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The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released) — Page 45

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Originally posted by: Sangokyu
I was searching google... and I found this:

http://www.dr.dk/barracuda/troldspejlet/billeder/f0445aladdin.jpg

I think it pretty much explains itself...


Yep...

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/517/thiefeyes7zn.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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What you're actually looking for is the Buddha Ruby. If you watch the scene, Abu is looking at a similar golden idol with a ruby. Major, obvious ripoff scene.



Nigel Haslam writes:
I worked in the painting department for Richard Williams and witnessed
the
sad end of the original production, when Warners axed Dick from the
film
and took over completion through the then existing Completion Bond
Company.

I was told around that time, by various colleages, that once the
Completion
Bond people got their hands on the footage there were several different
options considered to finish it off (with a large focus being on how
quickly and cheaply it could be done).

One of the more interesting options, that unfortunately was never
followed
through (possibly because it wasn't the cheapest and possibly also
because
the head of CBC decided she had a better idea herself), was a very
interesting edit of the film made by Robert Zemekis, who was given all
the
existing footage and prompted to 'make a film out of that'.

Appparently Zemekis made a compelling story from the elements with very
little extra animation needed to support this new version of the story.

If this version exists somewhere it would be a great addition to the
legacy.
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Well, you've gotten to know a few people, send the feelers out a bit. Somebody you know should at least be able to summarize what Zemeckis's ideas were. Personally, I think the guy is a pretty fucking sharp as far as directing goes (I even liked Contact--sue me), so I'm really curious as to what the hell he came up with.
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Considering that Zemeckis directed Dick's "other movie" masterfully, it's quite an interesting story. I'd never heard it before.

The problem is that you CAN'T make a real movie out of the footage that Williams had finished - no footage of Tack and the Princess was animated after the middle of the movie. So your protagonists vanish halfway through.

I'd be curious to see it, though. This gives me an excuse to actually try to write Bob Zemeckis.
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
Considering that Zemeckis directed Dick's "other movie" masterfully, it's quite an interesting story. I'd never heard it before.

The problem is that you CAN'T make a real movie out of the footage that Williams had finished - no footage of Tack and the Princess was animated after the middle of the movie. So your protagonists vanish halfway through.

I'd be curious to see it, though. This gives me an excuse to actually try to write Bob Zemeckis.

This is starting to get very interesting!

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
Considering that Zemeckis directed Dick's "other movie" masterfully, it's quite an interesting story. I'd never heard it before.

The problem is that you CAN'T make a real movie out of the footage that Williams had finished - no footage of Tack and the Princess was animated after the middle of the movie. So your protagonists vanish halfway through.

I'd be curious to see it, though. This gives me an excuse to actually try to write Bob Zemeckis.


Perhaps it did use unfinished animation (pencils only... as seen in the Calvert WIP), not fully photographed work? I guess it would be possible to work around stuff that remained in storyboard form, but it would also mean a lot of finished work would be cut out (namely a lot of the brigands and the witch). Although, it looks like only a little over three minutes of the film were fully photographed within those three months between the June workprint and the September workprint (both 1992) so he'd only have about 65 minutes of finished footage to work from.
"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 need help... I downloaded the DVD through the mininova.org torrent, but I'm having a problem with burning a DVD with those files.

Here's what I get when I use Nero and try to copy the files in the VIDEO_TS folder on my harddrive onto the same folder on the DVD:
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/2449/error3zl.gif

The VIDEO_TS.VOB file doesn't open on my computer either (maybe it's not supposed to; this is the first time I've done this).. when I double-click on it a black window opens that closes almost immediately.

Can anyone tell me what to do?

I did watch a bit of it on my PC, though. Very interesting to compare it to the version on Youtube; there are some definite changes. Most for the better, but some for the worse (for example, the music where the thief smims in the moat and hauls himself into the pipe is much more appropriate in the Youtube version. You can HEAR and FEEL his struggle as he tries to haul himself in! The scene just has more life in it. Whereas now, it's just a soft melody... a very well-known one at that which many people will immediately associate with a certain ballet, and which doesn't fit the action very well). I did like how expertly some of the voices were cleaned-up from the background noise that was present on Youtube (for example, when Zigzag talks to King Nod on the field). And there were also some musical choices which were better...

The menu looks very nice as well. Just having those pencil sketches (?) there immediately makes the viewer look at the film in a whole different way. It makes clear that you're supposed to pay attention to the process of how it was made, rather than simply watch it blindly.
For the latest "Thief and the Cobbler" news, go HERE (and go to the last page)
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Cheers Esn. I'm surprised anyone noticed the differences from Youtube to the DVD, which are almost nonexistent.

Some music was changed after the Rough Cut because I got a lot of complaints about using Robert Folk's score for Arabian Knight in this film. I continued to use the Folk score where I thought it would work, but I wound up changing or removing it in a few places, like in the pipes, to show the critics I was listening to them! The replacement music was always less cheesy, but there can be something visceral about cheese, if used properly.

The Youtube version uses the final music for the most part - but the curious can check out the old Recobbled Rough Cut DVD, which had my first attempt at music on it.
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
Cheers Esn. I'm surprised anyone noticed the differences from Youtube to the DVD, which are almost nonexistent.

Some music was changed after the Rough Cut because I got a lot of complaints about using Robert Folk's score for Arabian Knight in this film. I continued to use the Folk score where I thought it would work, but I wound up changing or removing it in a few places, like in the pipes, to show the critics I was listening to them! The replacement music was always less cheesy, but there can be something visceral about cheese, if used properly.

The Youtube version uses the final music for the most part - but the curious can check out the old Recobbled Rough Cut DVD, which had my first attempt at music on it.


Speaking of music - what is the music playing during the menu and key points in the movie?
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1113/userbar381851ln2.gif
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/8653/userbar381853dp6.gif
Super Mario Bros. - The Wicked Star Story
"Ah, the proverbial sad sack with a wasted wish."
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It's just that so-so music which fits the action well is better IMO than very good music that barely fits the action at all, or goes against it. I actually think that the scene where the thief pulls himself up is a lot less effective now that the old music is gone. Perhaps I notice music too much? Maybe... I am a music major after all, it is to be expected. But there really does need to be some kind of sense of stuggle at that point - after all, the thief actually pulls so hard that he makes a dent in the pipe! The score should reflect that somehow...

Anyway, I suppose it can't be changed. I'm still glad at most of the changes that were made.

So... any idea of what went wrong? It says in the image in my previous post that the VIDEO_TS.VOB file "is not referenced and should not be present". Does that mean that I should not copy it onto the DVD?

EDIT: Oh, and has anyone else had a similar problem or is it just me?
For the latest "Thief and the Cobbler" news, go HERE (and go to the last page)
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A short list of workprint music cues:

- Opening/prologue: uncredited, but styled after Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
- "Love Theme": uncredited (although, I strongly suspect this may be the rumored George Martin work since it does have a lot of similarities to Martin's score for Yellow Submarine)
- Dance of the One Eyes/March of the One-Eyes: uncredited (the "Dance" track sounds a lot like it could be the "Dix Six" jazz band that Richard Williams fronted, plus someone with a violin/fiddle near the end of the cue)
- The really grand music used in several points (like the staircase chase) is Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov
- A short cue during the March of the One Eyes section (up until the shot of the elephants being lowered, later when the Nurse shouts): Mountaineer's Dance/Dance of the Boys - Aram Khatchurian
- The music when The Thief finally gets the golden balls is "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"
- A short bit of Tico Tico is played when the witch grabs Tack down
- There's a lot of other original music at various points that's still uncredited. I'd imagine Richard Williams had some hand in composing some of it since he's a musician too.
- I think it's obvious what was added to the shots of the Thief flying and also the Fantasia homage

(a lot of this is from stuff some people pointed out earlier in this massive thread)


I really think tygerbug did a great job with adding music for the latest version, even if doesn't sync as well as the Robert Folk score. The problem with that is the lack of music for deleted footage. Russian Easter Overture just sounds awesome for the war machine destruction, IMO. I'll admit that Robert Folk's score for parts of the war machine destruction is pretty good. The unfortunate comparatively low fidelity of the workprint track makes the sequences with only sound effects can be tiring to the ears. Although, a few sections have surprisingly high quality sound in spots, despite some hiss.
"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: Esn


So... any idea of what went wrong? It says in the image in my previous post that the VIDEO_TS.VOB file "is not referenced and should not be present". Does that mean that I should not copy it onto the DVD?

EDIT: Oh, and has anyone else had a similar problem or is it just me?


Try running it through DVDShrink. Mine did that, I think, because I had gotten to 99.7% and then Piratebay went down. I then restarted the torrent from Dememoid, but then copied the existing download from Piratebay. It didn't look like it was recognizing it, so I figured I'd have to just start all over, but then it finished as though it DID recognize the earlier download. Anywho, I was getting the same error burning it, so I ran it through DVDShrink and somehow it had ended up being just slightly oversized. DVDShrink fixed it with only a 98% or 99% compression, but it made it kosher to burn.

By the way, I've since switched over from Bitlord to Azureus, which would have allowed me to just do a check and then reloaded from where it left off.
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>>The music when The Thief finally gets the golden balls is "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"

Dammit, it is - I hadn't even thought of that!

Interestingly, this gives this project an eerie parallel with another very popular DVD I've created, which will be getting a sequel soon ... The Bonzo Dog Band: Talking Pictures.



I kind of thought the old cue for The Thief pulling himself up was going overboard a bit ... the music going crazy for little action onscreen. It sounded too "Spielbergian" actually.
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Oh crap.

The trailer for the Thief has been removed from Youtube due to "terms of use violation."

How soon til the rest is removed?



It had been viewed over 12,000 times before it was removed. I don't remember the exact number.
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Yeah, I just went to show the trailer to a buddy of mine who digs animation but had never heard of COBBLER. I was bummed when it was gone. I ended up downloading it from rapidshare. The film is still up though, for now. I really hope this doesn't mean that Disney is coming after you. You've done a great service for the animation community and I'd hate to see it come back and bite you in the keester. If anything, they should hire you as a consultant for a REAL restoration. Good luck!
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie Whose collection is that? Yours? Why don't you have a scanner? What an amazing collection.


Yes, actually it is mine - fresh from a 20 year old cardboard box. Ken's wife, Kathryn, was my grandmother. When she died, almost two years ago now, I was given the couple boxes of animation that she kept. Ken was never one to keep his drawings, or even sign much of anything. He also didn't like award shows or anything like that, and the few he did get he often gave away later. These boxes are full of all sorts of odds and ends, ranging from Ken's passports showing his yearly trips to England to work with Dick Williams, lists of all of the cars he had owned (he had done some race car driving as well as being a big car fan - his first drawings were actually for the car dealership he worked at), pictures of his tennis team (was an avid and apparently expert tennis player - I know he was invited to be a ref at Wimboldon one year but i don't think he took the offer), numerous birthday and Christmas cards (apparently animators like to draw cards and send them to each other instead of the visiting the store to buy one), and, as expected, various drawings and cels.

What is posted is about half of what I have - the other half is what I imagine animators do when they are not making production drawings. They are carcatures and joke drawings of each other or scenes of around the office. There are probably around 150 of these all sitting in a few evenvopes marked "Leon Schlesinger days". Probably a couple gems in there, but have not gone through them yet.

What is there is pretty much everything I have from the Chuck Jones and Dick Williams days.

About the scanner, what advantage would the scanner be over a digital picture? I figure it would be a bit clearer (though you can click on the pics on the website, and then expand it from there, it does make the fuzzy ones stand out even more) and I need to retake some of the pics. I can probably get some scanner time if it would make a significant difference. Thanks.

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Originally posted by: Outfield
Originally posted by: ocpmovie Whose collection is that? Yours? Why don't you have a scanner? What an amazing collection.

Yes, actually it is mine - fresh from a 20 year old cardboard box. Ken's wife, Kathryn, was my grandmother. When she died, almost two years ago now, I was given the couple boxes of animation that she kept. Ken was never one to keep his drawings, or even sign much of anything. He also didn't like award shows or anything like that, and the few he did get he often gave away later. These boxes are full of all sorts of odds and ends, ranging from Ken's passports showing his yearly trips to England to work with Dick Williams, lists of all of the cars he had owned (he had done some race car driving as well as being a big car fan - his first drawings were actually for the car dealership he worked at), pictures of his tennis team (was an avid and apparently expert tennis player - I know he was invited to be a ref at Wimboldon one year but i don't think he took the offer), numerous birthday and Christmas cards (apparently animators like to draw cards and send them to each other instead of the visiting the store to buy one), and, as expected, various drawings and cels.
I'm only surprised any of it was kept like that. You don't know what a gold mine you have right now because of it.

What is posted is about half of what I have - the other half is what I imagine animators do when they are not making production drawings. They are carcatures and joke drawings of each other or scenes of around the office. There are probably around 150 of these all sitting in a few evenvopes marked "Leon Schlesinger days". Probably a couple gems in there, but have not gone through them yet.

Love to see more of the Schlesinger material myself.

What is there is pretty much everything I have from the Chuck Jones and Dick Williams days.

About the scanner, what advantage would the scanner be over a digital picture? I figure it would be a bit clearer (though you can click on the pics on the website, and then expand it from there, it does make the fuzzy ones stand out even more) and I need to retake some of the pics. I can probably get some scanner time if it would make a significant difference. Thanks.

Using a scanner wouldn't show the grains or minor blurs a digital camea photo would have obviously, especially if you were working with higher resolutions.
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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Hello,

Please forgive if this has been asked a gazillion times, I am new here
Where can I buy a DVD of this restoration work (The Thief and the Cobbler Recobbled)???
Downloading 4GB from youtube is sadly not an option for me at 384k... I will have Alzheimer's and liver spots by the time my slow connection finally downloaded it all(!)

If anyone can please direct me, I would be most grateful!

Anxiously,
The Sanguine Dragon
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Scans at high resolution (300-600 dpi) would be MUCH MUCH MUCH better than blurry digital photos -- you ought to try that -- you have the most amazing Ken Harris/Thief collection I've ever seen, amazing, amazing stuff. Please do try to scan things.

Well, I'm back from a week without internet. Did you miss me?


Someone at Youtube posted a bizarre vid of a rappin' Zigzag - I don't even know. It sounds like John DiMaggio, but not sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATSVr8bqkGI



I have a huge announcement to make.


THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER RECOBBLED CUT: MARK II

A newly revised and further restored version of the film.

That's right - the Recobbled Cut just got better. As a reminder, the previous cut got a lot of praise, like this:

"A tremendous piece of work, the restoration of one man's labor of love, that became another man's labor of love. ... This is the best and most important 'fan edit' ever made, and certainly the only one I'm aware of that is the most definitive possible version of an otherwise unavailable/severely compromised film." - Twitchfilm


You know I didn't want to double-dip you guys. I spent four months on the Recobbled Cut. It was as finished and perfect as I could possibly make it. I had no intention of making "another better version two months later."

But ...

As always happens with these things, the minute I was done, I got something amazing in the mail. In this case, a VHS tape from JP Cummings containing a timecoded widescreen version of what's known as the "Calvert Cut" of the film (AKA The Princess and the Cobbler). This is a longer version than what Miramax released, and I did not have it in widescreen. Most notably it contains the witch sequence in its entirety, and most of the March of the One Eye War Machine.

The quality was quite good for a VHS - 1st generation from the source, and I knew immediately I'd have to get to work on a new version of the film.


So, this past week, I did it. I took this widescreen VHS image and painstakingly combined it in every shot with the pan & scan DVD version of the Princess version of the film, and the AVI version of the workprint (used at the bottom of each shot to cover up the timecode present in the VHS version).

The results are amazing.

I mean it, really amazing.

Although the VHS image itself is not as clear as the Miramax DVD, it combines perfectly with the Princess pan & scan DVD which IS clearer than the Miramax DVD. The result is an overall image which is incredibly sharp and true.

You've never seen the war machine sequence like this. Or the witch sequence. The shots now look suitable for the big screen. The difference is remarkable.

Another benefit is that shots which the Calvert team animated, crap as they are, are now ALL available in widescreen, not pan & scan. There are no more pan & scan shots in the entire film. You'll be surprised to see more in these shots than you did before ... Nanny shows up in the corner of quite a lot of shots she didn't before, which is kind of amusing.

THIS is the version I'll be sending to Dick, and it's the version I'll be sending out from now on. Those asking me for the DVD now will be lucky -- you'll get a revised version which I'm even more proud of than before.

=)

I haven't burned it to DVD yet, though I will ... one thing I'm hoping to include in this new edition is a complete sequence from the Nasruddin film which has recently been discovered, in black & white. It's the bread sequence, which you saw in pencil test and in incomplete form on this DVD before .... well, we've found the actual sequence, as completed, and I'm hoping to have a copy of it in my hands in time for this new release. I'll also be including more artwork in the galleries.

Good times.


My email, again, is tygerbug at yahoo.com.
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
I have a huge announcement to make.

THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER RECOBBLED CUT: MARK II


I think we figured this would eventually happen; maybe just not so soon. As someone that you turned into a fan of this film, I say thanks. Just let us know whenever it hits the torrent sites. Thanks again!

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1113/userbar381851ln2.gif
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Super Mario Bros. - The Wicked Star Story
"Ah, the proverbial sad sack with a wasted wish."
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I just edited the torrent listing at Demonoid to let people know that Mark II exists (relabelling what's there as a deprecated Mark I). Can't wait to see this Mark II.
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A classic Richard Williams studio commercial by Dick and Eric Goldberg. Circa 1980 I think. Thanks to Cartoonbrew and Poptique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Q8p4cKu3Y

The animation is great, the voice is HORRIBLE.

The great Eric G. writes:
Layouts by Dick, animated by me, and it's still on my reel. Anecdote: When it premiered in London, I was at a party talking to a woman about what I had done for the telly lately. I told her about the Superman spot, and was immediately castigated for it being "anti-gay". Howzat again? She explained: " Superman's all big and butch, and he says, 'Never say yes to a cigarette,' which is like saying 'never say yes to a fag,' and in America, gays are called fags...." I thanked her for her insight and moved on...





Reviews for Recobbled:


Mike Torr

Woo hoo!

I arrived home this evening after a weekend away, to find your
"Recobbled" DVD on my doormat.

WOW!

The YouTube presentation really showed almost nothing of the
astounding detail in this work. You've really done a fine job, and
I'm finding it very interesting to learn more about the history of
the movie from the commentary version (which I've got 20 minutes
through so far - I watched the movie first).

Your cut is very watchable - even, I'd go so far as to say, for the
uninitiated non-fans (provided I explain to them first why there are
pencil sketches etc. in it). Many of my family and friends are
already taking an interest and they are eager to see it - I plan to
visit them all and let them see it.

I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the incredible amount
of work you have put into this project, for no return at all. I am
indeed indebted to you, and if your work is the catalyst that finally
prompts a full restoration (by Disney or whoever), then so will
millions of other people be indebted to you.

Thank you!



christian geoghegan
wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.........

wow.
the whole time to myself watching it, just wow...
then watched the documentaries backwards through time, and had a quick flick through to see what else lay hidden on the discs.
now i really really want to watch it again. im in total awe of the work of that film and the great job you did piecing
it all togther. the story makes so much more sense, and has a great story flow. im shoked at what was missing
from the version i saw years ago.... very saddening. and its amazing to see how much of the stuff they had in storage at
the studio in the documentary. im going to watch the film tonight again, maybe with your commentary, or the workprint.... ill see.




J.S.

Wow! Garrett thank you! I got the package yesterday after being out
over the weekend. What a lovely surprise to come home to, thank you! I
stayed up and watched the "Thief" and was blown away. You
have done an incredible job Garrett, I mean just amazing. Though it
breaks the heart to see the beautiful finished animation that now only
exists in work print (what barbarian could cut two thirds of
the war machine footage? I mean what the f@$#% were they thinking?) It
is still wonderful and thrilling to be able to see it at all. What a
labor of love you undertook Garrett, it shows in every frame
of the restoration. You love this movie and every element you put back
together, no matter how rough the condition has been put back with
infinite patience and exquisite care. All animation fans
should bow down to you for this Herculean labor, this chance to see
something extraordinary thought lost and now, at least, viewable in a way
that hopefully makes the studios get off their backsides
and finish it as it was meant to be seen.

Has Roy Disney seen this?

Just an incredible effort Garrett. Bravo, bravo and thank you so much.




Mark Smith

Hi Garrett:

Well, what can I say? The Thief Recobbled was
absolutely breathtaking. It blew me and my students
away; many had been hearing me say for quite some time
now I'd bring in my old VHS workprint, but I think
I'll have to officially retire it for now (other than
for pure packrat purposes).




Mike Torr
- again!

Recobbling continues to delight and surprise me

Hi Garrett,

(sorry, slightly long email, I know you're busy, hope you have time to
read it)

I've watched your recobbled cut several times now. It really has
turned out incredibly well. I cried the first time I saw it: up to
that point, I had not seen ANY versions of this movie, only the scene
with Zigzag's cards - and that was on TV. I can't believe that such
exquisite animation can exist, and I also can't believe how
extensively it was mutilated, especially by Miramax. This whole
project has been on my mind every minute of the day for a week now.

What I didn't really appreciate in full was just how much work you've
put in. I've been reading the entire topic on originaltrilogy.com
(p13 of 55 so far - blimey, that's a big topic!), and I just saw this:


"I ripped the video both ways . . . . I combined the two through
editing. I took out every fourth frame of the one with interlacing
problems and replaced it with the clean transfer. So you get a shot
which looks good, and sometimes has mildly blocky reds every fourth
frame, which you don't really notice."


You are a very dedicated fellow. (That's an example of British
understatement - what I mean is you are F*CKING
INSANE!) Awesome. Just awesome, that you would take that much
trouble to get the best possible quality... and then, of course,
there's all that painstaking matching of movement between the P&S and
workprint, and your reconstructed backgrounds. In terms of
perfectionism, at least, I think you might be Dick's equal, LOL!

And I read the comments over on awn.com regarding copyright etc. -
ignore those guys, they simply don't get it. If they could only read
what I'm reading on originaltrilogy.com, the documented evidence of
what you put into this, they would realise what this is all
about. It's about ART. I salute you!


Rest assured, I will be revisiting that list of available discs you
emailed to me before, and I may well want to get hold of some of the
others - particularly "I Drew Roger Rabbit", which was where I first
encountered this movie. Yesterday I searched my old VHS collection
in vain for a recording of this programme, even though I'm sure I did
video it when it was broadcast: I'd love to see it again! Funny,
when that programme was made, I'd have been about your age (I'm 41 now)


All the best, and I'm crossing all my fingers that nobody tries to
sue you - you most certainly deserve an award, NOT a visit from a
lawyer.



One more thing before I go... I don't know whether you will like
this, but I do dabble a little in poetry, and I couldn't help myself
the other day. I just wanted you to see this:


Thievery
--------

Infamous deed! We saw a life defiled;
And violence done, the day they stole your child.
They took what they had not the art to make,
And sliced it up, to serve as dollar-cake.

Unlike Abdul, you could not dodge this fate:
For amputation, wooden arms work great,
But how could you have foiled their poison dart?
Its only purpose was to pierce your heart.

What fakery might camouflage a soul
So nakedly afire for passion's goal?
The hungry vermin sense a vital spark,
And then devour its glow, till all is dark.

Through years of labour, army at your side;
Uncompromising quality and pride;
Never had one man made so much power:
This butchery was art's most shameful hour;

But here's the rub: the day may yet be saved:
One artful cobbler, over months, has slaved,
With help from those incensed by what was done,
And scoured the globe, for pieces of your son.

The outcome, though it shines in every scene,
Remains a shadow of what might have been:
Yet all its patchwork bursts with inner joy;
And surely, now, the world shall know your boy.

We hope to lead a father to his child;
And rescue both from hell-hounds of the wild:
Mankind deserves to hear this tragic story;
Then finally you may receive your glory.

Mike Torr
http://bloodfalls.org/



Scurra:
a guy by the name of Garret Gilchrist did the improbable. He took all the release versions, along with Williams' original director's Workprint, and took it upon himself to reconstruct the "lost" film. It's still very much a work-in-progress, as Gilchrist is almost as much a perfectionist as Williams, and he's continually adjusting the film as different material becomes available. But the current version is eminently watchable and I am happy.
What you get is a 90-minute animated feature that is extraordinary. It slides between pristine sharpness, video bluriness and prepaint sketches without warning, as uncompleted scenes have been restored. Indeed, the first five minutes or so are difficult to watch in the extreme as there is little material available to make it work.
But once you hit the royal palace, something strikes you as odd, and it takes a moment to realise why. This isn't a cheap Aladdin knock-off; this was the original from which Aladdin took almost everything except the Genie. The King, the Vizier and the Princess could almost be stand-in doubles for their counterparts in the Disney movie.
But the imagery here is far edgier than anything 90s Disney would have dared. Fantastic flights of fancy, culminating in the most astonishing sequence at the climax of the movie that is quite breath-taking, with eye-watering sequences that you simply cannot imagine how they were done, and, at heart, a warm-hearted story that doesn't need a Genie to make it work.
I'm going to be eternally grateful to Mr Gilchrist for his labour of love, restoring a movie that deserves a greater standing than it has, for all its flaws. Disney's Aladdin is one of my favourite movies - having seen this, I finally understand why.




The Man With No Name
i dont really like the word cobble so i wont be watching this




john kricfalusi -- after someone asked him about recobbled ....
I only like animation that is fun. That's my bias. That's why I post about it here.
Richard Williams is anti-fun. Don't take my word for it. Read what he says about animation.
Yes the movie has smooth animation.




Alex Brunelle
-------------
Now, for the praise: dear crap, man, you're completely insane. Just
like Dick must have been. Major, major kudos. At first, the lack of
story bugged me. Then, I watched it again with the (very, very
interesting) commentary and was able to concentrate solely on the
animation. Then I couldn't really care about the story. Then I watched
it again with a friend of mine. I love this thing. It's damn
heartbreaking to see what was done to the flick, moreso than any other
tale oh Hollywood woe than I can think of. I've already enticed a few
people into wanting to see it, and I'd much rather give them copies of
Mark II now.

The only thing I would suggest about the DVD would be perhaps a
subtitle track illustrating what shots are from what sources, and what
animation is Calvert's (not as if it isn't obvious, but for the sake
of documentation), etc. But that's the only thing. Damn, damn slick
DVD in every other respect.
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ocpmovie - great to hear about the new cut!

Is there any chance that for an extra on the new DVD, you can include the "Thief and The Cobbler" trailer that was on the Calvert widescreen VHS? Maybe you can restore it and remove the timecodes?

Just an idea.
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That's definitely something I'm considering. Disc space is a consideration so the inclusion of that trailer might force me to remove the Arabian Knight trailer. I've removed the original files for the film from my hard drive for the most part, so restoring the trailer would be rather difficult now .... it would also take some effort to remake the menus to match this.

But yeah, I'm considering it. I think the Arabian Knight trailer is on my I Drew Roger Rabbit disc anyway. I did want to include the Arabian Knight trailer to show the mangled version of the movie ... this trailer is more reverential and wouldn't quite accomplish that.

This trailer will end up on at least one of my discs, I promise you that.



Mike Torr writes:
Just spotted that when the opening sequence says "The smallest and
simplest of things", the hands close and leave a golden gap between
the fingers, in the shape of... a tack!
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
Scans at high resolution (300-600 dpi) would be MUCH MUCH MUCH better than blurry digital photos -- you ought to try that -- you have the most amazing Ken Harris/Thief collection I've ever seen, amazing, amazing stuff. Please do try to scan things.
Those are priceless!

Well, I'm back from a week without internet. Did you miss me?
I haven't!

I have a huge announcement to make.


THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER RECOBBLED CUT: MARK II

SNIPPED!

THIS is the version I'll be sending to Dick, and it's the version I'll be sending out from now on. Those asking me for the DVD now will be lucky -- you'll get a revised version which I'm even more proud of than before.

=)

Hope to get a copy of this too!
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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