The Thief and the Cobbler

1995
7.1| 1h12m| G| en
Details

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 center 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.

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Reviews

TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film
FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
wwe7961 This film is an example why looking to perfect something can make you never truly complete it. Richard Williams back in the 60's started this example. He loved what he was creating with this film so he waited so he could perfect the movie. Years passed when he created his finest achievement in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"'s animation. This got him a deal with WB. He now had more money to help finally create the film to perfection, but now he had a deadline. This deadline was not met, and Willams creation that he worked on for most of his life was taken away from him. The lesson of this story is don't focus on total perfection. If you do you end up with the piece of donkey crap I am reviewing today. Annoying characters, bland as hell songs, and constant added in humor. Let's start with annoying characters shall we. While many of the characters are bland and annoying the one who really got on my nerves was The Thief. He just won't shut the hell up. He doesn't speak so he monologues. Every second I have to listen to him crack an unfunny joke. Next is the songs which are by far the worst things about this movie. They have some of the flat out laziest lyrics I have ever heard. It's like if took Lady Gaga's lazy lyric writing and put it in a kids movie minus the sex and drugs. I could write better lyrics. Then we have the annoying as hell humor. After Aladdin came out they got the idea of forcing pop culture references into a film that's humor is silent is completely ridiculous. It's like if you took City Lights, made it sound, and had Charlie talk about going to Six Flags or something like that. Overall the film is simply a mess. It was raped and thrown in the ocean with cinder blocks to its feet. Now that I have said I hate the changed version now let me talk about the Recobbed Cut. This was a fan made cut that changed everything so it would be like it was intended to be like. It breaks my heart to watch it. It shows how this could have been a classic, but it was taken from a genius' hands and was destroyed. The Thief and The Cobbler are silent like they are supposed to be, the sound effects are made so they would sound older, the songs are gone, missing scenes are added, and the pop culture references are gone. In this new version we get more likable characters, more focus on animation, and a much better sense of humor. It would have been a classic, but perfection was wanted to the point where it was destroyed.1 star out of 4 (changed version)4 stars out of 4 (Recobbled Cut)
Nailwraps 26 years in the making, The Thief and The Cobbler has truly become one of my all time favorites. From Richard Williams, the 3-Time Academy Award Winner who dazzled us with his shorts The Little Island, and A Christmas Carol, his directed debut film Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure, and his animation direction on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, comes the ultimate masterpiece in 2-D Animation. Taking place in a golden city, the story tells about a cobbler named Tack who falls in love with the beautiful Princess Yum-Yum and a sneaky little Thief (a man of few words but many thoughts who shall be...nameless.) who tries to steal 3 Golden Balls which protects the city from destruction and death. When they fall into the hands of Zig-Zag the Grand Vizier he plans to take them to the evil King One-Eye, his army, and war machine. The Miramax Cut and Recobbled Cut are my favorite cuts of the film. I love the Miramax Cut because in my opinion it's one of the watchable edited version anyone can watch. I loved Jonathan Winters work as The Thief, but the only thing that bugged me in this cut was the talkative Phido and talkative alligators and the fact that it's 73 minutes long. But besides that, it is pretty watchable. The Recobbled Cut, the ultimate restoration to the original by fan Garrett Gilchrist is too my favorite version. Not only is it close to Richard Williams' original version, but it's my favorite version to watch over and over again! Garrett's fan edit is truly amazing and with his updated Mark III with a new 35mm showreel source and with a bonus disc, there's a good reason why you should own it! It's a damn shame that Ricard Williams' original version never saw the light of day. I recommend you buy either the Miramax Cut and the Recobbled Cut from Garrett Gilchrist since they both watchable and laugh-out loud funny! And let me tell you, the animation is so breathtaking, so unbelievable, so lovingly, so imaginative, it's no wonder why it took 26 years to make. Let's hope one day, Williams' original version finally gets released to the public.
emasterslake Back in the mid-90s, I first discover this movie on TV. And I immediately found it to be another movie to enjoy.Since then, it wasn't until the early 2000s, when I learn about it's shocking and tragic history."The Thief & Cobbler/Arabian Knights" takes place in a fictional desert world. The story focuses on a partly silent cobbler name Tack & a silent thief. The kingdom they're in, is known for the protected treasure of 3 golden balls. If those balls were to be removed from their place, and fall into enemy hands. Then the kingdom will fall. Tack was a poor cobbler until he got convicted for leaving tacks on the road of the visor's parade. And was saved from imprisonment when Princess Yum Yum had a liking for him, and asked for a cobbler to fix her shoes. Not only did Tack found what appears to be the girl of his dreams. He soon finds himself to be a possible hero of the kingdom.Meanwhile the visor: Zig-Zag plots to steal the golden balls and present them to the enemy side: The One Eye Army. With the gold balls in their possession, they'll destroy the kingdom with their number of soldiers and weapons of all kinds. Can a cobbler like Tack, really be able to save a country? In development for more than 28 years. Making this film the longest animated/feature length film to be in production. The version I saw on TV, was considered to be an alternate and less convincing movie than the other kind that was attended to be seen. As I learn the original animators and writers spent so much time, the whole thing was shelved by various distributors.After seeing the revised version(which has numerous storyboard/UN finished scenes). I was remotely surprised on how different it is. Minus all the changes and unnecessary dialog & songs used in the Miramax version.A lot of people consider this to be a rip off of Aladin. But trust me, it's way different from Aladin. Not as well known as Aladin. But it's one of those movies that deserve more. If it was finished by the original dudes who put their life's work into. Then people would recognize it as a classic.It's yet to get a better DVD release. And the revised version of this film is out there, but hard to find. This and Twice Upon a Time are perfect examples of animated movies that became fan favorites over the years.The original version is intended for sophisticated viewers. While the Miramax version was made to be kid friendly.
Ryan Miller And Disney are terrible for doing what they did to this movie. 25 years of heart and soul poured into a film only to have over half the original animation cut out of this poor excuse for a film and ALL original artwork for this film was destroyed by Disney, probably because they stole the character design of ZigZag for Aladdin's Jafar. There is a "recobbled" cut of this in production which is keeping all the original animation attempting to restore what this film really should have been. Look for it this year, and then we can say goodbye to this unjustified, washed out Disney disaster. And Richard Williams can finally see his work hit the screens the way it was supposed to be seen.