Trivia / Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

• Box Office Bomb: The fourth biggest confirmed loss in film history after Mortal Engines, Cutthroat Island and The Lone Ranger (2013), it lost DreamWorks Animation $125 million. When adjusted for inflation that's $174 million in 2020 dollars.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • The Brazilian dub has film/television actors Thiago Lacerda and Giovanna Antonelli as Sinbad and Marina respectively.
  • In the Latin Spanish dub, Sinbad is voiced by telenovela actor Mauricio Islas and Marina by soprano/actress Susana Zabaleta.
• Creator Backlash: Zigzagged with animator Kevin Koch. On his Synchro Lux blog, he made it clear that while he enjoyed working on the film, he thought it was the least favorite animated film he helped make, taking it to task for its story flaws (too much focus on a vaguely explained MacGuffin that kicks off the whole plot and unwittingly deflates the film's tension by raising the stakes to a level that makes it impossible to suspend your disbelief) and claiming the lead characters were boring and unengaging (pointing out that Sinbad is basically the biggest asshole in the universe for wanting to steal a book that would send the whole world spiraling into chaos in the wrong hands).
• Creator Killer: This was the last strike in a series of three consecutive box office bombs and critical underperformers for screenwriter John Logan, after The Time Machine and Star Trek: Nemesis. While The Last Samurai and The Aviator were financial and critical successes, it still led to Logan having only one writing credit for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street until The New '10s, when he rebounded with Rango.
• Direct to Video: This and Flushed Away were the only Dreamworks movies not to get a theatrical release in Japan, until the release of Megamind
• DVD Commentary: Starting directors Patrick Gilmore and Tim Johnson, producer Mireille Soria, production designer Ramond Zibach, head of story Jennifer Yuh Nelson, animation supervisor Kristof Serrand, and layout supervisor Damon O'Beirne
• Executive Meddling: 9/11 happened when the production already started. You can imagine how making an animated movie with an Arab main character would look in that climate. This led to extensive distancing from the source material, and, in turn, certain critics panned it for being an In Name Only gimmick.
• Genre-Killer: The film's low box office returns caused DreamWorks to abandon hand-drawn animation completely, (at least in films), turning to CGI movies such as Shrek. Interestingly, 2002's Treasure Planet did the exact same thing to Disney, causing them to leave traditional animation for the computer-generated variety. And in the background if it all, Titan A.E. flopped two years earlier, trying to win a duel with Treasure Planet and instead killing "independent" animation. These three events combined might be why this blend of animation was never attempted again for 14 years, until My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), which grossed $61 million worldwide against a $6.5 million budget. However, as mentioned above, all three movies have since achieved moderate "cult classic" status, suggesting there might be some other reason for their less-than-stellar financial performance.
• Invisible Advertising: If you were around at the time, do you recall seeing even a single advertisement for this film?
• So My Kids Can Watch: Michelle Pfeiffer took on the role of the villain in the film at the request of her children.
  • Brad Pitt also stated that he took on the role of Sinbad, because he wanted to make a movie his nieces and nephews could watch him in.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Initially, Russell Crowe signed up for the title role, but in the autumn of 2001 he was replaced by Brad Pitt because Crowe was too busy working on another project. David Arquette, Paul Bettany, Keith Carradine, Joseph Fiennes, Jeff Goldblum, Kevin Spacey and Robin Williams were also considered to voice Sinbad.
  • Jessica Alba was considered to voice either Marina or Eris.
  • John Leguizamo was considered for the role of Luca.
  • Angelina Jolie and Christina Ricci were considered for Marina.
  • Marina was originally designed with longer hair, but it was changed to make her look more unique.
  • Originally Christophe Beck, John Debney and David Newman were considered to compose the score but they have all turned it down.

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