The Thief and the Cobbler

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The Thief and the Cobbler
An unreleased poster from the latter days of the film's production, before the film was taken from Richard Williams.
Directed by	Richard Williams
Produced by	Richard Williams Imogen Sutton Jacobus Rose
Written by	Richard Williams Margaret French
Starring	See voice cast
Music by	Robert Folk
Distributed by	The Princess and the Cobbler Majestic Films International Filmayer Arabian Knight Miramax Family Films The Weinstein Company (2006 DVD) Alliance Communications (theatrical and VHS, the company exited during the film's release) Alliance Atlantis (DVD, the company exited after the film was released) Universal Studios Home Entertainment (VHS/DVD, distributing for Alliance Atlantis)
Release date(s)	1993 August 25, 1995
Country	United Kingdom  United States
Language	English

The official logo that was used on posters of the film until Richard Williams' departure.

"Arabian Knight" redirects here. For other uses, see Arabian Nights (disambiguation).

The Thief and the Cobbler (released as The Princess and The Cobbler in Australia and South Africa and Arabian Knight in most other countries) is an animated feature film by Canadian animator Richard Williams, who worked 26 years on the project. Beginning the work in 1964, Williams intended for the film to be his masterpiece, and a milestone in the art of 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 Rabbit, signed a deal in 1990 to have Warner Bros. finance and distribute the film.^[1] This deal fell through when Williams was unable to complete the film on time. As Warners pulled out, The Completion Bond Company assumed control of the project and had it finished by producer Fred Calvert without Williams.

Two versions of Calvert's completed The Thief and the Cobbler were released; one was issued in Australia and South Africa in 1993 as The Princess and the Cobbler and the other in the United States in 1995 as Arabian Knight, distributed by Miramax Family Films. While both are significantly different from Williams' intended version, the Arabian Knight version included new voice work by actors such as Jennifer Beals, Matthew Broderick, Eric Bogosian andJonathan Winters. Although the film was not a financial success, the film's history and intent has given it significant cult status among animation professionals and fans.

Video copies of workprints made during Richard Williams' involvement on the project often circulate within animation subcircles. In addition, several different people and collectives, from animation fans to The Walt Disney Company's Roy E. Disney, have initiated restoration projects intended to create a high-quality edit of the film which would mirror Williams' original intent as closely as possible. Because it was in production from 1964 until 1995, a total of 31 years, The Thief and the Cobbler holds the record for having the longest production time for a motion picture in history.

The film was the final appearance of Vincent Price (d. 1993), who recorded his dialogue from 1967 to 1973.

[edit] Plot

[edit] The Thief and the Cobbler

The film opens by the narrator describing a Golden City. According to a prophecy, if the three golden balls on the top of its highest minaret are taken away, the city will fall to destruction and death.

When a nameless thief tries his luck at the home of Tack the cobbler, Tack accidentally sews their clothes together while he is asleep and the thief is leaning over him. They stumble onto the street, and ZigZag the grand vizier steps on one of Tack's tacks. He orders Tack to be arrested. When Tack is being taken to the palace, the thief sees the three golden balls in the courtyard.

Before ZigZag can convince king Nod that Tack should be beheaded, princess Yum-Yum saves him by breaking her shoe on purpose and demanding that the cobbler should fix it. After he is done, the thief, who has managed to break into the palace through the sewer system, steals the shoe, and Tack chases him through hallways filled with optical illusions. After Tack manages to get the shoe back, ZigZag finds him and puts him in a cell.

Outside the city, a race of one-eyed men, led by the Mighty One-eye, plans to conquer it. Unknown to them, a soldier is still alive and goes to warn the king. Meanwhile, ZigZag tells his pet vulture Phido his plan to marry the princess and take over the kingdom.

King Nod has a vision of the one-eyes and calls ZigZag immediately. When ZigZag has managed to convince the king that there is no threat as long as the three golden balls are on the minaret, the thief manages to steal them, but they fall to the ground. The balls start to bounce causing panic and chaos, during which ZigZag's minions take them and Tack breaks out of his cell using his tools. The dying soldier finally arrives and warns Nod about the one-eyes. After the king sees that the balls are gone, he tells about it and his vision to his subjects.

ZigZag receives the balls from his minions and attempts to blackmail the king to let him marry his daughter Yum-Yum. When king Nod refuses, ZigZag decides to join the one-eyes instead. Nod sends Yum-Yum and Tack to ask for help from a witch, who lives in the desert.

From left to right: Tack the cobbler, ZigZag the grand vizier, king Nod and princess Yum-Yum. The character designs are a combination of UPA and classic Disney styles,^[1][2] and the overall style and flat perspective inspired by Persian miniature paintings^[2][3][4][5].

The princess and Tack meet a band of brigands in the desert, whom she declares as her royal guard. Together they travel to the hand-shaped mountain where the witch is. The witch gives them the advice: "Attack, Attack, ATTACK! A tack, see? But it's what you do with what you've got!". Meanwhile, ZigZag goes to the Mighty One-eye and impresses him with his skills as a sorcerer and by taming the alligators that the one-eyes throw him to. They then prepare to attack the city.

Princess Yum-Yum, Tack, the brigands and the thief return to the city while the one-eyes' huge war machine is approaching the city. ZigZag, who is riding in the front of the one-eye army, tries to attack Tack, who dodges. Tack responds by shooting a tack at ZigZag. Although he misses, the tack starts a chain reaction that causes the war machine to slowly collapse, killing the one-eye army. ZigZag falls in a pit when trying to escape and is eaten alive by Phido and the alligators. The Mighy One-eye is killed by his own slave women. The thief steals the balls from the war machine, but loses them to Tack.

Tack and Yum-Yum marry; before their kiss, Tack speaks for the first time in the film, saying "I love you" in a surprisingly low and deep voice. As the film ends, the thief appears one last time to steal the golden THE END letters, then breaks the fourth wall by taking the film itself before scurrying away.

[edit] Changes made in The Princess and the Cobbler

Many scenes have been cut. These include the thief attempting to steal various objects and a subplot where ZigZag tries to feed Tack to Phido.

Tack, who was (almost) mute in the original, speaks in many moments of the film.

The one-eyes are revealed at the very beginning during the opening narration.

Yum Yum tells Nanny that she is tired of living a life of "regal splendor" and desires at least to help one person. She then sings the song "She is More".

References to the "bountiful maiden from Mombassa" were removed.

The camera pan over some mountain terrain ends with a shot of One-Eye. This becomes a nightmare for King Nod, who calls Zigzag immediately.

The Nanny is scolding Yum Yum for liking a lowly cobbler so much. Yum Yum tells her Nanny she needs new glasses, because there is more to him than meets the eye.

The reason for the King refusing to let ZigZag marry Yum-Yum is that he finds it ridiculous that his minister, who is a sorcerer, 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 is literate, they do not know when to return and have become banditti. They sing the song, "Bom Bom Bom Beem Bom" to describe their situation.

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. In this version, they throw him off the cliff.

When One-Eye's army has been broken, the thief emerges and (pricked by conscience) 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.

[edit] Changes made in Arabian Knight

Several previously mute characters, like the thief, Phido and the alligators were given voices.

The Golden City is called Baghdad.

The Witch is the benevolent twin sister of the evil One-Eye.

The witch character was removed in this version of the film.

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 becomes Prince and the first Arabian Knight. Whilst they do, the thief attempts to steal the balls again. Tack ends the story by saying: "So whenever 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 remains jail for years, but when released, becomes the Captain of the Guards.

[edit] Voice cast and crew (incomplete)

[edit] Williams's production in London

• Created and Directed by: Richard Williams
• Producers: Imogen Sutton & Richard Williams
• Screenplay by: Richard Williams and Margaret French
• Executive Producer: Jake Eberts
• Art Director: Roy Naisbitt
• Master Animator: Ken Harris
• Background Styling by: Errol Le Cain
• Director of Photography: John Leatherbarrow
• Editor: Peter Bond
• Supervising Sound Editor: Mike Le-Mare, MPSE
• Original Music Composer: Howard Blake

[edit] Artistic Supervisors

• Special Effects: John M. Cousen
• Character Animation: Neil Boyle, Tim Watts
• Background: Paul Dilworth
• Color Model: Barbara McCormack
• Paint and Trace: Maggie Brown
• Assistant Paint and Trace: Sally Burden
• Head Tracer: Katherine McDonald
• Checking: Atlanta Green
• Lead Animators:
  • Art Babbitt
  • Paul Bolger
  • David Byers-Brown
  • Denis Deegan
  • Gary Dunn
  • Sahin Ersoz
  • Steven Evangelatos
  • Margaret Grieve
  • Jurgen Gross
  • Alyson Hamilton
  • Emery Hawkins
  • Dietmar Kremer
  • Holger Leihe
  • Robert Malherbe
  • Mark Naisbitt
  • Brent Odell
  • Tahsin Ozgur
  • Philip Pepper
  • Dean Roberts
  • Michael Schlingmann
  • Alan Simpson
  • Mike Swindall
  • Venelin Veltchev
  • Roger Vizard
  • Andreas Wessel-Therhorn
  • Alex Williams
  • Richard Williams

[edit] Notes

^ In the original version of the film, the thief is heard making short grunts/wheezes in a few scenes - though not as many as in the Majestic Films version. It is unclear who provided these sounds. Ed E. Carrol, who did them for the Majestic Films version, was an American-based character actor and was thus unlikely to get called over by Richard Williams' UK-based production for such a small part. The grunts/wheezes are in Richard Williams' voice range, but there is no evidence either for or against his involvement.

^ Although Sir Anthony Quayle's voice was mostly replaced by Clive Revill in the re-edited versions of the film by Miramax and Majestic Films, Quayle's voice (uncredited) can still be heard for an entire scene when King Nod gives a speech to his subjects.

[edit] History

[edit] Production

[edit] Development and early production on Nasruddin

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 Shah^[2], which collected the philosophical yet humorously wise tales of Nasruddin. 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 Welles before him, Williams took on television 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 Harris 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. 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 Price 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. Williams was a great fan of Vincent Price's work, and Zigzag became his favorite character to animate.

[edit] Falling out with Shah Family

The film went through many name-changes before becoming The Thief and the Cobbler - other names included The Thief Who Never Gave Up^[5] and Once...^[4] . One can see within the Once... logo old character designs as well as characters that were later removed from the film.

In 1972, Williams had a falling-out with the Shah family.^[2][6] In a promotional booklet released in 1973, Williams made an announcement about the status of his project:

"Nasruddin was found to be too verbal and not suitable for animation, therefore Nasruddin as a character and the Nasruddin stories were dropped as a project. However, the many years work spent on painstaking research into the beauty of Oriental art has been retained. Loosely based on elements in the Arabian Nights stories, an entirely new and original film entitled The Thief and The Cobbler is now the main project of the Williams Studio. Therefore any publicity references to the old character of Nasruddin are now obsolete."

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 Panavision animated epic feature film with a hand-drawn cast of thousands."

Williams worked on the production in-between various TV commercial, TV special, and feature film title assignments, such as the 1977 feature Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure. 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."

[edit] Gaining and losing financial backing

In 1986, Williams met producer Jake Eberts, who began funding the production through his Allied Filmmakers company and, according to the August 30, 1995 edition of The Los Angeles Times, eventually provided $10 million of the film's $28 million budget.^[7] Allied's sister distribution and sales company, Majestic Films, began promoting the film in industry trades, under a new working title, Once....

After serving as animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Williams received funding and a distribution deal for The Thief and the Cobbler with Warner Bros. Pictures. 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 Beck, Williams stated that he had two and a half hours of pencil tests for Thief and that he had not storyboarded the film as he found such a method too controlling.

The film features very detailed and complex animation (most "on ones")^[1][2], such as scenes where the entire picture is animated by hand to move in three dimensions: this was achieved without computers.^[1][2][3] This uncolourised scene exists only in Williams' original, unfinished version of the movie and was cut along with many other ones in the two released versions.

The film was not finished by the 1991 deadline that Warner imposed upon Williams^[6]; the film was still several months and fifteen minutes of screen time away from completion.^[2][3] Meanwhile Walt Disney Feature Animation 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 Cobbler shares many physical characteristics with both Aladdin's villain, Jafar, and its Genie.^[8][9] Williams's film had been in production so long that scenes from it had been seen or worked on by many people in the animation industry, some of whom had gone on to work at Disney.^{[citation needed]}

With that film's release and its potential competition as a threat to Cobbler's commercial viability, Williams was asked to show the investors a rough copy of the film with the remaining scenes filled in with storyboards.^[2][6] Williams had avoided storyboards up to this point, but within two weeks he had done what the investors had asked. 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.^[2][6] Some accounts surmise that Jake Eberts himself had lost confidence in Williams' ability to deliver the project at this point, and may have thus allowed the film to be seized from Williams. Additionally, according to Williams himself, the production had lost a source of funding when Japanese investors pulled out due to the recession following the the Japanese asset price bubble.^[10]

Television animation producer Fred Calvert was assigned by the Completion Bond Company to finish the film as cheaply and quickly as possible. In the process, Calvert made several significant changes to the film. Much of Williams's finished footage was deleted from the final release print to make way for newly created scenes and song sequences.^[2] 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. The new scenes were produced on a very low budget, with the animation being produced over a short period of two months by freelance animators in Los Angeles (some from Kroyer Films, who is also credited), former Williams animators at Premier Films in London, and Don Bluth animators working under Gary Goldman in Ireland. The ink and paint work was subcontracted to Wang Film Production in Taiwan, who themselves outsourced most of the work to their satellite studio in Thailand; additional ink and paint work was done at Varga Studios in Hungary. The end results have been compared to Saturday morning cartoons from Korea^{[citation needed]}, and it is obvious that little regard was given to matching the painstaking quality of Williams's original scenes; the primary concern was to complete the film in as little time and for as little money as possible.

[edit] Releases

Calvert's version of the film was distributed outside of the United States as The Princess and the Cobbler; in the U.S., the Disney subsidiary Miramax released their own version, Arabian Knight, in which the film was recut even further.^[11] The voices of Matthew Broderick and Jonathan Winters were 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 just over $300,000^[6] (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 Kingdom, where the majority of the production took place.

[edit] Response

The Miramax version of the film was a commercial failure.^[11] Critical response to this version was negative. Film website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 20%.^[12] Alex Williams, son of the original director, disliked this version: He called it "more or less unwatchable" and found it "hard [...] to find the spirit of the film as it was originally conceived".^[3] However, in 2003, the Online Film Critics Society ranked the film as the 81st greatest animated film of all time.^[13]

[edit] Restoration attempts

In the late-1990s, Walt Disney Feature Animation head Roy E. 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 tests and completed footage, much of which was by this time in the possession of various animators and film collectors. Roy Disney left the Walt Disney Company in November 2003, and the Thief and the Cobbler restoration project was put on hold.^[11]

A non-profit fan restoration of William's workprint, the Recobbled Cut, was created in 2006 by combining highest-quality available sources. 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.^[14] This has been called "the best and most important 'fan edit' ever made".^[15]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Thief and the Cobbler

• The Thief and the Cobbler at the Internet Movie Database
• 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.