Normally on Speculative Fiction Saturday, I try to talk about films that talk about the future an where we are going, technologically-speaking. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is the first film that I have talked about that is fantasy, like that DawnSinger book I talked about a while ago.

Sinbad is really a lesson in technology that we just haven’t learned. You see, the film was released in the summer of 2003, and you might remember another memorable film that was released at the same time. I am talking about Finding Nemo. I don’t know why in the world two films that are equally good cannot have an equal amount of success. I mentioned in my Speed Racer review that more people just went to see Iron Man again rather than this 2008 film. I think this is why John Carter of Mars failed, because The Hunger Games was released at the same time. I can’t explain why this summer is so full of bad eggs, though.

Sinbad cost about 60 million to make, and it didn’t even make hardly a tenth of its budget back. In the eyes of a studio, this is considered a failure. Never mind that the story is good, the animation looks beautiful, and the moral message is incredible.

I am not certain why Dreamworks went with Sinbad. Sinbad is rooted in Arabian legend, and he has been on screen several times. Most notably are the Ray Harryhausen films, with its use of stop-and-go animated monsters. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is more of a character-driven story, relying very little on giant creatures from epic myths and more about how Sinbad must sacrifice his own will for the sake of a friend who is willing to do the same.

Sinbad starts when he meets an old friend named Proteus who is transporting a Book of Peace to Syracuse. The Book of Peace would be the MacGuffin device in this film, the relatively small event that starts the action in this film. Eris, the goddess of chaos, steals this book, but makes certain Sinbad takes the blame. Sinbad is about to be sentenced for the crime, and, in an odd twist, Proteus believes that his old friend is innocent. In fact, Proteus is willing to pay the full price for the crime. Yes, this is an incredible symbol for the substitution of Christ as punishment for sins.

The film is then about what Sinbad will do after his friend takes his place. It is then a journey about getting the Book of Peace back, which involves an epic journey into Tartarus. There is an interesting twist at the end that shows that bad people aren’t as bad as they claim to be, and how a little love can send them in the right direction.

The sad part of this film is that both Disney and Dreamworks were making decisions that nearly killed traditional 2-D animation. I believe that Dreamworks closed their 2-D animation department, which means the beautiful style of The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, and Sinbad: The Legend of the Seven Seas is truly gone.