The Thief and the Cobbler (1995)
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 golden 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.
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I am reviewing the fan-edit of the film I was shown somewhere by someone. I'm told That version is easy to find and could be on YouTube right this second, honestly I haven't checked. Anyway, on to my review of the fan-edit, AKA Recobbled. Frankly, it was a huge mess and I was wondering why this even has a following.. until the end of it. The ending is simply awesome. Seeing the whole war-machine "battle" or sequence or whatever made the me glad I kept watching the film. I'll have see what the official DVD release looks like. And there is even a documentary about this fan-edit from what I'm told. But I have to be honest with you, the fan-edit just jam packs everything into it. It was like they threw in every scrap, drawing or whisper of the film they could find. It is basically a major non-edit. Anyway, the fan-edit of the film has its moments but it can not touch anything Disney put out in the 90s. So yeah, after I watch the DVD release I will revisit this review. For now, the fan edit gets a six out of ten. Honestly, this film had a lot of potential and that is why so many people are passionate about it.
It was just amazing. Why? Well, this Richard Williams work is so awesome that Disney, Richard Rich, Don Bluth, nor even Chuck Jones couldn't do it better than Richard Williams.The characters are the sneaky, greedy Thief. He doesn't hate himself. He just likes his job. He can steal anything, including the three golden balls. He reminds me of Jason from the Friday the 13th film series, except he doesn't kill anybody. You know what, fine, he reminds me of Scrat from the Ice Age film series.Then, there's the hero, Tack the cobbler, whose also a lonely, silent shoemaker. When I look at him, he reminds me of Jojo from Horton Hears a Who. The Blue Sky Studios version. Anyway, Tack finds his true love, Princess YumYum, who reminds me of Megara from Disney's Hercules, except not a Daria-like princess, nor a manly woman princess. Just a kind, innocent, sensitive princess.There's the villain, ZigZag, which is voiced by none other than the great Vincent Price. He says his sentences in rhymes, which is a cool concept for a villain. Along with him is his bird, Phido.There's a plot where the cobbler, Tack is getting arrested by ZigZag, however, King Nod, the Nanny, and Princess YumYum allowed Tack to be hired as a shoemaker. The thief tries to steal the shoe, and then, Tack chases the thief.But, the thief is willing to get the three golden balls. Meanwhile, King Nod had a vision that the One-Eyes are going to take over Baghdad. But, it was not a dream.ZigZag, however, was about to do his evil stuff... because he's a villain. Yes, don't ask. Anyway, the thief gets the balls, and then, the balls were dropped, as ZigZag gets the balls so he can give them to the one eye.Tack, the Nanny, and YumYum travel to fight the One-Eyes. This results with the band of Brigand and the old hag witch.Then, they battle, with the Thief getting the balls back, and trapped in the fire and in the battle for his wild ride.Tack, the nanny, and YumYum defeated ZigZag and the one-eyes, as they get the balls back to King Nod.This has got to be the greatest animated classic ever! Really! In fact, there's a bootlegged fan DVD of it restored with classical music playing. This could be the best bootlegged fan DVD ever.FINAL VERDICT (for the original, adult-oriented, uncut, better-than-sex version): 10/10!Now, it's been 3 decades in the production, and of course, it was about to be released in 1992 for Warner Bros., but ended up unreleased due to Disney's release of Aladdin.So, Fred Calvert completed The Thief and the Cobbler as fast as he can, and of course, he alienated the lost, unfinished, animated masterpieces of all time.This results in The Princess and the Cobbler, released in the UK, Australia, and South Africa in 1994 by Allied Filmmakers (those that are responsible for the awful 1993 movie, Super Mario Bros. (based on the popular NES/SNES game) and Tim Burton's produced stop-motion film, James and the Giant Peach), and they call it, The Princess and the Cobbler.This is mediocre. It added '90s pop-like songs from characters that are rejects from either Richard Rich films or Don Bluth films. They do keep the original Vincent Price voice. Notice that even though the Thief isn't talking in this version like the original version, he only screams, grunts, and gasps.Overall, this is not all the way as good as the original.FINAL VERDICT (for the Allied Filmmakers version): 5/10Now, in 1995, one year after that version was released in Australia, UK and South Africa, Miramax used that version, but they called it Arabian Knight, and... oh my god! What am I doing? Why am I reviewing the Weinsteins' version? WHY?!? Well, here we go.This one is brain dead. In fact, they added the inappropriate voice of Mathew Broderick. What?!? However, they do keep the Vincent Price voice, so I'll give Miramax a bit of a credit. Then, there's the Thief, and what have they done? They made the Thief TALK in this film... IN HIS MIND! But, the thief isn't the only one, the alligators and Phido also talk in their thoughts. What, the director of Homeward Bound took over the production?! And of course, the montage, and the great parts were all distorted and cut-out. That's a very generic idea for Miramax! Overall, it sucks! It's worse than Disaster Movie, Batman & Robin, Catwoman, High School Musical, Superman IV: Quest for Peace, Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen, and every single Uwe Boll movie ever made.FINAL VERDICT (for the Miramax version): 0/10!!!So please, watch the original version. You may like it. In fact, a long time ago, Roy E. Disney was to restore the original version. So there has to be hope! Maybe.
I defy anyone to dislike this film. It is colorful, beautifully animated, hilarious, and musical, with plenty of scenes you will remember and love. And also I'm starting to love fantasy movies (animated or live action) set in Arabia. The casting for the film was brilliant! with the talents of :· Matthew Broderick...Tack, who was "Adult" Simba from Disney's The Lion King; · Jennifer Beals/Bobbi Page...Princess Yum Yum (speaking and singing), · Vincent Price...Zigzag,I love the talents of Vincent, I even have many of his films; · Jonathan Winters...The Thief and... · Clive Revill ... King Nod (YumYum's dad). I love Princess YumYum, she's one of my favorite Non-Disney Princesses. And I love her song "More Than This."
If you've seen the ORIGINAL VERSION, this is not true. Disney DID NOT originally help the creator of this movie. I don't know the entire movie, but if you go to www.thiefandthecobblar.com it includes a short biography of the man who originally began this project. I watched the original movie when I was VERY VERY little. You can NO LONGER PURCHASE IT ((if you can...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME...)) Although some minor video stores still carry it. The original, if found, was BEAUTIFUL and I must say, absolutely hilarious. No matter who watched it with me, it was always loved. Just this evening I watched the version I'm certain that you speak of. The dubbed version, I believe bought by Disney, is total CRAP. It hurt me to watch it. I don't even want to know what happened when they renamed it Arabian Knight. All I know is if you can find the original, it's an incredible animated masterpiece.