YMMV / The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Sokurah's dragon; was it a truly evil monster that needed to be destroyed, or simply another victim of the evil magician? The fact that it never tried to attack Sinbad and Parisa doesn't make the issue any clearer. In fact, it breathes fire only twice, after Sinbad was a safe distance away, perhaps only as a show of general irritation?
• Awesome Music: Bernard Herrmann's incredible score. The main title theme alone sets up the film's tone.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The Cyclops is quite possibly the most famous character in the film. It's usually the first thing people think of when they think of this movie thanks to its incredible but bizarre design and it's on every poster or promotional material for the film. It remains one of Ray Harryhausen's iconic creatures.
  • The Skeleton that Sinbad fights thanks to being one of the best fight scenes in the film. Also, because it serves as the precursor to an even more iconic fight in Jason and the Argonauts.
  • Sokurah's Dragon thanks to its implied Tragic Monster traits. But its fight with the Cyclops very much helps its popularity.
• Funny Moments:
  • The men finding out the river Sokura says is poison "tastes like choice wine". Then getting drunk on it.
  • Haroufa's reaction when Sinbad works out how to avoid being affected by the wailing demons. "Now we won't be driven mad. We'll just be eaten by sea monsters."
  • The ruler of Chandra's reaction to his daughter's horror when a serpent is placed in the same jar as her maidservant Sadi. "Allah have mercy on them. Both."
  • The mutineers leader's reaction to Sokura's prophecy of madness. "Oh, save me, great magician!"
  • The dance one of the crew performs when finding the treasure of the Cyclops.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: On one hand, we have our Big Bad Sokurah who wants the magic lamp for his own nefarious schemes and shrunk Princess Parisa. Yet he is very hard to hate thanks to his Faux Affably Evil demeanor and Torin Thatcher’s hammy yet charismatic performance. We can’t even hate the monsters since they are cool. Parisa’s father, The Sultan of Chandra on the other hand is a straight up jerk. He seems far to eager to find a reason to be displeased with Baghdad despite his daughter’s happiness with Sinbad. But then he straight up threatens the Caliph of Baghdad with war after finding his daughter shrunk by Sokurah. Fully blaming them for Parisa’s predicament instead of the mysterious sorcerer who he himself saw perform his dark arts the night before.
• Narm: Sokurah's campus shocked reaction to his lamp being destroyed.
• Narm Charm: While the stop motion isn't as convincing as it once was, it still holds up for its brilliant animation and attention to detail.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: This is arguably where Ray Harryhausen first really showed his chops as the greatest stop-motion animator of all time.
  • The cyclops.
  • The skeleton fight. Kerwin Matthews had to swordfight empty air, with a broomstick for reference where the skeleton would be. Although this kind of thing is common now with modern special effects, this was one of the first times something like that was ever attempted, and the choreography still holds up!
• World of Ham: And glorious ham it is!

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