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The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released) — Page 26

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>> What's interesting is that Yum-Yum is really beautiful and sexy - but she's calling the shots a lot. Compare to Aladdin where Jasimine is pretty naive and shallow.

Oh, I like Jasmine too as a character - who is a traditional Ariel/Belle sort of archetype, she's trapped by being who she is and wants something more, blah blah, but she can handle herself. She knows how to get what she wants - and is likeable and talkative in that 90s-Disney way.

Yumyum can definitely handle herself. She's just a fun, funny and appealing character. The film makes a gag out of her trying to be an action hero at one point, but she's definitely in charge more than anyone else, and her affection for Tack comes off as very genuine. She is an ideal "beautiful princess."

She fits in with this film because her character is very simple but very appealing - I think every character in this film you understand the minute you see them. They're archetypes drawn simply with broad strokes.

A Disney film puts a LOT more sweat into developing the characters the way you would in live action - Aladdin can't just be a street thief, he has to sing and be witty and clever and have a heart of gold feeding small children - a LOT of dialogue to establish who the character is and what he wants. Which works perfectly for a new-style Disney film, which are in essence Broadway musicals.

Dick Williams is more of the old-style Disney persuasion. He doesn't go for dialogue obviously, he barely goes for story. His characters are understood through what they look like and how they act, in more of a Bambi/Pinocchio/Snow White sort of tradition. It's miles away from any live action leanings. Dick believes in these characters and likes them simple and understandable.

It's hilarious how much Calvert managed to ruin Yumyum by trying to bash her, crudely, into some sort of Disney archetype. They made her into a spoiled and irritating bitch (Bobbi Page voice), in love with herself ... whereas Dick's original is a likeable, simple soul who has a heart of gold somewhere.

>> Whenever the egos of Zig-Zag and Mighty One-Eye are going over the top the film basically mocks them.

Yep. Well, they're the villains in a comedy. I like how that works.


>> Tack is sort of a reluctant hero, but he's always doing what's good for everyone else. Peaceful and calm, too



>> This is why I'm glad the fight was cut out between Zig-Zag stepping on a tack and him being carried off (it's in the script only).

Are you hinting at something I should be doing in my edit? =)



EDIT:

Andreas Wessel-Therhorn told a story about how Dick really didn't like the Little Mermaid, but everyone working for him did. They were looking at the story and he was looking at the visuals. It really shows how Dick, at that point, was tied to Disney's past, not liking the new style they were going in, and the new blood were interested in Disney's future. Little Mermaid is a very good film, but a different kind of film. It's not Fantasia, the whole point being how pretty it all is ... it's telling an interesting story with songs that we can all enjoy, the visuals serving that only, not for their own sake. By Dick's unusual standards it might as well be a live action film.


And yeah, King Nod is a senile old fool, but we like him, and we can tell that he was once a great warrior and his people have a great respect for him, even in his declining years. Kind of haunting how they all chant "Long live King Nod" as he's coughing, with all there realizing that King Nod might not live long after all!

An important point about Williams' King Nod/Yumyum, versus Calvert's (Princess and the Cobbler here) - King Nod is afraid for his daughter, and starts running randomly and ineffectually into the street shouting "Help me! Help me to help her!" The film sees this as funny, because he loves his daughter and wants to help her but is useless at it, whereas she's young and can take care of herself ... we know that Yumyum will be all right without Nod's help.

In Calvert's version, he's redubbed King Nod, only now there's no humor in the scene, the fear King Nod has is genuine - The princess needs help! Because now she can't take care of herself, apparently. The scene becomes pointless.



EDIT EDIT: About Zigzag being an ineffective magician ... he still is in the script, don't worry. I'd forgotten about this, but in the script, he summons a giant dragon, which turns out to be a balloon contraption with him working the bellows. Tack deflates it easy. All smoke and mirrors, mechanics and B.S.
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Oh, I was talking about really early in the film. The script has this elaborate fight between Tack, the guards, etc. when you first see Zig-Zag. Tack starts hitting them with his hammer and stuff.

Here's the part I was talking about:

DWARF and EUNUCHS:
Have no fear! Have no fear!
Zigzag the Grand Vizier is here!

INT. THE COBBLER'S SHOP
The Thief and the sleeping Cobbler are now so stitched
together that it appears that four hands are doing the work.
The offscreen procession is outside.
Tack hammers the Thief's head. The Thief can't stand it and
grabs the cobbler's nose. Tack is shocked awake and jumps up - tied
face to face with the Thief.
The Thief tries to escape and they roll entwined down the
stairs, crashing into the street with chickens, dogs, cats, spools and
tacks flying everywhere, and land in a heap at Zigzag's feet.
The commotion makes the carpet late and Zigzag steps onto
an upright tack.

ZIGZAGVincent Price)
Yeeeeoooowwww!

The Cobbler is bewildered. The Thief hides behind him,
unstitching himself, trying to act as a shadow.

ZIGZAGpointing to Tack)
Seize him! Take him! Seize him! Take him!

The four courtiers echo their master.

GOPHER, GOBLET, SLAP and TICKLE:
Seize him! Take him! Seize him! Take him!

The Cobbler makes a run for it, dragging the Thief. GUARDS
appear and encircle the Cobbler's throat with spears. They trample all
over the Thief - who escapes into the crowd.
Tack shakes with fear, then zips down and with lightning
speed and shoemaker's dexterity he runs around at ground level,
attacking their toes with hammers - as if playing a xylophone. The
Guards HOWL.

Tack breaks free only to have a second wave of Guards rush
at him with spears. He reaches into his 'knapsack' pants and throws
handfuls of reels and spools beneath their feet and they tumble.
A third wave of Guards comes at him, spears outstretched.
Again Tack drops low and darts in and out stitching their pantlegs
together. He tugs and they collapse.
He looks to escape but FOUR
HUGE EUNUCHS glide up behind him. SWISH! A scimitar crosses
his throat. SWISH! Another behind his neck. SWISH! Another.
SWISH! And another. They tighten round his throat.

ZIGZAG:
Take him into the palace!

---

It would actually justify why Zig-Zag is eager for him to be beheaded... but it's not necessary because not having that scene reinforces that Zig-Zag is a rotten bastard.

I'm finally reading through the script and some parts are very Calvert-ish. Like a sign with Tack's name on it while Sir Almyer is mentioning his name... the film has repetition, but not redundancy. The dragon scene does seem neat and it would have been a good idea to keep it since it would allow another cutaway from the thief in the war machine. Although, maybe it would be too obvious.
"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 hadn't looked at this thread for a long time, because from the title I thought this was some crazy 1960's live-action movie based on a play or something. Today, I was watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit because a friend saw it on TV and it made me want to look at it again. I went to YouTube, which is where you want to go if you want to show your friend something, and searched "Roger Rabbit". It returned the theatrical trailer for The Thief and The Cobbler (which didn't work), but it inspired me to look here, and I remember seeing the TV ads for the "Arabian Knight" version of the film.

Now I am thoroughly interested. Can't wait...

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Welcome!

Pretty much all screenplays have business in them that might work on paper, but which becomes redundant with the visuals of film. It's all about knowing what to take out. In this case, I can see that business with Tack and the guards working in animation, but it fails at making him seem more heroic - if he does nothing, he's an innocent who's being harmed and Zigzag's ego becomes the focus.

Now:

The amazingly detailed logo for "Once ..."

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/oncelogosm.jpg

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/oncensm.jpg

In the N: Meemee and Yumyum (early versions), Tack (early version), Enchanted Prince Bubba, a Peacock, boots hanging in Tack's shop. The N tells the original two love stories of the film and sets up its environment.

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/oncecsm.jpg

In the C: Early Zigzag and Phido crawling out of the alligator pit, with early King Nod.

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/onceesm.jpg

In the E: The Brigands including Roofless and Sgt. Hook, The Old Witch, a pointing finger, the hands of fate encircling the golden balls, flying ravens, dying soldier, arrows, Mighty One Eye.



Did I miss anything?


http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/oncelogolarge.jpg
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Jesus, it's gorgeous. Did you ever imagine that the Once title had ever been fleshed out so much? Great find.

Edit: Link to the big Once logo doesn't work.

Edit 2: Corrected link:
http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/oncelogolarge.jpg
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Originally posted by: tweaker
Jesus, it's gorgeous. Did you ever imagine that the Once title had ever been fleshed out so much? Great find.

I was about to go to bed when I decided to check back on this thread and discover that too! Pratically says it all in one word (sometimes I wonder if "Once..." would've made a perfect title to the one we all know very well).
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 ironic thing is that now I have HUGE scans of beautifully designed logos for Once... and The Thief Who Never Gave Up ... and I'll soon have one for Princess and the Cobbler I'm sure ... I could even scan the Arabian Knight logo in all its "glory" ....

But the logo for The Thief and the Cobbler I only have as a screen grab. A wobbly, awful screen grab.

In my searching to date it's never, ever turned up in print, in any form.


....





Considering the film was always most known as that, this is a rather strange situation isn't it?


http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/oncepostersm.jpg

Larger:
http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/oncepostermedium.jpg

Insanely large:
http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/onceposterbig.jpg

The semi-famous gatefold poster for Once ... seen at Cannes. This might look badly drawn and off model, and to a certain degree it is, but actually this was a testing ground for new character designs for the film ... Yumyum, Tack and Phido appear here in new designs which influenced how they appeared in the final film. Dick actually xeroxed these drawings and looked at them while redesigning the characters.

There is a mouse, brown here, white in the final film. The witch and the Thief are very much on model.

Roofless and the Brigands are taken from a drawing done for the Nasrudin film in the 1960s! Over twenty years later, the same drawing was used here. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Meemee and Bubba are nowhere in sight, despite their presence in the "Once ..." logo. They had just been excised from the film as Dick secured financing to finally go ahead with full production.






OH, AND ...


I asked Andreas what the name of the Ralph Vaughan Williams piece is that opens the film.

He said, "Fantasia on ... something." A friend of his bought it on CD, but he didn't.



This is as he was driving me and the Box home ... and out of the CD player I hear "Am I Feeling Love?" He'd popped in the Arabian Knight soundtrack CD as a gag.
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I still think "Once..." should be the title for the final cut, especially seeing as how the term "Recobbled" has been thrown around so much for the rough cut. It'd be a good way to distinguish the two, and it really gives a feel of the sad history of the film.

I don't know...on the other hand, it's not very descriptive, and not Google-friendly. Eh...your call.
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http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/4033/rag00002tm.jpg

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5074/0300002cd.jpg


Remember, if you hear anyone mention they have a copy of The Thief or it's Workprint on 35mm, I'll pay for the transfer.
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Originally posted by: Faceman
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5074/0300002cd.jpg


Remember, if you hear anyone mention they have a copy of The Thief or it's Workprint on 35mm, I'll pay for the transfer.

This is gorgeous!
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'd imagine the workprint is among the Miramax materials. Although, it looks like it was cut up further for the Calvert workprint.

I can only find two Vaughan Williams pieces... Fantasia on a Theme From Thomas Tallis and Fantasia on Greensleeves.

Neither seem to fit. I ran the music clip to a few music historians, so maybe they'll find out.

Faceman: terrific job. The colors looked really dull on the field. Judging from other adjoining shots, they were the wrong color since the grass around Tack's cell is bright green, along with where the royals sat.

Also... it might be a good idea to crop the left side of the image a little bit. I found that you can occasionally see the edges of cels. The shot with the eunuchs holding swords to Tack's throat shows that the one on the far left doesn't fill the edge, causing you to see a little ribbon of the background. Also, some moments have visible splice lines - they're not supposed to be visible.
"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

Also... it might be a good idea to crop the left side of the image a little bit. I found that you can occasionally see the edges of cels. The shot with the eunuchs holding swords to Tack's throat shows that the one on the far left doesn't fill the edge, causing you to see a little ribbon of the background. Also, some moments have visible splice lines - they're not supposed to be visible.


TV overscan would get rid of that but on newer HDTVs, it could show. That will be up to Garrett to do so.
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The Intro is deffinatly not Fantasia on a Theme From Thomas Tallis that peice was written, if I'm not mistaken, for all Strings and there are, unless the intro clip is just way distorted, wind instruemts and percussion used. I've have asked everyone around here if they know the peice almost all said they've heard it before but no one could remember what it was. I really need to ask my band director but we're not usualy on friendly terms, but he loves Vaughan Williams. We even played his English Folk Song Suite last year.

Also want to add that I've got only about 5 min left to transcribe on the Alex Williams Interview.

Chase
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Garrett--

Got your sweet, sweet care package today. Can't wait to start tearing into that stuff. Took a look at the new workprint--it's light years beyond the copy I had from Myspleen. The AVI compression is a troubling, but it's beautful compared to what's been circulating the last few years. As you said, it's come a long way.

Faceman--

I like the screenshots. I take it the one with the pink dude is from the workprint? If so, very nice job. Really brings the color out. Quick question...could you post a couple more screenshots showing how Nod and Zigzag came out? There was one scene in particular that I was looking at a few days ago...

http://www.hostimage.org/img/6685248.jpg

Where there was an obvious orange/brown tinge to the picture. I did a quick and dirty color adjustment, which seemed to indicate that the color could be restored very nicely--

http://www.hostimage.org/img/4898074807.jpg

Anyways, would it be possible to give us an idea of how well the rest of the workprint came out? I'm anxious to see how your work paid off.
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http://ctufilms.googlepages.com/theraven-price.jpg
http://ctufilms.googlepages.com/raven2.jpg

Both of these are from the 1964 "macabre comedy" The Raven, directed by Roger Corman for AIP.
"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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Why do I recognize that guy with the mustach?
http://www.my-musik.com/uploads/zidane006.gif
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Originally posted by: Jagdlieter
Why do I recognize that guy with the mustach?


It's Vincent Price.
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Ha ... that's pretty similar Ogg. It's from the same time period too - Price would have started his work on Nasrudin (the Thief) shortly after that. I have a sheet here from when they were (re)designing Zigzag, and Dick has pasted photos of Vincent Price with a moustache/beard all over one section for reference.


Nice work on Raggedy Ann & Andy there Chris ... too bad you're working from my cruddy compressed DVD - If I'd sent you the real VHS of it, it would look even better!

I take it the image is 24p, slightly shrunk and stretched horizontally? Looking forward.

(Yes, for those playing at home that first screen grab is from Raggedy Ann & Andy.)


Any workprint screen grabs? That's what I am interested in seeing.


And yes, the left side of the screen does show the edges of cels. I'm not going to fix that myself, as I'm not doing ANY color or other adjustments to the Arabian Knight clips, I want to maintain the picture quality and not have any more render time than I ought.




Does anyone anywhere actually tape and collect The Academy Awards? I would love to get a copy of the 1989 ceremony somehow, with Richard's Roger wins.
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Helloooooo! Just had to sign up after spending the entire day looking through this whole thread and clicking on most of the links.

Hi, it's Ben here, from the Animated News page. One of our guys on that forum told me about the cut Garrett was putting together and my interest was instantly set at high alert defcon 5!

Apart from being a hug RW fan, I have made it a point of conversation to get new people I come into contact with up to date with the history behind TT&TC (and Superman II, but that one seems to have been taken care of now), having been lucky enough to visit the Camden studio during the Roger Rabbit time (my Dad used to work at Elstree Studios, where Roger was shot, and where I have my edit suite and offices still).

I offered, through Animated News' forum boards, the broadcast versions of "I Drew Roger Rabbit" and "Animating Art", both of which I was able to have duped to BetaSP format during one of my freelance jobs (if I had known anything about the earlier 1980s doc from Thames I would have tried to get that too).

Since I've been away filming this week (and battling flu), I haven't had a chance to dig these out yet. Garrett has asked me in the AN forum if there was "any news on this", and I replied there, but thought I should simply sign up here and join the good fight with anything I can do to help.

Here's pretty much what I said in my latest reply at AN (changed a bit to add some extra info in):
---------------------------------------------------------

I don't simply have these tapes to hand. I need to visit the library here at the studio and dig them out. Also have to work out how to transfer BetaSP to DVD for ya, so it'll be a little while yet, but well worth it. Working as fast as I can - I'd like to see this all together as much as you!!

BTW...
On reading through your forum...you might be interested in the opening and closing titles for "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", which RW also completed. A movie channel here has been running that lately and I could pick those up. Would be in PAL, obviously.

I also have the full "Roger Rabbit And The Secrets Of Toontown" special in its original broadcast version and in a special edit I did that incorporates material from a Disney documentary that had a section on Roger with RW explaining the tricks in the Benny The Cab scene. There's your next job (hehe!)...a cut of Roger with all the deleted stuff put back in!

Lastly, I have an NTSC DVD dub of the pan-and-scan Raggedy Ann And Andy, which I am pretty sure came from the Columbia LaserDisc, instead of a VHS, if that also helps, but it seems you've pretty much covered that one (?).

BTW...as a picky editor, I thought the Miramax cut on LD has amazing print quality, as far as I remember. In fact, I remember being quite knocked out by the image quality on this release, even if it was in CLV.

VERY impressed with the time and energy you are putting in to this - the kind of thing I used to do for my own home tapes before the net sprouted up and "real work" had to take over!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, that was this morning. Having read through the whole lot, count me in!

What also pushed me to signing to the forums was that I may well have the 1989 Academy Awards. For most of the 1980s I had to count on friends to tape it from a cable channel for me, but as a HUGE Roger fan, I'm pretty sure this would have been one I specifically had taped or was even able to tape myself. Since I have a room full of VHS tapes - none of which are properly labelled, natch! - I'll have to search through and look at anything with "Oscars" written on it.

And...no hopes up at all here...but I MIGHT have "The Little Island" on VHS somewhere. I had tons of animation stuff at one point (loads of original Walt Disney TV shows, the ENTIRE Muppet Show run including specials, etc, I know, I know...) and for some reason that kills me to think of now, I never stored or kept them. No promises on those, but I'll look, hopefully over this Easter break.

GREAT JOB GUYS!!
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Hello, I was randomly surfing the net the other day and happened upon the Wikipedia entry for The Thief and the Cobbler which referred me to this site about a restoration. I just wanted to thank you for the work you've done. I have heard much about this film and am I happy to hear about this restoration/reconstruction. i am anxious to see it when it is done. Good luck.
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Is there anything else that needs transcriping? I want to help out in this, but it looks like anything I'd be good at doing has been claimed (in the name of Spain). Gotta be something I can do to help (add to) this project and Garrett. lol

I've got better things to do tonight than die! - Springer, Transformers the Movie

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Hi Tascar!

--

Hi DrGonzo! I wouldn't mind transcripts of Animating Art and parts of Behind the Ears (from the official Roger Rabbit DVD) actually .... what I'm really waiting on is converted copies of the 1969/70 Clapperboard and One Pair of Eyes docs (the latter already being transcribed). Apparently there's another called The Creative Mind too, which both Roy and Holger Leihe have mentioned. I'm not sure if this is the same as One Pair of Eyes: Dreamwalkers, as it sounds similar.

Obviously there's plenty else I could actually use help with in terms of organizing the book and doc, but I'm always hesitant to ask for these things, and I can barely think of what they'd be. I've got all those scans now from the Therhorn collection, 1000 scans of Thief material which is all split up over two or three or more scans apiece, and ought to be Photoshop-stitched together .... which I'm way too hassled to do now, but I'll have a look at it and do some of it, since I'd like to use and color this artwork for use on covers and things ...

---

Ben -- Rock on Ben! You're a goddamn star. If you can get these broadcast copies of these things onto DVD, PAL or NTSC, that would bring these extras discs up to retail DVD quality, which is nice ... =) Hugely excited. If you're currently having difficulties converting from PAL BetaSP, I'm sure someone else watching this thread could help you ... just give a shoutout.

As for the early 80s doc from Thames, the copy that Simon dug up is broadcast quality as is .... so no problems there.

>> On reading through your forum...you might be interested in the opening and closing titles for "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", which RW also completed.

Funny the timing - as you were posting about this, I was actually watching this on DVD! The closing titles are beautiful and more animated than, say, What's New Pussycat? and Casino Royale ... probably worth including actually! I'll dupe myself a copy.

>> I also have the full "Roger Rabbit And The Secrets Of Toontown" special in its original broadcast version and in a special edit I did that incorporates material from a Disney documentary that had a section on Roger with RW explaining the tricks in the Benny The Cab scene.

Oh please - send this. Send this! I don't have this. Send this!

And any Roger stuff that's rare, I could probably get away with sneaking into this set. Maybe. Slightly off topic stuff has snuck on this set before ... like Oscar Grillo's Seaside Woman.

>> Lastly, I have an NTSC DVD dub of the pan-and-scan Raggedy Ann And Andy, which I am pretty sure came from the Columbia LaserDisc, instead of a VHS, if that also helps, but it seems you've pretty much covered that one (?).

Well, Chris has done a restoration of my crap DVDshrunk VHS dub of it. But if it's actually from laserdisc ... if you can verify that .... oh, just send it! I'd love to see it. My transfer left a few things to be desired which I'm sure Chris' restoration fixed in the most part, but you can never be too sure to check out a possibly better transfer. =)

>> BTW...as a picky editor, I thought the Miramax cut on LD has amazing print quality, as far as I remember. In fact, I remember being quite knocked out by the image quality on this release, even if it was in CLV.

I've heard that. But for clarity you can't beat the Arabian Knight DVD put out in Japan - even if the picture is blown out in places and has some film dirt.

>> What also pushed me to signing to the forums was that I may well have the 1989 Academy Awards. For most of the 1980s I had to count on friends to tape it from a cable channel for me, but as a HUGE Roger fan, I'm pretty sure this would have been one I specifically had taped or was even able to tape myself. Since I have a room full of VHS tapes - none of which are properly labelled, natch! - I'll have to search through and look at anything with "Oscars" written on it.

Dear god! Look, man, look. Man ... you could contribute so much to this project. =D

>> And...no hopes up at all here...but I MIGHT have "The Little Island" on VHS somewhere.

Don't taunt me! =D I actually spoke to the composer of this film and he said his copy came from Dick so to just ask Dick. Oh well. The early films are THE item I'm most interested in getting right now.


>>I had tons of animation stuff at one point (loads of original Walt Disney TV shows, the ENTIRE Muppet Show run including specials, etc, I know, I know...)

Heh. A man after my own heart there. My father worked for Henson, doing the old Muppets comic strip and licensing art, and I've got a pretty good Henson collection. The full Muppet Show, Jim Henson Hour (my favorite), etc.




This one goes out to Patrick ... from Holger Leihe.

The music in the opening sequence was original music
composed for the film. For years they used R.V.
Williams' " Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis".
That is actually still the music I associate with that
part of the film. It couldn't be used for copyright
reasons and so they got somebody to compose s.th.
similar. Not as good in my opinion.
Say hello to Simon. I hope he is doing well.


---

So ... Patrick, send me the Tallis piece. I would be interested in seeing how it works in the film.
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I'll have to disagree. I absolutely love the music of Vaughan Williams, but the "imitation" opening music is still fantastic. Who composed it, though? All the original music in the film is excellent, so it's sad that whoever is responsible is still anonymous. Perhaps it really was George Martin?

I'm including a ton of RVW music, as well as 20 tracks from a Aram Khachturan CD (which included "Dance of the Boys" which is briefly heard during the one-eye march sequence) on the DVD-R I'm sending you.

I also got a hold on some Chaplin 2-reelers from 1916, so I'll include those as reference. There's some Jacques Tati clips I'll include, too since there's one obvious homage to a part from M Hulot's Holiday. It has to do with a single line.

I'm let down, though, that I can't find any Harry Langdon shorts in my DVD collection. I just bought an analog video capture unit, so I'll just have to transfer my copy of "The First Hundred Years" for you. Seriously, once you see one of his shorts, it'll be so obvious how Tack was modeled after him.

But you'll be getting the clips from AA/IDRR, all that classical music (I think I'll thrown some Raymond Scott/Charlie Chaplin CD's while I'm at it - you'll have to decide if the music is appropriate or not), the extra clips, the full 2-disc RR set, "The Raven" with Vincent Price, and whatever else I can find to fill up a DVD-R or two.
"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 must also agree with OgOggilby I really enjoy the intro to thief as it is. Whoever composed it did a wonderful job. I definitely believe that about them getting someone to compose something similar though. The two pieces are in the same key, and the Thiefopening borrows several small fragments from the Tallis Fantasia. I was convinced they where the same song when I was only listening to 30 sec clips of the Tallis Fantasia until I found out it was written for strings only. But definitely keep the anonymous song.
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Welllll ... could cut an "alternate opening" too. =)