The Thief and the Cobbler is an animated
feature filmIn the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
, famous for its animation and its long, troubled history. The film was conceived by Canadian animator Richard Williams, who worked 28 years on the project. Beginning production in 1964, Williams intended
The Thief and the Cobbler to be his
masterpieceMasterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
, and a milestone in the art of animation. Due to independent funding and its complex animation,
The Thief and the Cobbler was in and out of production for over two decades, until Williams, buoyed by his success as animation director on
Who Framed Roger RabbitWho Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
, signed a deal in 1990 to have
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
finance and distribute the film. This deal fell through when Williams was unable to complete the film on time. As Warner Bros. subsequently pulled out,
The Completion Bond CompanyA completion guarantee is a form of insurance offered by a completion guarantor company that is often used in independently financed films to guarantee that the producer will complete and deliver the film to the distributor thereby...
assumed control of
The Thief and the Cobbler and had it finished by producer Fred Calvert without Williams.
In the process, Calvert completely re-edited the film, removing many of Williams' scenes and adding songs and voiceovers, in order to make it more
marketableMarketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
. Two versions were released: One was issued in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in 1993 as The Princess and the Cobbler and the other in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1995 as Arabian Knight (later released under the film's
original nameA working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
,
The Thief and the Cobbler, on
home videoHome video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
). The
Princess version was distributed by Majestic Films International and
Arabian Knight by
Miramax Family FilmsMiramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
. Although neither version was a box office success, the film's history and intent has given it significant
cult statusA cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
among animation professionals and fans. As many animators from the Golden Age of animation were involved, the development of the film also played a significant role in preserving the knowledge and skill of animation for the newer generation of animators.
Video copies of a
workprintA workprint is a rough version of a motion picture, used by the film editor during the editing process. Such copies generally contain original recorded sound that will later be re-dubbed, stock footage as placeholders for missing shots or special effects, and animation tests for in-production...
made during Richard Williams' involvement of the film often circulate within animation subcircles. In addition, several different people and collectives, from animation fans to
The Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
's
Roy E. DisneyRoy Edward Disney, KCSG was a longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company, which his father Roy Oliver Disney and his uncle Walt Disney founded. At the time of his death he was a shareholder , and served as a consultant for the company and Director Emeritus for the Board of Directors...
, have initiated restoration projects intended to create a high-quality edit of the film which would mirror Williams' original intent as closely as possible. With
The Thief and the Cobbler being in production from 1964 until 1995, a total of 31 years, it surpasses the 20 year Guinness record by
TieflandTiefland is a 1954 film that Leni Riefenstahl scripted, directed, acted in, and edited. It was produced by Leni Riefenstahl and Josef Plesner. It is based on the opera Tiefland and the original play Terra baixa by Àngel Guimerà...
(1954), eventually having the longest production time for a motion picture of all time.
Upon its release, the film was the final appearance of
Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
(d. 1993), who recorded his dialogue from 1967 to 1973.
The Thief and the Cobbler (1992 workprint)
The film opens with a narrator describing a prosperous city called the Golden City, which is ruled by the sleepy King Nod and protected by three golden balls positioned atop its tallest minaret. According to a
prophecyProphecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
, the city would fall to a race of warlike, one-eyed monsters referred to as "one-eyes" should the balls be removed, and could only be saved by "the simplest soul with the smallest and simplest of things". Living in the city are a humble and good-hearted cobbler named Tack, and a nameless, unsuccessful yet persistent thief. Both characters are mute and have no dialogue.
The thief tries to rob Tack, leading to a scuffle that causes Tack's tacks to fall out onto the street while Zigzag, King Nod's rhyming
grand vizierGrand Vizier, in Turkish Vezir-i Azam or Sadr-ı Azam , deriving from the Arabic word vizier , was the greatest minister of the Sultan, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the Sultan himself...
, walks through it. Zigzag steps on one of the tacks and orders Tack to be arrested while the thief escapes. Tack is brought before King Nod and his beautiful daughter, Princess Yum-Yum, who takes a mutual liking to Tack. Before Zigzag can convince Nod to have Tack executed, Yum-Yum saves Tack by breaking one of her shoes and ordering Tack to fix it. While repairing her shoe, Tack and Yum-Yum become increasingly attracted to each other, leaving Zigzag, who lusts after Yum-Yum and plots to take over the kingdom by marrying her, intensely jealous. Meanwhile, the thief notices the golden balls atop the minaret and decides to steal them. After breaking into the palace through a gutter, the thief steals the repaired shoe from Tack, leading the cobbler to chase him through the palace. Upon retrieving the shoe, Tack bumps into Zigzag, who notices the shoe is fixed and takes the opportunity to lock Tack in a prison cell.
The next morning, Nod has a vision of the Golden City's doom at the hands of the one-eyes. While Zigzag tries to convince Nod of the kingdom's security under the protection of the golden balls, the thief manages to steal the balls after several failed attempts, only to lose them to Zigzag's minions. Tack escapes from his cell using his cobbling tools during the ensuing panic. Nod notices the balls' disappearance after being warned of the one-eyes by a dying soldier, who was
mortally woundedA mortal wound is a very severe and serious injury whether accidental or inflicted intentionally , which leads directly to the death of the victim. Death need not be instantaneous, but follows soon after...
during an attack against them. Zigzag attempts to use the stolen balls to blackmail the king into letting him marry Yum-Yum. When Nod refuses, Zigzag defects to the one-eyes and gives them the balls instead.
Nod sends Yum-Yum, her nanny, and Tack on a journey to ask for help from a "
madInsanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
, holy old witch" who lives in the desert. They are secretly followed by the thief, who hears of treasures on the journey but has no success stealing any. They also meet a band of dimwitted
brigandsBrigandage refers to the life and practice of brigands: highway robbery and plunder, and a brigand is a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery....
in the desert whom Yum-Yum declares as her royal guard. The protagonists reach the hand-shaped where the witch lives, and learn from the witch that Tack is the one prophecized to save the Golden City. The witch also presents a riddle: "Attack, attack, attack! A tack, see? But it's what you do with what you've got!"
The protagonists return to the Golden City to find the one-eyes' massive war machine approaching. Remembering the witch's riddle, Tack shoots a single tack into the enemy's midst, sparking a
Goldberg-esqueA Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction...
chain reaction that causes the war machine to slowly collapse and destroy the entire one-eye army. Zigzag tries to escape, but falls into pit filled with alligators and is eaten by them as well as his mistreated, vengeful pet
vultureVulture is the name given to two groups of convergently evolved scavenging birds, the New World Vultures including the well-known Californian and Andean Condors, and the Old World Vultures including the birds which are seen scavenging on carcasses of dead animals on African plains...
Phido. The thief, avoiding many deathtraps, steals the golden balls from the collapsing machine, only to have them taken away from him by Tack, after which he finally gives up and lets him have them. With peace restored and the prophecy fulfilled, the city celebrates as Tack and Yum-Yum marry; before they kiss, Tack speaks for the first and only time in the film, saying "I love you" to Yum-Yum in a deep voice. The film ends with the thief stealing the entire reel of film before running away.
Changes made in The Princess and the Cobbler (1993, Majestic Films)
The version by Fred Calvert is considerably different from Williams' workprint. Four songs have been added - the film originally had none. Many scenes have been cut: These include the thief attempting to steal various objects along with evading
capital punishmentCapital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
for it, and the subplot where Zigzag tries to feed Tack to Phido. Also removed are any references to the "bountiful maiden from Mombassa", whom Zigzag gives to king Nod as "a plaything" in the workprint. Tack, who was (almost) mute in the original, speaks many times in the film and narrates most scenes in
past tenseThe past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
as an older Tack: The original had narration only in the beginning by a voice over. Some subplots have been added; In one, Yum-Yum is tired of doing nothing and wants to help her father: She volunteers to be sent to the perilous journey in order to prove herself to be more than "just a pretty face". Another subplot is that there is a
social classSocial classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
romance between Tack and Yum-Yum that is similar to Disneys' Aladdin: The Nanny scolds Yum Yum for liking a lowly cobbler so much, and is very negative towards Tack. In the original, her behaviour is very different and much more positive. Also, there are several lines of alternate or removed dialogue.
Additionally, the following scene-specific changes have been made:
- In the scene where Yum-Yum is introduced, she tells Nanny that she is tired of living a life of "regal splendor" and sings the first added song of the film, "She is More".
- The scene where ZigZag's plans are revealed to the audience has been moved to an earlier point of the film (just after Tack is assigned to fix Yum-Yum's shoe).
- After ZigZag puts Tack in his cell, Tack and Yum-Yum sing the second song, "Am I Feeling Love?".
- The one-eyes are revealed at the very beginning during the opening narration. The scene where the One-Eyes would have been first introduced in Williams' version has been changed to a nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
for King Nod, who then calls Zigzag immediately. The king had a nightmare in the original, too, but more abstract and later in the film.
- The reason for the King refusing to let ZigZag marry Yum-Yum is that he finds it ridiculous that his minister, who is a practitioner of the black arts, should wed a princess, who is only allowed to marry someone pure of heart.
- The brigands are a troupe of loafers who were sent twenty years ago by the King to guard his borders. Because none of them are literate, they do not know when to return and have become bandits. They sing the song, "Bom Bom Bom Beem Bom" to describe their situation. Oddly, they seem to understand the text in their "Brigand's Book" very clearly.
- The Witch first appears as a floating eye, instead of being initially inside a tiny urn.
- The Witch's riddle is: "When to the wall you find your back; a tack, a tack, a tack!"
- The way the slave women kill the Mighty One-eye is changed: In the original, they chant "throne" and sit on him (He had been using them as a living throne
A throne is the official chair or seat upon which a monarch is seated on state or ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the monarchy or the Crown itself, an instance of metonymy, and is also used in many expressions such as "the power behind the...
). In this version, they throw him off the cliff.
- During the collapse of the war machine, Tack and Zigzag have a hand-to-hand fight. The fight ends with Tack sewing Zigzag's robe, disabling him.
- When One-Eye's army has been broken, the thief emerges and (pricked by conscience
Conscience is an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment of the intellect that distinguishes right from wrong. Moral judgement may derive from values or norms...
) willingly hands the Golden Balls to the King. When Tack and the Princess marry, there are flashbacks of all their times together up to that point, while the song "It's So Amazing" plays. Tack mentions that the thief gave him his word that he would never steal again, with the thief then shown breaking his promise by stealing the "The End" sign and the entire film.
- Because Tack now has a voice throughout the film, the gag where he has a deep voice has been removed.
Changes made in Arabian Knight (1995, Miramax)
The Miramax version includes all changes made in The Princess and the Cobbler, and adds the following:
- Several previously mute characters were given voices, most notably the thief (as Tack explains in this version, the thief is "a man of few words, but many thoughts"). Other characters that have added voices are Phido and the alligators.
- The Golden City is called Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
.
- The Witch is the benevolent twin sister of the evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
One-Eye.
- The scenes with the witch in her human form are removed in this version of the film, leaving only a floating eye and a ghostlike image.
- The Witch's riddle is extended to: "When to the wall you find your back; a tack, a tack, a tack! Belief in yourselves is what you lack! A tack, a tack, and never look back!"
- Most scenes featuring the One-eye's slave women have been removed, although he can still be seen sitting on them.
- The scene where the Mighty One-eye dies has been removed, and he appears to be alive when his machine is shown burning (as he can be heard saying "My machine!"). Whether or not he dies afterward is unknown, although it is implied by Tack that he did - Tack says that "One-eye and his army were defeated for all eternity."
- The ending has been entirely recut. At the end, Tack becomes Prince and the first Arabian Knight. The song "It's So Amazing" has been removed. During the wedding, the thief attempts to steal the balls again. Tack ends the story by saying: "So next time you see a shooting star, be proud of who you really are. Do in your heart what you know is right, and you too shall become an Arabian Knight." Tack also mentions that the thief eventually was put in jail for years but becomes the Captain of the Guards and the king even allows him to steal one last thing which explains why he took the end sign as well as the entire film.
- The end credits for the Miramax version featured the songs It's So Amazing, the short version of Bom, Bom, Bom, Beem, Bom, and the Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller is an American vocalist, record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. While establishing his own career as a singer, and working as a very busy session musician, McCuller has become best known for his work as a back-up singer for famous artists with long careers, including...
/Andrea Robinson version of the song Am I Feeling Love?, but the end credits for the Majestic Films version only featured the songs Bom, Bom, Bom, Beem, Bom (without most of the lyrics) and the Arnold McCuller/Andrea Robinson version of the song Am I Feeling Love?.
Changes made in The Thief and the Cobbler: The Recobbled Cut (2006)
The unofficial fan restoration mostly follows the workprint very closely. Most of the changes made by Fred Calvert and Miramax are not present, but it does include a few minor Calvert scenes or alterations, depending on either if it would be useful somehow or because it couldn't be altered to fit the workprint:
- King Nod's line to his daughter, which is absent in the workprint: "My princess... I hardly know you... so brave. Just like your dear mother was! [chuckle] Very well. You will go. Look here!"
- The Mad and Holy Old Witch appearing first as an eye.
- The fight between Tack and ZigZag.
- A shot of the citizens praising the thief for returning the three golden balls.
Voice cast
| Character | Original version | Allied Filmmakers version | Miramax version |
| Zigzag the Grand Vizier A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....
|
Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
|
| Tack Tack may refer to:* A type of cut nail, used in upholstery, shoe making and saddle manufacture* Horse tack, harness and equipment to allow horse-back riding* Tack , quick, temporary stitching intended to be removed...
the CobblerShoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...
|
Sean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
|
Steve Lively |
Matthew Broderick Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
(speaking)
Steve Lively (singing) |
| Narrator |
Felix Aylmer Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television.-Early life and career:...
|
Matthew Broderick Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
|
| Princess Princess is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....
Yum-Yum |
Hilary Pritchard -Selected filmography:* Futtock's End * She'll Follow You Anywhere * The Optimists * Just One More Time * Under the Doctor * Adventures of a Private Eye * A Touch of the Sun...
|
Bobbi Page |
Jennifer BealsJennifer Beals is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former...
(speaking)
Bobbi Page (singing) |
| The Thief |
Unknown (never speaks) |
Ed E. Carroll |
Jonathan Winters -Early life:Winters was born in Bellbrook, Ohio, the son of Alice Kilgore , a radio personality, and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an investment broker. He is a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio...
|
| King Nod |
Anthony QuayleSir John Anthony Quayle, CBE was an English actor and director.-Early life:Quayle was born in Ainsdale, Southport, in Lancashire to a Manx family....
|
Clive Revill Clive Selsby Revill is a New Zealand-born British character actor best known for his performances in musical theatre and on the London stage.-Early life and stage career:...
Anthony Quayle (speech scene) |
| Princess Yum-Yum's Nanny |
Joan SimsJoan Sims was an English actress best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films, and latterly for playing Madge Hardcastle in As Time Goes By.-Early life:...
|
Mona Marshall Mona M. Ianotti is an American voice actress. She is often cast in the role of young boys. Her roles have included parts in not only Japanese anime, but also in American cartoons as well. Mona Marshall has recently lent her voice to the talking bear Koby the Study Buddy...
|
Toni ColletteAntonia "Toni" Collette is an Australian actress and musician, known for her acting work on stage, television and film as well as a secondary career as the lead singer of the band Toni Collette & the Finish....
|
| Mad Holy Old Witch |
Mona Marshall
Joan Sims (some scenes) |
| Chief Roofless |
Windsor Davies Windsor Davies is a British actor, well known for playing the part of Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the 1970s/1980s British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum.-Early life and career:...
|
| Mighty One-Eye |
Paul Matthews |
Kevin Dorsey |
Phido the VultureVulture is the name given to two groups of convergently evolved scavenging birds, the New World Vultures including the well-known Californian and Andean Condors, and the Old World Vultures including the birds which are seen scavenging on carcasses of dead animals on African plains...
|
Donald PleasenceSir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
|
Eric BogosianEric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...
|
| Dying Soldier |
Clinton Sundberg Clinton Sundberg was a stage and film character actor.Sundberg was born in Appleton, Minnesota on December 7, with sources differing on his year of birth...
|
| Goblet |
Kenneth Williams Kenneth Charles Williams was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.-Life and career:Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February...
|
| Tickle |
| Gofer |
Stanley BaxterStanley Baxter is a Scottish comic actor and impressionist, best known for his British television shows. He worked in radio, theatre, television and film.-Early life:...
|
| Slap |
| Dwarf |
George Melly Alan George Heywood Melly was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for The Observer and lectured on art history, with an emphasis on surrealism.-Early life and career:He was born in Liverpool and was educated at Stowe...
|
| Hoof |
Eddie Byrne Eddie Byrne was an Irish actor. Outside Ireland he is probably best known for his minor role as General Vanden Willard in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but fans of cult sci-fi might also remember him as the skeptical Inspector Mulrooney in The Mummy and as the kindly Dr. Reginald Landers in...
|
| Hook |
Thick Wilson |
| Goolie |
Frederick ShawSir Frederick Shaw, 3rd Baronet was an Irish Conservative MP in the United Kingdom Parliament. He was the second son of Colonel Sir Robert Shaw, Bt of Bushy Park, County Dublin. He became a member of the Privy Council of Ireland on 15 January 1835...
|
| Maiden from Mombassa |
Miriam MargolyesMiriam Margolyes, OBE is an English actress and voice artist. Her earliest roles were in theatre and after several supporting roles in film and television she won a BAFTA Award for her role in The Age of Innocence .-Early life:...
|
|
| Laughing Brigand Brigandage refers to the life and practice of brigands: highway robbery and plunder, and a brigand is a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery....
|
Richard Williams (uncredited) |
| Speaking Brigands |
Joss Ackland Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE , known as Joss Ackland, is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 films and numerous television roles.-Early life:...
Peter ClaytonPeter Clayton was an English music broadcaster and writer, best known for presenting jazz and easy listening music programmes on BBC Radio 1 and 2....
Derek Hinson
Declan MulhollandThomas Declan Mulholland was a Northern Irish character actor who appeared in dozens of television shows and films....
Mike NashMike Nash is a retired Irish sportsperson. He played hurling with his local club South Liberties and was a member of the Limerick senior inter-county team in the 1990s.-References:...
Dermot WalshDermot Walsh was an Irish stage, film and television actor, known for portraying Richard the Lionheart in the 1962 television series Richard the Lionheart.-Early life:...
Ramsay Williams |
| |
Geoff Golden
Tony ScannellTony Scannell is an actor whose best-known role is probably DS Ted Roach in ITV’s The Bill. His debut in the show was on 23 October 1984, in an episode called A Friend in Need....
|
| Singing Brigands |
|
Randy Crenshaw
Kevin Dorsey
Roger Freeland
Nick JamesonNick Jameson is an American actor and voice actor, as well as a songwriter, composer, musician and producer. He has appeared in the television series The Critic, 24, Lost and, vocally, in Star Wars: Clone Wars as Palpatine , the radio adaption of Dark Empire, and several other productions of Star...
Bob Joyce
Jon Joyce
Kerry Katz
Ted King
Michael Lanning
Raymond McLeod
Rick Nelson
Scott RummellScott Rummell is an actor and voiceover performer, sometimes credited as Scott Rummell Taylor. Scott has mostly done voice overs for video games and movie trailers and has had several guest appearances on Bruce Timm's animated Justice League series in the role of Aquaman.-External links:...
|
| Am I Feeling Love? Pop Singers |
|
Arnold McCuller Arnold McCuller is an American vocalist, record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. While establishing his own career as a singer, and working as a very busy session musician, McCuller has become best known for his work as a back-up singer for famous artists with long careers, including...
Andrea Robinson |
| Additional Voices |
|
Ed E. Carroll
Steve Lively
Mona Marshall
Bobbi Page
Donald Pleasence |
Development and early production on Nasruddin (1964-1972)
Richard Williams began development work on The Thief and the Cobbler in 1964, planning to do a film about the Mulla Nasruddin, a "wise fool" of Near Eastern folklore. Williams had previously illustrated a series of books by
Idries ShahIdries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
, which collected the philosophical yet wise tales of Nasruddin. Production took place at Richard Williams Productions in
Soho SquareSoho Square is a square in Soho, London, England, with a park and garden area at its centre that dates back to 1681. It was originally called King Square after Charles II, whose statue stands in the square. At the centre of the garden, there is a distinctive half-timbered gardener's hut...
,
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. An early reference to the project came in the 1968 International Film Guide, which noted that Williams was about to begin work on "the first of several films based on the stories featuring Mulla Nasruddin."
Like director
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
before him, Williams took on
televisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and feature-film title projects in order to fund his pet project, and work on his film progressed slowly. In 1969, the Guide noted that animation legend
Ken HarrisKen Harris was an American animator who worked for several film studios. He is widely considered as one of the master animators of his time....
was now working on the project, which was now entitled The Amazing Nasruddin
. The illustrations from the film showed intricate Indian and Persian designs.
In 1970, the project was re-titled The Majestic Fool
. For the first time, a potential distributor for the independent film was mentioned: British Lion Film Corporation. The International Film Guide noted that the Williams Studio's staff had increased to forty people for the production of the feature.
Dialogue tracks for the film, now being referred to as Nasruddin!
, were recorded at this time. Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
was hired to perform the voice of the villain, Anwar (later re-named "Zigzag"), originally assigned to Kenneth Williams. Sir Anthony Quayle was cast as King Nod. Price was hired to make the villain more enjoyable for Williams, as he was a great fan of Vincent Price's work and ZigZag was based on two people Williams hated.
Nasruddin
becomes The Thief and the Cobbler
Idries Shah demanded 50% of the profits from the film, and Idries Shah’s sister, who had done some of the translations for the Nasrudin book claimed that she owned the stories. As a result, Williams had a falling-out with the Shah family in 1972, ParamountParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
withdrew a deal that they'd been negotiating, and Williams was forced to abandon the script.
In a promotional booklet released in 1973, Williams made an announcement about the status of his project:
The publicity release, however, failed to mention that almost all of the Nasruddin footage, characters and scenes that did not have Nasruddin himself were retained. While the story's focus and tone was shifted, several characters, including Anwar/Zigzag, were all carried over to the "new" film, which Williams was promising as a "100 minute
PanavisionPanavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...
animated epic feature film with a hand-drawn cast of thousands."
By 1973, Williams had co-written a new script with his wife Margaret French. Nasruddin was replaced by a cobbler named Tack. The characters were renamed at this point. In the Nasruddin years, Phido's original name was "Brutay", making Zigzag's last words "You, too, Phido?" a reference to the famous "
Et tu, Brute?"Et tu, Brute?" is a Latin phrase often used poetically to represent the last words of Roman dictator Julius Caesar to his friend Marcus Brutus at the moment of his assassination. It can be variously translated as "Even you, Brutus?","And you, Brutus?", "You too, Brutus?", "Thou too, Brutus?" or...
". Zigzag speaks mostly in rhyme throughout the entire film, while the other characters speak normally (the thief and Tack do not speak at all, except for one line for Tack at the very end, voiced by
Sean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
). In an interview with John Canemaker in the Feb. 1976 issue of Millimeter
, Richard Williams stated that "The Thief
is not following the Disney route." He went on to state that the film would be "the first animated film with a real plot that locks together like a detective story at the end," and that, with its two mute main characters, Thief
was essentially "a silent movie with a lot of sound."
Prolonged production (1972-1986)
Williams worked on the production as a side project in-between various TV commercial, TV specialA television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...
, and feature film title assignments, such as the 1977 feature Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical AdventureRaggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure is a 1977 American animated film directed by Richard Williams. It was produced by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, and released by 20th Century Fox...
. Because he had no money to have a full team working on the film, and due to the film being a "giant epic", production dragged for decades. In order to save money, scenes were kept in pencil stage without putting it into colour, as advised by Dick Purdom: "Work on paper! Don’t put it in colour. Don’t spend on special effects. Don’t do camera-work, tracing or painting …. just do the rough drawings!”
Upon seeing Disney's
The Jungle BookThe Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...
, Richard Williams realised that he was not very skilled in animating and that he needed to actually learn the craft, if he wanted to hold the audience's interest:
Williams thus decided to get several animator veterans from the golden age of animation, such as
Art BabbittArthur Harold Babitsky , better known as Art Babbitt, was an American animator, best known for his work at The Walt Disney Company. He received over 80 awards as animation director and animator, but is most famous for creating Goofy...
,
Ken HarrisKen Harris was an American animator who worked for several film studios. He is widely considered as one of the master animators of his time....
,
Emery HawkinsEmery Hawkins was an American animator who worked at many studios during the golden age of animation, including Disney, Screen Gems, Walter Lantz, Warner Bros., and UPA. His most famous work is undoubtedly the Woody Woodpecker cartoons that he worked on during the 1940s...
and
Grim NatwickMyron "Grim" Natwick was an American artist, animator and film director. Natwick is best known for drawing the Fleischer Studio's most popular character, Betty Boop.-Background:...
to work on the film in his studio in London and teach him their knowledge and skill of animation: Williams learned also from
Milt KahlMilton Erwin Kahl was an animator for the Disney studio, and one of Disney's Nine Old Men....
,
Frank ThomasFranklin M. "Frank" Thomas was an American animator. He was one of Walt Disney's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men....
,
Ollie JohnstonOliver Martin Johnston, Jr. was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last surviving at the time of his death. He was recognized by The Walt Disney Company with its Disney Legend Award in 1989...
and Ken Anderson at Disney, to whom he made yearly visits. Williams would later pass their knowledge to the new generation of animators.
As years passed, the project became more ambitious. Williams said that "The idea is to make the best animated film that has ever been made - there really is no reason why not." The film features very detailed and complex animation, such as scenes where the entire picture is
animated by handTraditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...
to move in three dimensions: this was achieved without
computer-generated imageryComputer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
. Additionally, almost the whole film has been animated "on ones", meaning that the animation runs at full 24 frames per second, as opposed to the cheaper and more common animation "on twos" at twelve frames per second.
Because Ken Harris was a very fast animator, and the film had no plot since the removal of the Nasruddin character and before the script rewrite, Williams had to invent several scenes for the Thief character (which was designed as a caricature of Williams) in order to keep Harris working. Another artist hired was illustrator
Errol Le CainErrol Le Cain was a British animator and children's book illustrator. He won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1985.- Biography :Born in Singapore on 5 March 1941, Errol Le Cain was evacuated with his family the year following the Japanese invasion...
, who did inspirational paintings and backgrounds, setting the style for the film. During the decades that the film was being made, the characters were redesigned several times, and scenes were reanimated. The Mad Holy Old Witch was designed as a caricature of animator
Grim NatwickMyron "Grim" Natwick was an American artist, animator and film director. Natwick is best known for drawing the Fleischer Studio's most popular character, Betty Boop.-Background:...
, by whom she was animated. Animation drawings of the Mad Holy Old Witch were later used in Richard Williams' 2000 book
The Animator's Survival KitThe Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles, and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion, and Internet Animators is a book by award-winning animator and director Richard Williams about various aspects of animation...
.
In 1978, a prince from Saudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
named Mohammed Feisal became interested in The Thief and agreed to fund ten minutes as a test, with the budget of $100,000. Williams chose the complex War Machine scene for the test. He missed two deadlines, and the scene was completed in the end of 1979 for $250,000. Prince Feisal flew to London for a screening, and although the finished scene was very impressive, he backed out of the production because of missed deadlines and budgetary overruns.
The Thief gains financial backing
In 1986, Williams met producer
Jake EbertsJake Eberts, OC is a movie producer, executive and financier. Known for risk-taking and producing a consistently high caliber of movies including such award-winning titles as Chariots of Fire , Gandhi , Dances with Wolves , and the successful animated feature Chicken Run .-Early life and...
, who began funding the production through his
Allied FilmmakersAllied Filmmakers is a British film production company, founded by Jake Eberts in London in 1985 as a film branch from Pathé.- Production filmography :*Confessions of a Dangerous Mind *The Legend of Bagger Vance *Chicken Run...
company and, according to the August 30, 1995 edition of The Los Angeles Times
, eventually provided $The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
10 million of the film's $28 million budget. Allied's distribution and sales partner, Majestic Films, began promoting the film in industry trades, under the working title Once...
.
In the 1980s, Williams put together a 12-minute sample reel of The Thief
, which he showed to his friend and animation mentor Milt Kahl in San Francisco. After hearing about the rather enthusiastic reaction the screening of "The Thief", Robert ZemeckisRobert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
and Steven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
decided to take a look for themselves and were so impressed that they asked Williams to direct the animation of Who Framed Roger RabbitWho Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
. Williams agreed in order to get financing for The Thief and the Cobbler
and get it finally finished. Disney and Spielberg told Williams that in return for doing Roger Rabbit
, they would help distribute his film. Roger Rabbit
was released in 1988, and became a blockbusterBlockbuster, as applied to film or theatre, denotes a very popular or successful production. The entertainment industry use was originally theatrical slang referring to a particularly successful play but is now used primarily by the film industry...
. Williams won two Oscars for his animation. The success of Roger Rabbit
proved that Williams could work within a studio structure and turn out high-quality animation on time and within budget.
Because of his success, Williams received funding and a distribution deal for The Thief and the Cobbler with Warner Bros. Pictures: They signed a
negative pickup dealIn film production, a negative pickup is a contract entered into by an independent producer and a movie studio wherein the studio agrees to purchase the movie from the producer at a given date and for a fixed sum...
in 1988. Williams also got some money from Japanese investors.
Beginning on full production (1989-1992)
With the new funding, the film finally got into full production in 1989. Williams scoured the art schools of Europe and Canada to find talented artists. It was at this point, with almost all of the original animators either dead or having long since moved on to other projects, that full-scale production on the film began, mostly with a new, younger team of animators, including Richard Williams's son Alexander Williams. In a 1988 interview with
Jerry BeckJerry Beck is a well-known animation historian, with ten books and numerous articles to his credit. He is also an animation producer, an industry consultant to Warner Bros., and has been an executive with Nickelodeon and Disney....
, Williams stated that he had two and a half hours of pencil tests for Thief and that he had not
storyboardStoryboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
ed the film as he found such a method too controlling.
Discipline was harsh. "He fired hundreds of people. There's a list as long as your arm of people fired by Dick. It was a regular event." cameraman John Letherbarrow recalls,"There was one guy who got fired on the doorstep." Williams was just as hard on himself: "He was the first person in the morning and the last one out at night," recalls animator Roger Visard.
At this time Eberts encouraged Williams to make changes to the script. The prince Bubba subplot was removed, resulting in the loss of the following characters: Princess Mee-Mee (Yum-Yum's twin sister), and Prince Bubba, who had been turned into an
ogreAn ogre is a large, cruel, monstrous, and hideous humanoid monster, featured in mythology, folklore, and fiction. Ogres are often depicted in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings, and have appeared in many classic works of literature...
. Some of Grim Natwick's animation of the Witch had to be discarded.
Funders pressured Williams to make finished scenes of the main characters for a marketing trailer. The final designs were made for the characters at this time. The shot of Princess Yum-Yum in the trailer was traced from a
live actionIn filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
film - her design was slightly changed for the rest of the film, resulting her to be slightly "off-model" in the scene. Tack was modeled after silent film stars
Charlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
and
Harry LangdonHarry Philmore Langdon was an American comedian who appeared in vaudeville, silent films , and talkies. He was briefly partnered with Oliver Hardy.-Life and career:...
. Movement 1 of the symphonic suite
ScheherazadeSheherazade , Op. 35, is a symphonic suite composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888. Based on One Thousand and One Nights, sometimes known as The Arabian Nights, this orchestral work combines two features common to Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov in particular: dazzling, colourful...
by
Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
was used in the trailer.
In Richard Williams' script for the film, the climax was even longer (and slightly different) than in the workprint or final films: After the collapse of the War Machine, Zigzag, at Mighty One-Eye's goading, conjures a larger-than-life
Oriental dragonChinese dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and folklore, with mythic counterparts among Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Bhutanese, Western and Turkic dragons. In Chinese art, dragons are typically portrayed as long, scaled, serpentine creatures with four legs...
(which dwarfed even the War Machine), which is about to flatten Tack, who once again trusts on his tack to bring down the dragon, revealing it to be nothing more than an inflatable balloon (filled with acrid fumes, which permeates the atmosphere and makes everyone cough, even Mighty One-Eye; That can still be heard in the workprint). Enraged, Mighty One-Eye is going to kill a frightened Zigzag just before meeting his own doom (the same one as in the workprint), but Zigzag is pursued by Tack, Yum Yum and the Brigands and hides from them just before inadvertently meeting his own doom (also in the workprint). Although there were some production designs of the scene with the Oriental dragon, it was never made, as it was found to be too difficult to animate.
Richard Williams loses control of the film (1992)
The film was not finished by the 1991 deadline that Warner imposed upon Williams; the film had approximately 10 to 15 minutes of screen time to complete, which at William's rate was estimated to take several months to complete. Meanwhile
Walt Disney Feature AnimationWalt Disney Animation Studios is an American animation studio headquartered in Burbank, California. The studio, founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is the oldest subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
had begun work on Aladdin
, a film which (coincidentally or not) bore striking resemblances in tone and style to The Thief and the Cobbler
; for example, the character Zigzag from Thief
shares many physical characteristics with both Aladdins villain, Jafar, and its Genie.
Seeing it as potential competition to
Thief's commercial viability, television animation producer Fred Calvert was asked to do a detailed analysis of the production status in early 1991. He had already traveled to Williams' London studio several times to check on the progress of the film, and his conclusion was that Williams was "woefully behind schedule and way over budget". Williams did indeed have a script, according to Calvert, but "he wasn't following it faithfully." Williams was asked to show the investors a rough copy of the film with the remaining scenes filled in with storyboards in order to establish the film's narrative. Williams had avoided storyboards up to this point, but within two weeks he had done what the investors had asked. "They had to twist his fingers to do storyboards, he refused to do them." Williams made a
workprintA workprint is a rough version of a motion picture, used by the film editor during the editing process. Such copies generally contain original recorded sound that will later be re-dubbed, stock footage as placeholders for missing shots or special effects, and animation tests for in-production...
which combined finished footage, pencil test and storyboards which covered the 10 to 15 minutes left to finish. This workprint has been bootlegged, and copies exist.
The workprint was shown to Warner. This rough version of the film was not well received; by September 1992, Warner had lost confidence and backed out of the project, and the Completion Bond company had seized control of the film. According to Alex Williams, executive producer Jake Eberts also abandoned the project; his comments on record claiming that the altered versions were superior to Williams' version indicate that Eberts had also lost confidence in Williams. Additionally, according to Richard Williams himself, the production had lost a source of funding when Japanese investors pulled out due to the
recessionThe is the time after the Japanese asset price bubble's collapse within the Japanese economy, which occurred gradually rather than catastrophically...
following the
Japanese asset price bubbleThe was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991, in which real estate and stock prices were greatly inflated. The bubble's collapse lasted for more than a decade with stock prices initially bottoming in 2003, although they would descend even further amidst the global crisis in 2008. The...
.
Production under Fred Calvert (1992-1993)
Fred Calvert was assigned by the Completion Bond Company to finish the film as cheaply and quickly as possible, an assignment he tried to avoid. When the arrangements with another producer fell through, he took the job "somewhat under protest." "I really didn't want to do it," Calvert said, "but if I didn't do it, it would have been given off to the lowest bidder. I took it as a way to try and preserve something and at least get the thing on the screen and let it be seen." Sue Shakespeare of
Creative Capers EntertainmentCreative Capers Entertainment is an animation studio founded by Terry and Sue Shakespeare and David Molina in 1989. Based in Montrose, California, it specializes flash and hand-drawn animation in various feature films, television series, commercials, and CD-ROM and video games...
had previously offered to solve story problems with
Terry GilliamTerrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
and Williams, and proposed to allow Williams to finish the film under her supervision. However, her bid was rejected by Completion Bond in favor of a cheaper one by Calvert.
In the process, Calvert completely re-edited the film. Much of Williams's finished footage was deleted from the final release print because of the repetitive nature of the scenes.
Some of the deleted scenes ended up as being displayed during the end credits. Also, Steve Lively was brought in to record a voice and narration for the previously mute character of Tack, and several other characters that already had vocal tracks prepared for them were re-voiced. While having a speaking hero wasn't Calvert's choice, he felt it was a logical decision in order to tell the story. Four songs were added:
She is More,
Am I Feeling Love?,
Bom, Bom, Bom, Beem, Bom and
It's So Amazing. Adult content was also toned down: In the scene where the dying messenger warns the king, the spike (from the flagpole) sticking out of his chest was removed. The same thing goes for any audio (or reference) of the Maiden from Mombassa.
It took Calvert 18 months to finish the film. The new scenes were produced on a very low budget, with the animation being produced by freelance animators in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
(some from
Kroyer FilmsWilliam "Bill" Kroyer is an award-winning director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles and theatrical films. He and Jerry Rees were the main animators for the CGI sequences in Tron...
, who is also credited), former Williams animators at Premier Films in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and
Don BluthDonald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH , An American Tail ,The Land Before Time , and All Dogs Go to Heaven ,...
animators working under
Gary GoldmanGary Wayne Goldman is an American Film Producer, Director, Animator, Writer and voice actor, he is well known for working on films with Don Bluth like Anastasia, An American Tail and The Land Before Time...
in
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. The ink and paint work was subcontracted to
Wang Film ProductionsWang Film Productions is one of the oldest and most prolific Taiwanese animation studios...
in
TaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, who themselves outsourced most of the work to their satellite studio in Thailand; additional ink and paint work was done at
Varga StudioVarga Studio, Ltd. is an animation studio located in Hungary. It is currently one of Europe's nine leading animation houses, and while most of its work is for European animation, it occasionally animates for American series as well...
in
HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and at The Magic Brush in Hollywood. Some work was also done in
KoreaKorea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
. The end results have been widely seen as "obviously and pitifully inferior" in quality to Williams's original scenes; the primary concern was to complete the film in as little time and for as little money as possible.
Releases
After the film's completion, Jake Eberts' Allied Filmmakers, along with Majestic Films, reacquired the distribution rights from the Completion Bond Company.
Calvert's version of the film was distributed in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
as
The Princess and the Cobbler. Until Miramax agreed to distribute the film, it was refused by many other American distributors . "It was a very difficult film to market, it had such a reputation," Calvert recalls. "I don't think that they were looking at it objectively."
In December 1994, the Disney subsidiary
MiramaxMiramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
bought the rights. Miramax recut the film even further and released their own version in the U.S.,
Arabian Knight,, featuring newly-written dialogue by
Eric GillilandEric Raymond Gilliland is an American television producer, writer, actor and whistler.-Early life:Gilliland was born and raised in Glenview, Illinois...
,
Michael HitchcockMichael Hitchcock is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and television producer.In 2011, Hitchcock became a writer and consulting producer for season 3 of the FOX television series Glee, where he had guest starred in season 1 as rival glee club director Dalton Rumba.As an actor, he has...
, and Gary Glasberg, and all-star voice cast that was added several months before the film's release. The voice cast consists of
Matthew BroderickMatthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
as Tack and
Jonathan Winters-Early life:Winters was born in Bellbrook, Ohio, the son of Alice Kilgore , a radio personality, and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an investment broker. He is a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio...
as the Thief. Tack and the Thief's dialogue was added over nearly every scene of the film; Williams' version had been largely dialogue-less. The character of the Old Witch was entirely removed (save for a few lines of dialogue and ghost-like image), as was most of a climactic battle sequence.
Arabian Knight was quietly released by Miramax on August 25, 1995. It opened on 510 screens, and grossed
$The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
319,723 (on an estimated budget of $24 million) during its theatrical run.
Ironically, to this day the film has never been released in any form in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, where the majority of the production took place.
Home media
The
MiramaxMiramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
(1995) version of the film was finally released on
VHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
on February 18, 1997 as
The Thief and the Cobbler (originally released in theatres as
Arabian Knight). A widescreen
laserdiscLaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
was also released, and a Japanese-dubbed widescreen DVD of the 1995 release.
The first time that the Miramax version of the film appeared on
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, was in
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 2001 as a giveaway promotion in packages of Kellogg's
Froot LoopsFroot Loops is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by Kellogg's and sold in Hungary, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Germany, The Middle East, The Caribbean, South Africa, Latin America, Sweden and Finland...
cereal. This
pan and scanPan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...
DVD was released through Alliance Atlantis which distributes many of Miramax's films in Canada. It came in a paper sleeve and had no special features, other than the choice of English or French language tracks.
The "Princess and the Cobbler" edit was released on a
pan and scanPan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...
DVD in Australia in 2003 by
Magna PacificMagna Pacific is a leading independent film and home entertainment distributor headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, operating within Australia and New Zealand...
, according to some sites; additional features on the DVD are unknown.
The Miramax version was first released commercially on DVD on March 8, 2005, in pan-and-scan format. This DVD was re-released by
The Weinstein CompanyThe Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
on November 21, 2006. Although the information supplied to retailers such as Amazon.com by retail distribution companies said that it would be a widescreen "collector's edition", this DVD was in fact the old 2005 pan-and-scan DVD in fancy packaging. The 2006 DVD has been found by most reviewers to be unsatisfactory, with the image quality being compared to "a VHS/Beta tape rather than a DVD... and one that’s seen better days".
The Digital BitsThe Digital Bits is a DVD-related website, established in 1997 by editor Bill Hunt. It includes frequent news updates about upcoming DVD releases, images of upcoming DVD cover art, and DVD reviews....
gave it an award for being the worst standard-edition DVD of 2006. Although the second DVD of the Miramax version of this film was the same DVD as the first one; this DVD featured trailers and promos for Weinstein Company-produced family films, including
HoodwinkedHoodwinked!, also titled Hoodwinked on its theatrical poster and in other sources, is a 2005 American computer-animated family action comedy film, produced by Blue Yonder Films with Kanbar Entertainment, directed by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, Tony Leech, and produced by Maurice Kanbar, David K....
and
Arthur and the Invisibles.
The Miramax version was re-released on DVD on May 3, 2011 by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment, a independent DVD distributor who recently made a deal with Miramax to release 251 titles from the Miramax library.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/echo-bridge-distribute-miramax-titles-101170
Reception
Although the film's executive producer Jake Eberts found that "It was significantly enhanced and changed by Miramax after Miramax stepped in and acquired the domestic [distribution] rights," the Miramax version of the film was a commercial failure. Critical response to this version was negative. Film website
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 40%. Carn James of New York Times criticised the songs sung by the princess, calling the lyrics "horrible" and the melodies "forgettable", though he did praise Williams' animation as "among the most glorious and lively ever created". Alex Williams, son of the original director, criticised changes made by Calvert and Miramax, called the finished film "more or less unwatchable" and found it "hard [...] to find the spirit of the film as it was originally conceived". Similarly,
Jerry BeckJerry Beck is a well-known animation historian, with ten books and numerous articles to his credit. He is also an animation producer, an industry consultant to Warner Bros., and has been an executive with Nickelodeon and Disney....
felt that the added voiceovers of Jonathan Winters and Matthew Broderick were unnecessary and unfunny, and that Fred Calvert's new footage didn't meet the standards of the original Williams scenes. However, in 2003, the
Online Film Critics SocietyThe Online Film Critics Society is a professional association for film critics who publish their reviews, interviews, and essays on the Internet.The OFCS was founded in 1997...
ranked the film as the 81st greatest animated film of all time. In addition, the film won the 1995 Academy of Family Films Award. Richard Williams apparently refuses to talk about the film to anyone, however, in 2010, he did speak about
The Thief and the Cobbler in an interview about his upcoming silent animation called
Circus Drawings.
Influence
The Secret of Kells, a 2009 animated film that based its style on traditional Irish art, had
The Thief and the Cobbler as one of its main inspirations. In the words of
Kells co-director
Tomm MooreTomm Moore is an Irish illustrator, comics artist and filmmaker. He is co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, an animation studio and production company, based in Kilkenny, Ireland...
, "Some friends in college and I were inspired by Richard Williams unfinished masterpiece
The Thief and the Cobbler and the Disney movie
MulanMulan is a 1998 American animated film directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, with story by Robert D. San Souci and screenplay by Rita Hsiao, Philip LaZebnik, Chris Sanders, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, and Raymond Singer. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney...
, which took indigenous traditional art as the starting point for a beautiful style of 2D animation. I felt that something similar could be done with Irish art."
Restoration attempts
Several low-quality video copies of Richard Williams' workprint have been shared among animation fans and professionals. The problem in creating a high-quality restoration is that after the Completion Bond Company had finished the film, many scenes by Williams that were removed disappeared - many of these had fallen into the hands of private parties. Before losing control of the film, Williams had originally kept all artwork safe in a fireproof basement. Additionally, there are legal problems with Miramax.
At the 2000 Annecy Festival, Williams showed
Walt Disney Feature AnimationWalt Disney Animation Studios is an American animation studio headquartered in Burbank, California. The studio, founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is the oldest subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
head
Roy E. DisneyRoy Edward Disney, KCSG was a longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company, which his father Roy Oliver Disney and his uncle Walt Disney founded. At the time of his death he was a shareholder , and served as a consultant for the company and Director Emeritus for the Board of Directors...
a faded workprint of
The Thief, which Disney liked. With William's full support, Roy Disney began a project to restore
The Thief and the Cobbler to as close to Williams' original intent as possible. He sought out original
pencil testTraditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...
s and completed footage, much of which was by this time in the possession of various
animatorAn animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
s and film collectors. The restored work would have been released on a special DVD and given a limited run in theatres once finished. Roy Disney left the Walt Disney Company in November 2003, and the
Thief and the Cobbler restoration project was put on hold.
In 2006, a fan of Richard Williams' work named Garrett Gilchrist created a non-profit
fan restorationA fan edit is a version of a film modified by a viewer, that removes, reorders, or adds material in order to create a new interpretation of the source material...
of William's workprint, named
The Thief and the Cobbler: The Recobbled Cut. It was done in as high quality as possible by combining available sources, such as a bootleg copy of Williams' workprint and better-quality footage from DVD and VHS copies of the released versions. This edit was much supported by numerous people who had worked on the film (with the exception of Richard Williams himself, who wishes not to have anything to do with the film anymore), including Roy Naisbitt, Alex Williams, Andreas Wessel-Therhorn, Tony White, Holger Leihe, Steve Evangelatos, Greg Duffell, Jerry Verschoor and Beth Hannan, many of whom lent rare material for the project. Some minor changes were made to "make it feel more like a finished film", like adding more music and replacing storyboards with some of Fred Calvert's animation. This edit gained positive reviews on the Internet: Twichfilm.net called it "
the best and most important 'fan edit' ever made".
See also
- List of animated feature films
- History of British animation
As in many areas of industry and culture, many British developments in animation have been employed around the world. This has been strengthened by an influx of people to the UK...
- Film modification
The term film modification can be used in general for any form of modification of a film to suit the distributor or the audience's politics or age.-Background:...
- Re-edited film
A re-edited film is a film that has been edited from the original theatrical release.-Types of re-editing:Films edited for format, length, and content....
Other animated movies with long production histories
- The Overcoat
The Overcoat is an upcoming animated feature film that has been the main project of acclaimed Russian director and animator Yuriy Norshteyn since 1981. It is based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol with the same name....
, an upcoming RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n animated film, in production since 1981
- Le Roi et l'oiseau
Le Roi et l'oiseau is a 1980 traditionally-animated feature film directed by Paul Grimault...
, a French animated film, produced in two parts (1948–52, 1967–80), initially released in recut form, eventually finished as per director’s wishes
External links
- Eddie Bowers' The Thief and the Cobbler Page – A website about Richard Williams' The Thief and the Cobbler with articles, clips from the workprint, pictures, and the history of the film.
- The Thief Blog - A blog where people who worked on the film recount their memories of the film's production.