#richardwilliams

The history of The Thief and the Cobbler is long and heartbreaking. In short, it was an impossibly ambitious animated film whose troubled production went on for so long it was never finished. Eventually picked up, pieced together as best as possible, and then released by two separate studios, the versions we've seen are heavily compromised. Nonetheless, Richard Williams' original vision captured the minds of many. In 2013, a painstakingly reconstructed fan edit dubbed "The Recobbled Cut" - the closest we’ll ever get to the director’s intention - emerged. Though still incomplete, this glimpse at what could've been is breathtaking.

Golden City is kept safe thanks to three magical golden balls atop King Nod’s tallest minaret. When a thief steals the balls, all seems lost. Hope rests in the hands of Princess Yum-Yum (Sara Crowe) and the cobbler Tack (a silent role) while the scheming Grand Vizier Zig Zag (Vincent Price) sees the disaster as an opportunity.

A simple summary of this film’s plot does not do it justice. This is an unusual film you cannot forget. The visuals are a cross between Persian miniature paintings and the works of M.C. Escher. As characters run through corridors, you’ll be blown away at the amazing use of perspective, the crispness of the lines, and painstaking amount of detail. It’s so beautiful it’s overwhelming. The sheer amount of long, unbroken shots, the way every scene had to be painstakingly choreographed and developed, the brilliant way perspective is skewed to show off the lush background and the brilliantly designed characters… The Thief and the Cobbler is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. It uses the medium of animation like no one else ever had - and it was all done by hand.

This picture's unconventional choices make it a fascinating watch. When was the last time you saw a film whose two leads had no dialogue - outside of the silent era? Sounds weird for the sake of being weird? Maybe, but it allows the story to focus on body language, facial expressions, and color to convey to you what is happening. You haven’t seen slapstick done this well since the Looney Tunes' golden years.

Based on this glimpse of what might've been, did we miss out on “the greatest animated film of all time”? Not quite. The visuals are spectacular. The story? just ok. Some scenes last too long and the way the villains are introduced means the stakes don't feel as high as they could. It’s easy to get mad at Allied Filmmakers and Miramax for releasing butchered versions of this artistic vision, but you also can’t blame them. This film is so strange, so unusual, and was taking so long to produce anyone would worry. A 30+ year obsession like this one almost certainly saw scenes that were previously “finished” scrapped entirely because the character designs were tweaked or a new stylistic choice was made down the line. Looking at it from today's standpoint, I don’t think this project would have ever gotten finished no matter how much money Richard Williams would've managed to raise.

If you love animation or movies with interesting backstories (so basically, ones where everything goes wrong), it's worth digging up this version of The Thief and the Cobbler. Usually, I’d criticize a film for demanding the audience “do homework” to enjoy themselves. This case is so wild you gobble up every testimony, date, and name like a hungry wolf inside a chicken coop. This “Recobbled Cut” might just be the most important fan edit ever made. (Recobbled Cut, June 10, 2016)

Goodbye Richard!