Sinbad's up to his old shenanigans again in 1974's "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad", finding artifacts and battling wizards, saving the kingdom and getting the girl. All in a voyage's work I suppose. I found this one a lot more enjoyable than "7th Voyage". While "7th" had arguably the more "classic" monsters, such as the cyclops, a dragon and a skeleton (among others), I found the effects work to be much better in this one. There are several sequences that I could rave on about, but I'd like to mention 2 in particular. There's a battle between a Centaur and a Griffon near the end and it's one of the most compelling shows of stop-motion animation I've ever seen. Harryhausen even gets the tail wagging right on this one. There's also a really well done battle between a group of sailors and a six armed sword god (Kali), a sequence beaten only by the skeleton battle in "Jason and the Argonauts" in terms of sheer epicness.This one's a little darker in tone than the other Harryhausens I've reviewed up to date. The wizardry on show isn't just puffing smoke and fairy dust, it has consequences. You see the conniving wizard get visibly older each time he casts a spell. The characterizations aren't as one dimensional either. The wizard's helper seems to have a conscience, begging his master to stop using magic. Additionally Sinbad seems to be a moral man, freeing slaves and valuing human life over valuable objects. But don't let this rambling on about emotional depth get to you. It's just a bit more developed than most of the fantasy camp that came out of that era.
Next up is "20 Million Miles to Earth"
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