The official logo that was used on posters of the film until Richard Williams' departure
:''"Arabian Knight" redirects here. For other uses, see
Arabian Nights (disambiguation).''
'''The Thief and the Cobbler''' (released as '''The Princess and The Cobbler''' in
Australia and
South Africa, and '''Arabian Knight''' in most other countries) was the twenty-six-year
animated feature film pet project of Canadian animator
Richard Williams. Beginning the work in
1964, Williams intended for the film to be his
masterpiece (in the traditional sense of the word), and to be a milestone in the art of animation. ''The Thief and the Cobbler'' was in and out of production for over two decades, until Williams, buoyed by his success as animation director on ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', signed a deal in 1990 to have
Warner Bros. finance and distribute the film.
[1] This deal fell through when Williams was unable to complete the film on time. As Warners pulled out, The Completion Bond Company assumed control of the project and had it finished by producer
Fred Calvert without Williams.
Two versions of Calvert's completed ''The Thief and the Cobbler'' were released; one was issued in Australia and
South Africa in 1993 as ''The Princess and the Cobbler'' and the other in the
United States in 1995 as ''Arabian Knight'', distributed by
Miramax Family Films. While both are significantly different from Williams' intended version, the ''Arabian Knight'' version included new voice work by actors such as
Jennifer Beals,
Matthew Broderick and
Jonathan Winters. Although ''The Princess and the Cobbler''/''Arabian Knight'' was not a financial success, the film's history and intent has given it significant cult status among animation professionals and fans.
Video copies of ''Thief and the Cobbler''
workprints made during Richard Williams' involvement on the project often circulate within animation subcircles. In addition, several different people and collectives, from animation fans to
The Walt Disney Company's
Roy E. Disney, have initiated restoration projects intended to create a high-quality edit of the film which would mirror Williams' original intent as closely as possible. Because it was in active Making from 1964 until 1995, ''The Thief and the Cobbler'' holds the record for having the longest years in the Making time for a motion picture in history.
The film was the final released work of
Vincent Price. Price recorded his dialogue starting in 1967 and died in 1993, prior to the film's 1995 release in the United States.
History
Production
Development and early production on ''Nasruddin''
Richard Williams began development work on ''The Thief and the Cobbler'' in
1964, planning to do a film about the
Mulla Nasruddin, a "wise fool" of Near Eastern folklore. Williams had previously illustrated a series of books by Idries Shah, which collected the philosophical yet humorously wise tales of Nasruddin. An early reference to the project came in the 1968 International Film Guide, which noted that Williams was about to begin work on "the first of several films based on the stories featuring Mulla Nasruddin."
Like director
Orson Welles before him, Williams took on
television and feature-film title projects in order to fund his pet project, and work on his film progressed slowly. In 1969, the Guide noted that animation legend
Ken Harris was now working on the project, which was now entitled ''The Amazing Nasruddin''. The illustrations from the film showed intricate Indian and Persian designs.
In
1970, the project was re-titled ''The Majestic Fool''. For the first time, a potential distributor for the independent film was mentioned:
British Lion. The International Film Guide noted that the Williams Studio's staff had increased to forty people for the production of the feature.
Dialogue tracks for the film, now being referred to as ''Nasruddin!'', were recorded at this time.
Vincent Price was hired to perform the voice of the villain, Anwar (later re-named "Zigzag"), originally assigned to Kenneth Williams. Sir Anthony Quayle was cast as King Nod. Williams was a great fan of Vincent Price's work, and Zigzag became his favorite character to animate.
The original screenplay for ''Nasruddin'' can be read
here.
''Nasruddin'' becomes ''The Thief and the Cobbler''
The film went through many name-changes before becoming ''The Thief and the Cobbler'' - other names included ''The Thief Who Never Gave Up'' and ''Once...''. One can see within the ''Once...'' logo old character designs as well as characters that were later removed from the film
In 1972, Williams had a falling-out with the Shah family. In a promotional booklet released in 1973, Williams made an announcement about the status of his project:
:''"''Nasruddin'' was found to be too verbal and not suitable for animation, therefore Nasruddin as a character and the Nasruddin stories were dropped as a project. However, the many years work spent on painstaking research into the beauty of Oriental art has been retained. Loosely based on elements in the ''Arabian Nights'' stories, an entirely new and original film entitled ''The Thief and The Cobbler'' is now the main project of the Williams Studio. Therefore any publicity references to the old character of Nasruddin are now obsolete."''
The publicity release, however, failed to mention that almost all of the ''Nasruddin'' footage, characters and scenes that did not have Nasruddin himself were retained. While the story's focus and tone was shifted, several characters, including Anwar/Zigzag, were all carried over to the "new" film, which Williams was promising as a "100 minute
Panavision animated epic feature film with a hand-drawn cast of thousands."
Williams worked on the production in-between various
TV commercial,
TV special, and feature film title assignments, such as the 1977 feature ''. In an interview with John Canemaker in the
Feb. 1976 issue of ''Millimeter'', Richard Williams stated that "''The Thief'' is not following the
Disney route." He went on to state that the film would be "the first animated film with a real plot that locks together like a detective story at the end," and that, with its two mute main characters, ''Thief'' was essentially "a silent movie with a lot of sound."
Gaining and losing financial backing
In
1986, Williams met producer
Jake Eberts, who began funding the production and, according to the
August 30,
1995 edition of ''
The Los Angeles Times'', eventually provided
$10 million of the film's $28 million budget. In a
1988 interview with
Jerry Beck, Williams stated that he had two and a half hours of pencil tests for ''Thief'' and that he hadn't
storyboarded the film as he found such a method too controlling.
After serving as animation director on ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', Williams received funding and a distribution deal for ''The Thief and the Cobbler'' with
Warner Bros. Pictures. At this point, with almost all of the original animators either dead or having long since moved on to other projects, that full-scale production on the film began, mostly with a new, younger team of animators, including Richard Williams' son
Alexander Williams.
The film was not finished by the
1991 deadline that Warner imposed upon Williams; the film was still several months and fifteen minutes of screen time away from completion. Meanwhile
Walt Disney Feature Animation had begun work on ''
Aladdin'', a film which bore striking resemblances in tone and style to ''The Thief and the Cobbler''; for example, the character Zigzag from ''Cobbler'' shares many physical characteristics with both ''Aladdin's villain,
Jafar, and its
Genie (further, Jafar and Zigzag are both evil Grand Viziers who keep pet birds and tend to throw protagonists into dungeons). The thief from ''Cobbler'' finds his counterpart in Abu from ''Aladdin''; for example, in the Cave of Wonders Abu sees a ruby and wants to steal it, almost exactly a frame-for-frame copy of the thief-ruby subplot in ''The Thief and the Cobbler''. Williams' film had been in production so long that scenes from it had been seen or worked on by many people in the animation industry, some of whom had gone on to work at Disney. With that film's release and its potential competition as a threat to ''Cobbler's'' commercial viability, Williams was asked to show the investors a rough copy of the film with the remaining scenes filled in with storyboards. Williams had avoided storyboards up to this point, but within two weeks he had done what the investors had asked. This rough version of the film was not well received, and on the very next day Warner backed out and the Completion Bond Company assumed control of the film from Williams' studio.
Television animation producer
Fred Calvert was assigned by the Completion Bond Company to finish the film as cheaply and quickly as possible. In the process, Calvert made several significant changes to the film. Much of Williams' finished footage was deleted from the final release print to make way for newly created scenes and song sequences. Steve Lively was brought in to record a voice and narration for the previously mute character of Tack and several other characters that already had vocal tracks prepared for them were re-voiced. The new scenes were produced on a budget and level of quality comparable with
Saturday morning cartoons from
Korea, with little regard for matching the painstaking quality of Williams' original scenes. However, some audio from the original version were retained, like Sir
Anthony Quayle's voice can still be heard in the speech scene.
Releases
Calvert's version of the film was distributed outside of the
United States as ''The Princess and the Cobbler''; in the U.S., the Disney subsidiary
Miramax released their own version, ''Arabian Knight,'' in which the film was recut even further. The voices of
Matthew Broderick and
Jonathan Winters were added over nearly every scene of the film; Williams' version had been largely dialogue-less. The character of the Old Witch was entirely removed (save for a few lines of dialogue and ghost-like image), as was most of a climactic battle sequence. ''Arabian Knight'' was quietly released by Miramax on
August 25,
1995. It opened on 510 screens, and grossed just over
$300,000 (on an estimated budget of $24 million) during its theatrical run.
Home video (video, DVD, laserdisc)
The
Miramax (1995) version of the film was released on VHS on
February 18,
1997. A widescreen
laserdisc was also released.
There was a Japanese-dubbed widescreen DVD of the 1995 release, which is now somewhat difficult to find.
The Miramax version of the film first appeared on
DVD in
Canada in 2001 as a giveaway promotion in packages of
Kellogg's Froot Loops cereal. This
pan and scan DVD was released through
Alliance Atlantis which distributes many of Miramax's films in Canada. It came in a paper sleeve and had no special features, other than the choice of English or French language tracks.
The Miramax version was first released commercially on DVD on
March 8,
2005, in pan-and-scan format. This DVD was re-released by
The Weinstein Company on
November 21,
2006. Although the information supplied to retailers such as Amazon.com by retail distribution companies said that it would be a widescreen "collector's edition", this DVD was in fact the old 2005 pan-and-scan DVD in fancy packaging. The 2006 DVD has been found by most reviewers to be unsatisfactory, with the image quality being compared to "a VHS/Beta tape rather than a DVD... and one that’s seen better days".
[2][3] The Digital Bits gave it an award for being the worst standard-edition DVD of 2006.
[4]
A fan-made restoration with various special features such as commentaries was released on DVD in August 2006, and this version has been tacitly acknowledged by several DVD reviewers to be better than the latest officially-released DVD.
Deadlines for the movie
★ Christmas 1976
★ Two deadlines for completing test footage in 1979
★ Worldwide 1988 release
★ 1991 release or to be at least released before Disney's ''Aladdin''
Restoration attempts
Bootleg videos of an original Williams Studio workprint (produced a few months before the project was taken from Williams and put onto 2
U-Matic cassettes for exhibiting to would-be composers, financiers, the crew) have been shared and traded by animation professionals and fans for over a decade. The workprint contains many sequences in only storyboard or pencil test format. A later Williams workprint, made just after the "big crunch" near the end of production time, has not been bootlegged.
In the late-
1990s,
Walt Disney Feature Animation head
Roy E. Disney began a project to restore ''The Thief and the Cobbler'' to as close to Williams' original intent as possible. He sought out original
pencil tests and completed footage, much of which was by this time in the possession of various
animators and film collectors. Roy Disney left the Walt Disney Company in
November 2003, and the ''Thief and the Cobbler'' restoration project was put on hold.
Negotiations between Disney and Williams broke down when it was revealed that Williams wouldn't be paid because of budget problems, even though he would be promised a release of the result. Currently, Disney producer
Don Hahn is considering reviving the project.
Most of the original artwork is missing. Originally, Richard Williams kept all the materials for the film safe in a vault, which he called a "reason for living" in the 1989 Channel 4 documentary ''I Drew Roger Rabbit''. However, when the film was taken away from him, much of this material was sent to artists in
Thailand who did not save any of the work. A good amount of artwork and film was bought by Miramax(Sister Studio) when they bought the film and rested in a Disney vault until the it was bought by the Wienstien Company.
Several unofficial fan-made restorations (the most recent one in August 2006
[5][6]) have been done, working from sources including the ''Princess and the Cobbler'' version of the film and the bootlegged ''Thief and the Cobbler'' workprints, and also with the help of many former animators of the film.
Plot
''The Thief and the Cobbler''
"''It is written among the limitless constellations, of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald sea, and upon every grain of sand in the vast desert, that the world which we see is an outward and visible dream, of an inward and invisible reality. Once upon a time, there was a golden city. In the center of the golden city, atop the tallest minaret, were three gold balls. The ancients had prophesised, that if the three golden balls were ever taken away, harmony would yield to discord, and the city would fall to destruction and death. But, the mystics had also foretold, that the city might be saved, by the simplest soul, with the smallest and simplest of things. In the city, there dwelt a lowly shoemaker, who was known as Tack the Cobbler. Also in the city, existed a thief, who shall be...nameless...''"
After an unsuccessful attempt at robbing the Princess's nanny, the thief decides to try his luck at Tack's home. However, Tack accidentally sews the thief's clothes to his own in his sleep while the thief is leaning over him. The thief tries to walk out with Tack still attached to him. They tumble out into the street and all of Tack's tools (and
tacks) go rolling into the street.
Zigzag the rhyming
Grand Vizier (who is proceeding through the street) steps on one of the tacks and orders Tack's arrest (the thief manages to escape). Tack is brought to the palace by Zigzag to a sleepy King Nod (who wakes up only at the mention that Zigzag has brought him a "beautiful maiden from Mombassa" as a plaything). However, before Zigzag can convince King Nod that Tack needs to be beheaded, Princess Yum Yum (King Nod's daughter) purposely breaks one of her shoes and tells her father that she needs a cobbler at the moment. Tack goes with the princess to fix her shoe, and after a while the princess goes to take a bath.
Meanwhile, the thief climbs up the drainage/refuse pipes of the castle. He first reaches the toilet of the room where King Nod is entertaining himself with the maiden from Mombassa (inside the palanquin). The thief accidentally flushes himself down the toilet. Next, he comes up in Princess Yum Yum's bathing room and steals two
backscratchers from her that look like hands. He walks out of the bathing room and bumps into Tack. The thief quickly grabs the princess's now-fixed shoe from Tack's hands and runs down the stairs of the palace, with Tack in close pursuit. What follows is the "stairs scene"; Tack chases the thief through the multipatterned rooms of the castle (which are filled with
optical illusions) and finally manages to grab the shoe from the thief. However, he bumps into Zigzag who takes the shoe from him, says that there is now no need for a cobbler and throws him into prison. Tack thinks about Yum Yum that night and feeds his dinner to the rats.
The next day, Yum Yum attends a polo match with her father and Zig Zag while the thief sets his sights on stealing the three golden balls, not knowing of their actual purpose.
While Zigzag goes on about how the Golden Land is perfect, the camera pans into the view of some mountain terrain where a race of One-Eyed men conspire to take over the Golden City and destroy its people. While all seems lost, one dying soldier musters up enough strength to mount a horse and ride it to the Golden City to warn them.
Zigzag is then shown in his high tower making a soliloquy about how he intends to marry Yum Yum and take power. During his talk about his plans, we see Phido, his pet
king vulture, who doesn't think much of Zigzag for unwittingly throwing him into hot coals and disturbing his sleep. Zigzag offers Phido his breakfast of "cobbler meat" and takes the bird down to the prisons to eat Tack.
King Nod, having a nightmare of invasion, calls Zigzag who is in the dungeons trying to have Phido eat Tack. Zigzag, apparently not wanting to miss seeing the demure cobber dismembered, pulls Phido's leash back, thus sparing Tack's life for the moment. As Zigzag talks to the king about the nightmare, the Thief is shown trying to steal the balls.
With much effort, the Thief soon takes the balls. At the same time, Tack manages to escape his cell, thanks to his own shoemaking instruments. He begins to press on around the kingdom in search for Yum Yum while evading Zigzag.
However, when trying to exit the minaret, the Thief crashes down into it, and the three balls crash out of the windows, bouncing around the golden city (with three-noted bell-like sounds), causing mass panic and chaos. This is a perfect opportunity for Zigzag and his lackeys to take the balls. But just in time, the dying soldier returns, giving King Nod one final message in his dying breath: "One Eye is coming!" And once Nod sees that the balls are gone from the minaret, he panics wildly as the camera pulls away from him into the sky, where darkness and thunder begins to loom and contrast over day.
Soon, King Nod addresses his shocked people about this dark moment, and orders his armies to protect the city with his blessing. But the Thief is up to his usual tricks, as he enters a secret entrance (which Zigzag's lackeys stumble into) and tries to steal an emerald diamond in a jar, only to be caught by guards. At the same time, Princess Yum Yum is looking for Tack. The Nurse suggests he may be in the dungeon, which frustrates the princess. She arrives there to find Phido in front of the door. She gives Phido a swift kick in the crotch area and drives the bird away. But Yum Yum finds that Tack is missing.
Then, the guards sentence the Thief to having his arms chopped off before the citizens of the golden city. Resourceful, the clever Thief uses Princess Yum Yum's backscratchers (which he stole from her earlier) as "arms", which the guards chop off.
Later that night, Zigzag thanks his lackeys for bringing him the three balls, and threatens to kill them unless they keep it a secret from King Nod. He is about to go see the King, but not before Tack and the Thief, both still wandering around in the palace separately, stumble onto his secret. Zigzag goes to see King Nod and makes him a proposition he found promising; he can use "magic" to restore the three golden balls, though lost they may be, but only in exchange for Princess Yum Yum's hand in marriage. Furious, King Nod shouts at Zigzag and banishes him from the kingdom. Frustrated by this humiliation, Zigzag takes the balls and exits the palace, planning to consult with the Mighty One Eye. Unbeknownst to him, Tack is nearby, heading in the opposite direction.
King Nod decides to send Princess Yum Yum on a perilous journey to see the Mad Holy Old Witch, who lives in a towering hand-shaped mountain in the desert. At the foot of the mountain, a sacred Buddhist idol with a ruby in its forehead is basically the key to the mountain's door, which opens only when the sun shines on the ruby. Just as Tack stumbles along, Yum Yum suggests taking Tack along as a guide, due to his resourcefulness. But the Thief is intrigued by this, and follows suit. Unbeknownst to both parties, Zigzag, on horse, is on his way to the One Eye camp.
In the desert, there is a band of
brigands led by Chief Roofless, who are all as thick as two short planks. While they are sitting around entertaining themselves, they are alarmed to see a caravan (with Tack, Yum Yum and the Nurse) and proceed to attack it. But after they assault Tack and the Nurse, the confusion is cleared when Yum Yum introduces herself and the other visitors and enlists them to aid her in her journey. But the Thief is nearby listening.
Meanwhile, Zigzag pays a visit to the One Eye Army's camp, and upon tearing down one of their flags, deliberately lets himself be captured by soldiers of One Eye, who take him to a huge tent, where the One Eyes have set up camp, and is stunned to see what is inside: A
bravura scenery of green flames, hundreds of soldiers, and a dozen pale-green
burlesque female dancers dancing around for the Mighty One Eye himself. The dancers stand him up, so that they can form his "throne" using bodily contortion, and he sits on them. He allows Zigzag to speak, as the petty wizard makes him an offer. He first demonstrates his magic tricks, including his "card trick." Then, he presents Mighty One Eye with the three golden balls, which One Eye accepts, but not enough to take Zigzag seriously. He orders the magician to be thrown to the
alligators, much to Phido's delight.
In the desert, the Princess, Tack and the Brigands are camped in a site ahead of the giant golden Buddha and the hand mountain. The Thief, up to his usual habits, steals random shiny items from the site, only to fall into a ditch of water, much to the laughter of a nearby camel. The next morning, Tack, who was on watch all night, notices that it is dawn, and the rays of the sun shine on the golden Buddha idol's forehead ruby, which opens the hidden door, allowing Tack, Yum Yum and the guards to enter. The Thief then attempts to get just what he came for: The Buddha's ruby. He first tries to sneak past the menacing guards, which was impossible. Then, the Thief climbs up part of the hand mountain and plucks off two huge leaves from a tree on the edge, and uses them as makeshift wings. Before successfully taking flight, he spreads his wings to an excerpt of
Rimsky-Korsakov's "
Night on Bald Mountain" musical suite (as an obvious homage to the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment in Disney's ''
Fantasia''), and flew non-stop just to try to get the Buddha's ruby. At the same time, Tack, Yum Yum and their guards finally make it to the palm of the hand, which closes. Suddenly, the Mad Holy Old Witch, a crazy old Indian lady, appears before them. Yum Yum asks her for a solution to stop the One Eye Army's attack on the Golden City. When paid handsomely by Yum Yum's guards, the Witch complies. She predicts that only one among them is capable of saving the city, and picks out the most unlikely candidate: Tack! This intrigues and puzzles Yum Yum, and the Witch takes a "special trip." She swings around the mountain (and crashes into the flying Thief along the way, knocking him into the brush below) and lands in a hanging basket in front of Tack and Yum Yum, summoning "mystic fumes" from the ground below her to "show her the way". When igniting the fumes, they explode, and the Witch, now a ghost, appears before Tack and gives him a cryptic puzzle: "A tack . . . a tack! But it's what you do with what you've got!" With that, she demands they return to the Golden City at once, and escape from the mountain, which crumbles with a thunderous explosion.
At the same time, Zigzag tames the alligators he was to be fed to, and uses them as a transport to appear before the Mighty One Eye. Zigzag fiercely demands that he not be treated lightly. The Mighty One-Eye is finally impressed, and takes him as advisor, arranging for the sorcerer to ride at the front of the attack.
Tack, Yum Yum, Nurse, the Brigands and the rest prepare to rush back to the Golden City before the attack can begin, with the swift Brigands carrying them there. Of course, the Thief follows suit, although he runs out of breath halfway. But Tack and his companions have reached the city just as the One Eye's ominous giant War Machine, driven by the entire army (with Mighty One-Eye at the helm), looms closer to the city, with Zigzag riding at the front. Much to the shock of King Nod at the palace, the Golden Balls are at the very top of the War Machine, over the Mighty One-Eye, and Princess Yum-Yum (with her companions) is in the face of impending doom! King Nod panics and goes out to save his daughter. As the War Machine and Zigzag's troops close in, everyone looks in fear, but Tack realizes that he is the only one who can save the city, and his evolution into a true hero begins as he faces Zigzag alone. Realizing what the Witch's riddle meant, Tack throws a boot-nail into the enemy's midst, setting off a
Goldberg-esque chain reaction, putting an end to Mighty One-Eye's campaign and throwing the conquerors into a panic. Fiery chaos in the War Machine ensues, as the Thief, who arrives late, notices the Golden Balls atop the War Machine, and tries again to steal them, which he does, after going through many insane rides to do so. Amid the chaos, the Mighty One-Eye is killed by his own burlesque slavewomen. Zigzag, rationalizing to himself that even "the greatest wizard has to know exactly when it's time to go", attempts to escape. He falls down a hole, where his alligators await him . . . and start chomping at him! Phido joins in, and with Zigzag's final line, "You too, Phido? Man's best friend. For Zigzag, then, this is . . . the end," the vulture eats his head off in the dark.
When One-Eye's army has been broken, the Thief emerges but is stopped in his tracks by Tack, who fights him for the Golden Balls. In the struggle, they both end up on large
seesaw-like remains of the War Machine above a pit with blades, and Tack is at the dangerous end, with the Thief trying to push him to his doom, but during the struggle, they stare deeply at each other. Tired and frustrated, the Thief lets Tack keep the balls and walks away. Tack emerges as a hero, saving the Golden City from harm, and King Nod is reunited with Princess Yum Yum. Tack and the Princess marry, and while it is clearly Yum-Yum's idea, Tack surprises her at the end with the film's final (and the character's only) line.
Over a beautiful silhouette view of the Golden City, the title "THE END" appears in golden letters. But the Thief appears and steals each golden letter and, literally, the entire film.
''The Princess and the Cobbler''
"''Many years ago, long before I was king or even a prince, when I was just a simple shoemaker, an army of evil one-eyed men with a terrifying war machine had conquered all the land, with the exception of one small city: a golden city, dedicated to reason and goodness. Many before had tried to destroy it but never succeded, for high atop the city's tallest minaret, were three golden balls, whose magic protected it from the evil outside. Secure under the golden balls, the city could sleep at night, and so could its king. In fact, the king could sleep anytime he wanted, so he did. Everyone called him King Nod. Unfortunately, the king forgot the ancient prophecy: That if the three golden balls were ever removed, the city would fall to doom and destruction. And so once again, good would be tested against evil. The terrible One-eyes were on the march. But the Mighty One-eye had overlooked one survivor, who went to warn the city. The prophecy had also foretold that the city could be saved, by the solving of a simple riddle, by a very simple soul. At this time, I was just a shoemaker, a cobbler. I was poor, and working so hard, I cobbled in my sleep. On this particular day, a stranger appeared: a thief. This thief, I assumed to learn would steal anything of value, especially anything golden...''"
After an unsuccessful attempt at robbing the Princess's nanny, the thief decides to try his luck at Tack's home. However, Tack accidentally sews the thief's clothes to his own in his sleep while the thief is leaning over him. The thief tries to walk out with Tack still attached to him. They tumble out into the street and all of Tack's tools (and
tacks) go rolling into the street.
Zigzag the rhyming
Grand Vizier (who is proceeding through the street) steps on one of the tacks and orders for Tack to be thrown in jail (while the thief manages to escape).
Inside the palace, Nanny is dressing Princess Yum Yum for the day. Yum Yum tells Nanny that she's tired of living a life of regal splendor. She wants to be able to do more, and at least be able to help one person. She then sings the song "She is More". Tack is brought to the palace by Zigzag to a sleepy King Nod, Princess Yum Yum's father. However, before Zigzag can convince King Nod that Tack needs to be beheaded Yum Yum purposely breaks one of her shoes and tells her father that she needs a cobbler at the moment.
Zigzag is then shown in his high tower making a soliloquy about how he intends to marry Yum Yum and take power. During his talk about his plans, we see Phido, his pet king vulture, who doesn't think much of Zigzag for unwittingly throwing him into hot coals and disturbing his sleep.
Tack goes with the princess to fix her shoe, and after a while the princess goes to take a bath. Meanwhile, the thief climbs up the drainage/refuse pipes of the castle. He first reaches the toilet of a room with a chubby maiden concealed inside a pink tent. The thief accidentally flushes himself down the toilet. Next, he comes up in Princess Yum Yum's bathing room and steals a
backscratcher from her. He walks out of the bathing room and bumps into Tack. The thief quickly grabs the princess's now-fixed shoe from Tack's hands and runs down the stairs of the palace, with Tack in close pursuit. What follows is the famous "stairs scene", one of the most famous scenes in the film; Tack chases the thief through the multipatterned rooms of the castle (which are filled with
optical illusions) and finally manages to grab the shoe from the thief. However, he bumps into Zigzag who takes the shoe from him, says that there is now no need for a cobbler and throws him into prison. Tack and Yum Yum think about one another that night, and together they sing "Am I Feeling Love?".
The next day, Yum Yum attends a polo match with her father and Zig Zag while the thief sets his sights on stealing the three golden balls, not knowing of their actual purpose. While Zigzag goes on about how the Golden Land is perfect, the camera pans into the view of some mountain terrain, ending with a shot of One-Eye. This becomes a nightmare for King Nod, who calls Zigzag immediately. As Zigzag talks to the king about the nightmare, the Thief is shown trying to rob the balls.
In Yum Yum's room, the nanny is scolding Yum Yum for liking a lowly cobbler so much. Yum Yum tells her Nanny she needs new glasses, because there's more to him than meets the eye.
With much effort, the Thief soon takes the balls. They are seized by Zigzag's minions, who sneak the treasures into their master's room. The dying soldier, pale and worn, arrives in the palace. He survives only long enough to stammer "One... Eye... is... coming!", then collapses dead on the floor. The King, recalling his dream, is aghast and terrified. He sets about warning the people of the Golden City.
Zigzag demands that the King give the Princess in marriage to Zigzag in exchange for the balls. The King, finding it ridiculous that his minister, who is a
sorcerer, should wed a princess, who is only allowed to marry someone pure of heart, laughs Zigzag out of the room. Angry, the sorcerer takes the golden balls and leaves the Golden City. He intends to rendezvous with King One-Eye and give the balls to him.
The Princess, accompanied by Tack and pursued by the curious thief, makes a journey to the great tower known as the Hands of Glory. This tower, which resembles one human
hand made up of many, is home to an Oracle known as the Witch, who is the good sister of the evil One-Eye. At the foot of the mountain, a sacred Buddhist idol with a ruby in its forehead is basically the key to the mountain's door, which opens only when the sun shines on the ruby.
On the way, the Princess recruits a troupe of loafers who were sent twenty years ago by the King to guard his borders. Because none of them is literate, they do not know when to return and have become banditti. They sing the song, "Bom Bom Bom Beem Bom". They are impressed into service as personal Royal Guards by the Princess, but do not accompany her to meet the Witch. She and Tack are the only ones who do the latter. Below, the thief paces around the golden idol, trying to snatch the
ruby from its forehead.
The Witch appears before them, first in the form of an eye and later as a crazy old Indian lady. Yum Yum asks her for a solution to stop the One Eye Army's attack on the Golden City. When paid handsomely by Yum Yum's guards, the Witch complies. She predicts that only one among them is capable of saving the city, and picks out the most unlikely candidate: Tack! This intrigues and puzzles Yum Yum, and the Witch takes a "special trip." She swings around the mountain (and crashes into the flying Thief along the way, knocking him into the brush below) and lands in a hanging basket in front of Tack and Yum Yum, summoning "mystic fumes" from the ground below her to "show her the way". When igniting the fumes, they explode, and the Witch, now a ghost, appears before Tack and gives him a cryptic puzzle: "When to the wall you find your back, a tack, A Tack, A TACK! You have all you need, but it's what you do with what you've got! a tack, A Tack, A TACK!"
Zigzag has been captured by King One-Eye's people. He proves his skill at magic with several tricks, including an exaggerated unveiling of the Golden Balls and a dramatic taming of crocodilians. King One-Eye takes him as advisor, prepares to strike the next day, and arranges that the sorcerer ride at the front of the attack.
When the battle begins, Tack and his companions have reached the city. Realizing what the Witch's riddle meant, Tack throws a boot-nail into the enemy's midst, putting an end to King One-Eye's campaign and throwing the conquerors into a panic. Chaos follows, wherein the thief tries again to steal the Golden Balls. Meanwhile, Zigzag tries to kidnap Yum Yum, who fights back and throws Zigzag off his horse. Tack interferes, and Zigzag tries choking him to death. Tack ties up the wizard in his cobbler threads and saves Yum Yum. Nanny sees the act and deems Tack worthy of her Princess. Rationalizing to himself that even "the greatest wizard has to know exactly when it's time to go", Zigzag attempts to escape. He steps on the nail that defeated One-Eye and falls down a hole into the jaws of his vulture and the crocodilians.
When One-Eye's army has been broken, the thief emerges and (pricked by conscience) hands the Golden Balls to the King. Tack and the Princess marry, and Tack eventually becomes king. There are flashbacks of all their times together up to that point, while the song "It's So Amazing" plays. Tack mentions that the thief gave him his word that he would never steal again. The film ends with the Thief stealing the letters from "THE END", and eventually, the film itself.
''Arabian Knight''
"''Legend has it, that each shooting star is really an Arabian Knight riding across the heavens. And at the center of every star is an ancient story untouched by time. Long before the heroic tales of Aladdin and Ali Baba, the first Arabian Knight was chosen. But where would destiny find someone so courageous and pure of heart? Amid the swirling sand of the Great Arabian Desert was the golden city of Baghdad. And at its center, an enchanted castle dedicated to reason and goodness. High atop its tallest tower were three golden balls, whose magic protected it from the evil King One-eye and his army of darkness. According to the prophecy, if the balls were ever removed, Baghdad would be in great danger. With only the golden city left to conquer, the terrible One-eyes were on the march. But the evil King One-eye had overlooked one fearless scout, who went to warn Baghdad before it was too late. As for who was going to stand up against One-eye's army, that's where our tale begins. Little did I know that the shooting star I had seen the night before was to be my own. At the time I was a poor orphan working as a cobbler's apprentice. Life was simple, but all that was about to change. Not too far away in another part of the city lived a thief, a man of few words, but many thoughts. The thief took his job very seriously. He would steal anything, especially anything gold...''"
After an unsuccessful attempt at robbing the Princess's nanny, the thief decides to try his luck at Tack's home. However, Tack accidentally sews the thief's clothes to his own in his sleep while the thief is leaning over him. The thief tries to walk out with Tack still attached to him. They tumble out into the street and all of Tack's tools (and
tacks) go rolling into the street.
Zigzag the rhyming
Grand Vizier (who is proceeding through the street) steps on one of the tacks and orders for Tack to be thrown in jail (while the thief manages to escape).
Inside the palace, Nanny is dressing Princess Yum Yum for the day. Yum Yum tells Nanny that she's tired of living a life of regal splendor. She wants to be able to do more, and at least be able to help one soul. She then sings the song, "She is More". Tack is brought to the palace by Zigzag to a sleepy King Nod, Princess Yum Yum's father. However, before Zigzag can convince King Nod that Tack needs to be beheaded, Yum Yum purposely breaks one of her shoes and tells her father that she needs a cobbler at the moment.
Zigzag is then shown in his high tower making a soliloquy about how he intends to marry Yum Yum and take power. During his talk about his plans, we see Phido, his pet
king vulture, who doesn't think much of Zigzag for unwittingly throwing him into hot coals and disturbing his sleep.
Tack goes with the princess to fix her shoe, and after a while the princess goes to take a bath. Meanwhile, the thief climbs up the drainage/refuse pipes of the castle. He first reaches the toilet of a room with a chubby maiden concealed inside a pink tent. The thief accidentally flushes himself down the toilet. Next, he comes up in Princess Yum Yum's bathing room and steals a
backscratcher from her. He walks out of the bathing room and bumps into Tack. The thief quickly grabs the princess's now-fixed shoe from Tack's hands and runs down the stairs of the palace, with Tack in close pursuit. What follows is the "stairs scene", one of the most famous scenes in the film; Tack chases the thief through the multipatterned rooms of the castle (which are filled with
optical illusions) and finally manages to grab the shoe from the thief. However, he bumps into Zigzag who takes the shoe from him, says that there is now no need for a cobbler and throws him into prison. Tack and Yum Yum think about one another that night, and together they sing "Am I Feeling Love?".
The next day, Yum Yum attends a polo match with her father and Zig Zag while the thief sets his sights on stealing the three golden balls, not knowing of their actual purpose. While Zigzag goes on about how the city of Baghdad is perfect, the camera pans into a view of some mountain terrain, ending with a shot of One-Eye. This becomes a nightmare for King Nod, who calls Zigzag immediately. As Zigzag talks to the king about the nightmare, the Thief is shown trying to rob the balls.
In Yum Yum's room, the Nanny is scolding Yum Yum for liking a lowly cobbler so much. Yum Yum tells her Nanny she needs new glasses, because there's more to him than meets the eye.
With much effort, the Thief soon takes the balls. They are seized by Zigzag's minions, who sneak the treasures into their master's room. The dying soldier, pale and worn, arrives in the palace. He survives only long enough to stammer "One... Eye... is... coming!", then collapses dead on the floor. The King, recalling his dream, is aghast and terrified. He sets about warning the people of Baghdad.
Zigzag demands that the King give the Princess in marriage to Zigzag in exchange for the balls. The King, finding it ridiculous that his minister, who is a
sorcerer, should wed a princess, who is only allowed to marry someone pure of heart, laughs Zigzag out of the room. Angry, the sorcerer takes the golden balls and leaves Baghdad. He intends to rendezvous with King One-Eye and give the balls to him.
The Princess, accompanied by Tack and pursued by the curious thief, makes a journey to the great tower known as the Hands of Glory. This tower, which resembles one human
hand made up of many, is home to an Oracle known as the Witch, who is the good sister of the evil One-Eye. From her, the Princess gathers information with which to destroy King One-Eye and recover the Golden Balls.
On the way, the Princess recruits a troupe of loafers who were sent twenty years ago by the King to guard his borders. Because none of them is literate, they do not know when to return and have become banditti. They sing the song, "Bom Bom Bom Beem Bom". They are impressed into service as personal Royal Guards by the Princess, but do not accompany her to meet the Witch. She and Tack are the only ones who do the latter. Below, the thief paces around a golden idol, trying to snatch a
ruby from its forehead. He is foiled; but by whom he has no idea. It is suggested but not verified that the idol is guarded by the thugs that make a ring around it.
The Witch's advice is cryptic: "When to the wall you find your back, a tack, A Tack, A TACK! Belief in yourself is what you lack, a tack, A Tack, and never look back!"
Zigzag is captured by King One-Eye's people. He proves his skill at magic with several tricks, including an exaggerated unveiling of the Golden Balls and a dramatic taming of crocodilians. King One-Eye takes him as advisor and arranges that the sorcerer ride at the front of the attack.
When the battle begins, Tack and his companions have reached Baghdad. Realizing what the Witch's riddle meant, Tack throws a boot-nail into the enemy's midst, putting an end to King One-Eye's campaign and throwing the conquerors into a panic. Chaos follows, wherein the thief tries again to steal the Golden Balls. Meanwhile, Zigzag tries to kidnap Yum Yum, who fights back and throws Zigzag off his horse. Tack interferes, and Zigzag tries choking him to death. Tack ties up the wizard in his cobbler threads and saves Yum Yum. Nanny sees the act and deems Tack worthy of her Princess. Rationalizing to himself that even "the greatest wizard has to know exactly when it's time to go", Zigzag attempts to escape. He steps on the nail that defeated One-Eye and falls down a hole into the jaws of his vulture and the crocodilians.
When One-Eye's army has been broken, the thief emerges and (pricked by conscience) hands the Golden Balls to the King. Tack and the Princess marry, and Tack becomes Prince and the first Arabian Knight. Whilst they do, the thief attempts to steal the balls again, and says "And I love big distractions like weddings". Tack ends the story by saying: "So whenever you see a shooting star, be proud of who you really are. Do in your heart what you know is right, and you too shall become an Arabian Knight."
Tack mentions that the thief eventually gets thrown in jail for years, but when released, becomes the Captain of the Guards. The King agrees to let him steal one last thing. The film ends with the Thief stealing the letters from "THE END", and eventually, literally, the film itself.
Voice cast
In the original version of the film, the thief is heard making short grunts/wheezes in a few scenes - though not as many as in the Majestic Films version. It is unclear who provided these sounds. Ed E. Carrol, who did them for the Majestic Films version, was an American-based character actor and was thus unlikely to get called over by Richard Williams' UK-based production for such a small part. The grunts/wheezes are in Richard Williams' voice range, but there is no evidence either for or against his involvement.
Although in the re-edited versions of the film by Miramax and Majestic Films, Sir Anthony Quayle's voice was mostly replaced by Clive Revill, Quayle's voice (uncredited) can still be heard for an entire scene when King Nod gives a speech to his subjects.
Pop culture references
In all versions
★ '' - Part of the war machine sequence modeled after Babylonian battle.
★ ''
Fantasia'' - ''
Night on Bald Mountain'' plays, when the Thief attempts to steal a red
ruby, at one point posing like the demon from the sequence.
★ ''
Gee Whiz-z-z-z'' - The Thief's attempt to steal the red
ruby is very similar to
Wile E. Coyote's famous Bat-Man outfit scene from the cartoon.
★ ''
Duck Soup'' - Animation of the Thief running down stairs is mirrored from
Harpo Marx.
★ ''
Lawrence of Arabia'' - A few shots in the desert are homages to those in the film.
★ '' - The staircase sequence inspired by the director's previous feature, as well as a 360 degree shot nearly identical.
★ ''
Sleeping Beauty'' - Animation of a brigand laughing is mirrored from one of Maleficent's minions.
★ ''
Three Ages'' - The awning fall is copied in one scene.
In the Miramax version
★
Disneyland - In the middle of this version, the Thief mentions Disneyland when he steals the last ball.
★ ''
Good Morning, Vietnam'' - The Thief's first words at the beginning of this version of the film are: "Good Morning, Arabia!", a direct allusion to the
Robin Williams film.
★ ''
The Shining'' - At the end of this version, Phido's quote "Here's Phido!" is similar to the
Jack Nicholson quote "Here's Johnny!".
Trivia
★ Zigzag speaks mostly in rhyme throughout the entire film, while the other characters speak normally (the thief and Tack do not speak at all in the original version, except for one line for Tack at the very end, rumoured to have been voiced by
Sean Connery).
★ In the opening of the film as Zigzag enters the city, persons in the crowd include
Saddam Hussein and the Mullah Nasruddin.
★ The songs ''She is More'', ''Am I Feeling Love?'', and ''Bom, Bom, Bom, Beem, Bom'' were added to the re-edited versions of the film by Miramax and Majestic Films, but were not present in the original production. The end credits for the Miramax version featured the songs ''It's So Amazing'', the short version of ''Bom, Bom, Bom, Beem, Bom'', and the
Arnold McCuller/
Andrea Robinson version of the song ''Am I Feeling Love?'', but the end credits for the Majestic Films version only featured the songs ''Bom, Bom, Bom, Beem, Bom'' (without most of the lyrics) and the
Arnold McCuller/
Andrea Robinson version of the song ''Am I Feeling Love?'' and the songs were replaced by original production music in the end credits for the original production.
★ The Mad Holy Old Witch was mostly removed from the re-edited version of the film by Miramax; only her one eye and her ghost were seen. The concept of her being Mighty One-Eye's fraternal twin sister was an added plot point that was not in the original film.
★ The Thief was a caricature of creator
Richard Williams.
★ Tack was modeled after silent film stars
Charlie Chaplin and
Harry Langdon.
★ In every version of the film except the workprint, in the scene where the dying messenger warns the king, the spike (from the flagpole) sticking out of his chest was removed. The same thing goes for any audio (or reference) of the Maiden from
Mombassa.
★ In the Nasruddin years, Phido's original name was "Brutay", a reference to the historical
Brutus who betrayed
Julius Caesar. As well, Zigzag's comment "You, too, Phido?" is much like the famous "Et tu, Brute?"
★ Animation cels of the Mad Holy Old Witch were used in Richard Williams' book "
The Animator's Survival Kit".
★ Although both DVDs of the Miramax version of this film are
pan and scan-only DVDs, the widescreen version can still be seen on
Google Video, as well as the Recobbled and Majestic Films cuts.
★ The end credits for the Majestic Films version of the film features deleted scenes from the original version featuring the Thief.
★ In Richard Williams' script for the film, the climax was even longer (and slightly different): After the collapse of the War Machine, Zigzag, at Mighty One-Eye's goading, conjures a larger-than-life
Oriental dragon (which dwarfed even the War Machine), which was about to flatten Tack, who once again trusted on his tack to bring down the dragon, revealing it to be nothing more than an inflatable balloon (filled with acrid fumes, which permeated the atmosphere and made everyone cough, even Mighty One-Eye; That can still be heard in the workprint). Enraged, Mighty One-Eye was going to kill a frightened Zigzag just before meeting his own doom (the same one as in the workprint), but Zigzag was pursued by Tack, Yum Yum and the Brigands and hid from them just before inadvertently meeting ''his'' own doom (also in the workprint). Although there were some production designs of the scene with the Oriental dragon, it was unfortunately never made, as it was found to be too difficult to animate.
★ This was the first animated film by Miramax to ever use a
Miramax Family Films logo; previous animated films by Miramax only used a plain-old
Miramax Films logo.
★ Although the second DVD of the Miramax version of this film was the same DVD as the first one; this DVD featured a video game trailer for ''
Arthur and the Invisibles'', a theatrical trailer for ''
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker'', and video trailers for ''
Lassie'', ''
Hoodwinked'', and ''
Doogal''.
References
1. Briney, Daniel. 21 August 2001. "The Thief and the Cobbler: How the Best Was Lost, 1968-1995" at ToxicUniverse. Accessed 12 November 2006.
2. http://dvdfile.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5755&Itemid=3
3. http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30666?moriartys_dvd_blog_a_word_about_that_new_thief__the_cobbler_disc
4. King Bitsy: Other DVD Awards for 2006
5. http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/006438.html
6. http://www.cartoonbrew.com/archives/2006_06.html#001848
See also
★
List of animated feature films
★
List of films recut by studio
★ ''
The Overcoat'', an upcoming
Russian animated film with a similarly long gestation time (1981-????)
★ ''
Le Roi et l'oiseau'', a French film with a similar history
External links
★
★
Eddie Bowers' The Thief and the Cobbler Page – A website about Richard Williams' ''The Thief and the Cobbler'' with articles, clips from the workprint, pictures, and the history of the film.
★
A ''Thief and the Cobbler'' Review – by Richard Scheib
★
"The Theft of the ''Thief''" – An article about the film, by Harry McCracken
★
Scans of original artwork and posters from the film
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