roygerdodger wrote:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeOq3O1MrzQ[/youtube]
I was astonished by the history of this film.
Alright, I'll tell you the history of the film:
Richard Williams, best known for directing the animation for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", started this film back in the 60s/early 70s with only the money for the film coming from TV commercials, specials, animated titles for live-action films, and feature films he directed or animated. Then, after "Roger Rabbit" was successful, full production of the film began, and Warner Bros. agreed to finance and distribute the film, but with only 10 to 15 minutes to complete, Richard missed the deadline and was forced turn over the film to Fred Calvert and an completion bond company who turned the film all Disney-style by giving silent characters a ton of speaking roles, adding cheesy pop songs, cutting out some scenes, and putting cheaply animated scenes in the film. That version was released in South Africa and Australia as "The Princess and the Cobbler" back in 1993. Then, a year later, Miramax bought the rights to the film and cut it even more by adding celebrity voiceovers to almost every scene of the film and released under the name "Arabian Knight" which didn't do so well at the box office. But there has been some attempts to restore the film to its full glory. In fact, there's even a fan-made DVD (just look up "The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut"), that uses some of the original scenes, pencil tests, and storyboards.
So, because of the animation style, artwork, the history, and the plot itself, "The Thief and the Cobbler" is one of my all-time favorite movies. In fact, I like it better than Disney's "Aladdin", which some people think "The Thief" is a rip-off of.
02 Nov 2009, 7:49 pm
