#ttatc zigzag

Stand in his way, get the whips

Back with l'Étrange Festival, I have just seen The Thief and the Cobbler. First of all, I absolutly LOVED this movie ! It was hilarously absurd, the animation style was a delight and I loved all the characters.

Now, I don't know much about this movie. When I was reading the synopsis on the festival website, it said that this movie was never completed. Also, a TON of people went to see this movie. I can't even describe how LONG the queue was. I have heard the people behind me talk about the director. I have no idea who he is and what are his other works.

I made some quick researches when I got home, and learned that there are multiple versions of this movie, including one where Tack talks, there are songs, and the thief narrates too. The version I saw had none of that. Before the movie began, a man told the theatre that this specific version was unique. He said that they struggled to obtain it, and put subtitles themselves for the public. Is it possible that I've seen a "brand-new" version of this movie ?

I'd say it was 1/3 fully animated and 2/3 sketches/storyboards. There was one missing scene, and it was shown with a black screen with "missing scene" written in white. The movie has been shown at the Forum des Images in Paris, at 9:30 pm, if you want to inow the details.

EDIT : I have checked the Recobbled version. I have checked a few scenes and it looks very similar to the one I saw, except one scene at the beginning (so far) : when there is the intro narration, à character wraps his hands around the sphere. In the Rzcobbled version, those hands are rather clean (as in, clean lines, colored), however in the version I saw today, the hands were rough sketches.

But let's go bavk to the movie itself. Like I said, I LOVED it. The whole theatre was laughing through the entire film. I especially liked the backgrounds. How they were made of optical illusions and intricate patterns. How the characters interacted with it, and the visual gags that were made with them.

My favorite character was Tack. I absolutly adore his character design. One thing I found was a genius move was using the nails as his mouth. Since he doesn't have a mouth, the position of the nails are used to express emotions, like so :

I also appreciated that he was not speaking, like the thief. Showing a character's intention and emotions without a single word is always impressive. Of course, he talked at the end. "I love you". But man. Why was his voice so deep ??

Anyways.

My favorite scene was the destruction of the One-Eyed's mechanical fortress. Everything was in tones of red and black, hundreds of soldiers falling like they were toys, wood and metal and weapons and fire crumbling and spiraling around the thief. Unmoved, unbothered thief, who has an interest in the gold balls and nothing else, not even the destruction around him.

I liked the thief too. He was the funnies of the bunch. I loved how he spends the whole movie stealing/trying to steal stuff, using the most ridiculous devices, and at the end, he just gives up.

Of course, the Nanny. Just a frail old woman. With arms made of steel who can crush you in an instant. What à sweet old lady.

Princess Yum Yum was also interesting. I liked that, along with being a princess, she seemed strong-willed enough to go save her city.

And of course, Zigzag. I love villain characters, and I loved how ugly he was. The way his face streches was hilarous to me.