The Thief and the Cobbler

Starring:Voices of: Vincent Price, Jennifer Beals
Studio: Miramax
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Directed by Oscar-winning animator Richard Williams (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), The Thief and the Cobbler began production in 1968, so it actually predates 1992's Aladdin. Also known as The Princess and the Cobbler and Arabian Knight, Fred Calvert completed the film after Williams lost the rights to his dream project. Narrated by Matthew Broderick (replacing Sean Connery) as Tack the Cobbler, the CinemaScope-shot story takes place in ancient Baghdad. When Tack upsets Zigzag the Vizier (Vincent Price), the wizard drags him off to the royal castle, where Princess Yum Yum (Jennifer Beals) falls for the bashful boy and saves him from execution. Unfortunately, Zigzag plans to marry the princess in order to succeed her father, King Nod (Clive Revill). The Thief (Jonathan Winters), meanwhile, is more interested in gold than love and takes off with the protective orbs topping the palace. Together Tack and Yum Yum attempt to retrieve them in order to prevent Zigzag and the One-Eye army from conquering the city. Despite the fanciful hand-drawn animation, which borders on Yellow Submarine-style surrealism--a film with which Williams was involved--the finished full-screen product represents a compromised version of his original widescreen concept. The added dialogue and songs, which have a generic bent, make for an awkward fit with Williams' more distinctive work. Rife with intricate patterns and M.C. Escher-like optical effects, his intended audience was adults rather than kids. Still, The Thief and the Cobbler is a must-see for the inventive material that remains. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Description

The film tells a story which takes place in an oriental city from the tales of thousand and one night. It covers the friendship of a thief knowing all tricks to survive in the city and a poor cobbler/shoemaker who has to struggle in order to live.

Customer Reviews:

"Attack! Attack! Attack!".......2007-05-31

Like "The Magnificent Ambersons" or "Superman II", "The Thief and the Cobbler" is the ruin of a masterpiece. Richard Williams' intricately animated film was butchered by the studio, and the two title characters, both intended to be largely mute roles, had nearly non-stop dialogue dubbed onto their every scene (Tack, the cobbler, actually becomes the narrator of the movie!).

The plot of "The Thief and the Cobbler" -- an original story, not an adaptation of a traditional tale or literary work -- has sometimes been criticized as dull and unmemorable. I agree with this assessment; Williams' statement during the film's production that it would be the first animated feature whose plot would tie together like a detective story at the end seems wildly off-base, and more applicable to "The Lion King" than "The Thief and the Cobbler". Nonetheless, enough of Williams' achievement can be glimpsed in the released film to convince me that the plot would have served well enough as a vehicle for the fantastic animation had the film been completed as Williams intended.

It is indeed to be hoped that an official restoration and rerelease of this film are soon undertaken. Until then, the current (pan-and-scan) DVD is worth a rental, but not a purchase.

Not for a mainstream audience........2007-05-04

This is not your run of the mill, slick, sugar coated animated film. And to many reviewers here, that's a good thing. I rented this film by chance, looking for something my [...] daughter hadn't already seen a dozen times. Needless to say I turned this film off 30 minutes in. My daughter did want to finish the film, but I found the story and style of animation a bit too creepy and strange. Those of you who don't know anything about this film be WARNED - the animation style is clearly late 60's early 70's - not that it's bad, it's just not represented as such on the box cover. I think most of the reviewers here must be animation buffs, and/or fans of the films maker. Granted I know nothing about the history of this film, and I didn't even watch the whole thing but I just wasn't compelled to continue watching.

Every effort has been spared on Weinstein's DVD of this lost labor of love.......2007-03-02

Richard Williams' legendary labour of love The Thief and the Cobbler is one of those films that was just born unlucky. After spending three decades working on it, the animator over-ran the budget and was taken off his own picture, with the gaps filled in by cheap Thai and Hungarian animation that sticks out like a sore thumb, many of the original voice cast (Anthony Quayle, Donald Pleasance, Felix Aylmer, Sean Connery) redubbed, musical numbers added and the film retitled The Princess and the Cobbler in a version that only seems to have ever been released in Australia (sadly, the Australian DVD is panned and scanned from the original Scope ratio, as is this release). Then, to add insult to injury, Miramax re-edited that version even further from Williams' intentions and retitled it Arabian Knight to cash-in on the success of Aladdin, leading to a film intentionally designed as anti-Disney animation being marketed as the very thing its creator was rebelling against.

The Miramax cut presented here is quite painful to watch at times, not least because of the horrendous non-stop stream of subconciousness mutterings from Jonathan Winters dubbed over the silent character of the Thief, best described as the cinematic equivalent of sitting next to a loquacious drunk with exceptionally bad breath on the last bus home. At one point Roy Disney tried to restore the film to its original conception, seeking out the lost and unused sequences and talking about getting Williams to finish the film his way - only for the Disney-Eisner feud to see the film's champion leave the company and the film in the Weinstein's tender mercies.

The film would never have been a masterpiece: for all it's visual audacity there never seems to have been enough of a story. Williams was clearly more interested in animating increasingly elaborate and intricate sequences involving the Thief than in filling out the plot points, but what's especially astonishing is that in an incredible act of cinematic vandalism many of the most visually inventive parts of the film hit the cutting room floor even though whole sequences had been completed - indeed, even much of the truly extraordinary work in the climactic destruction of the war machine has been cut. While some of these scenes were relegated to the end credits sequence, in some cases their omissions leads to massive continuity problems and gaps in the plot. To make matters worse, the original footage seems to have disappeared, preventing its partial restoration. Still, I suppose we should be grateful (though surprised would be a more appropriate reaction) that they didn't replace Vincent Price's voice as well.

There are surviving moments of visual genius, particularly a brief but amazing chase sequence across chequered and patterned floors and backgrounds that is all the more impressive for being entirely hand-drawn (Williams started work in 1968 long before computer animation was even a glimmer on the far horizon), but they're never enough to compensate for the fact that you don't really care about the characters or the story around them. The Cobbler in particular is a bland and uninteresting character, all the more so for being mute (or at least in the original version until the last line of the film, originally delivered rather clumsily by Sean Connery, though both released versions gave him voice-over dialog - in this Miramax cut the Cobbler is voiced by Matthew Broderick). The work print, filled out with storyboards and pencil tests, gives some impression of what has been lost and how much better this could have been, though that is not included on this disc (widely circulated at conventions, it would at least been a gesture to animation fans to include it regardless of its poor quality). But whichever version you see you'll be left with a film that frustrates and astounds to varying degrees.

Sadly, while they have reverted to Williams' title, Miramax's DVD is exactly the same `Arabian Knight' cut with no restored footage or extras. In fact, it manages to be even more disappointing than their laser disc release - while that at least was in 2.35:1 widescreen, this every-effort-spared barebones release doesn't even have a widescreen transfer. Shameful.

Oddly Enough Miramax New DVD is a waste ! .......2006-11-14

It is still another Pan/Scan transfer of the the US cust from 93 so we still can't see the film in it's 2.35:1 Widescreen transfer. This release was a complet ewaste of time and resources for the company. Maybe in 10 more years we can see it the way it was meant to be seen. for now just You Tube it to see the complete film that is really well put together.

Okay, yeah, I like this movie........2006-08-06

I remember watching this when I was 3 or 4. I'm 14 now, and I still love it. But I actually get the jokes now.

Average customer rating:

"Attack! Attack! Attack!"
Not for a mainstream audience.
Every effort has been spared on Weinstein's DVD of this lost labor of love
Oddly Enough Miramax New DVD is a waste !
Okay, yeah, I like this movie.

The Thief and the Cobbler
Starring: Jennifer Beals , Matthew Broderick , Toni Collette , Kevin Dorsey , and Donald Pleasence
Director: Richard Williams
Manufacturer: Miramax
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0006Q93L0
Release Date: 2005-03-08

Amazon.com

Description

Behold this critically acclaimed feature-length fantasy created, written, and directed by Richard Williams, the three-time Academy Award(R)-winning animator. Almost 30 years in the making, it incorporates extraordinary M.C. Escher-like backgrounds with classic two-and-a-half-dimension hand-painted animation. In the ancient city of Baghdad, magically protected by three Golden Balls, a timid shoemaker named Tack falls for the lovely, adventure-loving Princess Yumyum. When a bumbling thief manages to steal the enchanted orbs, they fall into the hands of the wicked wizard Zigzag. Tack and the Princess must recover the magic balls, defeat the evil Zigzag, and save their beloved city from destruction! Feast your eyes and ears on this exotic mosaic of exquisite color, hilarious comedy, enchanting music, and all-star voices. The magic of THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER will steal your heart and the hearts of your entire family!

Customer Reviews:

"Attack! Attack! Attack!".......2007-05-31

Not for a mainstream audience........2007-05-04

Every effort has been spared on Weinstein's DVD of this lost labor of love.......2007-03-02

Oddly Enough Miramax New DVD is a waste ! .......2006-11-14

Okay, yeah, I like this movie........2006-08-06

I remember watching this when I was 3 or 4. I'm 14 now, and I still love it. But I actually get the jokes now.

Average customer rating:

"Attack! Attack! Attack!"
Not for a mainstream audience.
Every effort has been spared on Weinstein's DVD of this lost labor of love
Oddly Enough Miramax New DVD is a waste !
Okay, yeah, I like this movie.

Thief & the Cobbler
Starring: Voice of Matthew Broderick , and Voice of Jennifer Beals
Manufacturer: Genius Products, Inc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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