• Written and directed by Brett Piper
• Starring
  • Roddy McDowall (narrator)
• Executive produced by Ray and Dave Wiegand

The good folks at Kinetic Image sent me a copy of their screener to look over. Now, let me say here that I hate The Little Drummer Boy, and I’m not too fond of the rest of the stop-motion Christmas specials, so when this came in the mail I hauled my four-year-old in to watch it with me and made it a matter of duty. I found it surprisingly entertaining, but I’m also puzzled.

It seems that Captain Sinbad has had his courage stolen by a witch and encased in a black diamond. For ten years, he has lived alone in a fortress far from the sea, until a little boy whose dog was stolen by pirates comes and pleads for his help. Shamed, scaredy-cat Sinbad goes with the boy to rescue the dog. Along the way they run into the requisite monsters, and Captain Sinbad learns exactly what hold the black diamond has over him.

Like I said, this is all stop-motion animation, and very well done, too — not quite Ray Harryhausen, but on a par with the afore-mentioned Little Drummer Boy. It lasts (by my after-the-fact estimation) maybe a little over a half hour, and is narrated by Roddy McDowell.

The only technical deficiency I saw was the sound mixing; quite often, the musical score and sound effects drown out the dialog. This is especially annoying with the little boy, who has a quiet voice to being with, and a problem saying his R’s, to boot.

So, I watch this, my kid loves it, I think it’s cute, it’s over, and I think… “Why did they make this terribly non-commercial film?” I ought to tell you that Kinetic Image gave out this movie as a prize because it’s their only film for which they haven’t contracted the distribution rights, and I can see why; there are several takers for low-budget haunted house horror films (see below), but how many distributors or broadcasters are clamoring for more stop-motion animation? It was a dying art form even before Jurassic Park nailed the coffin shut.

I sadly suspect that this film may never find a distributor, and that I may be one of the few people in the world ever to see The Return of Captain Sinbad.

Related stuff: On the same tape, they sent me the trailer for their horror film Drainiac. In it, a group of young people led by a bearded adventurer enter the house hoping to exorcise it, and things go horribly wrong. The sound mixing had the same problem as Sinbad, but the camera work looked good (my dub was from the work print, so it looks a little murkier than the final product would), acting was fine (even though all they had to say was things like, “What’s going on?!”), and the special effects were cheap but imaginative, including a lot of well-made handpuppets. Based on the trailer, I would say you could do worse for some late-night viewing if you happen to run across this in your local video store (or, if you feel the urge to buy it).