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The Thief and the Cobbler is a feature-length animated film begun in 1964 by the Canadian master animator Richard Williams. You may know him as the animator of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and some of the later Pink Panther stuff. The Thief was conceived to be his magnum opus, and the standard against which all other animated features would be compared. It was of such quality and complexity that it was aimed more at adults than children. It was to be the greatest animation ever produced.
If ever a project was cursed, The Thief would be it. The film was originally intended to be called "Nasruddin!" about the humorous adventures of the middle-eastern "wise fool" Mulla Nasruddin, based upon books by Idres Shah, which Williams had illustrated. Unfortunately, a falling out in 1973 with the Shah family required the plot be abandoned. Rather than also abandon the work, Williams retained the animation that didn't contain the Mulla, and fashioned a new plot, which became the plot of The Thief and the Cobbler.
At various points, Williams had over 40 animators working on the project. Williams was a huge fan of Disney's early work, and often hired their older animators as a way of keeping their style alive. He worked with many of animations greats on The Thief. Over the years, there were many ups and downs, and he gained and lost funding multiple times. It seemed the project would never be finished.
In 1990 however, after his success on Roger Rabbit, Warner Brothers signed a contract to release The Thief. The Thief would finally see the light of day, in all it's epic greatness. It wasn't to be however. Warner gave Williams an overly ambitious deadline of 1991. When the deadline rolled around, there were 15 minutes of screentime left to be produced, requiring several more months of work. At the same time, Disney was preparing to release Aladdin, a work based partially on the plot and scenes Williams had created, except cuted-up quite a bit and simplified for a younger audience. Some at Warner doubted Williams would ever finish... he had worked on it for over 20 years now, after all.
With the pressure of a pop-culture oriented release impending from Disney, and a dubious delivery date, Warner cut the project. The assets were sold to a bond company, and Williams and his team were given just hours to clear out of the studio. It is said that when they came to lock the doors, Williams was still sitting, animating at his table. The company took possession of all the materials, including the work prints in William's vault. This was the beginning of the end of The Thief.
A Saturday-morning cartoons producer was brought in from LA to finish the film as quickly as possible and to give it more mainstream appeal. Much of Williams footage was cut, the materials were shipped to a studio in Korea for production, the quality of the film was degraded horribly, and the result more little resemblance to Williams original intent. It was released as "The Princess and the Cobbler". Disney subsidiary Mirimax then bought the rights and butchered it further, releasing it as "Arabian Knight". (this happens to be the version I first watched). At one point, DVD's of this version were given away on the side of Kellogg's cereal boxes.
...
Fast forward to 2006, and enter one Garrett Gilchrist. Garrett is a fan of both Williams and The Thief, and in 2006 he announced his intent to restore the film to its intended greatness. He has since been gathering materials from all over the world... pre-release cuts, pal and ntsc video, 35mm working prints, pencil sketches, you name it... and digitally restoring and editing together The Thief as Williams intended it. The restored version, called "The Thief and the Cobbler, ReCobbled", has so far gone through two releases, and a third is in the works.
I'm writing this post for all of you to spread the word about what I consider to be a masterpiece of animation, and to share with you the immense enjoyment I feel when watching the restored version.
This isn't a totally polished finished product. It's a work of love. At points, Garrett animates with the only thing he has to work from, Williams pencil sketches. During the film, you can see the quality switch from 35mm (almost HDTV quality) to TV cartoon quality, to hand drawn. But to me it creates a feeling of "history in motion", which just adds to the experience. I seriously look forward to the Mark III release.
Resources:
The ultimate thread on the subject, started by Garrett Gilchrist, the fellow undertaking the restoration... the most recent post was yesterday, so it's a live thread: http://ffrevolution.com/InvisionBoard/index.php?showtopic=1199&st=0
The Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thief_and_the_Cobbler
Torrent File, to download the Mark II release: http://www.mininova.org/tor/327018
You will have to burn the results to a dvd. I did and it only worked on my computer, but that's fine, my computer has better resolution than my TV. :)
Enjoy!
