The Thief and The Cobbler: "lost" work of genius

[HareBrain]

I'd never heard of this before today, but this was a 25-year personal project of animation great Richard Williams. After he'd been forced to cede control of it, it was issued in a butchered format by a studio, but flopped. A fan's reconstruction of how Williams would have wanted it seen -- the "Recobbled Cut" -- is available in its entirety on YouTube (about 100 mins). I've just watched it all, and it's ace.

Here is the trailer, and the various episodes are listed here.

The quality of the picture is variable because this version is a piecing together of the DVD release of the butchered version, a bootleg version of the original, plus storyboards and rough animation Williams made to fill in the gaps when he was forced to stop before the whole film was complete. But even the storyboard sections are charming, thanks to Williams's drawing skill. It really is wonderful, a joy for any fan of animation or fantasy, and the extended climax is laugh-out-loud funny. Please watch it.

 

[Jethro_Lentle]

A real magnificent piece of animation. Such a shame it was never fully completed. Although the story is a bit ho-hum - the gorgeous style more than makes up for it. Well designed characters and professionally produced eccentric style of animation. And of course - it features the voice of the wonderful Vincent Price!

Disney's "Aladdin" pilfers more than a few elements from the film - particularly the zippy style of animation in Disney's Genie.

I'd also highly recommend it - even in it's limited reconstruction.

 

[Starbeast]

Thanks HareBrain for mentioning this film, now I shall check it out. It looks entertaining.

 

[DisapprovingOwl]

Big fan of the "Recobbled Cut" of this - there's an updated (and unfortunately from the sounds of it, final) version that's been released since the last replies in this thread. This could easily have been an animation classic had it been completed by Richard Williams' team as intended - as it stands, its "recobbling" at least survives as a testament to the potential classic that we missed out on by a hair.

On a side note, the Recobbled Cut also introduced me to the 4th movement of Dvorjak's Symphony for the New World - previously I'd only heard the more-popularised 2nd movement. Now every time I hear it I think of the climactic War Machine sequence from this movie! Some of the original music is also wonderful - particularly the introduction piece and the Tack/Zigzag fight near the end. Unfortunately, although clean tracks for some of the music have been dug out of the archives and released online, neither of these tracks are among them - hopefully they'll surface at some point in future!

 

[HareBrain]

Nice to see this resurrected, @DisapprovingOwl. I watched it again before Christmas. I think it was the newest version I saw, though I didn't notice much difference from the previous one. The only duff note I thought was Tack's voice at the end. I know he only says one line, but the tone was much deeper than anything I could imagine coming out of that character.

 

[DisapprovingOwl]

Apparently that was intentional - from what I gather, the intended punchline to him being shy to start with and silent throughout the entire film was that when he finally speaks he has this very deep and charismatic-sounding voice. I'm pretty sure his one line of dialogue is voiced by Sean Connery in the workprint/Recobbled versions - if the actual line isn't voiced by him, then I'm sure I remember reading that it was their intention to get him if possible for the finished film.

(EDIT: Looked this up - official story is apparently that he'd agreed to record it but failed to show up at the studio, and the workprint line is recorded by someone unknown who stepped in to fill the gap.)

Wish they'd been able to animate the mouse making its reappearence during the final shot as originally intended - would have solved the literal "What Happened to the Mouse?" (as TV Tropes would put it) in the narrative, as it just disappears partway through the film. If I recall correctly, it was supposed to run out of Tack's sleeve and up onto his head during the final wedding shot. I understand why reconstructing this wasn't possible, though, as it would have involved significant new animation which would then need blending with the existing footage from Calvert's version of the film, which would have been way outside the scope of the Recobbled Cut project! On that note, though, I was very impressed that the latest version did contain a newly-painted background and some minor animation to "reconstruct" the shot of Phido's eye through the door of the cell Tack is being held in earlier in the film.

 

[Khuratokh]

I stumbled across this masterpiece while browsing you-tube. It is now one of my alltime favourite animations

Recently I have seen the butchered version. And oh my... it's heinous!
Tack and the Thief are now voiced. Tack by matthew broderick. They have an internal voice. And! Never! Shut! Up!!!! All subtlety in the animation is meant to convey is lost because they comment on everything, often with dated pop culture references. They add a few Disneyesque award bait songs. Add a few scenes with very off type animation. Also include a plot about princess Yum-Yum wanting more out of life, that is forgotten about half way through.
Basically they turned it into Disney knock off.
ironically Richard Williams wanted to make the anti-thesis of a Disney picture.