The quest for the final piece takes the viewer into jungles, cities, and caverns.
An Oracle of All Knowledge provides guidance, while the villainous man in black cheats with a homunculus spy.
Vicious tribes and one-eyed centaurs lie in wait.
But when the corrupted centaur slays the griffin, only a man with a sword can win the day.
The man with the sword, who all of this happens to?
Oh, hes just some guy.
Image via Columbia Pictures
The stories were often bare-bones platforms on which to stage depictions of gods and monsters.
Significant pieces of the original folklore and mythology were often discarded or simplified to work in filmic terms.
Harryhausens Sinbad Trilogy Combined Adventure and Fantasy With Simplicity
Harryhausen’sSinbadtrilogy might be the purest example of this.
Image via Columbia Pictures
The details of Sinbads life arent even the same from film to film.
The voyages are all standalone works.
Hes a neer-do-well who blows his inheritance and is forced into a life at sea.
Neither quality is much in evidence in the Harryhausen Sinbad trilogy.
The same goes for those playing their crews and love interests.
At other times, his producerCharles Schneerconceded that their characters were often cardboard.
Many of these are better than Harryhausens films, and more pleasurable viewing experiences in my book.
But that doesnt make his work bad, or his approach wrong.
The fantasy itselfisa big selling point of entries in the genre.
Why not put them front and center?
Complexity isnt always a boon to a movie either.
Theres a lot to be said for simple done well over detailed done poorly or unevenly.
No, and its often not the preferable one.
