Watch This: The Thief and The Cobbler
Filed under: Animation, Classics, Family Films
Have you ever seen an animated film called Arabian Knight? Or The Princess and the Cobbler? If so then you witnessed the final resting place of one man's life work. His name is Richard Williams, he's a brilliant animator, and the story of how it took over twenty years for his labor of love to be completed, released, and mangled is pretty fascinating. Not to mention heart-wrenching. You can read the full history of the ill-fated project right here, but the short version is this: After more than two decades of development, sweat, and stress, Williams lost the rights to his baby and they eventually ended up in the hands of the Weinsteins. The result was Arabian Knight, which came and went with little fanfare.
BUT! Through the magic of Google Video and the passionate efforts of one fan, you can now see a fairly close approximation to the film that Mr. Williams intended. Yep, it's feature-length, unfinished in some parts, but pretty damn cool overall. Especially if you're a big animtion nut, but those folks have seen this "recobbled" cut by now, I'm sure. (And I hope I'm not getting this guy in trouble, but he's also posted full-length versions of two other animated obscurities: Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977) and Twice Upon a Time (1983)!)
And yep, this is "old news" to some ... but it wasn't to me.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-28-2008 @ 1:08AM
H said...
Wow..I think I've seen this movie.
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11-28-2008 @ 1:55AM
V.M.L. said...
Oh wow, thanks for posting about this. I've seen both versions. His intended film was so epic, long, and very complex. There were animated sequences that were very visually stunning and mind-boggling like M.C. Escher's work. Unfortunately, many sequences were cutted out of the movie when it was released. Worst, they put god-awful songs in the movie. I just wanted to vomit.
The biggest thing that slowed the production was the fact that there were no storyboards. Richard Williams was improvising the whole time.
Oh yeah, ALLADIN "copied" from COBBLER. Some of the animators who worked on the movie eventually moved to Disney. They took some of William's ideas while doing so.
I think its kind of sad that this movie is one of those forgettable films many people my age (20s or older) have seen when they were young. It took decades to make the movie and it had a lot going for. It was just disorganzied. If it had come out during the 70s, it would have been a hit.
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12-03-2008 @ 9:19PM
Michelle said...
Oh, my god. I used to watch this on VHS non-stop when I was in elementary school - back when Blockbuster carried only VHS. I would rent it and then continually renew it. Wow, this brings back memories. But it was the Miramax version that I saw, not the original unfortunately.
If you have the opportunity to watch it somewhere other than the computer, don't hesitate. The animation is incredible.
Still one of my favorite films.
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12-17-2008 @ 12:04PM
Iain said...
Thanks to Garret, "Cobbler" can now be seen in multiple formats, and I assume Richard has seen some of the versions (possibly the Recobbled cut.)
BTW, it was me who put up "Twice Upon a Time" on Google Video.
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