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The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released) — Page 23

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Let's go completely off topic here ...


Since we're talking about classic animators, here's another blog identifying and discussing specific animators in classic cartoons.

I will introduce this in a completely off topic way with one of my favorite pieces of animation ever ... Preston Blair's Red singing "Oh Wolfie" in Swing Shift Cinderella (later reused in Little Rural Riding Hood) ... Blair breaks this down a bit in his book, but it's sexy and staggeringly well done and we all love it, so here it is as a starter.

http://classicanimation.blogspot.com/2006/03/preston-blair-swing-shift-cinderella.html
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Here is the audio for the Warner Brothers Licensing trailer for The Thief. 6 minutes long.

http://ctufilms.completelyfreehosting.com/cobbler/warnerlicensing.mp3

Apologies for the wobbly sound quality - I don't have a PAL VCR, so this was created by playing the PAL tape on an NTSC VCR in slow motion, then pitch correcting and speeding up the results. It's actually listenable, but I'll get this tape properly transferred from PAL soon.

Sad how Warners did seem committed to the film at this point.

They use a familiar bit of music from "Scheherezade" ... and here I was, thinking I was clever and original using that in my trailer when everyone doing trailers for The Thief had had the exact same idea!

Well, shows I was right anyway.
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie




I can't play a PAL VHS tape on my system of course .... but I do have a varispeed SVHS deck, which can scan through the footage, kind of. I can see the image in black and white (slightly sped up or slowed down), and hear the audio sped up or slowed down.

So of course I had to check out what's on this tape.


Anyone in LA have a PAL conversion VHS deck I could look at this on?

Guess I'm gonna put this tape back in the mail and send it to Babyhum to do his converting wonders on.




I can do it. Check your PM

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Wait, now I'm confused. Just how many times did The Thief actually change hands, studio-wise?

I should know, but suddenly, I find that I either didn't know or don't remember...
Surprised, aren't you? I knew you would be.
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It's funny to hear some of the "bad facts" in the trailer like saying Richard Williams created The Pink Panther. Not that it's not unflattering. There's also the obligatory "O Fortuna"

Given how much the merch. was stressed, it makes you wonder what kind of cool products they would have made. "Buy an authentic The Thief costume complete with realistic stench!"
"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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Originally posted by: OgOggilby
It's funny to hear some of the "bad facts" in the trailer like saying Richard Williams created The Pink Panther. Not that it's not unflattering. There's also the obligatory "O Fortuna"

Given how much the merch. was stressed, it makes you wonder what kind of cool products they would have made. "Buy an authentic The Thief costume complete with realistic stench!"

Better off than cosplaying as one in some sci-fi/anime convention. :-)

Worst I had in mind was kids' meal toys at Burger King but that was about it. :-)
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
My LiveJournal Page
The Online Video Depository - For all your daily video needs!
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I wonder if they would have made the 11 1/2 inch 'fashion', Barbie-type dolls. I would have bought them.

Princess Yum Yum extra fashion packs, with new fashions not seen in the film! Yum indeed.
Surprised, aren't you? I knew you would be.
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Paying for 16/35mm transfers isn't a problem for me, as long as it is material worth transfering.

I've finished two DVDs and the last one should be done tonight. Hopefully I can mail them tomorrow before 5pm.

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Awesome, faceman!



I want my Tack, Thief & Yumyum rag dolls, and my Zigzag and One Eye action figures. Also the King Nod inaction figure. And the old witch woodcarving kit.



I wasn't gonna post this because the sound quality is CRAP - you can barely hear what's being said ....

But screw it ... here's the audio for both Clapperboard episodes with Richard Williams, from 1969, discussing the Nasrudin film. Quality bad.

http://ctufilms.completelyfreehosting.com/cobbler/clapperboardfull.mp3

I, personally, think the audio's too bad to really listen to (and transcribe, probably, which was the point of this) ... I'm waiting to watch the real PAL VHS transferred rather than this crappy stopgap attempt ...

As before, this is the PAL VHS tape played at half speed on an NTSC VCR, with all the wobbliness that entails, then I pitch corrected and sped it up.

I'll have a proper transfer of this soon, since it's such cool stuff.
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Originally posted by: Faceman
Paying for 16/35mm transfers isn't a problem for me, as long as it is material worth transfering.

Glad to know that. Perhaps if I can see what I might like to have transfers of I'll let you know. My big expertise is in indie/foriegn animated films and I try to get them whenever they pop up on eBay now and then.
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
My LiveJournal Page
The Online Video Depository - For all your daily video needs!
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
Awesome, faceman!



I want my Tack, Thief & Yumyum rag dolls, and my Zigzag and One Eye action figures. Also the King Nod inaction figure. And the old witch woodcarving kit.
So many potential marketing ideals that went on the wayside.

I wasn't gonna post this because the sound quality is CRAP - you can barely hear what's being said ....

But screw it ... here's the audio for both Clapperboard episodes with Richard Williams, from 1969, discussing the Nasrudin film. Quality bad.

http://ctufilms.completelyfreehosting.com/cobbler/clapperboardfull.mp3

I, personally, think the audio's too bad to really listen to (and transcribe, probably, which was the point of this) ... I'm waiting to watch the real PAL VHS transferred rather than this crappy stopgap attempt ...

As before, this is the PAL VHS tape played at half speed on an NTSC VCR, with all the wobbliness that entails, then I pitch corrected and sped it up.

I'll have a proper transfer of this soon, since it's such cool stuff.

Still wouldn't mind hearing what I can of it.
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
My LiveJournal Page
The Online Video Depository - For all your daily video needs!
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The Thief and the Cobbler, the breakfast cereal! Delicious frosted whole-wheat Tacks, Z's, Hearts, Turbans and Scimitars, along with delicious golden marshmallows! It's part of this complete breakfast!

Just watch out for the fly-shaped pieces, they might 'steal' your appetite, haw haw!





Meanwhile, I'm wanting to listen to the clapperboard specials audio, but my dsl has decided it's going to pretend to be dial-up today, so... I'll just wait until it finishes, I guess.


Also, I've got the first twenty minutes of the Roy Naisbitt phone conversation done, and it's really interesting stuff. There are some names and such that I just can't figure out, though...Gosh, I'm so indignant right now, thinking of all the ideas Disney 'borrowed'.

And ...I have nothing useful to add.
Surprised, aren't you? I knew you would be.
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Clearly, the cereal would be golden balls of corn, a la Captain Crunch's Crunchberries.


And yeah, marshmallow blue Zs, red hearts, white scimitars, grey tacks, purple shoes ....




"Yellow moons, green clovers ..."




And Elly, you're transcribing the Naisbitt convo? GREAT!


Anything you can't figure out, write phoenetically or whatever with three question marks ???, and I'll put in the right words.






Sean writes:
I started watching Recobbled until my son Ben had to go to bed. We'll
finish the film tomorrow. He was upset that we had to wait to watch the rest
of the film - that's a glowing review of the film so far from a six year old.




Anyone know if there's a website for the UK similar to Whitepages.com? It would be nice just to be able to go through phone listings and try to find some of these people!


YodaisYourFather - The Soho office seen in the 1980 doc was at 13 Soho Square ... I know that much ...
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For the "big kids" you can have your own Mad Holy Old Witch bong. Mystic fuuuumes...

Or Phido carry-on luggage.

Ok, I'm hoping to have Animating Art ready by the morning. I'll make a low-res version later and put it on Rapidshare.
"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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Verra nice ....


Don't forget to send me the stuff from the "kids version" of Roger Rabbit too! =D
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
Verra nice ....


Don't forget to send me the stuff from the "kids version" of Roger Rabbit too! =D


BTW, I'm doing the reconstructions of both Animating Art and I Drew Roger Rabbit in NTSC 24p with stereo sound whenever applicable. What format do I need to use on the discs I'm going to send you? M2V for video and AC3 for audio?

It's taking me a bit longer than I hoped due to all the time it's taking for me to encode video. However, I was able to overlay a heavily noise reduced 720x480 version (which is full of smearing) with a special 320x240 version that wasn't as grainy. As a result, it's not too sharp, but it loses a lot of noise without being too smeary. I also pushed the color a little less yellowish. To be honest, I'm not going to put a lot of effort into trying to do more to the exclusive footage since there's not much to work with. However, the clips will look amazing. I got settings right in Vegas so that everything will be re-edited down to the frame. In fact, the 24p conversion of the AA video looks great... no ghosting or jagged edges.
"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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Yes, it's M2V video and AC3 audio. You can encode that as a proper DVD if you've got DVD creation software ...


Richard Hayes has emailed me some scans from The Do It Yourself Animation Book, and a clip of Richard's appearance in the recent documentary The Curious Case of Inspector Clouseau.

=D
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Have a strong lead on broadcast quality copies of I Drew Roger Rabbit and Animating Art ... nibble on THAT, Patrick! =D


Also have a lead on "Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toontown" and, as I said before, Tahir Shah is sending "One Pair of Eyes: Dreamwalkers."


Add two more DVDs to the list? Looks like it!



Tony White is holding his big screening of my cut of The Thief for his animation classes tomorrow ... he won't be there sadly, for some reason. I'm sure the internet will be abuzz afterward. =D


Should soon be time to start on my finished Recobbled Cut.

I'd have more to say, but I'm busier with my OWN animation right now ... I have a pitch session ... thingy ... at the animation co-op on saturday where I have to pitch my pilots Dance With Grandpa and The Chosen Ones, so I'm animating like mad trying to have SOMETHING to show. I REALLY need artists to help me with these projects (hint hint?) and if the pitch session goes well hopefully I'll find a few.
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More goodies! How exciting. I'm so anxious... And good luck with your animating projects. That's exciting too. ^ ^

And I've finished transcribing the Roy Naisbitt phone convo ... having spent all day on Google and IMDB and Wikipedia looking up words and names. I think I need my hearing tested. But anyway, I'll proofread it and clean it up tomorrow when I'm back from classes and then I'll email that over and take a look at the Alex Williams phone convo... although I don't know how well I'll be able to work with that, as it's considerably harder to hear. But we'll see.
Surprised, aren't you? I knew you would be.
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Wow! Please send me the Naisbitt convo when you can -- excited! Many, many, many thanks.
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Wow, finally some watchable quality sources? You know, if you obtain them, I'll just send over a DVD-R with all the clips.

BTW, you probably know this already, but the silent comedian Naisbitt was talking about is Harry Langdon. Here's a picture of him...

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA97/halnon/capra/langdon.jpg

I wish I could find a better image, but I think you can see the similarities. Langdon's character usually was shy and child-like. A lot of elements of Tack saving the city mirror the ending of The Strong Man (Langdon's best film).

While it's only speculation... if Williams was quite savvy about silents, I wonder if Mighty One-Eye was inspired by Eric Cambell (the villian in most of the twelve 2-reel comedies Charlie Chaplin made for Mutual Films in 1916):

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/6144/cure0vb.jpg
"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 had no idea who he was talking about. Thanks for that!
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
Have a strong lead on broadcast quality copies of I Drew Roger Rabbit and Animating Art ... nibble on THAT, Patrick! =D


Also have a lead on "Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toontown" and, as I said before, Tahir Shah is sending "One Pair of Eyes: Dreamwalkers."


Add two more DVDs to the list? Looks like it!
Would be neat if there had been a way to do these as a dual-layer format, but it's fine with me (just less discs to use)!

Tony White is holding his big screening of my cut of The Thief for his animation classes tomorrow ... he won't be there sadly, for some reason. I'm sure the internet will be abuzz afterward. =D

Would be neat to hear of the outcome.

Should soon be time to start on my finished Recobbled Cut.

I'd have more to say, but I'm busier with my OWN animation right now ... I have a pitch session ... thingy ... at the animation co-op on saturday where I have to pitch my pilots Dance With Grandpa and The Chosen Ones, so I'm animating like mad trying to have SOMETHING to show. I REALLY need artists to help me with these projects (hint hint?) and if the pitch session goes well hopefully I'll find a few.

Wouldn't mind working of it as an inbetweener or such (at least to give me some early introduction to it anyway)!
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
My LiveJournal Page
The Online Video Depository - For all your daily video needs!
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In that case, you've got mail. =)


This past week, Jonathan Sloman featured a segment about The Thief, on his and Julian Goford's radio program SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE. Show Two went out on Monday the 3rd of April 2006 on Resonance 104.4fm in the UK.

Download an .mp3 of Show Two at http://www.sendspace.com/file/j8ramh [65.7MB]

Exclusive online version, featuring over ten minutes of material never broadcast!

Website:
http://uk.geocities.com/smarterthanthe/

A clip from "I Drew Roger Rabbit" was played, and the boys read out some copy which I helped write. This project was plugged, pluggity plug. There are also some other fun segments including a Bill Watterson one - he makes a Thief joke later in a segment on Disney.
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Just to let you know, I e-mailed you a preliminary transcript of "Richard Williams and The Thief Who Never Gave Up." I wrote the first email, and forgot to attact the document to it, so it's attached to a second email. I have a few concerns about the transcript which I address you about in the email. Read over it and get back to me when you can--I can get a lot more done now that the weekend is upon us, and my family drama has kinda settled down for now...

What's the latest news with finding a place to stay?