It’s making the rounds again. A Shazaam film with Sinbad that doesn’t actually exist. Whether it’s the Mandela effect or simply confusion with a similar film: many people remember a film that never came out.
Every few years, there’s a flood of people on the internet trying to find Shazaam. No, it’s not the superhero movie about a young hero, but a feature film starring Sinbad, whose real name is David Adkins.
They claim to remember scenes from the nonexistent film in which actor and comedian Sinbad plays basketball and grants wishes.
Memory is fickle and easily influenced. It seems there is another film that could provide the key to this puzzle.
The Shazaam movie explains
People remember Shazaam as a fantasy film with Sinbad as the genie. That never came out. People probably misremember another real movie.
Unlike the debunked Heisenberg movie or the fake Golden Girls reboot, this rumor wasn’t started by disinformation on Facebook pages looking for engagement. This is a true collective false memory.
Regardless of whether people saw a similar movie in their youth and confused it with Shazaam, or whether the memory of it came from hearsay from a friend, this phenomenon was not invented.
On the r/MandelaEffect subreddit, one frustrated poster wrote: “This is by far the biggest Mandela Effect for me personally, nothing like it has ever been heard of. This is not a simple spelling mistake, a physical feature in the logo design, a misquoted quote, or anything else that could be rationally explained… it was simply erased!”
Kazaam Theory
One of the most accepted answers to the Shazaam mystery is that People remember the movie Kazaam, where Shaquille O’Neal played a genie.
Touchstone ImagesKazaam is a 1996 family comedy directed by Paul Michael Glaser. It ticks all the boxes. Genius: ticked. Wish fulfillment: ticked. Children’s film: ticked. Two “A”s in the title: ticked.
One user commented in the same thread above: “Last night I asked my parents if they remembered this movie… they both did, and dad even described Sinbad in detail – boots with high curled toes, baggy pants, earrings, etc. So I asked, ‘Do we own this movie?’ They said yes!”
“As I was browsing, I noticed a label that said ‘Shazam’ in my mom’s handwriting, and lo and behold, I found it! I ran into her bedroom to put it in the VCR… it was freaking Kazaam!”
Another contributor provided a tongue-in-cheek expert analysis: “Studies have shown that the movie was actually so bad that our brains literally rejected it and replaced it with a cheesy but still lovable version of Sinbad called Shazam.
“In this way, our world may have become a little less real, but we are no longer in danger of wanting to kill ourselves because of the actions of a certain Shaq. That is science.”
Shazaam could also be Aliens For Breakfast
Another possible explanation is that Shaazam fans remember the movie Aliens for Breakfasta 1994 television film starring Sinbad.
This theory was also voiced on Reddit. It is based on the similarity of the real film to the fake one. It also earns points because Sinbad is in it.
U/Mybustersword posted his theory: “A young boy discovers that his free prize in his cereal box is actually an alien. The alien is – you guessed it – Sinbad.”
Their helpful explanation continued: “The movie was about 40 minutes long and made for TV. Very forgettable. But it had a lot of basic similarities to Kazaam – the boy finds a magical creature in a strange container, the creature makes jokes, follows the boy everywhere, helps him, and defeats a villain at the end.”
However, not everyone is convinced. One commentator says: “But this is not the film everyone is talking about. I remember the outfit he wore. I remember what the kids who were in the film looked like because I was a little kid when I saw it. My dad remembers the film. My brothers remember the film. And that 40-minute short film wasn’t it.”
Our memory cannot always be trusted
Our mind is capable of replacing details, reproducing dreams as reality, or inventing memories. like patchwork.
The online communities plagued by Shaazam were first reported by the New Statesman, which spoke to people who were adamant that they had not confused Shaazam with any other film.
Leading memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus, known for her work on misinformation, false memories and recovered memories, is often quoted when the Shaazam topic comes up.
Her work showed how we can remember false memories or be manipulated into remembering things we never saw. We see this in false confessions to police and in the contested credibility of memory recovery therapies.
The PubMed profile states: “Loftus has focused predominantly on the psychological and legal aspects of distorted or false memories throughout her career, and her work demonstrates how easily memories and beliefs can be shaped.
Their insights into the validity of eyewitness accounts and repressed traumatic memories have helped to change the notion that such testimony is completely reliable.”
All this is a detour through the fact that one cannot always trust one’s memory.
If you’re looking for something more tangible, check out the new movies coming soon or our list of the best movies. We also have Dune 3 and Avatar 3 to look forward to.
