Considered by many to be the best film to feature Ray Harryhausen’s ground-breaking stop-motion special effects, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is a rip-roaring adventure from 1958 that’s just as fun now, almost half a century later.
Sinbad (Matthews) and his crew battle a dragon and a cyclops (who deliciously rotates a few annoying sailors on a spit – a scene which will more likely delight kids than scare them) and save a princess who has been shrunk to just a few inches tall, but the best bit by far is our hero’s fight with a skeleton.
The dialogue is a bit ropey (and adults will spot the major plot twist a few miles away) but the effects are terrific, and if your kids like this one they should also see Harryhausen’s work on Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, Jason and the Argonauts and, if they’re a bit older, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Came from Beneath the Sea and Mysterious Island. (Dads, meanwhile, would probably prefer Harryhausen’s dinosaur epic One Million Years BC, mainly for a young Raquel Welch in a leather bikini).
Is The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
Little ones may find the living skeletons scary.
If you like this, why not try: Clash Of The Titans 1981, Jason And The Argonauts, Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger, Time Bandits, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad,