His name was Sinbad, conqueror of the seven oceans.
"It all happened many, many years ago, when our Earth was such a very little lonely grain of sand, lost in a myriad of stars. It was in those early days of mankind that a great hero was born. The bravest man ever born, and naturally, he was a prince. The greatest prince of the seas."
Sinbad of the Seven Seas is a 1989 fantasy adventure film directed by Enzo G Castellari (until the studio went bankrupt and production ceased) and Luigi Cozzi (who was later brought in to finish it), and starring Lou Ferrigno (known primarily as the title character in The Incredible Hulk) as Sinbad the Sailor, on a quest to retrieve the four sacred gems of Basra and save Princess Alina (and the entire caliphate) from the clutches of the evil wizard Jaffar.
Sinbad of the Seven Seas provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Kyra ends up kicking some Mook ass during the final assault on Jaffar's palace.
- And Show It to You: Sinbad defeats the leader of the demonic ghouls who attack his ship by ripping out its heart and crushing it in front of it.
- Animated Armor: The ghost warriors of the Isle of the Dead appear as empty suits of plate armor, moving about like living men. Fortunately for the crew they are not very difficult to "kill".
- Barehanded Blade Block: Sinbad stops the Ghost King's sword (which, to be fair, was moving pretty slowly) with his bare hands and turns it back on him.
- Beta Couple: Although Princess Alina is an important character, her romance is with Sinbad's Lancer Prince Ali.
- Big Bad: Jaffar, the evil vizier and sorcerer, starts off the movie by usurping the throne of Basra.
- Boisterous Bruiser: The unnamed viking member of Sinbad's crew is both strong and mirthful.
- Dark Action Girl:
- Queen Farida and her Amazons manage to capture and round up Sinbad's crew both by trickery and by force.
- Soukra is a rare Faux Action Girl example in that while she talks about fighting (and certainly looks the part), she never gets the chance to actually confront any of the heroes directly.
- Deadpan Snarker: Soukra makes a few digs at her boss Jaffar's eccentricities during the course of the story."Have you taken your medication this morning?"
- Double Weapon: The viking fights with a long-hafted weapon that has a morningstar on one end and a hammer on the other.
- Easily Forgiven: Both Soukra and Jaffar's captain of the guard are among the people cheering for Sinbad at the end, seemingly having avoided any punishment despite supporting the Big Bad up until that point.
- Evil Chancellor: Jaffar is the caliph's grand vizier, and also the movie's Big Bad.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Jaffar's chief torturer amuses himself with some horrible puns as he has Sinbad's crew brought into the dungeon.
- Evil Is Hammy: Jaffar is up there with Profion and M. Bison, and he especially stands out compared to the rather wooden acting throughout the rest of the film.
- Evil Knockoff: As a last resort Jaffar conjures up a magical doppelganger of Sinbad to fight the hero for him.
- Evil Sorcerer: Jaffar uses his vast powers to seize control of Basra and attempt to kill Sinbad and his crew. Soukra is also described as a powerful sorceress, but that ends up being an Informed Ability.
- Fan Disservice: Once Sinbad takes her gem, the beautiful and scantily-clad Amazon Queen is revealed to be a wizened old woman.
- Force Field Cage: Jaffar traps Sinbad in a cage made from magical lightning, which takes quite some effort to break free from.
- Framing Device: The story is being told to us in the form of a mother reading it to her daughter before bedtime in the modern day.
- The Good King: Caliph Pahn is said to be a kind and wise ruler. Too bad he's no good at recognizing an Evil Chancellor when he sees one.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Jaffar invokes an unnamed force of evil, likely Satan, who serves no purpose in the story other than to grant him his dark powers.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: As often happens, Grand Vizier Jafar is now an Evil Sorcerer Big Bad.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Caliph Pahn feels Jaffar is a completely loyal and reliable servant, even after being released from his spell at the end.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Both Skull Island and the Isle of the Dead (on which is the Cavern of Nothingness) are places Sinbad has to visit on his quest. They are about as pleasant as their names would suggest.
- In Name Only: The opening proclaims the story to be based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade", but it has little in common with it other than the character of Sinbad and the appearance of a hot-air balloon.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Cantu, who liberally quotes Confucius and is described by the narrator as a Chinese soldier of fortune, is played by the Japanese Haruhiko Yamanouchi and credited simply as "Samurai".
- Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Kyra, daughter of Cloud Cuckoo Lander "magician" Nadir, ends up being Sinbad's Love Interest.
- Magic Knight: Soukra, while described as a sorceress, is easily one of the most muscular characters in the movie (comes from being played by bodybuilder Teagan Clive) and states that she prefers to keep her faith in her sword.
- Mineral MacGuffin: Most of the plot is about Sinbad hunting for the four magical gems of Basra that Jaffar scattered across the world.
- Mirror Match: Sinbad's final battle is against a magically-created Evil Knockoff of himself.
- Multinational Team: Sinbad's crew includes a Norse warrior, a Chinese martial artist, and an apparently Turkish cook.
- No Name Given: The viking is only referred to as such both by the narration and the credits.
- Noodle Incident: Soukra has some kind of rivalry with Ali, saying they have "a duel to finish" (with Jaffar responding that she's obsessed with finding out who's stronger). This was never brought up before and is never brought up again, and the only time they appear in the same scene they don't acknowledge each other.
- Piranha Problem: Jaffar's torturers have a piranha pit, which they almost lower Sinbad's cook into. When Sinbad arrives to liberate his crew a Mook is thrown into it instead.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Ahmed the cook and Poochie the "dwarf" are mostly in this movie to be wacky, often staying behind when the others go off to fight.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Jaffar's chief torturer calls Cantu "slant-eyes".
- Put Off Their Food: Nadir loses his appetite for fish couscous when Kyra starts telling Sinbad about how the ghouls on the island are "slimy, and squishy, and all full of sores".
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Discussed and defied when Sinbad is trapped in the palace snake pit and convinces the snakes to help him instead of attack him."I need your help. C’mere. Nervous, huh? I know where you’re coming from. People hating you and all that? As far as I’m concerned, it all started with that story of Eve. And when they want dirty work done, they really take advantage of you. Like that evil, slimy wizard up there!"
- Rock Monster: One of the gems Sinbad has to retrieve is guarded by a giant creature made of stone.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Sinbad convinces a pit full of snakes to help him escape (by letting him tie them into a rope) simply by reasoning with them.
- Translator Buddy: Kyra has to translate her father's gibberish for a confounded Sinbad.
- Trap Door: Sinbad is dropped into the palace's snake pit by Jaffar triggering a trap door in the throne room. At the end of the movie, Sinbad gets his revenge by making the defeated villain "resign" this way.
- The Unintelligible: Most of what the "wizard" Nadir says is complete gibberish to everyone but his daughter.
- The Vamp: The Amazon Queen Farida is a supernaturally beautiful woman who attempts to enslave Sinbad and his crew by seducing them.
