Those of you who have the "Animating Art/UK commercials" DVD in this Richard Williams pack will have seen Oscar Grillo's short "Seaside Woman." He's a great illustrator with an unusual style.
Here's his take on The Thief.
I did work at Richard Williams Studio at different times but I never
worked
directly on The Thief and the Cobbler, which as you know was called
several
different names over time. It started being known as The Adventures of
Nasrudin, based on the traditional Persian stories collected by Omar
Ali
Shah. Richard Williams quarrelled with him and not having the rights
for the
book decided to turn it around and it ended up as a mish-mash and, in
my
opinion, one of the most miserable animated failures of all time. It
will
be near impossible for you to put it together again, since R. Williams'
version varied so much over time that it would look like a Persian
tapestry.
I think the best and most genuine surviving bits are the animation of
the
Thief, as it was done by Ken Harris. Ken was a master animator and one
of
the principal animators of Chuck Jones' "Coyote", so his Thief bore an
enormous resemblance to that character. I could tell you loads of
stories
but I'm afraid I wont be able to write them for lack of time and
perhaps...
interest. I have never been very enthusiastic about this project. From
the
word go I believed it was Williams' "folly".
If you live in LA try to contact Corny Cole, who was a very early
collaborator of Williams. He produced some magnificent early
story-boards. I
have a complete script of one of the versions of the Thief, given to me
by
Richard W. to lure me to work on the project and also some prototypical
versions of promotional booklets from another version, made to attract
finances for the film.I also have two authographed copies of Ali Sha's
"The
Adventures of Nasrudin" illustrated by R.W.
I was not able to see your trailer because there were some
difficulties
with the viewing player. If you wish to send me a copy of the DVD I
would be
very happy to revise my opinions.
I salute your resilience and patience in doing this labour of love.
Haha!
I'm really curious what Oscar would think of the final film. I'll definitely send it to him. Him remembering it as an unfinishable mess, and never having seen what the final product was, ought to be interesting.
I'd love to contact Corny Cole, who did great work here and on Raggedy Ann, but don't know his contact info. He's not in the book.
Anyway.
The book would be published by a third party - wish I could slip copies of the Recobbled Cut in there, but no dice.
If you're ordering the book I presume you know about the Recobbled Cut anyway. =)
