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Protagonists
Sinbad
Voiced by: Brad Pitt
The titular protagonist.
- Anti-Hero: While Sinbad proves to have nobility and courage, he's also a thieving pirate captain who initially attempted not to return to Syracuse even though his best friend's life was on the line.
- Betty and Veronica: The "Veronica" (an adventurous pirate Captain who has known Marina for a short time) to Proteus's "Betty" (known Marina for 10 years and is a responsible Prince) for Marina's "Archie".
- Chick Magnet: It's not a very prominent trait because there are only two important female characters in the film, but Marina eventually falls for him and Eris is awfully fond of getting all up in his personal space to flirt with him. Marina also finds a bra in his cabin that she identifies as something from a brothel, so he's clearly experienced with women.
- Did Not Think This Through: Some of his plans turn out this way.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: He won the deal and got Eris to restore the Book of Peace. It was less because he outwitted her and more that Eris underestimated the quality of his character.
- Dual Wielding: He's normally depicted wielding two swords at once.
- Going Commando: After Spike bites his backside to pull him away from the Sirens, we see through a hole in his pants that he's evidently not wearing anything underneath them.
- Heroes Love Dogs: One of his crewmates, Spike, is a dog and is openly affectionate with him.
- Hidden Depths: There's some nobility in him. It's also a plot point; one of the reasons Eris loses is because she doesn't think he has any.
- Hunk: He's muscular and quite handsome.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A thieving, selfish pirate, no doubt. But he's not without a heart. He's also willing to give up his own life to save Proteus's.
- Lovable Rogue: A pirate captain with wit, fighting skill, and a sense of honor.
- Not Me This Time: He really didn't steal the Book of Peace... yet. He was merely framed for it. Sadly, only Proteus believes him (and even he wasn't convinced at first until Sinbad gave a genuine response).
- Official Couple: With Marina.
- Protagonist Title: "Sinbad and the X of the X".
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Subverted. He's a thieving pirate who wears red and black, but he's an Anti-Hero at worst.
- Red Is Heroic: His color scheme is red and despite his many faults, he's still a good guy at heart.
- Second Love: For Marina. She was originally in love with Proteus, but doing her adventure with Sinbad, she begins to fall in love with him.
- Single-Target Sexuality: In a conversation with Marina, he admits that she's the woman he's ever really loved.
- Stay in the Kitchen: He's not initially very fond of letting a woman board his ship, and even after he realizes said woman saved the entire crew from certain doom, he's still too proud to admit it. He eventually grows out of it later, though.
- Take Me Instead: When he fails at Eris's game to win back the Book of Peace, instead of running away with Marina, Sinbad chooses to return to Syracuse and take Proteus's place on the cutting block. Subverted, as his execution is interrupted by Eris, outraged for being proven wrong.
- Ungrateful Bastard: At first. His plan after his best friend took his place and risked his own life for Sinbad's sake? Go to Fiji. In his defense there, Dymas was not going to let his son get killed, which Sinbad anticipated, but it doesn't work. He also announces that he does it for the money, not for Proteus. And after Marina saved him, the crew and the Chimera from death by the Sirens? He yells at her for causing damage to the ship, including chipping the paint. Everyone else wasn't fond of that.
- Unlikely Hero: A notorious thief and pirate in charge of rescuing a prized artifact? Heaven, help them.
- We Used to Be Friends: He and Proteus used to be best friends, but grew estranged when Sinbad left for the sea and took to piracy. It's later revealed that the reason he left was because he had feelings for Marina, who was engaged to Proteus, and left to avoid resenting his friend.
Marina
Voiced by: Catherine Zeta-Jones
The deuteragonist who longs for adventure and is the fiance of Proteus.
- Action Girl: Whether it's battling sirens or swordfighting, Marina can hold her own.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted. She's not at all in love with Sinbad precisely because he's a bad boy, unlike Proteus who is a Nice Guy. It's only after Sinbad saves her life and shows his more noble personality traits that she does fall in love with him.
- Arranged Marriage: With Proteus 10 years prior to the film. He called it off when he realized that Marina fell in love with Sinbad.
- Betty and Veronica: The "Archie" for Sinbad's "Veronica" (an adventurous pirate Captain who has known Marina for a short time) to Proteus's "Betty" (known Marina for 10 years and is a responsible Prince).
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's demure, lady-like, and friendly. Can still give a hard punch and be assertive when the need arises.
- Blue Is Heroic: Her main color scheme is blue and she's definitely a selfless, brave heroine.
- Boyish Short Hair: Averted. She has the hairstyle, but is quite ladylike.
- Deuteragonist: The second main focus after Sinbad.
- Dude Magnet: Proteus fell head over heels in love with her as did Sinbad. Sinbad's crew also take a liking to her.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She is a Proper Lady through and through. She also dreams of sailing and can swordfight.
- Hidden Depths: An ambassador who longs for adventure and sailing on the open sea. She's also skilled at sailing herself, and after only a short while aboard knows the features of Sinbad's ship — like its hidden blades — and its crew by name.
- I Just Want to Be Free: As stated in her Hidden Depths section, Marina longs to go on adventures.
- Meaningful Name: "Marina" means "sea" in Latin, and at the end she joins Sinbad and his crew for new adventures in the sea.
- Ms. Fanservice: Marina is not only sweet, but also beautiful, cute and good looking.
- Nice Girl: Marina is polite, kind, and heroic.
- Official Couple: With Sinbad.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Inverted. Many would say she looks better in scruffy Pirate Girl attire than her more elegant ambassador outfit.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Marina had no objections marrying Proteus because of his kind personality, but she ultimately fell for Sinbad. It wasn't because of his lovable rogue status, but how he saved her from death, and proved countless times that he was indeed a brave and selfless person.
- The Smurfette Principle: The only female on Sinbad's crew when they go to find the Book. Then, after she officially joins.
- Spanner in the Works: If not for Marina, Sinbad really would have fled just like Eris expected him to which in turns leads to her entire plan unraveling.
- Tsundere: Marina is a Type B for Sinbad.
- Uptown Girl: She, an ambassador, falls in love with Sinbad, a pirate.
Proteus
Voiced by: Joseph Fiennes
The prince from Syracuse, Sinbad's oldest friend, and Marina's fiance.
- Arranged Marriage: With Marina 10 years prior to the film. He called it off when he realized that Marina fell in love with Sinbad.
- Betty and Veronica: The "Betty" (known Marina for 10 years and is a responsible Prince) to Sinbad's "Veronica" (an adventurous pirate Captain who has known Marina for a short time) for Marina's "Archie".
- Beware the Nice Ones: Retroactive example. He proves his swordfighting One-Man Army skills before he demonstrates his kind personality.
- Blue Is Heroic: Like Marina, the overall color of his clothing is blue. He's also a major Nice Guy.
- Disposable Fiancé: At the end of the movie, he willingly steps aside so that Sinbad and Marina can be together.
- Distressed Dude: Willingly invoked. He hands himself over as a prisoner in Sinbad's place to give his friend the chance to find and return the Book of Peace, and his life hangs in the balance if Sinbad fails or chooses not to return. His father does try to rescue him, but he refuses to escape because he truly believes in his old friend.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Proteus willingly took Sinbad's place when he was accused of stealing the Book.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The reason why he lets Marina go with Sinbad in the end.
- Nice Guy: One of the best examples. If it wasn't his overall decent demeanor or absolute faith in Sinbad that cementified him as one, then it was ending his arranged marriage with Marina because he found out that she fell in love with Sinbad.
- One-Man Army: Before getting distracted by Sinbad, Proteus was able to take on a number of members from Sinbad's crew.
- The Power of Trust: The only reason the mortal world didn't tumble into chaos was because Proteus trusted that Sinbad would save him, and was ultimately right.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Eris lampshades this, saying Marina was the only woman Proetus ever loved.
- Warrior Prince: He's the prince of Syracuse and can hold his own. He can duel Sinbad to a standstill and has to be dogpiled to be effectively taken out of the fight.
- We Used to Be Friends: He and Sinbad were the best of friends, before the latter went out to the sea. It turns out that Sinbad left because Proteus was engaged to Marina, the woman Sinbad fell instantly in love with. And not wanting to resent his best friend, he left for the sea.
Sinbad's Crew
From left to right: Chum, Jed, Jin, Li, Grum, Luca, Kale. At top: Rat
Voiced by: Dennis Haysbert (Kale), Adriano Giannini (Rat), Jim Cummings (Luca), Conrad Vernon (Jed), Raman Hui (Jin), Chung Cham (Li), Andrew Birch (Grum and Chum),
Sinbad's loyal, if quirky crew.
- The Big Guy: Kale, who also doubles as The Lancer.
- Chivalrous Pervert: All the men become quite taken with Marina much faster than Sinbad does. Especially after she ends up saving their lives and the crews from the Sirens.
- The Consigliere: Kale's probably the most emotionally intelligent character in the movie.
- Hammerspace: Jed is somehow able to carry an impressive arsenal of weapons and tools. It can take a while to unload all of them.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Lovable pirate crew.
- Scary Black Man: Kale is a heroic(well, anti-heroic) variant.
- Secret-Keeper: Kale's aware of Sinbad's past with Proteus and Marina.
- Shipper on Deck: All of them are smiling when Sinbad and Marina are about to reunite.
- Side Bet: Jin and Lin make a Running Gag out of their bets.
- Undying Loyalty: Even though they make fun at their captain, they all are with him to the end.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With each other and to Sinbad, their captain.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Rat and Kale. Mostly Kale.Sinbad: Oh, get a shirt on, before you poke someone's eye out!
- What the Hell, Hero?: After Marina saves their bacon from the sirens and Sinbad is too proud to say thanks, the entire crew, including Spike, glares at him. Only then does Sinbad grudgingly thank Marina.
Spike
- Voiced by: Harvey, a real-life bulldog
Sinbad's dog.
- Action Pet: The pet dog and he "attacks" his enemies by licking them continuously.
- Big Eater: Scarfs down an entire platter of food.
- Big Friendly Dog: He licks his enemies.
- Morality Pet: A mild and literal example to Sinbad; Spike gets Sinbad to properly thank Marina for saving his and the other crew's lives. This was after Spike gave Sinbad a silent What the Hell, Hero? look.
- Silent Snarker: When silently calling out Sinbad's insensitivity and ungratefulness after Marina saved the entire crew from certain death.
Villains
Eris
- Voiced by: Michelle Pfeiffer
The Goddess of Chaos and the Big Bad of the film.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: The ancient depictions we've still got of Eris portray her as a monstrous bird-woman nowhere near as sexy as she is in this movie. Lampshaded when Sinbad notes that her likeness on the temple walls don't do her justice.
- Adaptational Badass: Eris in the myths was a minor goddess who's best known for indirectly kicking off the Trojan War via the Judgement of Paris. Here she's significantly more impressive in her schemes, commands enormous monsters, and rules over Tartarus itself.
- Big Bad: A combination of her evil plan and her boredom are what kickstart the plot.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Being the Goddess of Chaos, Eris causes Chaos whenever she can and whenever she feels like it. Though she lets Sinbad and Marina leave Tartarus unharmed after they make it there and doesn't try to harm anyone after confronting Sinbad at the end, she hasn't changed in any way, and this doesn't rule out the possibility of revenge in the future.
- Deadpan Snarker: She's a god, but it doesn't stop her from having a wit to her.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Although very beautiful, to contrast everyone else in the film, Eris is deathly pale and her hair is the darkest color in the story. Naturally, she is also the villain.
- Eldritch Location: Tartarus, which may or may not contain the planet Earth.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Downplayed. She can predict the actions of openly good people like Proteus. She is less apt at predicting Sinbad because she believes he is cut from the same cloth as her.
- Evil Is Hammy: Her tone is typically restrained, but she likes to constantly alter her size or shift back and forth between being solid to being made of smoke simply for the sake of being chaotic or emphasize a point. When introducing herself to Sinbad she tries to make herself look more impressive for no reason other than to show off.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Is fond of her pets, the constellations (the ones that depict beasts or monsters), which are sentient in this story.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride. She assumes she knows exactly how mortals will always act and can't predict a less than heroic one like Sinbad doing something selfless. Her entire plan is ruined because she offered to give Sinbad the Book of Peace if he offered his life in place of Proteus and never actually expected him to go through with it. She's also visibly annoyed when Sinbad has no idea who she is.
- Faux Affably Evil: She rarely raises her voice and acts flirtatious towards Sinbad, but she also delights in the prospect of watching Syracuse fall into chaos, causing plenty of deaths.
- Fog Feet: Her dress never truly touches the ground and dissolves into wisps of smoke.
- For the Evulz: Her primary motivation. Justified, as she's the Goddess of Chaos.
- Giant Woman: This is her default form.
- God of Chaos: She is the goddess of chaos, and her primary motivation is the sowing of strife, disorder, and calamity for their own sake. This is also reflected in her appearance, which is constantly shifting, turning into smoke, and reforming, never stable or at rest.
- Graceful Loser: She returns the Book of Peace once Sinbad points out he held up his end of his bargain with her. Possibly crossing into Pragmatic Villainy, as since as the Goddess of Chaos, Eris would hardly enjoy being bound for all of eternity no matter what she'd win in the process.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: And who's more graceful than a Hot Goddess?
- Hot Goddess: Eris takes the form of a tall, rather attractive, though sinister, woman.
- Humanoid Abomination: Eris may look human (well, human enough) but the place she resides in and her ability to casually warp reality tells a different story. The way she's animated certainly helps; her form is constantly moving and shifting, and she seems to be physically more 3-dimensional than the other characters, making her look generally otherworldly.
- I Gave My Word: The reason why she gives back the book in the end. Counts also as Shown Their Work as, in Greek Mythology, always keeping their promises was one of the few rules the gods had to follow no matter what.
- Jerkass Gods: She is an evil god who wants to cause chaos among mortals simply because she loves chaos.
- Karma Houdini: She's a goddess, and therefore can't be harmed or punished. Although, for a goddess, being proven fallible is punishment enough, especially when it's by a mere mortal.
- Loves the Sound of Screaming: Implied, if what she says before unleashing the roc is any indication:"Enough talking! Time for some screaming."
- Ms. Fanservice: She doesn't exactly "show off" as much as many examples, but she consistently radiates low-key sex appeal whenever she shows up; she has a breathy, sultry voice and tends to move about in slinky and sensuous ways (occasionally hinting at a nice figure beneath that dress of hers whenever she does), and her dynamic with Sinbad in particular is playful and flirty. And then there's her Bathtub Scene, as brief as it is...
- Non-Action Big Bad: Eris works through schemes and monstrous minions; neither she nor the heroes even suggest the idea of a direct fight, assuming such a thing were even possible.
- No Sense of Personal Space: When offering her deal with Sinbad she physically flirts with him and more teleports to right behind his back.
- Perpetually Protean: Eris cannot seem to stay in one shape for long, constantly shifting into an amorphous smoke.
- Reality Warper: Justified being a goddess, especially as she's the Goddess of Chaos.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: She keeps these eyes when she's disguised as Sinbad.
- Restraining Bolt: Self inflicted. When she makes a promise, she has to uphold it whether she wants to or not. This is made especially clear when Sinbad points out that she would have to return the book if he was truthful, which he was, followed by her trying to crush him only to be forced to relent.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: Her appearance as a beautiful woman.
- Sizeshifter: As a Goddess, she can give herself the size she wants.
- Supernatural Floating Hair: It behaves as if underwater, but obviously isn't.
- Too Clever by Half: She is clever but not as much as she thinks. She considers mortals to be predictable, and assumes that Sinbad is as rotten as she is. She doesn't take it well when she realizes she was wrong about him.
- Villainous Breakdown: A Downplayed Trope in that while she's relatively calm and a Graceful Loser, it's still very clear that she is absolutely pissed at being outwitted by Sinbad.
- Villainous Crush: Downplayed. She expresses attraction to Sinbad and flirts with him almost every time they interact, but it's not obsessive (and she's not above considering literally crushing him when he points out at the end that he fulfilled his promise, meaning she has to give the Book of Peace back).
- Villainous Rescue: She's not happy about it, but since she promised to return the Book of Peace if Sinbad returned to Syracuse to die in place of Proteus, she has no choice but to save him and return the book.
- Visual Pun: When watching the heroes through a bubble in her bubble bath, Eris grabs one of the bubbles from the bubble bath she's taking, blows on it and shakes it to cause a blizzard, maybe referencing snow globes.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: A more creative one than most, as seen when she impersonates Sinbad himself by conjuring a puppet/costume that looks like him and slipping into its skin. Though she still retained her Glowing Eyes.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: She's more restrained in reaction but is clearly annoyed when Sinbad doesn't know who she is.
Monsters
Eris's monsters.
- Animalistic Abomination: All of them except the Sirens, which are humanoid. Eris's pets, for example, are actually constellations.
- Celestial Body: Most of them have dark bodies covered in stars. This makes sense considering many of them are based on constellations.
- Combat Tentacles: Cetus has these.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The Sirens are capable of hypnotizing human men with their music, but the effect does not work on women or animals, making Marina and Spike capable of saving the crew.
- Death Is Cheap: Possibly, seeing as Cetus returns to Tartarus after it's killed and Eris generally doesn't seem to be upset when Sinbad and his crew kill them.
- Feathered Fiend: The Roc is a giant, monstrous bird.
- Feed It a Bomb: Sinbad tries this with Cetus, but all it does is regurgitate one of the sailors it had Eaten Alive earlier.
- Giant Flyer: The Roc.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Sirens take on the appearance of sinister women comprised entirely of water.
- An Ice Person: The Roc manages to freeze an entire island simply by showing up.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: The Roc attempts to do this to Sinbad and Marina.
- Kraken and Leviathan: Cetus is of the Kraken variety (the original Cetus is thought to have looked more like a whale, hence the name).
- Magic Music: The Sirens, of course, can hypnotize human men with their songs.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Cetus is a mix of a squid, a fish and a dragon, with a long tongue like a chameleon. The Roc is a giant owl with claws on its wings that help it crawl around on all fours like a bat or a pterosaur.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: Kill them, and they just turn back into constellations.
- Ominous Owl: The Roc.
Word of God states that they studied real life snowy owls to get a good idea of what the animal would be like. - Our Monsters Are Different: The animators decided to get really creative with these critters. The Cetus looks like a giant draconic cephalopod, the Roc is a giant owl with bat-like or pterosaur-like claws on its wings and the Sirens are water elementals.
- Our Sirens Are Different: The Sirens appear as watery women.
- Overly-Long Tongue: Cetus.
- Roc Birds: The Roc itself, obviously.
- Rule of Cool: The film takes some liberties with the monsters' designs, as the original depictions of them were fairly conservative by comparison and thus not as visually interesting. For example, the original Cetus looked kind of like a whale and the original Roc is generally thought to have looked like an eagle or a vulture (and didn't have ice powers). Inverted with the Sirens, which are fairly standard elemental creatures while the original myths presented them as bizarre bird-woman hybrids.
- Sadly Mythtaken: Cetus was the sea monster sent by Poseidon that Perseus slew to save Andromeda and had no relation to Eris in the myths. It also was said to resemble a whale rather then the dragon -squid hybrid it is here.
- Sea Monster: Cetus, the Starter Villain.
- Slasher Smile: The Sirens flash these at Marina at one point, giving her a hint to their true evil nature.
- Taking You with Me: After Sinbad and Proteus kill Cetus, the dead sea monster slides back into the sea, and its tentacles nearly take Proteus with it. Sinbad pushes him out of the way and gets swept underwater himself, where he meets Eris.
- Tentacled Terror: Cetus.
- Turtle Island: The trope itself appears at one point. Quick thinking on Sinbad and Marina's part allows the crew to use it to their advantage by latching onto it and letting it drag them along, saving a lot of time on the journey.
