The Thief and the Cobbler

The Thief and the Cobbleris ananimatedfantasy filmco-written and directed byRichard Williams,who intended it to be hismagnum opusand a milestone in the animated medium. Originally devised in the 1960s, the film was in and out of production for nearly three decades due to independent funding and ambitiously complex animation. It was finally placed into full production in 1989 whenWarner Bros.agreed to finance and distribute the film after his successful animation direction forWho Framed Roger Rabbit.When production went over budget and behind schedule, and Disney's similarly-themedAladdinloomed as imminent competition, Williams was forced out and the film was heavily re-edited and cheaply finished by producer Fred Calvert as a mainstream Disney-stylemusical. It was eventually released byAllied Filmmakersin 1993 with the titleThe Princess and the Cobbler. Two years later,Miramax Films, which was owned byDisneyat the time, released another re-edit titledArabian Knight. Both versions performed poorly at the box office and received mixed reviews.
Over the years, various people and companies, includingRoy E. Disney, have discussed restoring the film to its original version. In 2013, theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencesarchived Williams's own35 mmworkprint. He acknowledged the film's rehabilitated reputation, due to projects likeThe Recobbled Cut, a restoration by Garrett Gilchrist, andPersistence of Vision, a 2012 documentary by Kevin Schreck detailing the production.
The Thief and the Cobbleris one of thefilms with the longest production times. It is the final film for several actors and artists, including animatorsKen Harris(died 1982),Errol Le Cain(died 1989),Emery Hawkins(died 1989),Grim Natwick(died 1990), andArt Babbitt(died 1992), and actorsFelix Aylmer(died 1979),Eddie Byrne(died 1981),Clinton Sundberg(died 1987),Kenneth Williams(died 1988), SirAnthony Quayle(died 1989), andVincent Price(died 1993, one month after the film's initial release). It has maintained acult followingsince its release.
In a kingdom at theArabiandesert, the prosperous Golden City is ruled by the narcoleptic King Nod and protected by three golden balls atop its tallestminaret. According to a prophecy, the city would fall to "destruction and death" if the balls were removed, and could only be saved by "the simplest soul with the smallest and simplest of things." Living in the city is acobbler, Tack, and a nameless, unsuccessful yet persistent Thief, who are bothmute.
When the Thief sneaks into Tack's house, the two get stitched together and stumble outside, causing Tack'stacksto fall onto the street. Zigzag, King Nod'sGrand Vizier, steps on one of the tacks and orders Tack to be arrested while the Thief escapes. Tack is brought before King Nod and his daughter, Princess Yum-Yum. Before Zigzag can convince King Nod to have Tack executed, Yum-Yum saves Tack by ordering him to fix a shoe she intentionally breaks. During repairs, Tack and Yum-Yum become increasingly attracted to each other, much to the jealousy of Zigzag, who plans to take over the kingdom and marry the princess.
Meanwhile, the Thief, having noticed the golden balls atop the minaret in the courtyard, breaks into the palace through a gutter. He steals the repaired shoe from Tack, prompting the cobbler to chase him through the palace. Upon retrieving the shoe, Tack bumps into Zigzag, who notices the shoe is fixed and imprisons Tack in a cell.
The One-Eyes, a race of warlike, cycloptic monsters, plan to destroy the city and have already slaughtered much of its frontier guard, all except for one mortally wounded soldier who escapes to warn the city; King Nod has a vision of them the next morning. While Zigzag tries to convince Nod of the kingdom's security, the Thief steals the balls after several attempts, only to lose them to Zigzag's minions. Tack escapes from his cell using his cobbling tools during the ensuing panic. King Nod notices the balls' disappearance when the soldier warns them of the invading One-Eyes. Zigzag attempts to use the stolen balls to negotiate Yum-Yum's hand in marriage in exchange for returning the balls, but when King Nod dismisses him, Zigzag defects to the One-Eyes and gives them the balls instead.
King Nod sends Yum-Yum, her nurse, and Tack to ask for help from a "mad and holy old Witch" in the desert. They are secretly followed by the Thief, who hears of a golden idol on the journey but fails to steal it. In the desert, they discover a band of dimwittedbrigandsled by Chief Roofless, whom Yum-Yum recruits as her bodyguards. They reach the hand-shaped tower where the Witch lives and learn that Tack is prophesied to save the Golden City. The Witch also presents a riddle—"Attack, attack, Tack! A tack, see? But it's what you do with what you've got!"—before destroying the entire tower with a storm cloud.
Tack and the others return to the Golden City to find the One-Eyes' massive war machine approaching. Tack shoots a single tack into the enemy's midst, sparking aGoldberg-esquechain reaction that destroys the entire One-Eye army. Zigzag tries to escape but falls into a pit, where he is eaten alive by alligators and his vulture, Phido. The Thief, avoiding death with almost every step, steals the golden balls from the collapsing machine, only to run into Tack while escaping. After a brief scuffle, the Thief, realizing the balls are not worth the trouble, reluctantly gives up and leaves them with Tack. With peace restored and the prophecy fulfilled, the city celebrates as Tack and Yum-Yum get married; Tack finally says, "I love you" in a baritone voice. The film ends with the Thief stealing the reel of the film and running away.
^aAccording to Richard Williams,Sean Connerywas set to record Tack's one line, but never showed up at the studio, so the line was instead performed by a friend of his wife's. However, Connery's name remains credited as Tack in the end credits of the "Recobbled Cut" version.
^bWhile Yum-Yum's dialogue was mostly re-voiced by Bobbi Page for the Allied Filmmakers version, one vocal effect from Crowe is retained when Yum-Yum throws her pear at Zigzag in disgust during the polo game.
^cIn both of the 1992 workprints, the Thief is heard making short grunts/wheezes in a few scenes—though not as many as in the Allied Filmmakers version. Actor Ed E. Carroll did additional ones for the Allied Filmmakers version.
^dAlthough Quayle's voice was mostly re-dubbed by Clive Revill in the re-edited versions of the film by Allied Filmmakers and Miramax, Quayle's uncredited voice can still be heard for an entire scene when King Nod gives a speech to his subjects. Revill also re-recorded some of his lines for the Miramax version, mostly discussing the Witch being related to the Mighty One-Eye and "the bearer of his other eye".
^eSims' voice for the Witch was mostly re-dubbed by Marshall, but a few lines spoken by Sims were retained after she first fully materializes and when she receives her chest of money all the way up to the part when she's in a basket lighting a match to the fumes. Unlike the nanny, Sims was still credited in the Calvert cut.
^fFred Calvert is credited on both of these versions.
Hilary Pritchardwas initially cast as Yum-Yum and is listed in some of the original drafts of the script and a 1989 Cannes brochure. By the time of the 1992 workprints, she had been replaced by Sara Crowe. Pritchard's name was still retained in the credits of the "Recobbled Cut" version, until Mark 5 when Sara was finally credited.
Similarly,Miriam Margolyeswas initially billed as the Maiden from Mombasa, but the workprint features co-writer Margaret French as the Maiden.
According to animatorMichael Sporn, Paul Matthews was an African-American delivery person with a deep, dark voice whom Williams met in an elevator on the way to a rehearsal space during production onRaggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure. Matthews had not done any acting before, and so Williams had promptly cast him as the Mighty One-Eye. Not long afterward, however, Williams, wanting to go in a different direction, replaced Matthews' voice with "England's tallest man" Christopher Greener (mistakenly credited as Christopher Greenham or Chris Greenham in several pamphlets promoting the film) as the Mighty One-Eye.Matthews is still credited as the Mighty One-Eye in the "Recobbled Cut" version.
Catherine Schelland Thick Wilson (who was also the voice of Hook in this film) were proposed as the voices for Princess Mee-Mee, the sister of Princess Yum-Yum, and the enchanted ogre Prince Bubba, respectively, in an early draft of the film. Both characters were dropped in 1989 at the request of Warner Bros.
Many of the minor characters, such as Goblet, Gofer, Tickle, Slap, the Dying Soldier, and the alligators all have additional dialogue provided by currently unknown voice actors in the Miramax version. Additional characters exclusive to the Miramax version, including Zigzag's announcer is voiced by an unknown actor and the Thief's mother is voiced by Mickie McGowan, who is credited under "Loop Group" in the credits. Also, in the Miramax version, some lines from the brigands and the camel's laughter appear to be re-dubbed, again by unknown actors.
In 1964, Richard Williams, a Canadian animator living in the United Kingdom, was running an animation studio assigned to animate commercials and special sequences for live-action films. Williams illustrated a series of books byIdries Shah,which collected the tales ofMulla Nasruddin, a philosophical yet "wise fool" of Near Eastern folklore from the 13th century. Williams began development work on a film based on the stories, with Shah and his family championing production.Production took place at Richard Williams Productions inSoho Square,London. In an early mention of the project, the 1968 International Film Guide told that Williams would soon begin work on "the first of several films based on the stories featuring Mulla Nasruddin".
Williams took on television and feature film projects in order to fund his project, and work on his film progressed slowly.Williams hired veteran Warner Bros. animator Ken Harris as a chief animator on the project,then titledThe Amazing Nasrudin. Roy Naisbitt was hired as layout artist / art director for the film,and promotional art showed intricate Indian and Persian designs.In 1970, the production's name was changed toThe Majestic FoolandBritish Lion Film Corporationbecame the earliest mentioned distributor candidate for the independent film. The International Film Guide noted that the Williams Studio's staff had increased to forty people for production of the feature.Williams gained further attention when he and the studio produced a TV adaptation ofA Christmas CarolforChuck Jones, which won the studio anAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
According to composerHoward Blake, Williams and the studio had animated around three hours of footage for what was now being calledNasrudinby 1972. Blake insisted to Williams that while he thought the footage was excellent, he needed to structure the film and his footage into a three-act plot.
The Nasruddin premise did not last as Williams and the Shahs had a falling out. The Shah family had abookkeeperwho was not keeping track of the studio's accounting, so Williams felt that producerOmar Ali-Shahhad been embezzling financing from the studio for his own purposes.Further friction came because the Shah family had been asking for 50% of the profits from the film,and Idrias's sister, author and folkloristAmina Shah, who had done some of the translations for the Nasrudin books, stated ownership of the stories.With her threatening with a copyright infringement lawsuit,Paramount Pictureswithdrew a deal they had been negotiating, and Williams was forced to abandonNasrudinas the Shah family took the rights of the source material.However, Williams was able to keep characters he designed for the books and the film, including a thief character.
In 1973, a promotional booklet was released with a public announcement by Williams about the status of his project:
In 1973,Williams commissioned a new script from Howard Blake, who wrote a treatment calledTin Tackthat incorporated a character who is a clumsy cobbler named Tack, and retained Williams's thief character fromNasrudin.The script would later be scrapped, but the character of Tack would be incorporated in another script written by Margaret French,which would use characters fromNasrudin, including a sleepy king, a thief and an evil vizier originally named Anwar. Many scenes that did not include Nasrudin himself were also retained.Throughout the 1970s, Williams would further rewrite the script with Margaret French, his wife at the time.
ActorVincent Pricewas hired to voice Anwar, later renamed "Zigzag".His dialogue was recorded in the summer of 1973, while he was filmingMadhouse.Price was hired to make the villain more enjoyable for Williams, as he was a great fan of Price's work and Zigzag was based on two people whom Williams hated. In addition to Price, Sir Anthony Quayle was cast as King Nod.
The characters were renamed at this point. Zigzag speaks mostly in rhyme throughout the entire film, while the other characters—with the exceptions of the Thief and Tack, who are mute—speak normally. Williams stated that he did not intend to follow "the Disney route" with his film, saying that it would be "the first animated film with a real plot that locks together like a detective story at the end". He also said that with its two mute main characters, it was essentially "a silent movie with a lot of sound".Silent comedies, like films fromCharlie ChaplinandHarry Langdon, were already an inspiration onNasrudinand continued for the new film. Tack was modeled after said silent film stars.
British illustratorErrol Le Caincreated 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.
In late 1973, financial difficulties forced the studio to focus primarily on various TV commercial, special and feature film title assignments, leaving Williams's film to be worked on as a side project.Since Williams had no money to have a full team working on the film, which was a "giant epic", production dragged for decades.Ken Harris was still chief animator on the film, as he had been sinceNasrudin, and Williams would assign him sequences while he was supervising production on commercials.To save money, scenes were kept in pencil stage without colour, as advised by Richard Purdum: "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!"Williams was planning to later finish these sequences when the financing would come in.
Upon seeing Disney'sThe Jungle Book,Williams realised that he was not very skilled in animating and that he needed to actually learn the art, if he wanted to hold the audience's interest:
Williams hired veteran animators from thegolden age of animation, such asArt Babbitt,Emery HawkinsandGrim Natwick, to work at his studio in London and help teach him and his staff.Williams learned also fromMilt Kahl,Frank Thomas,Ollie Johnston, andKen Andersonat Disney, to whom he made yearly visitsand would later pass their knowledge to the new generation of animators.Williams also allowed animators like Natwick and Babbitt to work on the studio assignments, such as the 1977 featureRaggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure. The Mad Holy Old Witch was designed as a caricature of animatorGrim Natwick,by whom she was animated. After Natwick died, Williams would animate the Witch himself.
As years passed, the project became more ambitious. Williams said that his idea was "to make the best animated film that has ever been made—there really is no reason why not".He also envisioned the film to feature very detailed and complex animation, the likes he thought no other studio would attempt to achieve.Additionally, much of the film's animation would be photographed "on ones", meaning that the animation would run at full 24 frames per second as opposed to the more common animation "on twos", in twelve frames per second.
In 1978, Saudi Arabian princeMohammed bin Faisal Al Saudbecame interested inThe Thief, and agreed to fund a ten-minute test sequence with a budget of $100,000. Williams chose the complex, penultimate sequence of the Thief in the War Machine for the test. The studio missed two deadlines, and the scene was completed in late 1979 for $250,000. Despite his positive impression of the finished scene,Faisal backed out of the production because of missed deadlines and budgetary overruns.Williams tried to use the War Machine sequence to attract more investors but they too backed out.
In the 1980s, Williams put together a 20-minute sample reel ofThe Thief, which he showed to Milt Kahl, a friend and one of his animation mentors, atSkywalker RanchinMarin County.Star WarsproducerGary Kurtzbriefly worked with Williams to attempt to get financing in the mid-1980s. In 1986, Williams met producerJake Eberts, who began funding the production through hisAllied Filmmakerscompany and eventually provided US$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 titleOnce....
At this time, Eberts encouraged Williams to make changes to the script. A subplot involving the characters of Princess Mee-Mee, Yum-Yum's identicaltwin sistervoiced by Catherine Schell, and the Prince Bubba, who had been turned into anogreand was voiced by Thick Wilson,was deleted, and some animation of the Witch had to be discarded. Also deleted was Ken Harris's sequence of a Brigand dreaming of a Biblical temptress.
Steven Spielbergsaw the footage ofThe Thiefand was impressed enough that he andRobert Zemeckisasked Williams to direct the animation of Zemeckis' filmWho Framed Roger Rabbit.Williams agreed in order to get financing forThe Thief and the Cobblerand get it finally finished.Roger Rabbitwas released byDisney(under theirTouchstone Picturesbanner) in theUnited Stateson June 22, 1988, and became ablockbusterhit. Williams won twoOscarsfor his animation and contributions to the visual effects. AlthoughRoger Rabbitran over budget before animation production began, the success of the film demonstrated Williams's capability to work within a studio system and deliver high-quality animation within time and budget.Disney and Spielberg told Williams that in return for doingRoger Rabbit, they would help distribute his film.This plan did not come to pass. Disney began to put their attentionmore in their own feature animation, while Spielberg instead opened arival feature animation studio in London.
Following his success, Williams andWarner Bros.negotiated a funding and a distribution deal forThe Thief and the Cobbler, which included a $25 million marketing budget.Williams's current wife Imogen Sutton suggested him to financeThiefwith European backers, citing his appreciation of foreign films. Richard insisted he could produce the film with a major studio.Williams and Warner Bros. signed anegative pickup dealin late 1988, and Williams also received financial aid from Japanese investors.He later said: "In hindsight we should have just gone to Europe, take another five years, made it on our own, and then go to a distributor and get people who find it as a novelty".
With the new funding, the film finally went into full production in 1989. Williams scoured for talented artists around the world.At this point, with almost all the original animators either deceased or having long since moved on to other projects, production began mostly with a new, younger team of animators, including Richard's own sonAlexander Williams. In a 1988 interview withJerry Beck, Williams stated that he had two and a half hours of pencil tests forThief, and had notstoryboardedthe film since he found such a method to be too controlling.
Williams had experimented with shots with charactersanimated by handto move in three dimensions, including inRoger Rabbitwhere the live action camera was moving all the time. WithThief, Williams began planning several sequences to feature a greater use of this technique, including Tack and the Thief's palace chase, which was achieved withoutcomputer-generated imagery.According to rumours, Williams approachedThe Thiefwith a live-action point of view, coming offRoger Rabbit. He was creating extra footage and extending sequences to trim down later, and would have edited down the workprint he later assembled.
Warner Bros. had signed a deal withthe Completion Bond Companyto ensure that the studio would be given a finished film, otherwise they would finishThe Thiefunder their management.Dedicated but pressured, Williams was taking his time to ensure sequences would look perfect. Animators were working overtime, sometimes with sixty hours a week required, to get the film done. While Williams encouraged the best out of people, discipline was harsh and animators were frequently fired.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. Test animation of Princess Yum-Yum, as featured in the released versions, wastracedfrom the live-action filmMuqaddar Ka Sikandar(using a scene with actressRekha),with her design slightly changed later on in production.
The film was not finished by a 1991 deadline that Warner Bros. originally imposed upon Williams,and had approximately 10 to 15 minutes of screen time to complete, which, at Williams's rate, was estimated to take "a tight six months" or longer.The animation department at Warner Bros. had put their enthusiasm towards high-quality television animation, but had little confidence towards backing feature animation. The studio had already releasedThe Nutcracker Prince, a Canadian-produced animated feature, in 1990 to almost no promotion.Jean MacCurdy, Warner Bros.' then-head of animation, did not know anything about animation, as she admitted to an artist who had worked for Williams while she was seeing footage ofThe Thief.Another animator salvaged almost 40 minutes of35 mmdailiesfootage from MacCurdy's trash.Meanwhile,Walt Disney Feature Animationhad begun work onAladdin, a film that bore striking resemblances in story, style and character toThe Thief and the Cobbler; for example, the character Zigzag fromThiefshares many physical characteristics with bothAladdin'svillainJafar, and itsGenie, as animated by Williams Studio alumnusAndreas DejaandEric Goldberg.
The Completion Bond Company asked television animation producer Fred Calvert to report on the state of production in detail.Calvert had made multiple trips to Williams's London studio to see how the film was progressing, and judged that Williams was "woefully behind schedule and way over budget".Williams had a script, but "he wasn't following it faithfully". (According to Garrett Gilchrist, however, this anecdote is false.) Calvert and people from the Completion Bond Company were visiting the studio more often towards the end of production.Williams was giving dailies of sequences that were finished or scrapped since the 1980s, hoping to give an indication of progress to Warner Bros.He was asked to show the investors a rough copy of the film with the remaining scenes filled in with storyboards to demonstrate its narrative.He made aworkprintwhich combined finished footage, pencil tests, storyboards, and movements from the symphonic suiteScheherazadeto cover the 10–15 minutes left to finish.Animators found out that they had completed more than enough footage for an 87-minute feature, but they had yet to finish certain vital sequences involving the central story.
On 13 May 1992, this rough version of the film was shown to Warner Bros., and was not well-received. During the screening, the penultimate reel of the film was missing, which did not help matters.The studio lost confidence and backed out of production entirely, and the Completion Bond Company seized control of the film, ousting Williams from the project.Additionally, Williams said that the production had lost a source of funding when Japanese investors pulled out due to therecessionfollowing theJapanese asset price bubble.Fans have cited this decision as an example of a trend of animated films being tampered with by studio executives.
Sue Shakespeare ofCreative Capers Entertainmenthad previously offered to solve story problems with Richard Williams, suggested bringing inTerry Gilliamto consult, and proposed to allow Williams to finish the film under her supervision. Williams reportedly agreed to Shakespeare's proposal, but her bid was ultimately rejected by the Completion Bond Company in favor of a cheaper one by Fred Calvert,whom the company had assigned to finish the film as cheaply and quickly as possible. Calvert said: "I really didn't want to do it, 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".
It took Calvert 18 months to finish the film,which was turned into a Disney-type musical.The new scenes were photographed "on twos" rather than "on ones", with the animation being produced by freelance animators in Los Angeles and former Williams animators working with Neil Boyle at Premier Films in London.Sullivan Bluth Studios, the Dublin-based studio headed by former Disney animatorDon Bluth, animated the first song sequence "She Is More", andKroyer Filmsproduced the second number "Am I Feeling Love?".The animation was subcontracted toWang Film Productionsin Taiwan and its division Thai Wang Film Productions in Thailand, as well as Pacific Rim Animation in China andVarga Studioin Hungary. Robert Folk was brought on to compose a new score replacing the score from the workprint, with the lone exception beingNight on Bald Mountainwhen the Thief prepares to try and fly to the ruby.
Approximately 18 minutes of completed animation were cut by Calvert due to the scenes' repetitiveness.Calvert said: "We hated to see all this beautiful animation hit the cutting room floor, but that was the only way we could make a story out of it. He [Williams] was kind ofRube Goldberg-inghis way through. I don't think he was able to step back and look at the whole thing as a story. He's an incredible animator, though. Incredible. One of the biggest problems we had was trying our desperate best, where we had brand new footage, to come up to the level of quality that he had set".
After the film was completed, Allied Filmmakers, along with Majestic Films, reacquired the distribution rights from the Completion Bond Company. Calvert's version of the film was distributed in South Africa and in Australia asThe Princess and the Cobbleron 23 September 1993. The film was later released in the Philippines asThe Thief and the Cobblerby Jemah Films on April 23, 1994.
In December 1994, the North American rights to the film were bought byMiramax Films, then a subsidiary ofDisney(which had already releasedAladdinfirst), after it had already been rejected by several other American distributors. Calvert recalls: "It was a very difficult film to market, it had such a reputation, that I don't think they were looking at it objectively".Originally planning to release thePrincess and the Cobblerversion, then-Miramax presidentHarvey Weinsteindecided to recut the film even furtherand released their version entitledArabian Knight.
This version was cut by 8 minutes, featured newly written dialogue byEric Gilliland,Michael HitchcockandGary Glasberg, along with the addition of celebrity actorsMatthew Broderick,Jennifer Beals,Toni Collette,Eric BogosianandJonathan Winters, and added dialogue to various characters who didn't speak in either the workprint orThe Princess and the Cobbler, such as the Thief and Phido, save for some squawks for the latter originally voiced byDonald Pleasence, as well as added musical cues by Jack Maeby. Jake Eberts found that "It was significantly enhanced and changed by Miramax after Miramax stepped in and acquired the domestic [distribution] rights." His comments on record, claiming that these altered versions were superior to Williams's version, indicated that Eberts had also lost confidence in Williams when the Completion Bond Company seized the film.
Arabian Knightwas quietly released by Miramax on 25 August 1995. It opened on 510 screens,and grossed US$319,723(on an estimated budget of $24 million) during its theatrical run.
The Allied Filmmakers version of the film was released on VHS in Australia byColumbia TriStar Home Videoin 1994.
The Miramax version was set to be released by Miramax Home Entertainment on VHS in December 1995, five months after its theatrical release, but was eventually released on 18 February 1997, under its original titleThe Thief and the Cobbler.A widescreenLaserDiscwas also released. The Miramax version of the film appeared on aDVDas a giveaway promotion in packages ofFroot Loopscereal,its first DVD release. In 2001, thispan and scanDVD was released through Canadian studioAlliance Atlantis, which, at the time, distributed 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 Miramax version was first released on DVD in Japan by theDaiichi Kosho Companyin 2002, using a widescreen copy of Miramax'sArabian Knightversion with English and Japanese-language tracks. The Allied Filmmakers version was released on apan and scanDVD in Australia in 2003 byMagna Pacific, but it is severely cropped, and there are no additional features on the DVD.
A commercially released North American DVD of the Miramax version was released byMiramax Familyon 8 March 2005. This was basically the same as the Froot Loops cereal DVD, albeit with a new menu design and the addition of trailers forMy Scene Goes Hollywood: The MovieandPokémon: Destiny Deoxys. This DVD was re-released byThe Weinstein Company Home Entertainmenton 21 November 2006. Although the information supplied to online retailers said that it would be a new special edition, it was in fact only a reissue of Miramax's earlier DVD with revised packaging and a new set of trailers. The 2006 DVD was found by most reviewers to be unsatisfactory, with the only extra features being trailers for other Weinstein Company family films.The Digital Bits listed it as the worst standard-edition DVD of 2006.The Miramax/Weinstein DVD was re-issued again on 3 May 2011 byEcho Bridge Home Entertainment, an independent DVD distributor who made a deal to release 251 titles from the Miramax library until the deal expired in 2014.These releases are nowout of printas further scheduling of the Region 1 release has yet to commence as of 2024.
Lionsgatereleased the Miramax version on DVD in the United Kingdom on 13 February 2012.The film had previously never been released in any form there,ironically where the majority of the production took place.
During production underAllied Filmmakers, four musical numbers were added: "She Is More", "Am I Feeling Love?", "Bom Bom Bom Beem Bom", and "It's So Amazing". These songs are only present in both thePrincess and the CobblerandArabian Knightversions of the film.
All lyrics are written byNorman Gimbel, while the music is composed byRobert Folk.
The pop version of "Am I Feeling Love?" was performed byArnold McCullerandAndrea Robinson.
The Miramax version of the film was a commercial failure and received mixed reviews.Rotten Tomatoesgives the film a score of 60% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10.Caryn JamesofThe New York Timescriticised the songs sung by the princess, calling the lyrics "horrible" and the melodies "forgettable", although he did praise Williams's animation as "among the most glorious and lively ever created".Animation historianJerry Beckfelt 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 Williams's original scenes.The Miramax version of the film was often unfavorably compared toAladdin, with some even calling it a rip-off of the film.However, in 2003, theOnline Film Critics Societynamed the film the 81st greatest animated film of all time. In addition, the film won the 1995 Academy of Family Films Award.
Alex Williams, the son of the original director who also worked on the film before it was re-edited, 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".For years, Richard Williams was devastated by the film's production and had never publicly discussed it since then.In 2010, however, he discussed the film during an interview about his silent animated shortCircus Drawings, a project he shelved in the 1960s before he started work onThe Thief.He later participated in Q&As for screenings of his 1992 workprint at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on 10 December 2013and at theBFI Southbankin London on 1 June 2014.Williams also said he had never seen the Calvert or Miramax versions of the film: "I'm not interested, but my son, who is also an animator, did tell me that if I ever want to jump off a bridge, then I should take a look".
The Secret of Kells,Song of the SeaandWolfwalkers, three Irish animated films that based their style on traditional native art, hadThe Thief and the Cobblercited as one of their main inspirations.Tomm Moore, the director of all three films, said: "Some friends in college and I were inspired by Richard Williams's unfinished masterpieceThe Thief and the Cobblerand the Disney movieMulan, 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".
Richard Williams's workprint was bootlegged after Calvert's versions were released, and copies have been shared among animation fans and professionals for years.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 showedWalt Disney Feature AnimationheadRoy E. Disneyhis workprint ofThe Thief, which Roy liked. With Williams's support,Roy Disney began a project to restoreThe Thief and the Cobbler,seeking originalpencil testsand completed footage. However, due to the lackluster reception of most hand-drawn animated films released during the early 2000s, as well as his tough relationship with then-Disney CEOMichael Eisner, Roy left the Walt Disney Company in November 2003, and the project was put on hold.Disney film producerDon Hahnwas later made the project supervisor of the restoration, but after Roy's death in 2009, the project was officially called off.
In 2006, filmmaker and artist Garrett Gilchrist created a non-profitfan restorationof Williams's workprint, titledThe Thief and the Cobbler: The Recobbled Cut. It was done in as high quality as possible by combining available sources at the time, including a video copy of Williams's workprint and a Japanese DVD release ofArabian Knight. This edit was much supported by numerous people who had worked on the film (except Richard Williams himself), including Roy Naisbitt, Alex Williams, Andreas Wessel-Therhorn, Tony White, Holger Leihe, Simon Maddocks, Neil Boyle, and Steve Evangelatos, 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 using scenes from thePrincess and the Cobblerversion of the film.Some scenes (like the wedding ending) had to be retouched frame by frame by Gilchrist due to flaws in the footage. Gilchrist described this as the most complex independent restoration of a film ever undertaken. This edit gained positive reviews on the Internet.Twitch Filmcalled it "the best and most important 'fan edit' ever made".Nell Minow ofCommon Sense Mediagave the film full five stars, saying that it was "a must for family viewing."
The Recobbled Cuthas been revised four times, in 2006, 2008, 2013 and 2023. Each version incorporated further, higher-quality materials donated by animators from the films. The "Mark 3" version released in 2008 incorporated 21 minutes from a 49-minute reel of rare 35 mm film. Gilchrist's "Mark 4" was released in September 2013 and edited in HD. "Mark 4" features about 30 minutes of the film in full HD quality, restored from raw 35 mm footage which Gilchrist edited frame by frame to remove dirt and damage. Artists were also commissioned to contribute new artwork and material.In February 2023, Gilchrist invited professional animators to come on board for another revision for the 10th anniversary of "Mark 4" (as well as roughly the 60th anniversary of the film beginning production, and the 30th anniversary of the film ending production).New animation was created for this version, and many scenes were partly redrawn or recolored by Gilchrist. An early version of the "Recobbled Cut Mark 5" premiered on YouTube on June 21 the same year.Gilchrist's YouTube account, "TheThiefArchive", serves as a public video archive of Richard Williams's films, titles, commercials, and interviews, including footage from theNasrudinproduction. Williams said that while he never saw Gilchrist's Recobbled Cut, he acknowledged the role that the edits had played in rehabilitating the film's reputation.
Williams stated that his unfinished version, from 13 May 1992, is now archived and digitally duplicated by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: "The Academy has it, it's in a 'golden box' now and it's safe".The unfinished version, along with a selection of Art Babbitt's animation from the film, has been placed in an archive collection named "The Art Babbitt Collection".A collection of artwork fromThe Thiefis also stored in Disney's "Animation Research Library" in the Feature Animation building.
The unfinished version was screened at the Academy'sSamuel Goldwyn Theaterunder the titleThe Thief and the Cobbler: A Moment in Time, on 10 December 2013, with Williams in attendance.Also attending the screening were other notable filmmakers, animators, composers, critics, actors, and directors likeEric Goldberg,Chris Wedge,June Foray,Alan Menken,David Silverman,Phil Roman, Art Leonardi,Tom Sito, Mark Kausler,John Musker,Ron Clements,Theodore Thomas, Charles Solomon,Bob Kurtz,Martha Sigall, Kevin Kurytnik, Carol Beecher,Jerry Beck, Yvette Kaplan, Carl Bell, Andreas Wessel-Therhorn, Kevin Schreck, and Garrett Gilchrist. After the screening Williams discussed the origins of the film and its production history.On 1 June 2014, "A Moment in Time" was screened in London under theBritish Film Institute, with many of the original crew present.On 25 November 2018, during another screening in London, Williams suggested the possibility of aBlu-rayrelease with the BFI. Williams said the European rights toThe Thiefwere still available in order to release it, but the North American rights he felt were currently too complicated to also release the Blu-ray there.Williams died shortly after on 17 August 2019 at the age of 86, without ever seeing a finished version ofThe Thief and the Cobbleras he had originally envisioned.
Persistence of Visionis a documentary by Kevin Schreck, about Richard Williams and the production ofThe Thief and the Cobbler, which the film calls "the greatest animated film never made". Because Williams did not participate in the documentary, it is instead a documentary from the perspective of animators and artists who had worked with Richard Williams and his studio during the film's lengthy production. Williams is featured in the documentary, through archival interviews. Garrett Gilchrist and Helge Bernhardt of the Recobbled Cut and Richard Williams Archive provided rare materials to Schreck for his production, which was funded viaKickstarter.
First premiered in 2012 at theVancouver International Film Festival, it has received many awards at festivals and received very positive critical reception. Williams was given a copy of the film before he passed away, but said he "doesn't plan on watching it".
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