Watch The Thief And The Cobbler Movie Online
Vendredi, septembre 10th, 2010 |
Watch The Thief And The Cobbler Movie Online.
Movie Title: The Thief And The Cobbler The Thief And The Cobbler is available for streaming or downloading. |
NOTE: THIS REVIEW APPLIES ONLY TO THE New RICHARD WILLIAMS WORKPRINT Carve, NOT THE VERSION ON DVD OR RELEASED INTO THEATERS
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In possibly the worst seizures of a film in history, possibly the greatest absorbing film was reduced to a grotesque mess only with only hints of the unique brilliance. Almost half of the film was deleted or never finished, amazing vocal performances were re-dubbed, and extensive re-editing destroyed the lyrical yarn gain.
Before The Thief and the Cobbler was ripped to shreds, it was a pet project of animator/director Richard Williams (who you should know as the animation director… or really co-director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit) . From 1964 to the leisurely 1980s, every penny spent on the film was out of his maintain pocket or from tiny investments from benefactors. He produced hundreds of television commercials to pay for the movie. Alas, even after years of work, he had only about 10 minutes of footage at the cost of $2 million dollars.
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The Thief and the Cobbler started as an adaptation of stories about Mulla Nasrudin (by Idres Shah) . When rights over the published work fell apart, he turned his project into an unique, but familiar yarn. The haunting opening narration (spoken by Shakespearian actor Sir Felix Almyer) began the film:
“It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens and in the depths of the emerald seas and upon every grain of sand in the immense deserts that the world which we search for is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality.
Once upon a time there was a golden city. In the centre of the golden city atop the tallest minaret were three golden balls. The ancients had prophesied that if the three golden balls were ever taken away harmony would yield to discord and the city would tumble to destruction and death.
But… the mystics had also foretold that the city might be saved by the simplest soul with the smallest and simplest of things.
In the city there dwelt a lowly shoemaker… who was known as Tack the Cobbler. Also in the city… existed a Thief… who shall be nameless.”
Through a series of circumstances, the flea-bitten thief causes Tack to be improper as an attacker on the Titanic Vizier Zig-Zag. After being brought to the palace to be executed, he falls in savor with Princess Yum-Yum (daughter of the benevolent, but sleepy King Nod) . Zig-Zag bribes and brownnoses King Nod, hoping to control the Golden City and hold Yum-Yum as his hold.
Tack is a white-faced and mute - his demeanor and movement reminiscent of Chaplin’s Tramp, Harry Langdon, and Jacques Tati’s Hulot. The Thief is a scrawny, flea-bitten kleptomaniac calm. Zig-Zag, voiced by Vincent Heed in a valedictorian performance, is blue-skinned and vulture-like in appearance.
Princess Yum-Yum is voiced by Hilary Pritchard (bit player in many 1970’s British TV shows), King Nod by Sir Anthony Quayle, Zig-Zag’s vulture has squawks and hisses provided by Donald Pleasence. In a surprise, but appropriate cameo, Sir Sean Connery provides his verbalize.
For animation, he recruited master animators from the golden age: Art Babbitt (Disney), Ken Harris (Warner Bros.), Myron “Grim” Natwick (Fleischers) . He would also give shots to his commercial animators to work on as training (many of which went on to be acclaimed animators in their gain apt such as Eric Goldberg, Tom Sito, and his son Alex) . Richard Williams, himself, intelligent remarkable of the film himself - often keeping Zig-Zag’s scenes to himself. The style of most of the characters is a blend of the rounded UPA gaze, but with the detail of Disney. Rare for most engrossing films, nearly all of the animation was drawn in “ones” which refers to one drawing = one frame.
The film’s region is intricately subtle, requiring the utmost attention to detail to understand the characters. Being that the two main characters have no dialogue, emotions are conveyed masterfully through facial expressions and gestures. Sometimes, objective one brief shot defines an entire character. The animation itself (in the new 70 minutes directed by Richard Williams) out-performs 3-D digital animation. Characters are drawn with such fluidity, often giving the illusion of being live-action (execute no mistake, not one frame utilized rotoscoping) . However, the film often replicates the search for of a live-action film. Surprisingly, the fluid “camera movement” is similar to the styles veteran in the French Unusual Wave - length dolly shots, long takes, 360 degree turns, and even snappy zooms. In one bravura shot, the camera dollys from a close-up of Zig-Zag’s eyes with burly 3-D perspective and then revealed to be a reflection in another character’s gawk - continuing to pull out.
It’s indispensable to notice that everything in the film was as intricate as possible. As mentioned before, the most subtle emotions conveyed by characters say more than dialogue. Tack’s facial emotion is hidden by his pale face, but the one or two tacks held in his lips become his smile or frown. Zig-Zag is drawn with extra shoulder joints like a marionette. His face is virtually a characture of Vincent Effect (appropriately) . If that’s not enough, Zig-Zag has six digits on each hand, each with an extra joint, and 20 rings per hand. The Thief conveys his want (whether it be the golden balls or jewels) through a reflection in his eyes. Desert brigands are literally bright sketches (in difference to the highly refined main characters) . The settings are drawn with squashed perspective as a homage to Persian miniatures paintings.
The fable itself combines comedy, romance, fantasy, with a slight bit of scares. The One-Eye Army is reminiscent of the Teutonic soldiers in Alexander Nevsky - led by the massive Much One-Eye. The Thief constantly gets into injury or mishaps as if he were a human Wile E. Coyote (not a coincidence since Ken Harris, the main animator for the thief, often tantalizing the classic Roadrunner cartoons) . Tack is constantly at work - sometimes repairing shoes in his sleep.
The centerpiece of the film, though, is the titanic One-Eye Army War Machine. Filled with Rube Goldberg mousetrap devices. The destruction sets off a chain reaction, resulting in self-destruction.
Featuring pleasing and delicate animation, astounding vocal performances, and plenty of laughs - The Thief and the Cobbler almost had a chance at being the greatest racy film ever made.
After decades of work, with only 15 minutes of animation to complete in 4 months, the investors pulled out of a negative pickup deal, resulting in the incomplete film to be bought-out by the Completion Bond Company. Richard Williams was taken off his gain project. Incomplete animation was farmed out to Korea where it was finished poorly (even compared to the unique work) . Many voices were re-dubbed, including Sir Anthony Quayle’s amazing King Nod. Insipid musical sequences were added. Over 20 minutes of completed animation were crop out of the film. Tack was given a modern deny regardless of his lips arresting or not. Originally with an eclectic soundtrack consisting of classical (great from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade), surreal Wendy Carlos-eque electronic pieces, and even some fierce jazzy sections - it was replaced with a mediocre orchestral procure that borrowed heavily from Henry Mancini’s themes for The Pink Panther.
While the recent record remained intact to an extent, many inexplicable changes were made. Tack, shown to be quite a successful cobbler, was changed via a modern opening narration to be an orphan and shoemaker’s apprentice. Yum-Yum was changed into a feminist. Originally with a modulated, demonic stutter, Distinguished One-Eye was redubbed with a laughably tame reveal.
The misery did not raze there. Miramax picked up distribution for the United States and altered the film even further. The first release was retitled The Princess and the Cobbler. This recent version, Arabian Knight made even worse changes. The Thief, thankfully left as a peaceful in the prior version, was given a train provided by Jonathan Winters - who seemed to ad-lib the entire performance. Phido, Zig-Zag’s vulture, was given a command even with absolutely no lip-sync. Tack and Yum-Yum were redubbed again, often with the ADR out of sync. Even more footage was deleted such as an entire subplot with the Angry Holy Passe Witch (voiced by Carry On ____ regular Joan Sims) and considerable of the unbelievable War Machine sequence. Even worse, this further altered version was marketed as an Aladdin clone - to the point of having overdubs referencing the film.
Even in its truncated and emasculated gain, the genius of the unique animation is delicate. Negotiations have been off and on since the release of the altered cuts to restore it. The Walt Disney Company currently owns the film and has the power to bring succor Richard Williams to allow him to restore and enact the film the procedure it was intended to be seen.
Until this happens, the only map to survey the fresh film is via VHS tape bootlegs - often from 3rd generation sources. Considering how noteworthy a fanbase exists thanks to the bootleg, it would be benificial to Disney and fans for the uncut version to finally be made available not only on DVD, but to be allowed a wide theatrical release. Thanks to the rules of the Academy Award, a theatrical release of a restoration would allow it to accept the Best Enthralling Feature Oscar - among others.
Until then, avoid the unique DVD like the plague. The Thief and the Cobbler is one of the rare cel-animated films shot in CinemaScope - at the time of the film’s production starting, only two American films shot in wide-format had been made (Disney’s The Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty) . The commercial DVD is in pan & scan, which does unforgivable distress to the virtuoso 2.35:1 framing the film had - even the laserdisc preserved this.
I am not here to rant about how what this movie became after Miramax/Disney got a have of it assist in the mid 90’s. However, I am here to expound my grievous irritation with this shoddy release.
A itsy-bitsy history first: A fullscreen, 2 channel version of this movie on DVD was offered as a free promotional item on cereal boxes in Canada about 5 years ago. I picked one up at that time for a few bucks on an auction set. I tranquil have the cereal box version in my collection, holding out for a Widescreen release, similar to the one that I first saw on Laserdisc. So at long last Disney releases it on DVD and it is the same trusty thing that was offered on the cereal box, but now it is the note you scrutinize here - ouch! Actually, I found it a local ***-Mart store for half as distinguished, so shame on this area for their trace gouging.
This is a certain case of Disney not lustrous their audience. It appears family movies are more marketable in fullscreen, even though most buyers of this video are going to be animation fans, recent utter changes notwithstanding. Disney should have taken the same angle with this one that they took with the grand Studio Ghibli releases. But the man slack that luminous maneuver, John Lasseter at Pixar, probably has shaky relations with Disney at this point. So this half-baked release will sit on the shelf next to another crappy Disney release, Mulan II, and net dust. I’m unruffled waiting for the Widescreen, 5.1 surround version.
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