The Thief And The Cobbler
by Richard Williams
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DVD details
Actor: Donald Pleasence, Jennifer Beals, Kevin Dorsey, Matthew Broderick, Toni ColletteDirector: Richard Williams
Composer: Robert Folk
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Collector's Edition, Color, Digital Sound, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 73 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-11-21
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Miramax Family Films
DVD Reviews of The Thief And The Cobbler
DVD Review: Not Written For Adults!
Summary: 5 Stars
Honestly people, at least half of these reviews are negative only because this cartoon is being shown as a -cartoon-. My brother and I grew up on this movie, we both adore it. "Woman with a baby!" *CLANG* "Hmmm... babies don't go clang." Imminently quotable, always good for a laugh and heck, it's a kids cartoon with some of the very first "grown-up" jokes in it. "Just like Les Mis" being my favorite. This is a great movie for young and old alike, and full of interesting conversation and optical illusion. Buy this movie and open up your children to sarcasm. This is such a fun movie and I still love it to this day.DVD Review: The Thief and the Cobbler
Summary: 4 Stars
Just as wonderful as I remebered. The colors are spectacular (would be even better in HD), cute songs and the thief is hilarious!DVD Review: 1-star not for what the movie is, but what it became
Summary: 1 Stars
When I was studying animation at college, we had the honor of Don Bluth coming to speak after a showing of "The Secret of NIMH". One of the things he said was that the problem with modern animated films is that instead of writing a good story there is more effort on making corny jokes or pop-culture references every second, thereby turning the movie into an hour-and-a-half sitcom. This quote perfectly came to mind as I watched this, the "official" release of Richard Williams' life work.
Another reviewer labeled this as "The Magnificent Ambersons of Animation", and that is a very, very fitting title for this. If you can, go and find the fan-edited version which does its best to remain faithful to Williams' original idea. Then try watching this, and see how - after Williams had passed away - the studio butchered and ruined it, apparently never realizing just what a beautiful piece of artwork they had.
In the original story, in a mystical (and furthermore, mythological) Arabian city, we are presented with two heroes: the Thief and the cobbler named Tack. The Thief is silent the entire film, while Tack only speaks the last line of the film. Due to a series of circumstances, Tack gets thrown into the palace dungeon and falls in love with the Princess Yum-Yum while the Thief steals the three golden balls prophesied to defend the city from destruction. Behind all this the wizard Zig Zag (wonderfully voiced by Vincent Price, who steals the show) seeks to gain control of the city and force the princess to be his bride. When the golden balls are lost and the city finds itself under siege by the warring tribe called the One-Eyes, it is up to Tack, Yum-Yum, the Thief, and an assortment of other characters to save the day. This version of the film is fun, exciting, and has a style all its own. The climax (a good ten to fifteen minutes) is very well done. The entire film is a testament to good animation, particular those scenes involving Zig Zag.
The studio edit, which is unfortunately the only one you can buy in stores, is a travesty to the original version. Inserted are goofy songs that we didn't need, changed are the voice actors with celebrities we could've cared less about, taken out are several hilarious gags, the city is identified as Baghdad (which is kinda ironic now), and sliced away are many well-done scenes involving the ingenuity of Tack and the Thief. Added in are also waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many narrations. Tack now speaks through out the entire film, not only speaking to other characters but also narrating the entire movie as if we're too stupid to understand what was going on. Worst yet, the Thief has a voice-over, and it couldn't be any more senseless! The Thief's mouth doesn't move the entire film, yet he still speaks almost every time he's on the screen, and by gosh he WON'T SHUT UP! It doesn't stop here though - not only do the people talk, but the animals too. Given similar treatment as the Thief, the studio editors gave voice actors to Fido, Zig Zag's buzzard, and the alligators Zig Zag later tames. I mean, seriously folks, would people have walked away from the movie saying, "Wow, that was almost a good movie, too bad they didn't make the buzzard talk." When Disney's studio was making "Snow White", they had originally voiced Dopey but soon realized the character worked better pantomiming - why wasn't this wisdom seen with the studio editors?
To emphasize how bad and pointless these voice-over style acting was, there were several points in the movie where I glanced at the bottom right of the screen to see if there was a guy and two robots sitting there. All the wit and wonder of the original story is lost when nobody except the film's distributors seems to be taking it seriously.
Again, I would suggest finding the fan-edit of this movie out there. It exists and is easy to find, and I can guarantee you will enjoy it a thousand times more than this drivel.
DVD Review: Bizarre and hilarious! Love it, love it!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie gets funnier every time I watch it. There are many "one liners" that have become standard in our household. The thief is so well done! DVD Review: not as good as i remember it
Summary: 3 Stars
the quality of the picture is not that great in this dvd. there are barely any special features. and it's moring boring than what i remembered.
Description of The Thief And The Cobbler
The film tells a story which takes place in an oriental city from the tales of thousand and one night. It covers the friendship of a thief knowing all tricks to survive in the city and a poor cobbler/shoemaker who has to struggle in order to live.Directed by Oscar-winning animator Richard Williams (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), The Thief and the Cobbler began production in 1968, so it actually predates 1992's Aladdin. Also known as The Princess and the Cobbler and Arabian Knight, Fred Calvert completed the film after Williams lost the rights to his dream project. Narrated by Matthew Broderick (replacing Sean Connery) as Tack the Cobbler, the CinemaScope-shot story takes place in ancient Baghdad. When Tack upsets Zigzag the Vizier (Vincent Price), the wizard drags him off to the royal castle, where Princess Yum Yum (Jennifer Beals) falls for the bashful boy and saves him from execution. Unfortunately, Zigzag plans to marry the princess in order to succeed her father, King Nod (Clive Revill). The Thief (Jonathan Winters), meanwhile, is more interested in gold than love and takes off with the protective orbs topping the palace. Together Tack and Yum Yum attempt to retrieve them in order to prevent Zigzag and the One-Eye army from conquering the city. Despite the fanciful hand-drawn animation, which borders on Yellow Submarine-style surrealism--a film with which Williams was involved--the finished full-screen product represents a compromised version of his original widescreen concept. The added dialogue and songs, which have a generic bent, make for an awkward fit with Williams' more distinctive work. Rife with intricate patterns and M.C. Escher-like optical effects, his intended audience was adults rather than kids. Still, The Thief and the Cobbler is a must-see for the inventive material that remains. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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