Labels

Sunday 27 September 2015

The Thief and the Cobbler: The Greatest Animated Film Never Made

If you have heard of The Thief and the Cobbler, then I applaud you. Unfortunately, chances are, you haven't; and there are reasons for that. Personally, I feel that this movie deserves to be known. It was supposed to be Richard Williams's animated masterpiece, but sadly, never saw the light of day.

I'd like to mention upfront that in this blog, I'm not referring to the Miramax edition [the one with horrible songs], or Lionsgate's "Princess and the Cobbler". Both of those are horribly butchered versions of Williams's original intentions. I am referring to Garrett Gilchrist's fan-made restoration, the "Recobbled Cut". This happens to be the closest thing to the originally intended masterpiece.

Have you heard of Richard Williams? No? Have you heard of Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? Well, Williams was the director of animation of Rodger Rabbit, and won 2 academy awards for it. He also won an Oscar for his animated version of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol". In fact, A Christmas Carol was actually a test of sorts to see if it would be possible to create such an impossible movie like Thief and the Cobbler.....have I sold it enough yet?

Now you might be wondering what makes this movie so special. Well, I'm glad you asked. You see, this film was in production for 28 years, only to be mercilessly grabbed out of the director's hand, sliced into an unrecognizable pulp, leading to an inevitable box office failure. I would like to spend the next several months going into details about all this history, and why I love this film. I promise to keep the blogs short, and to the point.

In 2012, director Kevin Schreck made a documentary about the tragic story behind this movie. Ironically, this documentary titled "Persistence of Vision", won many international awards and was screened at film festivals all over the world. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but would obviously love to!

DISCLAIMER: Thief and the Cobbler is not a movie for the fainthearted. If you are not a fan of animation, then this film will most certainly bore you. What you are seeing is an incomplete film.....just wanted to put that out there.


Trailer of Thief and the Cobbler (Recobbled Cut):



Persistence of Vision Trailer:


Thief and the Cobbler (Recobbled Cut): Full Movie:

No comments:

Post a Comment