Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (or simply Sinbad) is a 2003 American animated fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore and written by John Logan, featuring the character Sinbad. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures, it stars the voices of Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, Joseph Fiennes, and Dennis Haysbert. The film tells the story of Sinbad (voiced by Pitt), a pirate who travels the sea with his dog and his loyal crew, alongside Marina (voiced by Zeta-Jones), the fiancée of his childhood friend Prince Proteus (voiced by Fiennes), to recover the stolen Book of Peace from Eris (voiced by Pfeiffer) to save Proteus from approving Sinbad's death sentence.
Development began when Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio developed the story of Sinbad in the vein of the story of Damon and Pythias before settling on a love triangle. The project was canceled in 1993, though Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to restart some ideas when he left the Walt Disney Company and co-founded DreamWorks Pictures in 1994 during the production of The Prince of Egypt (1998). Johnson, who attempted to direct his follow-up CGI animated film Tusker following Antz (1998), before eventually scrapped the project, was recruited to direct Sinbad and teamed with Gilmore. Like the studio's previous film, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), the film combines traditional animation and computer animation. The film blends elements from One Thousand and One Nights and classical mythology. The film's traditional animation and its final line services were provided by Stardust Pictures and Bardel Entertainment, with PDI/DreamWorks handling its computer animation technology and CG character animation. The score for the film was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams.
Sinbad was released on July 2, 2003, and received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the animation, action sequences, and voice performances, but criticized the storyline, polarizing CGI, and the film's departure from its Arab origin. Grossing $80 million on a $60 million budget, Sinbad was considered by analysts to be a box-office failure, causing DreamWorks to suffer a $125 million loss on a string of films. The film is also listed as one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time, which nearly bankrupted the studio. To date, this remains the last DreamWorks Animation feature film to use traditional animation before the studio discontinued it in favor of computer animation. DreamWorks, however, brought 2D animation back for the short film Bird Karma in 2018. Until the releases of Rise of the Guardians and Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken in 2012 and 2023 respectively, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas was DreamWorks Animation's biggest box office failure.
Plot
Sinbad and his pirate crew attempt to steal the magical Book of Peace, which is en route to Syracuse, Sicily, and hold it for ransom as one last job before retiring to Fiji. Sinbad is surprised to see it is being protected by his childhood best friend, Prince Proteus of Syracuse. Sinbad tries stealing the Book anyway, but his attempt is foiled when Cetus attacks the ship. Sinbad and Proteus work together to fight Cetus and for a moment reaffirm their bond. Though the beast is defeated, Sinbad is dragged off the ship and into the sea.
Sinbad is saved by the goddess of discord, Eris, who offers him any boon he desires in exchange for the Book of Peace. Sinbad and his crew go to Syracuse to steal the Book, but after seeing Proteus with his fiancé Lady Marina, Sinbad abandons the mission. Anticipating this, Eris disguises herself as Sinbad and steals the Book herself. Sinbad is sentenced to death, but Proteus intervenes and sends Sinbad to retrieve the Book instead, placing himself as a hostage. Marina stows away to make sure that Sinbad succeeds, and the two quickly argue over Sinbad's flippant attitude towards Proteus' situation. To stop them, Eris sends a group of mythical sirens, who entrance Sinbad and his men with their hypnotic singing voices. Unaffected, Marina pilots the ship to safety and wins the favor of the crew. However, she and Sinbad continue to clash. Eris sees this disharmony and sends in a roc which captures Marina. She is rescued by Sinbad, and they successfully defeat the creature. Afterwards, the two reconcile.
After these and other incidents, Sinbad and Marina talk in a brief moment of peace — Marina reveals that she had always dreamed of a life on the sea, and Sinbad reveals that he distanced himself from Proteus 10 years earlier because he loved Marina. They reach and enter Eris' realm, where the goddess reveals that her plan was to maneuver Proteus into Sinbad's place, leaving Syracuse to collapse into chaos without an heir. Eris makes a deal with Sinbad: she will ask him whether he will return to Syracuse and accept his execution if he does not get the Book of Peace, and if he answers truthfully, she will surrender the Book. She gives him her word that she will honor the deal, which even a god cannot break. When he answers that he will return, Eris calls him a liar, and returns him and Marina to the mortal world. Ashamed, Sinbad admits that Eris is right, truly believing himself as a liar. Having fallen in love with Sinbad, Marina tearfully urges him to flee, which he seemingly does.
In Syracuse, Proteus readies himself to be beheaded, but at the last minute, Sinbad appears and takes his place. An enraged Eris appears and shatters the executioner's sword, saving Sinbad, then chastises him for returning. Sinbad realizes that this was part of her test and he has won by proving his answer true after all. Eris, furious but unable to go back on her word as a goddess, begrudgingly gives the Book to Sinbad, then leaves to sow chaos elsewhere. With the true culprit revealed, Sinbad is pardoned and allowed to go free.
With the Book of Peace restored to Syracuse, Proteus and Sinbad part as friends once more. Sinbad and his crew prepare to leave on another voyage, leaving Marina in Syracuse. Unknown to him, Proteus sees that Marina has fallen in love with Sinbad and life on the sea, and releases her from their engagement, sending her to join Sinbad's ship. Marina surprises Sinbad by revealing her presence on the ship just as it begins to sail, and the two kiss. Now together, they and the crew set out on another voyage as the ship sails into the sunset.
Voice cast Brad Pitt as Sinbad, an Arab adventurous pirate and sailor who plans on retiring to Fiji. Catherine Zeta-Jones as Lady Marina, a Thracian ambassador to a fictional Syracuse, Proteus's fiancé, and Sinbad's love interest. Michelle Pfeiffer as Eris, the manipulative goddess of discord and chaos who wants to create destruction throughout the world. Joseph Fiennes as Prince Proteus of Syracuse, Sinbad's noble childhood-friend and Marina's fiancé. Dennis Haysbert as Kale, Sinbad's first mate and friend. Adriano Giannini as "Rat", an Italian lookout of Sinbad's crew. Timothy West as King Dymas of Syracuse, Proteus' father. Jim Cummings as Luca, an elderly member of Sinbad's crew. Cummings also voices an ambassador who leads Sinbad's trial. Conrad Vernon as Jed, a comically heavily armed member of Sinbad's crew. Raman Hui as Jin, an Asian member of Sinbad's crew who frequently makes bets with Li. Chung Chan as Li, an Asian member of Sinbad's crew who frequently makes bets with Jin. Andrew Birch as Grum and Chum, members of Sinbad's crew. Harvey (uncredited) as Spike, Sinbad's pet Mastiff whom Marina grows a soft spot for. Chris Miller as Tower Guard.
Production
Development Shortly after co-writing Aladdin (1992) for Disney, screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio came up with the idea of adapting the story of Sinbad the Sailor in the vein of the story of Damon and Pythias before settling on a love triangle. They wrote a treatment inspired by screwball romantic comedy films with Sinbad as a reserved apprentice cartographer who joins Peri, a free-spirited female smuggler, on an adventure and falls in love. The story was based largely on the Simbad comic book written and illustrated by Elena Poirier (1949–1956). In July 1992, Disney had announced they were adapting the story into a potential animated feature. The project was cancelled in 1993.
In 1994, Jeffrey Katzenberg had left Disney and co-founded DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. When The Prince of Egypt (1998) was in production, Katzenberg decided to restart some ideas that Disney had cancelled. Tim Johnson, who had directed Antz (1998), intended to direct his follow-up CGI animated film Tusker. Three years later, Shrek (2001) was released and because of the film's success, Katzenberg sat down with Johnson and proposed a more irreverent comedic approach to the project. Johnson explained, "There was so much success with this outrageous comedy [Shrek] that he didn't feel it was the right time to make a drama. So, Tusker got shelved." Johnson was later recruited to direct Sinbad and was teamed with Patrick Gilmore, a first-time director. Reflecting on the experience, Johnson stated the film "was a personal struggle" for him; he explained: "Making it was a joy. But it was a dramatic action adventure, and honestly, that's not where my instincts, sense of humor, and strengths are."
Shortly after writing the screenplay for Gladiator (2000), John Logan was approached by Katzenberg to write the script for an animated film. When he was offered the story of Sinbad, Logan researched the multiple tales of the character before settling on depicting the Greek and Roman versions. He described his first draft script as "very complex, the relationships were very adult. It was too intense in terms of the drama for the audience that this movie was aimed at."
Casting Russell Crowe was originally set to voice Sinbad, but he dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. He was replaced by Brad Pitt, who wanted to make a film that his nieces and nephews could see. He explained, "They can't get into my movies. People's heads getting cut off, and all that." Pitt had already tried to narrate DreamWorks' previous animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, but "it didn't work", with Matt Damon taking over the role. Pitt's purist intentions worried him that his Missourian accent would not be suitable for the Middle Eastern character, but was persuaded by the filmmakers that his accent would lighten the mood.
Michelle Pfeiffer, who voices Eris, the Goddess of Discord, had struggles with pinning down the character's personality, initially finding her "too sexual," and then too dull. After the third rewrite, Pfeiffer called Jeffrey Katzenberg and told him, "You know, you really can fire me," but he assured her that this was part of the process.
Animation In January 2001, it was reported that DreamWorks Animation would completely transfer their animation workflow into using the Linux operating system. Previously, their animation and rendering software had used Silicon Graphics Image servers and workstations, but as their hardware began to show slowness, DreamWorks began looking for an alternate platform for superior optimal performance in order to save hardware costs. In 2002, they decided to partner with Hewlett-Packard for a three-year deal for which they used their dual-processor HP workstations and ProLiant servers running Red Hat Linux software. Starting with Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), they had replaced its entire render farm with x86-based Linux servers.