Harryhausen originally planned for an Arsinoitherium to make an appearance in the film. The massive, two-horned prehistoric rhinoceros-like creature was intended to fight the Troglodyte in Iperborea's land before the latter meeting with the protagonists. Harryhausen did preproduction designs showing the beast defeating the Troglodyte, then getting caught and dying in a pool of hot tar. Harryhausen also said he planned to have Sinbad and his crew fight a yeti in the arctic, but that idea was ultimately rejected in favor of a giant walrus. Other Harryhausen's ideas were a woolly mammoth as the creature which Sinbad's crew meet in the arctic. Harryhausen's stop motion animation work lasted from October 1975 up to March 1977.