7th Voyage of Sinbad, The (Blu-ray)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Video:
In 1080p (AVC/MPEG-4 codec) "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" looks better than ever. This was a low-budget film and the film stock and camera equipment wasn't exactly top-of-the-line, but there are plenty of places where figures in the foreground display an astounding sharpness and edge detail. Then there are those exteriors where the atmospheric grain is so heavy you just have to remind yourself this is an old film and a cheap film that's been lovingly restored and preserved. I've seen the restored and remastered DVD as well, and the Blu-ray has significantly more detail and a nice 3-dimensionality.

Audio:
Sony has gone with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 on the Harryhausen titles, and this one has English and French audio tracks plus a Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 and (for purists) the original Mono track in English, restored. The TrueHD does a good job of channeling effects so that the rear speakers feel a part of the action, though the volume isn't so loud that they compete with the dialogue and music that dominates the front center and mains. The bass is strong but not overly pulsing, and the treble is bright, though perhaps a little on the metallic side.

Extras:
Like the other films in the Sony Harryhausen collection, this one contains some nice bonus features. Harryhausen offers a commentary with visual effects experts Phil Tippett and Randall William Cook, author Steven Smith, and Arnold Kunert. Like the other commentaries, there's some overlapping, but if you like Harryhausen's work you enjoy just listening to the master speak. Then there's "Remembering the 7th Voyage of Sinbad," a roughly 23-minute feature in which Harryhausen is shown talking alone in front of a black-and-white sketch screen, with plenty of rough sketches and models-the coolest photo showing the models on the floor of Harryhausen's house, with the special effects master kneeling down by them. He talks about how studios told him "costume pictures were dead," and that he filed away his models and got the film made years later when Columbia Pictures acquiesced. Those are the coolest features. Rounding out the extras are short features on "The Harryhausen Legacy" and "The Music of Bernard Herrmann," a photo gallery, a repeat of the John Landis interview with Ray Harryhausen, a "This is Dynamation" teaser and three-minute feature, and an audio presentation of "Sinbad May Have Been Bad, But He's Been Good to Me," set to a full-color sideshow of lobby cards and movie posters.

Bottom Line:
Harryhausen has to be pleased with the treatment his films have been getting from Sony Pictures. The studio has recognized him as the bona fide star of B-movies that he is, and have remastered and restored some of his best loved films. This title is part of the "Ray Harryhausen Blu-ray Collection," but like "20 Million Miles to Earth" it's also available singly. I suspect that the other two films in the collection will be too. If you're into adventure and wanting a good old-fashioned family film, rather than being diehard Harryhausen fans, then this film is a great place to start.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---