Second Term Paper

Fact or Fiction? Sinbad’s Actions in Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas

In Dreamworks’ animated full length feature film, Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas, Sinbad’s ship is stopped by the icy environment created by Eris’ demon bird, and his crew is out trying to crack the ice in order for the ship to sail. Meanwhile, Marina the princess is taken by a demon bird from Sinbad and dropped on top of a cliff. Sinbad finds a way to get to the top of the cliff to save the princess. The fiction of the scene is that his crew is draped in practically nothing, how can they withstand the cold? Secondly the when Marina is taken, Sinbad devises a plan to get to the top of the mountain, but how he does it is questionable. Lastly, when Sinbad is sliding off with Marina through the snow and ice to escape the bird are they sliding as they should be in reality or are they pushing it? When watching Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas carefully, many loop holes of the scene start to surface.

As Sinbad and his crew are awaking from the Sirens, they find themselves in an icy plane created by Eris, the Goddess of chaos. The Goddess turns their tropical ocean into an icy plane in just a matter of 5 seconds. How is that possible? Because she is a goddess, that excuses the unrealistic aspect of freezing an entire ocean and the mountains nearby in just 5 seconds. Although she is magical and is able to do such a thing as freeze the entire mountain, it doesn’t excuse her magic to be able to affect the insides of the mountain, like the cave that Sinbad and Marina will be sliding through later in the scene. Because of the drastic change of weather, the crew has changed their outfits. However, what they change into is the same pirate outfit with just a little bit of fur trimmings to suggest warmth. According to the Junior Reserved Officer Training Corp (AFJROTC) Survival Camp Training, an average person, if properly clothed freezes to death in about fifteen to forty five minutes if they are conscious, and fewer than fifteen minutes if they are exhausted or unconscious at the temperate of 32 degrees Fahrenheit or less. In that situation, that scene is only seven minutes long, and is not possible to have gotten on top of the mountain, saving the princess, sliding down about a thousand foot mountain in seven minutes. So the scene is cut and should have been about at least half in hour to get all of those things done. And the characters, if they were real should have frozen to death because of their lack in clothing. Another suspicious action is in that scene is when one of the crew members jumps into the water to get away from the demon bird, he escapes successfully, however according to AFJROTC, swimming, or treading water can greatly shorten survival time by more than fifty percent and cold water robs the body’s heat thirty two times faster than cold air. And he is not properly clothed. In that situation, that crew member should have been pretty frozen since he just dove into the icy water and in that type of weather and in a thin jacket with fur trimming nonetheless.

In archery, an average person can shoot an arrow in about ninety pounds in draw weight. I am not certain that a draw weight of a bow has anything to do with the machine that Sinbad was using to launch his harpoon to the mountain to save Marina. But if the machine he used had a draw weight of 90 or higher, could that have been strong enough to bring Sinbad to the top of the thousand foot mountain? I think not. Even if the harpoon was shot at great speed, the rope that was tied to the harpoon is long and therefore should have slowed the harpoon down, also, Sinbad was grabbing onto the rope, slowing the harpoon down even more. In that scene, the harpoon made it from the ship that was about 250 feet away from the foot of the mountain and up the thousand foot mountain. It doesn’t seem possible. And when Sinbad reached the mountain short of a few feet from the top, he slid down a few feet with the daggers in hand and carved into the rock. However, if you pause in that part of the scene right after he slid down those few feet, you can see that there is just a hole that the dagger created, and not a line that was actually created when he slid down those few feet. After he settled down, he used his crew mate’s daggers to stab into the rocky cliff to the top of the mountain. The way he did that stabbing seemed like he was stabbing wood or something even softer. Because stabbing stone requires a considerable amount of strength and energy in both arms and legs, and in his body type, seems unbelievable that he can carry those actions so easily. Both his arms and legs were able to penetrate the solid rock of the mountain at least half a foot into the rock with each stab. Although stabbing into the rock to get to the top to save the princess is very heroic, it is impossible in reality.

When Sinbad gets to the top of the mountain to get Marina, the demon bird notices them and attempts to catch them for a meal. Sinbad has with him a round steel shield strapped to his back in which both of them ride on in the scene where they are escaping down the mountain. They jump off the side of the mountain and is falling, they hit the side of the mountain, and Sinbad pulls his shield away from his back to protect himself from the impact of hitting the side of the mountain. The shield’s straps were extended as if the strap was made of some kind of elastic material. But during that time and age, elastic was not invented, and the shield’s straps were most likely made of leather. As they continue falling, and are near the surface. Sinbad somehow was mysteriously able to take the strap of the shield off of his back without lifting is arm from behind the strap and into the front like you would when taking off a backpack. They land with the shield first hitting the snowy surface. They slide and bump along down the foot of the mountain. The demon bird attacks and Sinbad takes the shield from underneath his rear to protect Marina and himself, and he is now sliding at extreme speed with his back as the slide. If one were to do that, their coat would have been ruined and they would have been injured and the skin would have been considerably damaged. But in Sinbad’s case, he was perfectly fine with just a cold expression on his face. Another issue with this scene was when the ruins were falling all around them, and they were incredibly lucky to have escaped all of them falling, and just a small piece of rock landed in front of their path, and made them slide about twenty feet up. I believe that was a little exaggerated. Because even if it was a small rock in the way, they should have just slid up a little like a car when hitting a speed bump and kept going. Also, the thick snow and the pressure of two people on a shield should have easily pushed the little rock the size of a fist into the snow, but that didn’t happen. Instead they flew about twenty feet above the surface. Lastly, when they were sliding down the mountain, there was no trail even though they were sliding pretty fast; there should have been a trail. The snow could not have covered it up right away. Not only was there no trail, Sinbad was able to stop immediately while going really fast at the sight of a cliff inside the mountain, which looked unnatural. Both Marina and Sinbad came out of the mountain unscathed, by flying out from the mountain and onto their ship’s sail tearing the sail and landing “safely”. If a real person were to go through such an adventure, that person should have broken many bones, but both of them were in perfect condition, they weren’t even wet.

Being that the scene I chose to analyze was an action scene that lasted a total of about seven minutes, many of the loop holes were not noticed if the movie was watched for the reason of entertainment. The animation was well done as well as the timing. I had to look hard for the mistakes throughout the scene. The clothing question, the plan that Sinbad executed to get to the mountain top and where both Marina and Sinbad were making their way down the mountain has many loop holes in them. Many of the loop holes were there for the reason that it was an action scene, and without the “mistakes” or choices of the director I believe would have changed the dramatic quality of the scene. Sinbad the Legend of the Seven Seas is truly a delight to watch and is a well made traditional animation.


He has a bare chest, I guess his hat is keeping him warm.


What kind of snow clothes are these?


He just slid down a few feet.


There is no slid mark, only a hole.