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The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released) — Page 7

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Did you back up on some kind of not-very-compressed medium, i.e. MiniDV or DVCam?

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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I saved my completed part 1 edit in its original format, PhotoJPEG (miniDV would have looked awful for this film!). I have it on a few data DVDs here.


If a better copy of the workprint comes in, I'll have to painstakingly hack my original edit, for part 1.


I'll keep part 2 open. The entire movie is nearly finished at this point. Heh, typical.


This source was friends with a guy who worked on the Calvert cut, hence his having unusual edits ...
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I just recieved a DVD-R of the 1980's workprint today and now I see that you're working on a much better edit. I can't wait to see this finished. After viewing the blurry workprint tape, I was blown away by how amazing the animation looks in your trailer.

Did you ever find out what the rest of the source music was (like March of the One Eyes)? I've been looking for the title of the music for months and not even music researchers I've talked to know what it is!

Also, was the scene with "Oh Phido, how could I forget? I fear you haven't eaten yet." and Zig-Zag walking down the staircase ever fully animated?
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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>>I just recieved a DVD-R of the 1980's workprint today and now I see that you're working on a much better edit. I can't wait to see this finished. After viewing the blurry workprint tape, I was blown away by how amazing the animation looks in your trailer.

And my workprint is also slightly better than the one that's out there. I hope this new workprint I'm getting in is even better ...

>>Did you ever find out what the rest of the source music was (like March of the One Eyes)? I've been looking for the title of the music for months and not even music researchers I've talked to know what it is!

Richard Williams is a jazz musician, so it's possible that he created some of the music himself, or had somebody do it.

>>Also, was the scene with "Oh Phido, how could I forget? I fear you haven't eaten yet." and Zig-Zag walking down the staircase ever fully animated?

I am 90% certain that it wasn't. Obviously the end of it, and Phido, made it to pencil test form. Maybe the whole thing made it to pencil test form.

With the rest of this scene, it's clear that Williams finished it in pencil form, and inked a couple of shots (including everything with Phido), and then Fred Calvert's team inked/colored it, rather poorly.

You can tell the difference between a Williams Zigzag shot and a Calvert Zigzag shot by looking at Zigzag's eyes. Williams' Zigzag has a thick dark green outline around the eyes, with lighter green in the middle and a black pupil, which makes it look like a real eye. Calvert skips the green outline, so he just has light green eyes with a black pupil.

Williams animated Zigzag himself .... and finished pretty much everything as pencils at the very least .... so we get a lot of Williams pencils colored by Calvert's team, with varying levels of success.


I wouldn't say the film suffers terribly without the "eating Tack in prison" subplot that got cut, but I love Yumyum's reaction to Phido - "Get away, bird of evil!" I would kill to see these scenes animated. Wish I knew for sure what had and hadn't been animated .... but I can guess .... Calvert didn't touch these scenes, so that reduces the likelihood that these shots were finished.


Big news here - I should be getting in some works in progress of the Calvert cut, which haven't been seen before - one of them is poor quality but widescreen.

Looks like the quality of this cut just took a step up.
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Initially I have to admit I wasn't terribly intrigued by this project...(this from the guy who's happy as a half-wit ringbearer from getting Song Of The South without subs...) But I gotta say, the more I see/read about this the more interested I'm becoming. I have NO doubt that what you finally decided to call the "finished product" will be phenomenal...
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I don't want to talk this up too much until I actually see the cuts and know what I'm talking about ...


But it does seem like the work in progress Calvert cut is a longer cut ... which is exciting. I'm really hoping that it contains the extra Thief scenes which only appear in the Calvert credits. (The Thief's assault on the buddha ruby with springs on his feet, and extra footage as the Thief steals the emerald.)
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So how did you get in touch with this guy? Is he connected to the contact info given to you by Yoda is Your Father, or a hookup through somebody else, or did he just drop out of the sky?

Anyways, this is pretty exciting, as not only will this result in the material that's never been released officially or via the workprint, but totally new crap, and all of it is being integrated into nearly-complete whole. Very nice.
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I believe Richard Williams created the opening credits to the 1967 version of Casino Royale.
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Originally posted by: BuckSvenson
I believe Richard Williams created the opening credits to the 1967 version of Casino Royale.


He produced the opening credits, the animation effects throughout the film (namely superimposed animation in the bagpipes nightmare and Woody Allen's hiccup clouds in the last reel), and the closing credits.

[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2133/cr12kc.jpg[/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8497/cr25sf.jpg[/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3870/cr34uh.jpg[/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/2683/cr43io.jpg[/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/3681/cr51wc.jpg[/URL]

By the way, I made a GIF animation from the March of the One-Eyes sequence:

[URL=http://imageshack.us]http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/8172/oneeyes1gy.gif[/URL]

I couldn't loop it exactly because it seems that they're all unique drawings.


By the way, from the looks of it... it seems a lot like there's plenty of Williams footage and Calvert ink/paints of Williams pencil animation to use. About how many minutes of the bootleg tape exist in your reconstruction? I'd imagine if there's this much to work from, perhaps Disney's efforts to restore won't be as difficult.
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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Those shots of the One Eyes swinging their maces do appear in the released version (and the trailer) so you could work from better quality footage than the workprint. =)


This source, animator Steve Stanchfield, contacted me directly. And yes, not to get too excited, but it does look like there's going to be footage included that's never been seen before, in the workprint or any released version. Interestingly his copy of the workprint, he says, is poor quality, but only a generation or so down from Calvert's own copy - kind of amusing to be using a copy of what Calvert was using when he was trying to construct the film!


I've seen Casino Royale and Williams' work in it. It's not "animation like" enough for me to want to include though. He also did the titles to "What's New Pussycat?" and many other films.


You'll be pleasantly surprised by how much of this cut is finished animation.

If I actually wanted to, I could produce a decent cut of this film using little/no storyboard/unfinished material. And if Disney really wanted to, they could release a good cut of this film using no unfinished or low quality material, easily. Something theatrically releasable.

I won't do that because I don't want to cut out any of what the film was intended to be, but it's certainly possible.

The rumors about the film being unrestorable were largely because the animation houses in Korea junked a lot of material, which is a shame but not a crippling loss. The rumors also came about because Disney didn't really want to do it.

The film is easily restorable by anyone using the three commonly known cuts of the film, and there is great deal more material out there that wasn't included in those cuts but was done and is ready to go. (Calvert would had to have kept, at the very least, all the Thief scenes included in the end titles, which is a damn good start, and certainly Williams kept what he could.) It would be an easy job. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.

The thing is, does Disney really want to do it? Would they do it right? Would Williams cooperate?





-- This is insane. I can watch this movie a million times and still spot new things.

In the war machine sequence, the Thief is launched through the air and for a few frames you get a close glimpse of the flies that have been buzzing around his head the whole film.

All the flies are little Thief heads with wings, and big smiles on their faces. They're even wearing tiny Thief robes ....
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I've just been reading this post and wanted to try and contribute a little.

I've not seen any version of Thief and the Cobbler, but back in the late 80's, they showed a 5 minute sequence from the film at the end of the Film Review program presented by Barry Norman on the BBC.

The sequence featured an amazing staircase chase.

I'm sure this footage is already present in the current version of the film.

But I wanted to mention it as another potential source if it was not.

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Yes, the staircase chase is in the final film. Check the trailer!


Would be an interesting clip to see though, if anyone's got it. Probably not though!
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I'd like to mention that there's a lot of support for a Thief restoration on the Something Awful Forums. Pretty much any decent animation fan has heard of it. I linked to your trailer to a few friends and they were totally blown away by it.

There's also another thing... I help with general operations for an online streaming TV channel and I was wondering if you'd like to have your reconstruction aired on it. We wouldn't cut a single thing and it would be shown in the proper widescreen format. Anything is clearable, so all we'd need is permission. It's a relatively low-resolution stream, but I think that it would get a lot of people to ask about your DVD's.

In the mean time, would it be alright with you if we aired your trailer? I'm trying to drum up as much interest in the film as possible. If you want more information on the channel and stuff, just say so.
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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Something Awful. Neat, I'm a fan of that site, though I've never put down the $10 to brave the forums.

What's your channel? Air whatever you want, I guess ...
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
Something Awful. Neat, I'm a fan of that site, though I've never put down the $10 to brave the forums.

What's your channel? Air whatever you want, I guess ...


It's GBS-TV (www.gbs.tv). We're a relatively minor effort, but we keep a lot of material alive. We even showed a certain TV special that members of this forum should be familiar with.

I'm going to air the trailer tomorrow and I'll check to see what the viewer reactions are.


By the way... are you going to overlay credits over the opening as indicated in the script?

And one piece of advice... you should put some sort of intro before the film explaining the reconstruction in plain font and dead silence. They did this for the Metropolis reconstruction... and it was quite dramatic once the full orchestra music started.
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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There are credits at the opening and end of the film.


No mention is made of the reconstruction - it's obvious from the start that this is a mishmash of sources.


I'm planning on doing a documentary, or at least a commentary, about the history of the film and this reconstruction. We'll see.


I prefer the film to speak for itself, is the thing.


I've just signed up for Something Awful, finally, to pimp this reconstruction, yo.
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If I can make requests for things to show on your station ...

How about ...

Rutland Weekend Television
The Innes Book of Records
Brass Eye
Jam
The Day Today
Spaced
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
If I can make requests for things to show on your station ...

How about ...

Rutland Weekend Television
The Innes Book of Records
Brass Eye
Jam
The Day Today
Spaced


I've mentioned Spaced and I think we're thinking about it. Personally, I'd love to see it since it'll probably never get a Region 1 release. I'm not familiar with the other shows, but if it's rare and interesting, it's worth looking into.

By the way, feel free to sign up for GBSTV on the site. You just have to follow some instructions and do a few things between the site and your Something Awful account.


If you do the documentary, you should open it with a transition from the awful workprint bootleg to your reconstruction - just to show how much better the quality is. I'll repeat, this restoration is going to be a good warmup if Disney does an official restoration. If it looks this good now, imagine what Disney could do with original negatives.
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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Hey, I just saw this trailer on GBStv and it gave me the strangest feeling of deja vu. I imagine that I saw one of the bad edits somewhere when I was younger and remembered the distinctive style and characters. I'll definitely be keeping up with this reconstruction - seeing that trailer really struck a chord with me. Thanks a ton for doing this, I can't wait to see it.
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>I imagine that I saw one of the bad edits somewhere when I was younger and remembered the distinctive style and characters.

Or Aladdin. Kidding.


It's funny, I knew about this movie and had read about it in interviews with Richard Williams when I was very young! It's stuck with a lot of people despite its low profile.


>> If you do the documentary, you should open it with a transition from the awful workprint bootleg to your reconstruction - just to show how much better the quality is.

LOL. Not necessary. The thing is ... a lot of the awful looking workprint is still in the movie.


Spaced will probably get a Region 1 release. It's the most "known" of the shows I listed, which is why I listed it last. Request the others. =)

Rutland Weekend Television is Eric Idle's unseen, brilliant followup to Monty Python ... unseen for years because Eric Idle himself has blocked it nowadays. He's become a different person ...
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You have to be kind of careful about stuff on Something Awful, man. I'd take out the links to the classic editions (they could ban you for that) and just keep up Deleted Magic.
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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If they want to ban me, let 'em. That forum, as much great stuff has come out of it and as many people are there, has scared me since I previewed it ages ago. I'm curious to see if I can last there, but I doubt it. Forums with too much moderation scare me. I use roughly no moderation at my own.



You can add "Look Around You" to my list of shows to look at, Ogg. Series 1 and 2 are completely different shows, but equally good.
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I was put on probation for using the >> to quote and saying "LOL."


What a nazi forum.
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Are you serious?!

Several years ago I saw a portion of some incarnation of this movie on TV, and I always saw it at the video store (I think as Arabian Knights). I seem to recall some sort of dizzying stairway chase--I think someone (probably the Thief) was trying to chase a ball that was rolling away from him. I could be totally wrong, but anyway, this project looks very interesting. I'm assuming that it would be good for this to be the first (maybe only?) version I see of it. Cool stuff!
Two-Face - A Batman:The Animated Series Movie
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Originally posted by: musicman
Several years ago I saw a portion of some incarnation of this movie on TV, and I always saw it at the video store (I think as Arabian Knights).!


I'm in the same boat. I think there was a trailer on one of my old vhs tapes and it stuck in the back of my mind. I'm really excited to see this project and I've got some of my friends intrested in it too.