The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut

[tygerbug]

A restoration of the rarely-seen animated classic The Thief and the Cobbler, created over three decades by 3 time Oscar Winner Richard Williams, who animated Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

UPDATE: -- Complete on DVD as of May 2006! Watch the entire film on Youtube! Download the DVD at The Pirate Bay via torrent for free!

http://youtube.com/user/thethiefarchive

Mark III revised version now available, via torrent for free, on Youtube or Google Video, or direct from the author. tygerbug at yahoo.com.

Also available via torrent: Raggedy Ann, The Little Island, The Best of Richard Williams ....

Holger Leihe's Thief blog
http://thethief1.blogspot.com/


I'd like to thank Baby Hum, KA, Stanch and Chris Sobieniak, among others, for their help in procuring the necessary materials.

I know that many of you will not have heard of this film, and so it doesn't sound as interesting to you.

But this edit needs to be done. The film has never been seen the way it was intended to be seen. It was recut to death by Disney (and before that others) in an effort to destroy it, and is not well known even today.

I consider it a public service to restore Richard Williams' original vision, on which he spent 26 years. Those who have never heard of this film, maybe you'll discover it in my cut.

Here we are then. The Thief and the Cobbler. Recobbled Director's Cut.











ANIMATION AMONG THE MOST GLORIOUS AND LIVELY EVER CREATED! - The New York Times

Restoration and cover artwork by Garrett Gilchrist

For the first time ever on video, enjoy the original version of this lost animation classic, written and directed by three-time Academy Award winning animator Richard Williams (animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Nearly 30 years in the making, a labor of love by a team of animation greats, this was to be the masterpiece of Williams' career, perhaps the most ambitious independent animated film ever conceived. The film was the inspiration for Disney's film Aladdin, which proved to be its undoing. After over two decades of work, the film was taken away from Williams when he couldn't meet his deadline. It was eventually bought by Disney, recut and destroyed. It has never been seen the way it was intended to be seen ... until now. Based on Williams' original workprint, missing scenes have been restored using storyboards and unfinished
animation. Restored to its true form, this lost classic has finally been found - for you at home.

Directed by Richard Williams
Screenplay by Richard Williams and Margaret French
Master animator Ken Harris
Produced by Imogen Sutton and Richard Williams


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 vast deserts, that the world which we see 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 fall 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.


DVD art -

http://www.orangecow.org/thief/cobbleramarayv3.jpg








THIS SET WILL FEATURE --

Digitally-remastered widescreen version of the original version of Thief and the Cobbler, taken from beautiful DVD sources but matching the workprint ...

+ The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut Mk 3
The definitive unofficial presentation of this classic film. Painstakingly restored. Newly restored for 2008!

Features:
- Recobbled Cut Trailer
- Nine Image Galleries
- Animated menus featuring pencil tests from the
original film
- About the Film (Narration)
- Restoration commentary by Garrett Gilchrist and
Patrick McCart


More discs:
RICHARD WILLIAMS COLLECTION:

Disc 2 (Newly revised for 2008!)
+ The Thief Who Never Gave Up Documentary
+ I Drew Roger Rabbit Documentary
+ Arabian Knight Trailer
+ Allied Filmmakers Trailer
+ Miramax Video Trailer - Added for Mark 3
"Deleted Characters" section featuring:
- Enchanted Prince Bubba: Witch sequence - Restored for Mark 3
- Princess Meemee - Bath sequence - More for Mark 3
- Mullah Nasruddin: Bread sequence
- Brigand Hoof "Salome Scene" - New for Mark 3
- Thief on springs - New for Mark 3
- Zigzag in Tower Extended - New for Mark 3

Disc 3 (Newly revised for 2008!)
+ Richard Williams Studio Animated Commercials (50 min+), Williams Studio Showreel, Oscar Grillo Animated Commercials, A Funny Thing Happened on the
Way to the Forum end titles, Thief Warner Bros. Licensing Trailer, Roger Rabbit Trailer, Nasruddin "Bread Scene" clip

Disc 4:
+ Making of Nasrudin - The Creative Person (1966), Clapperboard 1&2 (1972), Liquidator titles, Panther ads (PAL)

Disc 5 (Newly revised for 2008!)
+ Rare workprint 35mm clips of The Thief (50 min - very high quality and featuring material not seen anywhere else)/Rare Thief and the Cobbler pencil-camera tests (23 min)/Songs from Miramax and Calvert Cuts/Thief and Roger Rabbit News Reports/Richard at BAFTAS/The Pink Panther Strikes Again titles

Disc 6:
A Christmas Carol/Charge of the Light Brigade/Return of the Pink Panther/The Creative Person (1966)/Ziggy's Gift/Ziggy Cartoons

Disc 7 (New for 2008!)
Raggedy Ann & Andy (widescreen)/The Little Island - Both newly transferred from 35mm film, providing the best quality possible. First time ever on DVD. Special features - Disco Dolly Music Video and Restoration Comparison. Available in Cinemascope (letterboxed in a 16x9 frame) and 16x9 (unletterboxed) versions.


NEW! Disc 14:
A Tribute to Richard Williams - As screened at an ASIFA Event in San Francisco - Contains clips from many of Richard's best works. A Christmas Carol, I Drew Roger Rabbit, Animated Commercials, Raggedy Ann & Andy clips, Thief and the Cobbler trailer, A Maroon Cartoon, Charge of the Light Brigade, Return of the Pink Panther, and more ....


Disc 8:
The Thief Scrapbook - Huge collection of articles,
artwork and more on a data DVD. Being added to all the
time.

Disc 9: (New for 2008!)
Animating Art (Art Babbit)/Universe in a Pencil: Ralph Steadman talks to London animators, including Richard Williams/Casino Royale Titles/What's New Pussycat? titles

Disc 10:
Fred Calvert's Princess and the Cobbler: Work In Progress Version/Ziggy's Gift/Ziggy Cartoons - Rare early look at Fred Calvert's ruining of The Thief, with rare footage.

Disc 11:
Arabian Knight (Miramax Cut) Japanese widescreen DVD (Arabian Knight is also available in pan & scan)

Disc 12:
The Thief and the Cobbler workprint and DVD-ROM
extras (PAL and AVI versions provided)

Disc 13:
+ The Princess and the Cobbler (Calvert Cut) Timecoded Widescreen from rare VHS (good quality, timecoded with trailer)

+ The Princess and the Cobbler (Calvert Cut) Australian Pan & Scan DVD (PAL)

More discs:
+ Thief pencil tests (56 minutes), Richard
Williams interviews (Roger Rabbit & The Thief),
Richard at the British Film Awards, Roger Rabbit Test,
Air Canada ad, National Film Board of Canada Richard
Williams film intros, Nasruddin clip, Oscar Grillo's
Seaside Woman (PAL)

+ I Drew Roger Rabbit PAL, Williams commercials (same as other disc but PAL), Warners trailer (PAL)

+ Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toontown/Roger
Rabbit TV spots (Diet Coke, McDonald's)

+ Roger Rabbit Reviews (Siskel & Ebert etc., with
CBS "Pig Head" version)




THINGS WE DON'T HAVE --


The Sailor and the Devil

IF YOU HAVE ANY OF THESE, OR ANYTHING NOT LISTED OR RARE, OR ANY PRESS CLIPPINGS OR ANYTHING, LET ME KNOW!



As this project has progressed .. well, you'll read in the thread, but we're now in touch with many animators who worked on the film and approve of what we're doing.

Let us know if you've got anything!








This is the previous thread about this project, from another site. In 2006 we switched to using this thread..
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/messag ... eadid=4256

[Guest]

FINALLY, ZIGGY CARTOONS ON DVD!

[tygerbug]

There is no good poster/DVD art for this film anywhere.

Soooo ...

I spent the night printing out screen grabs from the DVD, most of them tiny and hard to see, and carrrefully drawing them as line art.











Difficult characters to draw, to say the least.

For perspective, I mastered drawing, say, Aladdin's Genie at the age of 12, but today 12 years later drawing Zigzag gave me conniptions. I gave up on original thought and wound up tracing very carefully - it still took me many tries to get anything that felt right. Just his hands alone can drive a lesser man insane. He has six fingers, and something like 20 bulbous rings on each hand. He looks different in each frame, but if you change anything about him he looks completely wrong. Drawing the hands, or drawing One Eye, sometimes I'd just think, what the hell am I drawing?? So insanely complex and obscure when it LOOKS simple.

I'm proudest of the Old Witch. And Nod and Yumyum, since the screen grab I was working from was very small and vague so I was coming up with most of it on my own. Some of these show signs of redrawing and reworking - I'll fix a lot of things when I'm coloring them.

[tygerbug]

These are not intended to stay exactly as line art ... I intend to apply a lot of Photoshop effects to soften the look and feel - minimize the appearance of the black lines.

[tygerbug]

Kind of like this ...

[tygerbug]

[tygerbug]

I've just finished my version of the DVD art.




Full size!
<a href='http://orangecow.org/thief/cobbleramarayweb.jpg' target='_blank'>http://orangecow.org/thief/cobbleramarayweb.jpg</a>

Here's the text.

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 vast deserts, that the world which we see 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 fall 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.

“ANIMATION AMONG THE MOST GLORIOUS AND LIVELY
EVER CREATED!” - The New York Times

Restoration and cover artwork by Garrett Gilchrist

For the first time ever on video, enjoy the original version of this lost animation classic, written and directed by three-time Academy Award winning
animator Richard Williams (animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Nearly 30 years in the making, a labor of love by a team of animation greats, this was to be the masterpiece of Williams’ career, perhaps the most ambitious independent animated film ever conceived. The film was the inspiration for Disney‘s film Aladdin, which proved to be its undoing. After over two decades of work, the film was taken away from Williams when he couldn’t meet his deadline. It was eventually bought by Disney, recut and destroyed. It has never been seen the way it was intended to be seen ... until now. Based on Williams’ original workprint, missing scenes have been restored using storyboards and unfinished
animation. Restored to its true form, this lost
classic has finally been found - for you at home.

Directed by Richard Williams Screenplay by Richard
Williams and Margaret French Master animator Ken Harris
Produced by Imogen Sutton and Richard Williams

[Guest]

the cover came out lookin' really nice

[Guest_Will Tasker]

Whered the NY Times quote come from

[tygerbug]

Thanks!

J - The quote is from the back of the Miramax ("Arabian Knight") video, weirdly enough. After destroying the film, on the back of the video they trump it up as a masterpiece. Oh, Disney.

I assume it actually refers to the Arabian Knight release, which is kind of unwatchable, so points to the New York Times for digging the animation anyway. Maybe Rotten Tomatoes can dig up the actual article that's from?

[tygerbug]

Found it!

The reviewer struggled with Miramax's changes, and the unfortunate comparisons with Aladdin, but enjoyed the original artwork present therein.

I bet she would have really liked the real thing ... or even Princess and the Cobbler ...




FILM REVIEW; A Late Finisher About Old Araby

By CARYN JAMES
Published: August 26, 1995, Saturday

In 1968, long before he animated "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," Richard Williams began an ambitious, elaborate feature called "The Thief and the Cobbler," about a brave cobbler, an Arabian princess and a bumbling thief. His decades-long project, retitled "Arabian Knight," opened yesterday in an end-of-summer slot usually reserved for films being tossed away. "Arabian Knight" deserved better. It's no dog, though it is a fascinating problem.

Mr. Williams's wide-screen animation is among the most glorious and lively ever created. The backdrops feature beautiful, jewel-like mosaic walls in old Baghdad. The thief leaps and scampers like a slapstick comedian. When Princess Yum Yum and the cobbler, named Tack, try to save the city from an army of one-eyed villains, the colorful battle scenes whiz along using ingenious Rube Goldberg weapons. "Arabian Knight" is amazing to watch.

But no one can ignore the fact that while Mr. Williams and his crew were lovingly plugging away, Disney's "Aladdin" came along. "Aladdin," of course, also features a poor but brave young man who loves an Arabian princess and is upstaged by a comic sidekick. "Aladdin" has livelier characters and far better songs, too. Now "Arabian Knight" seems like a pleasant-enough clone, with a truncated love story and weak comic asides that are no match for its dazzling animated action.

Apparently, a last-minute rescue mission was mounted to try to strengthen "Arabian Knight." Just four months ago, the film's publicity material listed a different set of actors' voices. The major exception was Vincent Price (who died two years ago), who had always been listed as Zigzag, the evil sorcerer. Recently, the movie was dubbed with Matthew Broderick (the voice of the adult Simba in "The Lion King") as Tack, Jennifer Beals as Princess Yum-Yum and Jonathan Winters as the thief.

Tack is shy, with the loose limbs of a scarecrow. He usually has a couple of cobbler's nails in his mouth, and his white face and wide blue eyes make him look a bit like another juvenile hero, Casper the ghost.

The princess falls for the commoner the minute she sets her violet eyes on him. Princess Yum Yum looks like Barbie, but she is a proto-feminist determined to prove she is as smart and brave as any man. She asserts this in two of the film's four songs. The princess (sung by Bobbi Page) sings these horrible lyrics to forgettable melodies: "She is more than this/There's a mind in the body of this pretty miss." She sings of Tack: "I know he's just a pauper/ But I really like him."

Price uses his trademark smooth villainous style for Zigzag, who nonetheless will never escape the shadow of Jafar in "Aladdin." Zigzag is usually pale blue, but his face changes colors when he gets annoyed, and his eyes turn heart-shaped when he asks for the hand of Princess Yum Yum in marriage.

The thief has a ferrety face, with flies always buzzing around his head. He finds gold so irresistible that he pole vaults to the top of a minaret to steal the three gold balls. Mr. Winters's voice-over gives us the thief's thoughts, which should have been funnier.

Some of the best scenes feature bulky and admittedly stupid brigands who live in the desert and sing a finger-snapping melody to the words, "Beem bom, boogedy boogedy, bibbity boo/We're what happens when you don't finish school." The brigands have taken on the same color as the sand, and such delicious visual surprises pop up throughout "Arabian Knight." There are geometric floor patterns and stairways inspired by Escher, which send characters tumbling down. There is the illusion of swift camera movements, as if this were a live-action feature. And there is the sumptuous, entrancing court of Baghdad. Some viewers will fall in love with the art of "Arabian Knight," even though its story lacks the allure of a mainstream hit. ARABIAN KNIGHT Directed by Richard Williams; director of Los Angeles production, Fred Calvert; written by Mr. Williams and Margaret French; score by Robert Folk, with songs by Mr. Folk and Norman Gimbel; produced by Imogen Sutton and Mr. Williams; released by Miramax. Running time: 81 minutes. This film is rated G. WITH THE VOICES OF: Vincent Price (Zigzag), Matthew Broderick (Tack, the Cobbler), Jennifer Beals (Princess Yum Yum), Eric Bogosian (Phido), Toni Collette (Nurse and Witch) and Jonathan Winters (Thief)

[Guest]

lolol 1995

more like 2005 am i rite


wait

yeah okay i don't know either

[tygerbug]

You are a dumb.

[tygerbug]

BIG UPDATE!



EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED.


Everything.



Stanch has sent me a VHS tape and a DVD.


The DVD contains Williams' workprint, the one we all have in poor quality, in what I can only describe as "very good quality."





This is a copy made from a copy of Fred Calvert's copy. The picture is very clear. The worst thing I can say about it is that it shows signs of definite DVD compression, so the original VHS would have been preferable.

It's clear and clean, and compared to the awful VHS copies of the workprint that are out there, this is remarkable.

The sound drops out almost entirely around the witch scene, which doesn't affect my edit much as I can just use the sound from another copy, and the picture is still clean. But it will annoy those watching this lovely DVD.

Also on the DVD is the rare and wonderful "censored" 90s Warner Bros cartoon, Blooper Bunny. Unrelated to The Thief of course, but any animation fan will love both. And hey, they both have a remarkable moving camera.


The VHS tape Stanch sent contains something equally interesting, and completely insane.


Fred Calvert's work in progress for The Princess and the Cobbler.

I want to call it a workprint, because it definitely resembles Williams' own workprint, except for the Calvert version of the film. Calvert's film has barely been begun at this point - he hasn't recorded final voices or done any animation of his own. The storyboards are hilariously off model to what Williams did, and look like they were done by retarded monkeys. The temp voices are equally bad.

The quality of this is pretty good, but not as good as the Williams workprint Stanch sent, so I'll only be using it for a few things.

This is an insane version of the film. It bears no resemblance to any version of the film you've seen before. It's wrong on so many levels, and fascinating. It really takes you behind the scenes to show you EXACTLY what Calvert did to the film, because you can see EXACTLY what Williams didn't complete, which happens to be a lot. You'll be impressed, and say, wait, Calvert actually did that shot? And during the new scenes you'll be horrified and laugh.

The film has a female narrator who is best described as "sassy." She narrates way too much of the film, describing things we already know, and her audio is really clumsily clunked into the film (all other audio cuts out as she speaks).

The Thief talks in this version (he doesn't in Calvert's final version), and he sounds like Gollum! He's constantly saying things like "Ooh, pretty pretty ... ooh, mine." It's bizarre.

King Nod is still voiced by Anthony Quayle, and Yumyum by Hilary Pritchard, except in the new scenes Calvert is adding, which appear in storyboards voiced by terrible terrible actors.

These storyboards are different from the final film, and longer, showing that Calvert had more bad ideas which didn't make it. Calvert seems to blame King Nod for everything that goes bad with the kingdom - he has a soliliquy where he wonders, what have I done?

The song sequences are limited to "She is More" and "Am I Feeling Love?" ... "Beem Bom" and "It's So Amazing" are not present at this point. Some kind soul has decided to cut both song segments out of this tape entirely, which I'm grateful for. Though it would have been amusing to see these segments as storyboards.

Okay, what you're waiting for - Williams animation that doesn't appear in any other version of the movie?

Oh yes.

There certainly is some. Not a lot, but there certainly is some.

Most notably, the entire first scene with One Eye, on the battlefield, has been completed by Williams! It's not just pencil test anymore. "And I will gnaw the golden city to the bone- and spit it out!" COMPLETED yo.

There is entirely different pencil animation for the princess in the bath - "where is my backscratcher?" - Princess Yumyum's twin is entirely gone from this version.

"None shall escape!" "Except for the princess ..." The entire scene with Zigzag and One Eye, which Williams cut out from the workprint but Calvert put back, is present here. It's mostly pencil tests, which is remarkable because it looks like Williams work in the final cut. Guess it's good Calvert inks. The amazing thing is that the original One Eye voice is present here, not Kevin Dorsey, so if I really wanted, I could put back the original voice! But I've gotten used to Dorsey. Hm.

The Witch scene is much more complete than in the workprint. Which is nice because the Princess and the Cobbler DVD isn't widescreen, and this is.

In the beginning of the witch scene, we see some Williams pencil animation of the witch originally appearing as an Aladdin like magic lamp. (This is hinted at in the workprint, but not clearly.) An eye pops out of the lamp and flies around a bit. Then the witch becomes the witch we expect. This is different from any other version.

As in Calvert's final cut, the witch is still voiced by Joan Sims, except for the beginning and end of the scene. Calvert's voice for the witch, who I think was Mona Marshall, has already been recorded at this point. It's the only voice which is identical to Calvert's final cut.

The voice for the Nurse/Nanny is hilariously bad in this cut.

There is some extra Williams pencil test animation as Zigzag charges on his horse toward Tack at the end. This scene is much longer than it wound up, and matches the workprint much more closely. It's a few extra pencil shots of Zigzag's horse attacking Tack.

MUCH more of the film appears in pencil test rather than storyboards. Most of these scenes were things that Calvert had his animators complete, but it's nice to see Williams' original pencils.

You see Zigzag talking to the crocodiles - that entire scene was animated by Williams, but inked by Calvert's hacks.

The king saying "The Prophecy has been fulfilled!" appears in pencil test, meaning that Calvert's men apparently inked that, which surprised me as it looks pretty good. Ditto Yumyum at the polo game asking "Do you know where my cobbler has gone to?"

Amazingly, the entire ending of the film - Tack saying "I love you", them kissing ... that whole bit is still storyboards at this point! Not even Williams pencils.

I can't imagine that Calvert's men did this shot. I can't. But I guess they did. Wow. Jesus.

That explains why Tack's animation here doesn't match Sean Connery's voice track.

Actually, this cut explains a lot of things. Why certain shots match Williams' voice tracks and others don't. It's because occasionally Calvert replaced the original voice tracks with his own tracks before the animators got hold of them.

Also amazingly, the entire last shot with the Thief stealing the film is still pencil test at this point. I'm shocked that this was a Calvert shot, but it is.

Most of the stuff with the brigands appears in pencil test form - like them consulting the brigand's handbook, and "I am Roofless, the Chieftain!" These shots always looked like Williams work, but slightly off somehow. This explains why - Calvert inks of Williams pencils.

A lot of what Calvert's men did in this cut makes me laugh out loud, because it matches what I did in my own edit.

There's a cut from Zigzag getting killed to the Thief, identical to what I did! And I'd thought that one bad Calvert shot of Nod at the end matched the workprint storyboards for him saying "My wonderful daughter." Well, I was more right than I could have known. =) That storyboard appears there, right there, with that voice track.

The entire "What is your name?" scene with Tack and Yumyum where they're getting to know each other - this has more Williams pencils in it, and matches what I wound up doing with my edit of it pretty damn closely! This is a weird recut of what Williams had done. Tack doesn't speak in the visuals.


STUFF FROM THE WORKPRINT?

For the most part, Calvert and company have already made their little cuts and trims to the film. Even at this early stage, they've already cut out most of the little things that are cut out in the final version.

So there is no eating Tack in jail, no Thief getting his hands chopped off, none of that. There's no extra material with the thief and the emerald, and there's none of The Thief attacking the buddha ruby with springs on his feet (sigh).


BUT much of the "adult" material that got cut out is still present here.

You'll be shocked at the random things that are still in this cut.

The maiden from Mombassa is in here. YEP. THE KING HAVING SEX WITH THE MAIDEN FROM MOMBASSA IS IN THIS CUT. I fell out of my chair when I saw that.

Since you asked, it's no more finished than it was in the workprint.

King Nod's bloody dream about the One Eyes appears, in a different spot in the film - at the very beginning actually.

There's more stuff with the Thief at the polo game, which wound up in Calvert's credits.

There's more of The Thief bouncing around as he's trying to get the golden balls from the minaret, again in the credits.

There's part of an extra shot during "Night on Bald Mountain."

The Thief flying his makeshift airplane is in here! Again, wound up in Calvert's credits.

The entire destruction of the war machine is much much longer, and includes most of the stuff from the workprint. The "scissors" and "flyswatter" gags are in here, and so is the Thief dangling precariously over a hot pool at the very end of the sequence.


HILARIOUS TEMP MUSIC!

Oh dear, you're gonna piss yourself. Roughly all of Williams' lovingly chosen music has been replaced by temp music from bizarre sources. Whoever put it together has a weakness for Danny Elfman.


The love theme for Tack and Yumyum? It's the love theme from Edward Scissorhands!

In the Miramax version, Matthew Broderick refers to One Eye's "Army of Darkness." But you can't imagine how funny it is to watch the One Eyes marching to the theme from "Army of Darkness!"

Man, Bruce Campbell and his deathcoaster versus the One Eye War Machine. I think that's a pretty even match.


Once in a while, some Williams music will poke through. They made an attempt to match the music for the witch's dance with Tack - a failed attempt, but it's the same song.

The opening notes of Scheherezade still play when Zigzag does his playing cards thing.

Aaaaaand ..... and this is really cool ..... they matched the music on the reveal of One Eye's camp - that insane shot going away from Zigzag through the fires and dancers, out of One Eye's eye - "Throne!"

It is a different mix or different recording of the same song, whatever that song actually is.

And it plays for much longer than in Williams' version, actually drowning out much of Zigzag's dialogue in the scene. It's nice to hear an extended version of this great music cue.


MEA CULPA

Okay, so I made the decision, six years ago and then this year, to include the final fight between Zigzag and Tack in my edit, even though it doesn't appear in the workprint and seems like the kind of thing Calvert added to make the film more conventionally Hollywoodlike.

I said that the scene was entertaining in its own right, and was animated better than pretty much any other Calvert scene ... even being animated on ones in many shots! It's off model and anime-looking, but unusually well done. I said that because of this level of animation quality, some of it was probably Williams' work, hidden in there somewhere (particularly at the end as Zigzag and Tack are throwing each other around). A certain someone who worked on the film also suggested that Williams did work on some of this.

Okay, well, I've been completely proven wrong by this cut.

The entire fight scene appears here in storyboard form, drawn by idiots, and completely off model. It was humbling to see that, and really be proven, in my face, that this had nothing to do with Williams.


Will I take the scene out of my edit?


I'll think about it. The animation is still good and I've included other Calvert "ideas" in my cut, so who knows. The reason I would take it out is I think it would piss off Richard Williams to see the film this way, if he ever saw it.


Hmm.

[Will Tasker]

A couple quick questions after viewing half of the Cobbler edit I got in the mail today.

1.) How did you determine that this was (close to?) Richard Williams originally intended edit?

2.) Is there anyway you can get rid of this AWFUL mickey mousing score? I know you had other edits of this movie that didn't have this 8th rate Carl Starling score. One of my first attractions to TatC at all was the fact it took the Kubrick way out and went with a completely classical score.

3.) Yum Yum has such disperportioned attributes as to make 99% of anime drawings jealous

4.) You can totally tell where the cheap animation is. It's fucking obscene. If you didnt see the obviously original portions of the movie, youd chalk it up as pretty great. But against the Williams stuff it doesnt even come close.