Back in 1958 The 7th Voyage of Sinbad became the sleeper hit of that year with a mere $650,000 budget, the film has become a cult favorite and thru the years its popularity and influence on special effects artist, film directors, producers and legions of fans cannot be mistaken. The film would become Ray Harryhausen's first experiment with color, previously all of Charles H. Schneer's film's were black and white which made the animation process easier for Ray. Ray was mostly known for rampage films such as It came from beneath the Sea, One Million Miles to Earth, Earth Vs the Flying Saucers and Mighty Joe Young. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad took us to the world and stories of Sinbad, legendary sailor of the 1001 Arabian Night Tales. The story revolves around the discovery of an island inhabited by a race of giant Cyclopes amazingly created by the craftsmanship of Ray Harryhausen, and a genie of a magical lamp with amazing powers. When Sinbad (Kerwin Matthews) and crew arrive on the island they are joined by Sokurah the magician (Torin Thatcher) who is obsessed with the lamp's powers. They escape the clutches of the creature but in the midst of the attack the Cyclops steals the lamp from Sokurah. They return to Bagdad but the Sokurah uses his evil powers to turn Princess Parrissa (Kathryn Grant) to the size of a human thumb, the only cure is a piece of shell from a giant bird called the Roc a bird that can only be found on the high peaks of Colossa. Sinbad is forced to create a crew of misfits from the Caliphs (Alec Mango) prison yard and return to the island with this crew along with Sokurah. After a mutiny and a close encounter with an island of Wailing Demons, Sinbad an crew make it back to Colossa. But before the princess can be turn back to normal Sinbad must battle two more Cyclopes, the giant bird the Roc, the guardian Dragon and a long dead skeleton warrior brought back to life by Sokurah. Can Sinbad defeat all these fantastic creatures and save the princess from the sadistic Sokurah? well watch the movie and find out!

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad has some of Ray harryhausen's best work with such memorable creatures as the Cyclopes, the Dragon and that very memorable fight with the living Skeleton which seems to be a prelude to the seven skeletons seen in Jason and the Argonauts a few years later. The film is fun to watch from the very beginning to the end and the arousing soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann is second to none. The acting is not the best out there but who can be so judgemental with a film like this? its so fun that you enjoy the acting no matter how bad it is! bottom line this film is fun that will appeal to both kids and adults. Just look at the legions of fans that this film has spawned! The film was released in 1958 and went on to be a huge success at the box office that year. This film allowed Ray and Charles get away from second rate films and into the mainstream and allowed them to make bigger and better projects in the coming years.

Creatures to look out for:

Trivia:

• The palace of the Caliph was filmed at the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.

• The cost of all the miniatures and armatures was a mere $75,759!

• During the filming of the wailing demons sequence Kerwin Mathews was running a temperature of 103! due to the dirty harbor water used in sequence.

• The term Dynamation was born from this film.

• The first name of the film was "Sinbad the Sailor" then "The Adventures of Sinbad" and finally "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad."

• It took Ray 11 months to complete the entire animation sequences for the film.