NOTE: THIS REVIEW APPLIES ONLY TO THE Novel RICHARD WILLIAMS WORKPRINT Chop, NOT THE VERSION ON DVD OR RELEASED INTO THEATERS
Buy,Download, Or Stream The Thief And The Cobbler! Click Here
In possibly the worst seizures of a film in history, possibly the greatest tantalizing film was reduced to a grotesque mess only with only hints of the new brilliance. Almost half of the film was deleted or never finished, unbelievable vocal performances were re-dubbed, and extensive re-editing destroyed the lyrical memoir beget.
Before The Thief and the Cobbler was ripped to shreds, it was a pet project of animator/director Richard Williams (who you should know as the animation director… or really co-director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit) . From 1964 to the behind 1980s, every penny spent on the film was out of his hold pocket or from dinky investments from benefactors. He produced hundreds of television commercials to pay for the movie. Alas, even after years of work, he had only about 10 minutes of footage at the cost of $2 million dollars.
Buy,Download, Or Stream The Thief And The Cobbler! Click Here
The Thief and the Cobbler started as an adaptation of stories about Mulla Nasrudin (by Idres Shah) . When rights over the published work fell apart, he turned his project into an modern, but familiar narrative. The haunting opening narration (spoken by Shakespearian actor Sir Felix Almyer) began the film:
“It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens and in the depths of the emerald seas and upon every grain of sand in the immense deserts that the world which we glimpse is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality.
Once upon a time there was a golden city. In the centre of the golden city atop the tallest minaret were three golden balls. The ancients had prophesied that if the three golden balls were ever taken away harmony would yield to discord and the city would topple to destruction and death.
But… the mystics had also foretold that the city might be saved by the simplest soul with the smallest and simplest of things.
In the city there dwelt a lowly shoemaker… who was known as Tack the Cobbler. Also in the city… existed a Thief… who shall be nameless.”
Through a series of circumstances, the flea-bitten thief causes Tack to be unsuitable as an attacker on the Vast Vizier Zig-Zag. After being brought to the palace to be executed, he falls in worship with Princess Yum-Yum (daughter of the benevolent, but sleepy King Nod) . Zig-Zag bribes and brownnoses King Nod, hoping to control the Golden City and assume Yum-Yum as his acquire.
Tack is a white-faced and tranquil - his demeanor and movement reminiscent of Chaplin’s Tramp, Harry Langdon, and Jacques Tati’s Hulot. The Thief is a scrawny, flea-bitten kleptomaniac still. Zig-Zag, voiced by Vincent Ticket in a valedictorian performance, is blue-skinned and vulture-like in appearance.
Princess Yum-Yum is voiced by Hilary Pritchard (bit player in many 1970’s British TV shows), King Nod by Sir Anthony Quayle, Zig-Zag’s vulture has squawks and hisses provided by Donald Pleasence. In a surprise, but appropriate cameo, Sir Sean Connery provides his sigh.
For animation, he recruited master animators from the golden age: Art Babbitt (Disney), Ken Harris (Warner Bros.), Myron “Grim” Natwick (Fleischers) . He would also give shots to his commercial animators to work on as training (many of which went on to be acclaimed animators in their maintain factual such as Eric Goldberg, Tom Sito, and his son Alex) . Richard Williams, himself, bewitching powerful of the film himself - often keeping Zig-Zag’s scenes to himself. The style of most of the characters is a blend of the rounded UPA ogle, but with the detail of Disney. Rare for most involving films, nearly all of the animation was drawn in “ones” which refers to one drawing = one frame.
The film’s position is intricately subtle, requiring the utmost attention to detail to understand the characters. Being that the two main characters have no dialogue, emotions are conveyed masterfully through facial expressions and gestures. Sometimes, honest one brief shot defines an entire character. The animation itself (in the fresh 70 minutes directed by Richard Williams) out-performs 3-D digital animation. Characters are drawn with such fluidity, often giving the illusion of being live-action (do no mistake, not one frame utilized rotoscoping) . However, the film often replicates the see of a live-action film. Surprisingly, the fluid “camera movement” is similar to the styles ancient in the French Recent Wave - length dolly shots, long takes, 360 degree turns, and even fast zooms. In one bravura shot, the camera dollys from a close-up of Zig-Zag’s eyes with elephantine 3-D perspective and then revealed to be a reflection in another character’s inspect - continuing to pull out.
It’s considerable to notice that everything in the film was as intricate as possible. As mentioned before, the most subtle emotions conveyed by characters say more than dialogue. Tack’s facial emotion is hidden by his pale face, but the one or two tacks held in his lips become his smile or frown. Zig-Zag is drawn with extra shoulder joints like a marionette. His face is virtually a characture of Vincent Designate (appropriately) . If that’s not enough, Zig-Zag has six digits on each hand, each with an extra joint, and 20 rings per hand. The Thief conveys his want (whether it be the golden balls or jewels) through a reflection in his eyes. Desert brigands are literally intriguing sketches (in disagreement to the highly refined main characters) . The settings are drawn with squashed perspective as a homage to Persian miniatures paintings.
The memoir itself combines comedy, romance, fantasy, with a runt bit of scares. The One-Eye Army is reminiscent of the Teutonic soldiers in Alexander Nevsky - led by the massive Worthy One-Eye. The Thief constantly gets into injury or mishaps as if he were a human Wile E. Coyote (not a coincidence since Ken Harris, the main animator for the thief, often spirited the classic Roadrunner cartoons) . Tack is constantly at work - sometimes repairing shoes in his sleep.
The centerpiece of the film, though, is the huge One-Eye Army War Machine. Filled with Rube Goldberg mousetrap devices. The destruction sets off a chain reaction, resulting in self-destruction.
Featuring elegant and fine animation, incredible vocal performances, and plenty of laughs - The Thief and the Cobbler almost had a chance at being the greatest captivating film ever made.
After decades of work, with only 15 minutes of animation to complete in 4 months, the investors pulled out of a negative pickup deal, resulting in the incomplete film to be bought-out by the Completion Bond Company. Richard Williams was taken off his enjoy project. Incomplete animation was farmed out to Korea where it was finished poorly (even compared to the current work) . Many voices were re-dubbed, including Sir Anthony Quayle’s astounding King Nod. Insipid musical sequences were added. Over 20 minutes of completed animation were slice out of the film. Tack was given a novel verbalize regardless of his lips titillating or not. Originally with an eclectic soundtrack consisting of classical (mighty from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade), surreal Wendy Carlos-eque electronic pieces, and even some fierce jazzy sections - it was replaced with a mediocre orchestral accept that borrowed heavily from Henry Mancini’s themes for The Pink Panther.
While the fresh account remained intact to an extent, many inexplicable changes were made. Tack, shown to be quite a successful cobbler, was changed via a recent opening narration to be an orphan and shoemaker’s apprentice. Yum-Yum was changed into a feminist. Originally with a modulated, demonic impart, Noteworthy One-Eye was redubbed with a laughably tame declare.
The misery did not destroy there. Miramax picked up distribution for the United States and altered the film even further. The first release was retitled The Princess and the Cobbler. This recent version, Arabian Knight made even worse changes. The Thief, thankfully left as a tranquil in the prior version, was given a yell provided by Jonathan Winters - who seemed to ad-lib the entire performance. Phido, Zig-Zag’s vulture, was given a deliver even with absolutely no lip-sync. Tack and Yum-Yum were redubbed again, often with the ADR out of sync. Even more footage was deleted such as an entire subplot with the Aroused Holy Aged Witch (voiced by Carry On ____ regular Joan Sims) and mighty of the incredible War Machine sequence. Even worse, this further altered version was marketed as an Aladdin clone - to the point of having overdubs referencing the film.
Even in its truncated and emasculated effect, the genius of the recent animation is resplendent. Negotiations have been off and on since the release of the altered cuts to restore it. The Walt Disney Company currently owns the film and has the power to bring assist Richard Williams to allow him to restore and attain the film the diagram it was intended to be seen.
Until this happens, the only procedure to look the modern film is via VHS tape bootlegs - often from 3rd generation sources. Considering how great a fanbase exists thanks to the bootleg, it would be benificial to Disney and fans for the uncut version to finally be made available not only on DVD, but to be allowed a wide theatrical release. Thanks to the rules of the Academy Award, a theatrical release of a restoration would allow it to come by the Best Spicy Feature Oscar - among others.
Until then, avoid the new DVD like the plague. The Thief and the Cobbler is one of the rare cel-animated films shot in CinemaScope - at the time of the film’s production starting, only two American films shot in wide-format had been made (Disney’s The Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty) . The commercial DVD is in pan & scan, which does unforgivable afflict to the virtuoso 2.35:1 framing the film had - even the laserdisc preserved this.
I am not here to rant about how what this movie became after Miramax/Disney got a occupy of it abet in the mid 90’s. However, I am here to expound my obscene irritation with this shoddy release.
A exiguous history first: A fullscreen, 2 channel version of this movie on DVD was offered as a free promotional item on cereal boxes in Canada about 5 years ago. I picked one up at that time for a few bucks on an auction position. I aloof have the cereal box version in my collection, holding out for a Widescreen release, similar to the one that I first saw on Laserdisc. So at long last Disney releases it on DVD and it is the same right thing that was offered on the cereal box, but now it is the sign you peek here - ouch! Actually, I found it a local ***-Mart store for half as remarkable, so shame on this region for their stamp gouging.
This is a sure case of Disney not intellectual their audience. It appears family movies are more marketable in fullscreen, even though most buyers of this video are going to be animation fans, current screech changes notwithstanding. Disney should have taken the same angle with this one that they took with the worthy Studio Ghibli releases. But the man slack that smart maneuver, John Lasseter at Pixar, probably has shaky relations with Disney at this point. So this half-baked release will sit on the shelf next to another crappy Disney release, Mulan II, and procure dust. I’m aloof waiting for the Widescreen, 5.1 surround version.
Can Earth4Energy Really Get You 80% Off Your Power Bill?