'' is a
Technicolor 1958 Fantasy Film directed by
Nathan Juran , and the first of the "
Sinbad Trilogy " conceptualized and animated by Ray Harryhausen.
Kerwin Matthews as the legendary sailor
Sinbad . To save a princess (who has been shrunk down to the size of a thumb) from the evil wizard, Sakourah (
Torin Thatcher ), Sinbad must battle several fabulous monsters. The monsters include
Cyclops , a
Two-headed Roc (a giant bird), and a
Dragon .
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- The term "Dynamation" was first used for this film.
- A soundtrack album of Bernard Herrmann 's score was released on Columbia's record label, Colpix. In later years it would become one of the most sought after albums by soundtrack collectors.
- Alfred Brown is dubbed.
- The film's original script had a climax that involved two cyclopes fighting. However in the final film, The climactic battle featured a cyclops fighting a dragon.
- To overcome this concept animator Ray Harryhausen gave the Cyclops furry goat legs and cloven hooves, an idea lifted from his first concept of the Ymir (the monster from '' 20 Million Miles To Earth ''). Interestingly, he used the same armature for both creatures.
- Originally it was planned to have the Dragon breathing fire out of its mouth during the fight sequence with the Cyclops but the cost to do this would have been too high. For the scenes where the Dragon does breathe fire, Harryhausen used a flamethrower against a night sky and shot it at about 30 to 40 feet, then he superimposed the shot in the area close to the Dragon's mouth.
- The actual model of the Dragon was over three feet long and very difficult to animate, this made the fight between him and the Cyclops very difficult for Ray Harryhausen , which took him two to three weeks to complete.
- It took Ray Harryhausen 11 months to complete the entire animation sequences for the film.
The Cyclops is the film's most popular character, but Ray's personal favorite was the snakewoman, a combanation of Princess Parrissa's maid, Sadi, and a cobra.
