Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tim Johnson Patrick Gilmore
Produced by	Jeffrey Katzenberg Mireille Soria Associate Producer: Jill Hopper
Screenplay by	John Logan
Starring	Brad Pitt Catherine Zeta-Jones Michelle Pfeiffer Joseph Fiennes
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Editing by	Tom Finan
Studio	DreamWorks Animation Stardust Pictures
Distributed by	DreamWorks Pictures (through Universal Pictures)
Release date(s)	July 4, 2003 (2003-07-04)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$80,767,884

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is a 2003 American animated swashbuckling fantasy aventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation, using traditional 2D animation with some 3D. This is the last DreamWorks animated film to use traditional animation, due to DreamWorks' decision that the American public were more interested in computer animation and the last film to use the DreamWorks logo used for live-action films. It covers the story of Sinbad (voiced by Brad Pitt), a pirate who travels the sea to recover the lost Book of Peace from Eris (voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer) in order to save his childhood friend, Prince Proteus (voiced by Joseph Fiennes), from accepting Sinbad's death sentence.

Plot

At the beginning of the film, Sinbad attempts to steal the magical "Book of Peace" while it travels to Syracuse, protected by Proteus; but is prevented when Cetus attacks the ship. Drawn underwater by Cetus, Sinbad is saved by Eris, who offers him any boon he desires in exchange for the Book of Peace. Sinbad and his crew go to Syracuse to steal the Book; but leave without doing so. Anticipating this, Eris steals the book and leaves Sinbad accused of the theft and sentenced to death; whereupon Proteus sends Sinbad to retrieve the book instead, placing himself as hostage, and Proteus's fiancée Marina (voiced by Catherine Zeta-Jones) goes to make sure that Sinbad succeeds. To prevent them, Eris sends a chorus of sirens, who entrance the men aboard Sinbad's ship but do not affect Marina, who pilots the ship to safety; and later a Roc, who captures Marina but is later slain by Sinbad.

After these and other incidents, Marina and Sinbad enter Eris's realm, where she reveals that her plan was to maneuver Proteus into Sinbad's place, leaving Syracuse without an heir, and agrees to surrender the Book if Sinbad truthfully tells whether he will return to Syracuse to accept blame. When he answers that he will, Eris calls him a liar, and returns him and Marina to the mortal world.

In Syracuse, the time allotted to Sinbad has elapsed, and Proteus is to be beheaded; but at the last minute, Sinbad appears to replace him. Furious at this, Eris saves him, quarrels with him, and returns the Book. Thereafter Sinbad leaves Syracuse on another voyage, leaving Marina behind. Proteus, seeing that Marina has fallen in love with Sinbad, releases her from their engagement and sends her to join Sinbad's ship.

Cast and characters

• Brad Pitt - Sinbad
• Catherine Zeta-Jones - Marina
• Michelle Pfeiffer - Eris
• Joseph Fiennes - Proteus
• Dennis Haysbert - Kale
• Adriano Giannini - Rat
• Timothy West - King Dymas
• Jim Cummings - Luca / Additional Voices
• Frank Welker - Spike

Reaction and box office

On opening weekend, the film earned $6,874,477 for a $2,227 average from 3,086 theaters, and $10,056,980 since its Wednesday start. It was a very disappointing opening as it only reached sixth place at the box office, behind Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Finding Nemo and Hulk. In its second weekend, the film lost 37% to $4,310,834 for a $1,396 average from 3,086 theaters and finishing seventh. The film closed on October 9, 2003 after earning $26,483,452 domestically with $54,284,432 overseas for a worldwide total of $80,767,884. Because the film performed poorly at the box office, Jeffrey Katzenberg later proclaimed that traditional animation was dead, as the American public seemed more interested in computer animation, which led to much controversy with directors and animators who worked with the traditional format.

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 46% of its critics gave positive reviews based on 120 reviews. Metacritic gave the film a 48/100 approval rating based on 33 reviews. However, Roger Ebert gave the film 3¹⁄₂ 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".

That the film removed the story from its Arabic context and places it in a Greek setting earned it some criticism. Jack Shaheen, a critic of Hollywood's portrayal of Arabs, believes 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.

Production

Sinbad is the first film to be produced fully using the Linux operating system.

The monsters and the backgrounds in the film are mostly computer-generated, while the human characters are hand-drawn.

Merchandising

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

Cyclops Island

Cyclops Island is a interactive short-film on the DVD, featuring an encounter with the eponymous Cyclopes.

External links

• Official website
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas at the Internet Movie Database
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas at AllRovi
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas at Box Office Mojo