Animations from Richard Williams’ almost-finished masterpiece
The Thief and the Cobbler (Watch the movie here)Unofficially restored by Garrett Gilchrist
This animation was done using 100% hand-drawn, hand-coloured cels. Frame by frame. Part by part. ALL BY HAND. I REPEAT THERE IS ZERO CG NO COMPUTER GRAPHICS THIS IS ABSOLUTELY SOME OF THE GREATEST HAND-DONE 2D ANIMATION THAT WILL EVER GRACE THIS EARTH
(via impomaniac)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZibUpH-AME&list=PL18B0CA620B61D076&index=1
On September 19, 2013, The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut Mark 4 was released to Youtube and download by filmmaker Garrett Gilchrist. This painstaking frame-by-frame restoration of what was intended to be Richard Williams’ masterpiece represents the culmination of eight years of work and research, and took over two years to complete. Rare video and film sources were found and restored from all over the world, with sequences cleaned up and reconstructed in Photoshop, After Effects and Final Cut Pro, on a frame by frame basis. Entirely new shots and scenes were created to tell the story like never before. Done without any official assistance, it is perhaps the most complex and unusual restoration of a feature film ever attempted.
The first true Recobbled Cut was edited together in January 2006, at the request of one of the film’s original crew. Garrett Gilchrist had been a fan of the film for many years, but the would-be masterpiece only survived on very poor quality VHS bootlegs, as well as Arabian Knight and Princess and the Cobbler, versions of the film which didn’t come close to reflecting what Richard Williams intended. The idea was to edit together a watchable version which gave a better idea of what Williams had in mind. While the film had a cult status in animation circles, it was largely unknown to the general public. Gilchrist assumed that only about fifteen people would be interested in his edit of the obscure film. Instead, the Recobbled Cut became a cult film in its own right, being featured at Cartoon Brew, Mythbusters’ Tested.com, Cracked, The Nostalgia Critic, and in many film festival screenings, introducing it to a new generation on the internet with over a million Youtube views.
Eight years later, Gilchrist’s restorations and his continued work and research into the animated legacy of Richard Williams for The Thief Archive has made a serious impact into the way the film is perceived. While the “Arabian Knight” version of the film had sold itself as something of a joke, a bargain-basement, direct-to-video version of Aladdin, Gilchrist has worked hard since 2006 to present the film as a major animated work to be studied alongside classic films like Disney’s Fantasia. It also inspired a documentary film by Kevin Schreck, “Persistence of Vision.”
On December 10, 2013, Richard Williams screened his unfinished 1992 workprint of The Thief and the Cobbler publicly through the Academy in Los Angeles. This was the first ever public screening of the film, over twenty years after production famously shut down and nearly fifty years after the Thief character and his world were first conceived. Williams received a standing ovation and Gilchrist was there to shake his hand. Richard Williams, now eighty, is known as the three-time Academy Award winning animator of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and A Christmas Carol, and author of The Animator’s Survival Kit, which is considered the greatest instructional book ever written about how to animate. He has been called “The Animator’s Animator,” and The Thief and the Cobbler is, perhaps, the animator’s animated film. It contains some of the most complex hand-drawn animation ever attempted in any animated film, and is certainly the most ambitious independent animated production ever undertaken.
My name is Garrett Gilchrist, and at the moment I am hanging up my hat and calling The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut finished. Oh, there’s plenty more that could be done. There’s half a film’s worth of dirt and splices I could spend another year or two painting out. There’s missing music, missing credits, special effects and things we could redraw and fix. I could easily, and happily, keep on working on this for ages, as Richard did.
But there comes a time when you have to say, it’s good enough. No, not even good enough, but good. Excellent, actually. What this restoration accomplished, with the help of so many friends and talented colleagues, is quite unlike anything else I’ve ever seen the Internet age accomplish. We had no official support and I did it for no other reason than I liked the film and wanted people to see it, and it seemed like the right thing to do. It’s a work of art and I don’t regret a single moment of it.
Regardless of what happens from here on out, this film has had a happy ending, and shows that good art, good filmmaking, and good work will survive, in spite of the politics and personalities that can doom a film to big-screen obscurity.
Most people haven’t seen it, you know. Not this version, the version I spent two years restoring in HD. They’ve seen the old versions of the Recobbled Cut, which weren’t nearly as good. The war machine finale was viewed 760,717 times on Youtube.
And some spammer stole and posted my old version as the “Original Cut - Full Length!” and has 390, 503 views to date.
The actual, good, Mark 4 Recobbled Cut? That’s got 7,758 views as I’m writing this, for part one. By part 4 it’s 2,841 views.
I think we did something really special and different here, something that is as unique in terms of film restoration as The Thief and the Cobbler is unique in animation history.
I’d quite like people to see it. Tell your friends.
And to everyone who’s helped out and supported this film and me for the past eight years, thank you, thank you, a thousand times, thank you.
“It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas, and upon every grain of sand in the vast deserts, 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 prophesied 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 …”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZibUpH-AME&list=PL18B0CA620B61D076&index=1
IT’S HERE
modmad asked: I just have to say it; thank you. Thank you, we love you, thank you, we love you. The Thief and the Cobbler is one of the greatest pieces of artwork in cinematic history and it deserves this second chance. I've been lucky enough to see Mr Williams lecture twice, and you could see in the words that he didn't say how much the film meant to him. There are thousands of us out here who are just so, so grateful for this, so thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It’s hard to know what to say. What can I say, except thank you. Thank you all.
I bought a plane ticket the other day. A ticket to see Richard Williams present his cut of The Thief and the Cobbler for the first time ever in public, over twenty years after production shut down. And maybe that’s what this has all been leading up to, ever since making that first Recobbled Cut in 2006, or watching the film for the first time in 1998, or seeing the trailer in 1995, or first hearing about the film in 1989 …
I could only afford this due to the amazing generosity of 44 people, who donated a startling amount of money to make this possible. And I still don’t know what to say.
I was reluctant to ask for any kind of charity. But it was killing me that I couldn’t be there. I didn’t really expect that people would donate, but felt it couldn’t hurt to ask.
This isn’t the first time, either. People donated so that we could transfer the 35mm film of The Thief, Raggedy Ann and The Little Island in 2007, and again in HD for the Mark 4. With your help we’ve done amazing things, I think, and preserved Richard Williams’ legacy in a way that makes it freely accessible to the entire internet.
I wouldn’t have spent seven years building The Thief Archive, and two years editing The Recobbled Cut Mark 4, without your support. Knowing that there were people out there who cared and appreciated the hard work and care I put into all of this, it made all that time worthwhile. I couldn’t have done any of it without you. Without your help, your enthusiasm. Without you cheering me on. I’ve made friends, and felt I was making a legitimate contribution to cinema.
I don’t think of this as a “fan edit,” or any other reductive term you could apply. It was something that needed to happen. It happened. I made it happen, but all thanks to you.
I’ve met amazing people. Incredible, talented, brilliant animators. I’m not fit to shine their shoes, but I can shine this film.
It was Thanksgiving yesterday. I’ll be celebrating it tomorrow. I’ve had to distance myself from my family. I’ll spend it with friends, I suppose.
It’s a time to think about what you’re thankful for.
I am thankful for you.
I probably haven’t said that often enough.
Very few things in my life have gone the way I’d hoped. As a writer, artist, filmmaker, creative person, you’re always hoping that people will notice, and that your work will get the attention it deserves. It generally doesn’t. I am generally content to keep my head down and not overly promote or explain myself, putting years of my life into creative work that I believe is good but which very few people will ever see.
Dick Williams was and is one of the all-time geniuses of animation, and even with his fame and success and brilliance, in many ways his best work never got the attention and respect it deserved. I feel we managed to right a wrong here, in our small way. I’ve felt something changing in the past couple of years, with respect to the legacy of this film. I had heard rumors that Dick might be planning something. I’d hoped to be involved, but I knew that was unlikely.
In 2006 I made a little fanedit of The Thief and the Cobbler. I made it for myself, really, so that I could have a version of the film which was watchable and complete. I knew that almost no one on the forums where I was posting would have heard of the film. I assumed the edit would be seen by only about fifteen people. And I was fine with that. I did it because it was worth doing.
What surprised me, in the end, was not how many people saw it, but how much they cared - genuinely cared - in the very best sense of the word. How they understood what a crime had been committed upon this film, and how they wanted to see its tarnished legacy restored, and the film gain some respect in the history of animated cinema, as something more than a direct-to-video Aladdin knockoff.
Maybe this is it, then. Maybe this is the end of the road. Whatever Dick’s been up to, whatever he has planned, I’ll be there to see it in person. To meet the man, briefly. And I know that in a way you’ll all be there with me. This is a great moment for the film. A triumphant moment. And that triumph is yours too. Because you believed. You believed that good art, real art, art created with passion and a drive to innovate and do something better, is stronger than anything the business of entertainment might do to crush it. True art survives. And so do true artists. The Thief and the Cobbler exists. It happened. It survived.
I may never Recobble again. I’ve been working on Muppet stuff these past couple of months. Always restoring other people’s films when I ought to be making my own. I guess I was waiting to see what Dick would do, or announce.
I released the most complete Recobbled Cut Mark 4 in September. There’s a lot that’s still unfinished about it, but maybe it’s the last one. It probably isn’t, but it could be. For the first time, I honestly don’t know. I look forward to finding out.
Happy holidays.
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut Mark 4. A new restoration of the legendary unfinished film by the three-time Academy Award winning animator of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and A Christmas Carol. Richard Williams spent 23 years on the film. It was nearly completed when he was fired from the project.
My name is Garrett Gilchrist. In 2006 and 2008, I edited the Recobbled Cut Mark 1-3, which used different versions of the film and rare footage from all over the world to put together a watchable version of what was intended to be Richard Williams’ masterpiece.
You can watch the entire 2008 Mark 3 restoration at http://youtube.com/thethiefarchive along with hundreds of other videos from Richard Williams’ incredible animation career.
But the Mark 4 Restoration is much more complex. Thanks to donations from people like you, we’ve transferred over 30 minutes of 35mm film footage in full HD to get big screen quality. Incredibly complex editing unlike any fan restoration ever attempted has removed dirt, splices and damage and recreated shots the way Richard Williams intended. Thousands of frames have been cleaned up and fixed in Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and After Effects. Transitions from one source to another are seamless. New artwork. New composite shots from many different sources. Footage never seen before, and certainly not in this kind of quality.
This is an unofficial, not for profit restoration, to be completed and released in 2013.
Here is a 20 minute video showing some of the new and restored shots:
Here is an early rough cut of the first 15 minutes of the film.
(via cupboardgods)
THIS JOKE WAS NOT WORTH THE EFFORT I JUST PUT INTO IT
Attack on Titan. A Tack on Titan.
come on guys this stuff’s comedy gold here
exCUSE ME
JESUS CHRIST
oH MY GOD
(via amuseoffirebane)
WE NEED YOUR HELP.
Do you know about Richard Williams, the 3-time Academy Award winning animator of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and A Christmas Carol? Do you know about The Thief and the Cobbler, the film he spent 23 years making and intended to be his masterpiece? The film he was never allowed to finish?
Have you seen The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut, which attempts to restore Richard Williams’ original vision to this unfinished animated classic?
My name is Garrett Gilchrist. I edited the Recobbled Cut in 2006 (and 2008). I am editing a new “Recobbled Cut Mark 4” right now. I’ve thrown out everything from the previous versions and am starting from scratch with much better materials, including a much better workprint, some HD clips, previously unseen footage and even some new artwork. It’s truer to Richard Williams’ vision and already looks and feels amazing.
BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP.
In 2007, we transferred 49 minutes of extremely rare Thief and the Cobbler 35mm footage (21 minutes of which is used in the current Recobbled Cut), which includes all of The Thief inside the War Machine. The transfer was standard definition, cropped at the top and bottom, overbright and overblue, and left a lot to be desired. The quality is not up to today’s standards.
We are planning to remove splices, dirt and film damage and make this material look as good as it possibly can. To do this, we need a new full quality high definition transfer of these scenes.
Yes, we’re doing this. We need at least $1000 now to pay for the film to HD transfer.
This is a not for profit restoration.
This will be 20+ minutes of priceless Thief 35mm film footage in full HD quality for cleanup and screening. This is not trailer material - these are complete scenes, and they’re wonderful.
Many scenes of The Thief appear in full - being beat up by Nanny, going through the pipes, trying to steal the Golden Balls, trying to steal the emerald, getting his “hands” chopped off, and most impressively, every single shot of The Thief inside the War Machine.
Most of the Old Witch scene is here. There’s some very nice shots of Zigzag, part of the Cobbler/Thief chase scene, and so on and so on.
You can send donations via Paypal to tygerbug (at) yahoo.com, or message me for an address to send checks to. Please identify all donations as being for the Recobbled Cut.
Join us at Orangecow.org/board or the Recobbled Cut Group on Facebook.yeeeessss this needs to happen!
OH GOD.
Please Do this.
If you think Disney animation is the standard, You’ve ain’t seen Jack Shit.
Oh yeah, that’s a signal boost. Saw the recobbled cut years ago and it still makes my blood boil thinking about what the studios did to this movie.
MAJOR signal boost.
(via impomaniac)