A young gusli player named Sadko is bragging that he can bring to their land a sweet-voiced bird of happiness.

The film was re-released in the United States in 1962 in an English-dubbed and slightly modified form by Roger Corman's Filmgroup under the title The Magic Voyage of Sinbad.

It retains the plot structure of Sadko but includes several changes: the total running time is reduced from approximately 85 to 79 minutes (most of the deleted footage consists of scenes in which songs are performed, though one song is retained and sung in English), voice-over narration is added, the protagonist "Sadko" is renamed "Sinbad," and other characters and places are renamed to disguise the film's Russian origin and transform the film into a story about Sinbad the Sailor (perhaps most significantly, the city of Novgorod is renamed "Copasand").

In fact, the opening narration makes direct references to Ray Harryhausen’s 1958 hit film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, namely the battle with the Cyclops and the giant two-headed Roc bird, in an apparent attempt to cast this unrelated film as a direct sequel.

This version of the film was featured in Season 5, Episode #505 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1993, despite the fact that Kevin Murphy, voice of Tom Servo, has professed a love for the "breathtaking" visual style of this and other films by Aleksandr Ptushko in multiple interviews.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment of the film's English-dubbed version was released on DVD as part of the 20th four-film box set of series episodes, through Shout!