Friday, December 28, 2007

Dec 26th 
The Thief and the Cobbler**  
aka: The Princess and the Cobbler; Arabian Knight
GB/US 1993. Richard Williams. 97m.

In a faraway land a compulsive petty thief steals three golden balls from the top of a minaret, which spells the destruction of the city, unless a simple cobbler can save the day.
The "Recobbled" cut of Richard Williams' magnum opus animated fantasy (taken away from him and remade by Miramax as a Disneyesque cartoon musical) is, like last year's Richard Donner Cut of Superman II (Dec 10th 2006), very much an impression of the original film rather than the finished product, with several draft sketches in place of missing scenes and some small use of the Miramax version, but that which fully remains is spellbinding (if frightfully over-indulgent) and the animator's sardonic visual imagination still survives.

Written by: Richard Williams, Margaret French.
Producers: Imogen Sutton, Richard Williams.
Director: Richard Williams.
Voices of Vincent Price, Anthony Quayle, Hilary Pritchard, Paul Matthews, Windsor Davies, Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Stanley Baxter, Felix Aylmer (narrator), Sean Connery.
Music: various classical pieces, Robert Folk.

Restoration: Garrett Gilchrist.

+ production began in 1965, under the title of Nasrudin, until the author of the original Nasrudin tales sued for copyright, and the character was subsequently written out of the script. Most of the actors including Vincent Price (in the main role of the evil Grand Vizier) recorded their lines 28 years before the eventual release, with occasional further scenes recorded as the years went by. During this time Richard Williams, struggling with his own money, funded the further production with his animations for several TV commercials and films such as The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Return of the Pink Panther, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The latter's success enabled Williams to persuade a major studio to give him the remaining funds to finish the movie up to a certain date, after which The Completion Bond Company took charge of the film out of Williams' hands.

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