Development began when Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio developed the story of Sinbad in the vein of the story of Damon and Pythias before settling on a love triangle. The project was canceled in , though Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to restart some ideas when he left the Walt Disney Company and co-founded DreamWorks Pictures in during the production of The Prince of Egypt Johnson, who attempted to direct his follow-up CGI animated film Tusker following Antz , before eventually scrapped the project, was recruited to direct Sinbad and teamed with Gilmore.
Like the studio's previous film, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron , the film combines traditional animation and computer animation. The film blends elements from One Thousand and One Nights and classical mythology. The score for the film was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. Sinbad was released on July 2, , and received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the animation, action sequences, and voice performances, but criticized the storyline, polarizing CGI, and the film's departure from its Arabic origin.
To date, this soon became the final DreamWorks Animation film to use traditional animation as the studio abandoned and discontinued it in favor of computer animation. Sinbad and his pirate crew attempt to steal the magical Book of Peace and hold it for ransom as one last job before retiring to Fiji. Sinbad is surprised to see it is being protected while on board to Syracuse by Prince Proteus of Syracuse. Proteus was Sinbad's best friend as a child, and he tells him that if their friendship ever meant anything to Sinbad, he can prove it now.
Sinbad tries to steal the Book anyway, but is prevented when Cetus attacks the ship. The two work together to fight off Cetus and for a moment reaffirm their bond. Just when it seems the beast is defeated, Sinbad is dragged off the ship. Proteus goes to save Sinbad, but he is stopped by his crew.
Drawn underwater by Cetus, Sinbad is saved by the beautiful Goddess of Discord, Eris , who offers him any boon he desires in exchange for the Book of Peace. Anticipating this, Eris impersonates Sinbad and steals the Book herself. Sinbad is sentenced to death, whereupon Proteus sends Sinbad to retrieve the Book instead, placing himself as a hostage , and Marina goes to make sure that Sinbad succeeds. To prevent them from succeeding, Eris sends a group of mythical sirens , who entrance and seduce the men aboard Sinbad's ship with their hypnotic singing voices, but do not affect Marina, who pilots the ship to safety and wins the favor of the crew.
