The Thief and the Cobbler: The Recobbled Cut
Perhaps the most heartbreaking story in the history of cinema is that of the animated film "The Thief and the Cobbler." Richard Williams (animation director on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit") spent a quarter of a century trying to independently make the greatest animated film of all time, enlisting numerous professionals from the the golden age of animation to work on it and tackling seemingly endless commercial and television work to help finance it. Unfortunately, Williams has a reputation for being a perfectionist, which proved to be his undoing. Every tiny detail had to be just right, and if it wasn't, he'd have entire sequences re-animated. Didn't help matters that there wasn't a definitive story so, as the years passed, characters and events were dropped and/or revised, rendering previously completed segments unusable. Presuming Williams' film would never be completed, Disney eventually ripped him off and beat him to the punch, blatantly basing their designs and character set-up for "Aladdin" on "The Thief and the Cobbler."
Once he finally got some major financial backing, Williams ran over budget and behind schedule and was fired (which was a repeat of his experience on "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure"). The movie was passed on to Fred Calvert, who added horrendously vapid musical numbers (though the Brigands' song is kinda catchy and was clearly animated by remaining members of Williams' crew), significantly altered the story, made the mute Cobbler talk and produced pretty cheap animation. Calvert's cut, "The Princess and the Cobbler," was a drastic change, but it wasn't terrible -- however, that version was only released in Australia.
Here in the USA the film was released in 1994 by Miramax, a subsidiary of Disney. It would've reflected poorly on Disney if "The Thief and the Cobbler" had been a hit and the public realized they'd ripped it off, so they further destroyed the movie by cutting even more of Williams' footage, adding in moronic references to "Aladdin" (to make "Thief" seem like the ripoff) and hiring comedian Jonathan Winters to dub the most witless and inane dialog imaginable for the character of The Thief. Barely released under the title "Arabian Knight," the film was buried and quickly forgotten. Well, almost.
Flash forward around a decade. Since "The Thief and the Cobbler" had been in production for so many years -- and so many people had worked on it -- it became legendary in the animation world. Countless stories and materials associated with the film began to surface, so a young filmmaker named Garrett Gilchrist took it upon himself to try to piece the movie back together as Williams had intended. Using videos, DVDs, the Japanese laserdisc, a tiny copy of the workprint downloaded from eMule and even redoing some of the animation himself, Gilchrist put together what he called "The Recobbled Cut" and debuted it on the internet. It became a sensation amongst animation buffs.
There was an attempt to see Williams' vision completed -- which was even supported by Walt's brother Roy Disney (who was oblivious to the whole "Arabian Knight" debacle at the time) -- but ultimately it didn't happen... and since Williams has disowned the film, it most likely never will. Despite deserved acclaim for Gilchrist's restoration, the movie still remains something of an underground cult film, having had little mainstream exposure (other than its bastardized releases, which were pretty rightfully panned and ignored).
Time for my take... Exactly as Disney intended, when "Arabian Knight" came out I absolutely thought it was an "Aladdin" ripoff. Boasting Vincent Price's final performance (though his vocals were actually recorded in the late '60s), I wanted to see it but decided to wait for video... which never came. The "Arabian Knight" version was issued on video later under the film's original title but I didn't connect the dots (I saw the box and thought it was yet another "Aladdin" ripoff) and it wasn't until years later that I learned the whole tragic story when I discovered Gilchrist's version. I didn't initially believe claims that the Miramax version was unwatchable... until I finally saw it. Suffice it to say I'm never wasting another 70 minutes of my life on that trainwreck.
"The Recobbled Cut," on the other hand, is utterly hypnotic eye candy. If the movie had been finished and released in the '70s, it would be considered a classic on par with "Fantasia." We're talking hardcore stoners' delight here. When the movie was handed to Calvert, it was deemed too slow to hold the attention of youngsters, which is why huge segments were dropped and songs were added. Well, I have two sets of nieces and nephews all under the age of 10 -- each with 21st century ADD videogame mentality -- and they're all utterly captivated by "The Recobbled Cut." Matter of fact, I can't think of ANY other movie that holds their attention from beginning to end, time and time again. To me, that speaks volumes about the movie that should have been.
"The Recobbled Cut" is available all over the internet from YouTube to The Pirate Bay. If you like old-fashioned animation (with a Road Runner vibe), it's well worth 96 minutes of your life.. and there aren't words to describe how incredible Gilchrist's restoration is (particularly having seen the atrocious Miramax cut).
LINKS
You Tube (The Re-Cobbled Cut)
Orange Cow Productions (Gilchrist's Site)