505 - THE MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD

Genre:  Fantasy/Mythology (1953, Color)

Synopsis:  Of course, this movie has absolutely nothing to do with the legend of Sinbad but since, unlike the Russian character of Sadko, Sinbad is a character Americans are familiar with – so that’s what his name is translated into on the Finnish/Russian import.  Even without the whole “Sinbad” stuff, though, this is still one goofy-assed movie.  The plot deals with “Sinbad” (aka “Sadko” to the rest of the world) as he returns to his village and is saddened to see poverty and slavery going on (but not sad enough to miss out on hitting on a babe named Lyubava).  So this saddened “Sinbad” goes to a river, when a beautiful princess of the sea, the daughter of Neptune, rises up and promises him a golden fish (I wonder if he understands exactly what she’s promising him here).  He goes back to his village and brags about this and, somehow, gets into a bet of sorts: if he can produce the golden fish, he will get the keys to all of the merchant shop in the village – but, if he doesn’t catch the fish, he gets his head cut off (it’s a bit of a “high-stakes” bet).  So “Sinbad” goes out on his boat about three or four feet from the shore, and starts fishing with his net and – with the help of Neptune’s daughter – catches the golden fish.  He now has the keys to the merchant shop which he opens up and gives all the clothes and stuff away to the poor.  But now all of the merchants are broke and the whole economic system is in ruins so no one can build the ships “Sinbad” needs for his voyage (I guess he didn’t understand how commerce works).  Luckily, the Daughter of the Sea turns the golden fish he caught into a lot of gold coins, so “Sinbad” uses these to finance the building of his ships.  He now needs a crew, so he tests men by forcing them to drink some wine and slapping them on the chest.  But one man is too strong and demands a better test (that slap on the chest really was a TEST?)  So, as his test, this strong guy has to wrestle a bear...  yes, wrestle a bear! (this scene, plus the hilarious Grizzly Adams riffs, had me on the floor!).  Anyway, now that “Sinbad” has his crew, they sail off in search of some legendary Bird of Happiness to bring happiness back to the village.  First, they run into some Vikings who attack them and they defeat, partly because the strong Viking guy misunderstood the whole idea behind horseback riding (idiot, you ride on the horse’s back, not the other way around!).  They leave from there and sail all over until they end up in India, where some sultan actually has the Bird of Happiness.  So “Sinbad” beats the Sultan in a game of chess and wins the Bird of Happiness.  They then go into some special room to get the Bird and they discover that it is a freakish animal with a blue body and the head of a woman.  The Bird of Happiness then starts saying stuff, droning on and on and putting everyone to sleep (“sleep = happiness?” ...Ok, I guess).  “Sinbad” and his men then have to escape the sultan, who – it turns out – doesn’t want to lose his favorite insomnia cure, by using the Bird of Happiness to put the sultan’s army to sleep.  “Sinbad” and his crew set out for home but run into a big storm. So “Sinbad” jumps overboard, where he apparently surfs for a while (I guess he couldn’t pass up those killer waves!) and then goes undersea to Neptune’s kingdom.  There, he plays some Rimsky-Korsakov on some strange instrument and everyone dances but he “breaks” a string and has to leave to repair it.  In order to get him to return, Neptune makes him choose one of his daughters to marry, so he chooses the daughter who’s been helping him all of this time.  But, once alone with her, he says he can’t marry her and has to return to his true love, Lyubava, above surface.  Neptune’s daughter gives him a giant sea-horse to ride and he takes off for home, with Neptune in his chariot in hot pursuit.  “Sinbad” outruns Neptune and gets back to his village, while the ship with his men sails into port soon afterwards.  “Sinbad” then says he learned that the village doesn’t need the Bird of Happiness after all because it already has all the happiness it needs already.

Don’s Review:  This goofy Russian movie, loosely based on an opera by Rimsky Korsakov, is one of my all-time favorite MSTed movies.  And the riffing by J&tBs is top-notched, so what else can I say about this episode because it’s great fun all around.  I mean, when you get down to it, the goofy movies are always the best on the show.

Don’s Rating: 

Forrest’s Review:  I had got to the point, after rewatching many episodes, to where I felt Mike was vastly superior to Joel.  I rewatched 6 Season Four episodes, and frankly, they got a bunch of chuckles out of me, and that was it.  I’ve always loved Seasons Two and Three, but Season Four was very unbalance.  So I said to myself: “What about Season Five?”  I saw The Painted Hills, and enjoyed it, so I decided to watch more Joel Season Five episodes.  They were all great.  Joel is just as good as Mike in Season Five.  I just don’t like Season Four.  Yes, the last 4 episodes of Season Four are classics, yes there are a few great episodes scattered around, but overall, I simply find the riffing to be a bit weak.  It seems more clever than funny.  I get the pop culture references, but they sort of just referenced a particular scene, unlike the later years where they used the pop culture references to degrade the movie.
      Here, in this episode, however, Joel and the ’Bots have a great time.  The riffing starts out a bit weak, with a few funny riffs here and there, but as the movie progresses, the riffing gets good, even great.  And, I understood every joke!  Every joke said, from the Flock of Seagulls riff to the march of the evil green soldiers in The Wizard of Oz I appreciated every riff spoken.  And I laughed out loud quite a few times, and I was very tired!  I saw this episode at 4:00 AM!  Why so late?  Long story.  Anyway, since I was very tired, usually I can’t get a laugh out, however, these are some of the best riffs since Manos and I enjoyed myself very much!  This episode beats out Sword and the Dragon and Jack Frost, and it’s tied with Colossus and the Headhunters and The Day The Earth Froze for my favorites of the Finnish films on MST3K.  The host segments (despite one lame Jester segment) were good all around, and the invention exchange is a scream.  Excellent episode all around.

Forrest’s Rating: