Review". IGN. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.