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Chad Shark5.0

This was one of my all time favorites as a kid, and finally after almost 10 years of searching, I finally was able to rewatch this classic, and it was beautifully nostalgic in every way.

Mónica5.0

This film has the capacity to make you feel like a kid (at least for me) and not in the bad sense of it turning out to be a mere childish tale. It actually isn't, references to blood, murder and romantic affairs can be find throughout; however is not an adult animation neither. Is a film capable of transmitting the same eagerness as those fables you were read before going to bed by you dad/mom while having thematics that are approachable more for adults as they are equally worth unpacking.I found one of the major aspects that contributed to such is the narration. At first it might appear to be an aspect that is pretty on your nose and redundant; but the more I think about it the more I see this film as an audiovisual book. In fact is a retold version of a part of the Middle Eastern folk "One Thousand and One Nights", specifically over the tale of Sinbad the Sailor, in which each of his misadventures are narrated in a completely fantastic fashion, anyone familiar with the story will know then that it encompasses a large number of places in which Sinbad faces different situations making it a large odyssey through the sea. The film jumps from place to place and situation from situation in a book-like style, in fact you could divide this film into "chapters" and watch them separately without getting lost exactly as you would read to a kid a compilation book of fairy tales, Zeman intentionally recreates this "stories within a story" narrative which helps transmits this "feel good" memoir of childhood (a sentiment he also sticks close in Journey Through the Beginning of Time)."I'm on a journey to discover the beauty of the fairy tale and I want to stay on that path, trying to find better ways to capture it on film. And I have only one wish to delight the eyes and heart of every child."—Karel ZemanSomething got my attention and draw me upon the stories themselves as more cohesive thematically than what they might seem: the faith of the sailor over the ocean, he voices that "It never fails me" and that is the only place where "he feels free". Whereas several fragments feel loosely tied into the story (the one of the monkeys or the ogre for example), is not the different destinations but the journey itself what gains significance. An odyssey through the ocean that depicts the search of oneself through faith, notice the sailor didn't start his journey with a defined route, nor did he had an objective in mind; his journey (a parable of life) was only guided by the faith the sailor had in the ocean, it was his only refugee when any other land failed him. Of course is not to extract this in a literal manner by depositing trust into a body of water but is the reflection of it as a refugee and what it mean for Sinbad what allows for a pertinent comparison. The sailor raises the ocean to a deity, one that gives him hope; in a fully symbolic meaning is about faith in God and how a man lets faith guide his path and not vice versa (accommodating his faith at self-convenience)."In answer Jesus said to them: “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what I did to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen"—Matthew 21:21Faith is an essential quality, a fruitage of the spirit as Galatians 5:22 clearly indicates and further more an important and vital guideline to acquire the favor of God:"Moreover, without faith it is impossible to please God well, for whoever approaches God must believe that he is and that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him"—Hebrews 11:6The last tale of the film quite exemplifies and emphasizes this thematic. The sailor falls in love with a princess, so he asks her in marriage; however he was rejected by her father because of his humble procedures so Sinbad recurs to a magical jar and unleashes the demon dwelling on it to give him his wishes which were having the clothing of a prince, raising money and servant. He later returns to the Sultan who know accepts to marry his daughter as he believes Sinbad a rich man. The couple gets married and Sinbad moving nos with his wife recurs to the demon of the jar to give them a palace to live in this abandoning his life as sailor and instead embracing land giving his back to the ocean he had faith on. However..."The world is passing away and so is its desire, but the one who does the will of God remains forever"—1 John 2:17Notice that unlike the Disney animated tale of Aladdin, the magic man that gave the protagonist his wishes is not a Genie, is not a made up fantastic creature; in this film he is clearly stated to be a demon. As the Bible says, this world (this corrupted society under the dominance of demons and Satan), passes quickly becoming nothing more than a husk. Sinbad then broke the jar thus liberating that influence of him and as soon as he left all his belongings that the demon gave him disappeared being left as he started: as a humble sailor; is only suitable as it is the latest proclamation of faith that Sinbad with his wife now after leaving the transient material gain goes back to build a hut in the beach and a boat to embrace the ocean as their refugee. Of course this is a part of the story that on my eyes enrolls this thematic but others like the island of gold also provide this rich thematic by framing Sinbad on the ocean as the masses anxiously go to an island with a "volcano" that throws gold only to find that their thirst of material gain determined their own doom.

Jack🧠4.0

For a children's film, this is absolutely wild. Pulling stories from Arabian Nights and Sinbad The Sailor, Karel Zeman's A Thousand And One Nights is a series of adventurous vignettes following a single protagonist encountering evil sultans, monsters, and magic. Produced using paper cutouts, the animation looks fantastic - I can't even comprehend how painstaking of a job it was to create this film. Many of the action sequences play around with animation speeds, and there is Zeman's distinct attention to detail. I can't help but feel that this animated gem inspired the likes of Disney's Aladdin and even Richard William's fantastic The Thief and The Cobbler in some regard. I can safely say that this is a beautiful, underrated piece of animation history, and more people should seek it out.