History WesternAnimation / TheThiefAndTheCobbler

* {{Mondegreen}}: The little song from Zigzag's advisers announcing his presence in the original cut is hard to make out, leading to a lot of these.

* CaptainObvious: Much of the dialogue in the Miramax version is this, mainly because it was half-heartedly thrown in for the sole purpose of FillingTheSilence. For example, we know Tack's in love with the princess because he makes her face out of thread in a very effective scene. Yet [[ExecutiveMeddling somebody]] decided he also needed to sing a horrible AwardBaitSong about it!

* DerangedAnimation: Taken UpToEleven with the bizarre perspective on backgrounds, some grotesque character designs, and almost unnaturally smooth animation throughout.

* GoodColorsEvilColors: The Golden City (or [[ExecutiveMeddling Baghdad]], depending on which version you're most familiar with) centering on bright colors like {{gold and white|AreDivine}}, while the One-Eyes are [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver black and red]].

* LimitedAnimation: Completely averted. Despite the [[DoingItForTheArt complete stylization]] which was original for the time he began work on it, Williams painfully crafted it cel-by-cel at a high frame-rate.

* NeverMessWithGranny: [=YumYum=]'s nanny, UpToEleven. When the Thief tries to steal some bananas from her, she proceeds to beat the crap out of him and ''barely even looks at him while she does it.''

* PinballProtagonist: Tack, who spends the first two-thirds of the movie largely being dragged around by other characters. He undergoes no notable character development or HiddenDepths, which makes his burst of heroism in the movie's final act all the more surprising by [[AssPull how unexpected it is]].

* RuleOfAnimationConservation: Averted, in that money was [[DoingItForTheArt no concern]] for Williams. A lot of stuff that didn't need to be was animated. His rule of thumb was more like: "If it can be animated, it ''will'' be, regardless of how difficult or unnecessary it is."

* UnmovingPlaid: Pretty much any scene with tiled floors. This is due to the style being based on ancient Persian miniature paintings, which did not have correct perspective. Averted whenever the animators [[DoingItForTheArt decided to rotate the scene around]]. [[http://thethief1.blogspot.com/2008/07/dying-messenger-part-2.html This actually caused some problems]] with the scene where a messenger rides across a courtyard, with a panning camera.

* [[RampageFromANail Rampage From a Tack]]: A role reversal of this trope, in that everything falls apart because the tack is put IN the device.

* ToothyBird: [[spoiler: When Phido eats Zigzag's head he sports a beak full of serrated teeth]].

%%* ClothingDamage: Tack gets some during the climax.

%%* DerangedAnimation: Taken UpToEleven in the original version.

%%* GravityIsAHarshSeamstress: Happens to the Thief in one scene.

%%* HeroicMime: Tack.

%%* MindScrew: The chase scene is this.

%%* PinballProjectile: The Cobbler's tack, in the final major scene.

%%* SpikesOfVillainy: The War Machine of the One-Eyes.

%%* StickyFingers: The Thief.

-->-- '''Creator/RichardWilliams''', before losing rights to his film

Now satisfied with ''Thief'', Williams has since moved on to another attempt at a personal masterpiece, an anthology film with the working title [[LampshadeHanging "I Hope I Live To Finish This"]], the first part of which, ''Prologue'', debuted in 2015. Unfortunately, since Richard Williams succumbed to cancer on August 17, 2019, it’s likely we won’t see anymore of that project.

* AdultFear: In the films climax, the King has a major breakdown when he spots his daughter standing ''right in the path of the One Eyes war machine'' and realizes there is nothing he can do to help her.

* RuleOfAnimationConservation: Averted, in that money was [[DoingItForTheArt no concern]] for Williams. A lot stuff that didn't need to were animated. His rule of thumb was more like: "If it can be animated, it ''will'' be, regardless of how difficult or unnecessary it is."

* SceneryPorn: The original cut has this in full since the creator spent over quarter of a century working on each frame of animation.

* SuddenlySpeaking: The Thief (by Creator/JonathanWinters) and Phido (by Eric Bogosian) in the Miramax version. Technically, Phido spoke in squawks provided by Donald Pleasence, and he was still dubbed in anyway.

** Zigzag was designed by Williams to be an unflattering caricature of two people he particularly hated (with a bit of Vincent Price added in to make the character funnier)--which was revealed to be the films original producers (during its initial Nasruddin stage), Omar Ali Shah and his brother Idries Shash, who were discovered to be embezzling money from Richards' studio and, after being sacked from the project, had the nerve to demand ownership of the Nasrudin character and 50% of the films profits after it would be completed, and even sent a ''death threat'' to Williams studio (about mailing a bomb, to be exact) when he refused to comply with their demands.

** Similarly, in both the Recobbled cut and the ''Princess and the Cobbler'' cut, [[spoiler: Mighty One-Eye is killed by his own abused slave girls. [[KarmicDeath In the former, they chant "Throne! Throne!" and crush him to death by sitting on him, revenge for One-Eye always using them as a throne.]] In the latter cut, they just toss him off a cliff.]]

* IntangibleTheft: The Thief steals the MacGuffin from a collapsing death machine, the words [[PaintingTheFourthWall "The End" at the end of the movie]] and ''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou the film from the projector!]]

** The One Eye Leader's fate is left unanswered in the Miramax version, thus it is assumed he manage to return without being punished for his actions.
* KarmicDeath: Zig Zag is [[spoiler: devoured by the crocodiles he promised a grand meal to]]

* NaturalSpotlight: There's a subtle one when Tack the Cobbler is seen the first time, shining on him. It's probably used to signify his pure nature. Particularly egregrious as is seems to come through the ''ceiling''.

* NotDistractedByTheSexy: The Thief comes across [=YumYum=] bathing and only says "Oh, [it's only] a naked lady." But he gets excited to see she has a jewel encrusted golden scratcher.

Now satisfied with ''Thief'', Williams has since moved on to another attempt at a personal masterpiece, an anthology film with the working title [[LampshadeHanging "I Hope I Live To Finish This"]], the first part of which, ''Prologue'', debuted in 2015. Unfortunately, since Richard Williams succumbing to cancer on August 17, 2019, it’s likely we won’t see anymore of that project.

A documentary film about Richard's long troubled production of the film, called ''Persistence of Vision'', was released in October 2012 to much positive reception.

'''As of February 2015, at least one of the videos in the Recobbled Cut has been removed from Website/YouTube on copyright grounds from Miramax. The Recobbled Cut can still be found on Vimeo.'''

* BloodlessCarnage: Apparently, being impaled with a flagpole and a dozen of arrows doesn't make you bleed.

* BringNewsBack: The sole survivor of a massacre rides for miles with a volley of arrows on his back and arrives at the palace, living just long enough to say the name of the BigBad: "One... Eye!”
* BulletSparks: Not an actual gun bullet, but a nail slung at an unrealistic speed ricochets with visible sparks, as the start of an epic ChainReactionDestruction.

* DeusExMachina: The thumb tack [[spoiler:Zigzag]] steps on that [[spoiler:sends him falling right into a random pit in the ground, where he’s eaten alive by Phido and the crocodiles]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: Zigzag has Tack arrested, thrown in jail and almost fed to a vulture just because he accidentally stepped on a tack fell from him by accident. And that's only because [=YumYum=] convinced her father to spare him; Zigzag ''wanted'' to have him beheaded.

** The Thief's first scene has him sneak up behind an old woman, and prepare to pick her pocket...[[spoiler: ''and then she tosses him around like a ragdoll.'']]. It firmly establishes both [[ButtMonkey his]] [[TheChewToy role]] [[NeverMessWithGranny and]] [[CoolOldLady hers]] for most of the film.

Williams never oversaw the film's completion: he wound up missing the production deadline with the film fifteen minutes short of completion and, as per contractual obligations, [[ExecutiveMeddling was fired from his own pet project]] 28 years after he had began it. The project was then farmed out to an overseas company to finish the last fifteen minutes, prompted by competition with a [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} notoriously similar upcoming film]], and was [[{{Macekre}} severely edited]] upon completion, turning it from an artful EpicMovie into a LighterAndSofter Disney-esque musical ([[DramaticIrony some overseas-edited editions of the film even advertise it as the]] [[TheMockbuster Mockbuster]] [[DramaticIrony version of]] ''[[DramaticIrony Aladdin]]''). It was given a small, [[BoxOfficeBomb ultimately unsuccessful]] theatrical release by Miramax under the title ''Arabian Knight'' in 1995.

Now satisfied with ''Thief'', Williams has since moved on to another attempt at a personal masterpiece, an anthology film with the working title [[LampshadeHanging "I Hope I Live To Finish This"]], the first part of which, ''Prologue'', debuted in 2015.

A few years after the release of the Miramax cut, Williams' personal workprint of the film, which had been smuggled out by some employees after he had been fired, appeared on the internet under the name ''The Recobbled Cut'' under the supervision of Garrett Gilchrist. The cut contains virtually all of the completed animation, as well as pencil tests and storyboards, to create as close an approximation as possible to Williams' original vision, allowing it to finally be seen by the masses. It has developed an extremely strong cult following among animators and animation fans, and has topped many "Greatest Unfinished Films" lists, as a veritable holy grail in the medium of hand-drawn animation. It has seen been passed around all over the internet, sometimes in drastically different forms.

'''As of February 2015, at least one of the videos in the Recobbled Cut has been removed on copyright grounds from Miramax. The Recobbled Cut can still be found on Vimeo.'''

* AlmostDeadGuy: A messenger who has been shot with many arrows crawls back to the Golden City and coughs "One-Eye!" to the king before he dies.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny:
** An unintentional one from the Creator/MiramaxFilms version. After hearing [[LullDestruction non-stop narration from Tack The Cobbler]], we get this line from him after Princess Yum Yum leaves the room with her Grandmother: ''"Why don't I ever talk when it matters?"''
** The Miramax edit also adds astonished crowd gasps and laughs as Zigzag tries to appeal to Mighty One Eye, making it sound like his vicious army is genuinely impressed by his trickery.

* CaptainObvious: Much of the dialogue in the Miramax version is this, mainly because it was half-heartedly thrown in for the sole purpose of LullDestruction. For example, we know Tack's in love with the princess because he makes her face out of thread in a very effective scene. Yet [[ExecutiveMeddling somebody]] decided he also needed to sing a horrible AwardBaitSong about it!

** [[spoiler: Princess [=YumYum=]'s backscratchers were stolen by the Thief early on in the film. When the Thief is about to face dismemberment as punishment for trying to steal something, he slyly grabs the backscratchers and shakes them violently, giving the illusion that they cut off his actual arms.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the into to ''The Recobbled Cut,'' the narrator is accompanied by a pair of hands over a CrystalBall. When the narrator explains that the city will be saved by "the simplest soul... with the simplest of things," the hands cover the ball and the negative space between them forms the shape of a tack.

** [[spoiler: The entire one-eye army is killed by their huge war machine.]]
** [[spoiler: Zigzag spends the whole film abusing his pet vulture Phido. Phido, in keeping with this trope, is the one to finish him off.]]

* LullDestruction: The Calvert cut added narration from an older Tack to the film, while the Miramax cut gave him full voice acting and narration from Matthew Broderick. The Miramax cut also added many more voices, including an inner monologue for the Thief (done by Jonathan Winters). In addition, many characters, such as [=YumYum=], have significantly more dialog added. The original intention by Williams was to create several purely physical characters for the animators to have total freedom with, and Calvert and Miramax added dialog.

* [[RampageFromANail Rampage From A Tack]]: A role reversal of this trope, in that everything falls apart because the tack is put IN the device.

* SensoryAbuse: Some of the backgrounds in the palace can fall into this -- especially since the checkered backgrounds and black&white patterns move ''fast'' as Tack and the thief chase each other, resulting in flashing lights.

* ShoutOut: Several. For instance, Princess Yum Yum is named after ''Theatre/TheMikado''[='s=] main female character of the same name.

** In the Miramax version, the last we see of Zigzag's henchmen is an odd scene where he ambiguously threatens them, and it looks almost as if he stabs them in the face the second after the camera fades out. In the recobbled cut, they appear briefly to show shock and remorse for what's happened, and it's clear that Zigzag was simply scaring them in the earlier scene.

->"[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmurFiOGJ_E But because I sing with singiness, the dreams I dream I’ll dream. I heart love.]]"

* {{Adorkable}}: The Cobbler, natch.

''The Thief and the Cobbler'' (also ''The Princess and the Cobbler'', or ''Arabian Knight'', depending on which version you're watching) is a legendary attempt by master animator Creator/RichardWilliams to create the greatest animated feature ever. At 31 years, it held the record for the longest production time for a motion picture-- much of it spent in DevelopmentHell-- beating out the previous record holder, Creator/LeniRiefenstahl's ''Tiefland'', which took 20 years to make.[[note]] It has since been surpassed by Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Film/TheOtherSideOfTheWind'', which took 48 years from the first frames of film to the final cut. Unlike Williams, Welles wasn't able to enjoy the end result of his film emerging from DevelopmentHell, as he had died 33 years earlier.[[/note]] Williams envisioned the film as his personal masterpiece (in the traditional sense, as in "the piece you create when you've mastered your medium") and wanted to fill the entire movie with every technique and trick he had learned from the top animators of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, effectively putting on display the ultimate capabilities of hand-drawn animation. It is considered a lost treasure of [[WesternAnimation animation]], with many critics calling it the [[MissingEpisode greatest unfinished film of all time]].

''The Thief and the Cobbler'' (also ''The Princess and the Cobbler'', or ''Arabian Knight'', depending on which version you're watching) is a legendary attempt by master animator Creator/RichardWilliams to create the greatest animated feature ever. At more than 30 years, it held the record for the longest production time for a motion picture -- much of it spent in DevelopmentHell.[[note]] It has since been surpassed by Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Film/TheOtherSideOfTheWind'', which took 48 years from the first frames of film to the final cut. Unlike Williams, Welles wasn't able to enjoy the end result of his film emerging from DevelopmentHell, as he had died 33 years earlier.[[/note]] Williams envisioned the film as his personal masterpiece (in the traditional sense, as in "the piece you create when you've mastered your medium") and wanted to fill the entire movie with every technique and trick he had learned from the top animators of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, effectively putting on display the ultimate capabilities of hand-drawn animation. It is considered a lost treasure of [[WesternAnimation animation]], with many critics calling it the [[MissingEpisode greatest unfinished film of all time]].

Here's the plot: in a [[CityOfGold "golden city"]] set in a pseudo-Arabian land (although, in one of the versions, they decided to [[SmallReferencePools put it in Baghdad]]), there are [[PlotCoupon three golden balls]] atop "the highest minaret". Prophecy has it that if the balls are stolen, the city will fall, unless it is saved by the [[SimplemindedWisdom simplest of souls]]. The balls are stolen by a sneaky, nameless thief, just as a vicious race of one-eyed men (simply known as the One-Eyes) are about to attack the city. The King of the city sends his daughter, Princess [=YumYum=] ([[SincerityMode yes, that is her actual name]]), out to find a way to stop the encroaching army, and she takes along with her the hero of our story, a meek cobbler named Tack (who has begun to fall in love with the Princess and she with him) as a guide. They are followed along the way by the Thief, who's only in it for the loot.

Here's the plot: in a [[CityOfGold "golden city"]] set in a pseudo-Arabian land (although, in one of the versions, they decided to [[SmallReferencePools put it in Baghdad]), there are [[PlotCoupon three golden balls]] atop "the highest minaret". Prophecy has it that if the balls are stolen, the city will fall, unless it is saved by the [[SimplemindedWisdom simplest of souls]]. The balls are stolen by a sneaky, nameless thief, just as a vicious race of one-eyed men (simply known as the One-Eyes) are about to attack the city. The King of the city sends his daughter, Princess [=YumYum=] ([[SincerityMode yes, that is her actual name]]), out to find a way to stop the encroaching army, and she takes along with her the hero of our story, a meek cobbler named Tack (who has begun to fall in love with the Princess and she with him) as a guide. They are followed along the way by the Thief, who's only in it for the loot.

Here's the plot: in a [[CityOfGold "golden city"]] set in a pseudo-Arabian land (although, in one of the versions, they decided to [[SmallReferencePools put it in Baghdad]]), there are [[PlotCoupon three golden balls]] atop "the highest minaret." Prophecy has it that if the balls are stolen, the city would fall, unless it was saved by the [[SimplemindedWisdom simplest of souls]]. The balls are stolen by a sneaky, nameless thief, just as a vicious race of one-eyed men (simply known as the One-Eyes) are about to attack the city. The King of the city sends his daughter, Princess [=YumYum=] ([[SincerityMode yes, that is her actual name]]), out to find a way to stop the encroaching army, and she takes along with her the hero of our story, a meek cobbler named Tack (who has begun to fall in love with the Princess and she with him) as a guide. They are followed along the way by the Thief, who's only in it for the loot.

->''"The idea is to make the best animated film that has ever been made - there really is no reason why not."''

''The Thief and the Cobbler'' (also ''The Princess and the Cobbler'', or ''Arabian Knight'', depending on which version you're watching) is a legendary attempt by master animator Creator/RichardWilliams to create the greatest animated feature ever. At more than 30 years, it held the record for the longest production time for a motion picture - much of it spent in DevelopmentHell.[[note]] It has since been surpassed by Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Film/TheOtherSideOfTheWind'', which took 48 years from the first frames of film to the final cut. Unlike Williams, Welles wasn't able to enjoy the end result of his film emerging from DevelopmentHell, as he had died 33 years earlier.[[/note]] Williams envisioned the film as his personal masterpiece (in the traditional sense, as in "the piece you create when you've mastered your medium") and wanted to fill the entire movie with every technique and trick he had learned from the top animators of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, effectively putting on display the ultimate capabilities of hand-drawn animation. It is considered a lost treasure of [[WesternAnimation animation]], with many critics calling it the [[MissingEpisode greatest unfinished film of all time]].

Here's the plot: In a [[CityOfGold "golden city"]] set in a pseudo-Arabian land (although, in one of the versions, they decided to [[SmallReferencePools put it in Baghdad]]), there are [[PlotCoupon three golden balls]] atop "the highest minaret." Prophecy has it that if the balls are stolen, the city would fall, unless it was saved by the [[SimplemindedWisdom simplest of souls]]. The balls are stolen by a sneaky, nameless thief, just as a vicious race of one-eyed men (simply known as the One-Eyes) are about to attack the city. The King of the city sends his daughter, Princess [=YumYum=] ([[SincerityMode yes, that is her actual name]]), out to find a way to stop the encroaching army, and she takes along with her the hero of our story, a meek cobbler named Tack (who has begun to fall in love with the Princess and she with him) as a guide. They are followed along the way by the Thief, who's only in it for the loot.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Zigzag. He gives a massage and a concubine to king Nod, not out friendliness but to keep him busy. Also possibly the reason he speaks in rhyme - his words are pleasant on the outside but empty inside.

* FreezeFrameBonus: During the epic war machine sequence, at one point if you look VERY carefully, you'll notice that the Thief's flies ''actually have little robes on them'' - and their heads are the same as the Thief's.

* HumanPincushion: The dying soldier who rides to send a message to the king has been impaled with a flagpole and a dozen of arrows. ([[http://thethief1.blogspot.com/2008/07/dying-messenger-part-2.html#comments The animator actually added more arrows in later scenes]] - nobody noticed!)

* SensoryAbuse: Some of the backgrounds in the palace can fall into this - especially since the checkered backgrounds and black&white patterns move ''fast'' as Tack and the thief chase each other, resulting in flashing lights.

* LullDestruction: The Calvert cut added narration from an older Tack to the film, while the Miramax cut gave him full voice acting and narration from Matthew Broderick. The Miramax cut also added ''many'' more voices, including a constant inner monologue for the Thief (done by Jonathan Winters). In addition, many characters, such as [=YumYum=], have significantly more dialog added. The original intention by Williams was to create several purely physical characters for the animators to have total freedom with, something that Calvert and Miramax apparently decided was a problem because ViewersAreMorons.

Here's the plot: In a [[CityOfGold "golden city"]] set in a pseudo-Arabian land (although, in one of the versions, they decided to [[SmallReferencePools put it in Baghdad]]), there are [[PlotCoupon three golden balls]] atop "the highest minaret." Prophecy has it that if the balls are stolen, the city would fall, unless it was saved by the [[SimplemindedWisdom simplest of souls]]. The balls are stolen by a sneaky, nameless thief, just as a vicious race of one-eyed men (simply known as the One-Eyes) are about to attack the city. The King of the city sends his daughter, Princess [=YumYum=], out to find a way to stop the encroaching army, and she takes along with her the hero of our story, a meek cobbler named Tack (who has begun to fall in love with the Princess and she with him) as a guide. They are followed along the way by the Thief, who's only in it for the loot.

Williams never oversaw the film's completion: he wound up missing the production deadline with the film fifteen minutes short of completion and, as per contractual obligations, [[ExecutiveMeddling was fired from his own pet project]] 28 years after he had began it. The project was then farmed out to an overseas company to finish the last fifteen minutes, prompted by competition with a [[Disney/{{Aladdin}} notoriously similar upcoming film]], and was [[{{Macekre}} severely edited]] upon completion, turning it from an artful EpicMovie into a LighterAndSofter Disney-esque musical ([[DramaticIrony some overseas-edited editions of the film even advertise it as the]] [[TheMockbuster Mockbuster]] [[DramaticIrony version of]] ''[[DramaticIrony Aladdin]]''). It was given a small, [[BoxOfficeBomb ultimately unsuccessful]] theatrical release by Miramax under the title ''Arabian Knight'' in 1995.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Some have accused Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' of being a rip-off of this film. While the plots are dissimilar, the animators of ''Aladdin'' have admitted to watching clips of the film and basing their own character designs, such as the Genie and Jafar, off the ones in this film. Which later led to critics thinking ''this'' film, which was released later, was ripping it off. Of course, the Miramax cut did in fact rip off certain elements of ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' during the process of {{Disneyf|ication}}ying it.

* {{Homage}}: The Thief does his best [[Disney/{{Fantasia}} Chernobog impression]] with accompanying theme music when he dons a fake pair of wings.

** The Miramax cut has a small one towards {{Disney/Aladdin}} when Tack says "Who needs a genie when a tack will do the trick?"

* SuddenlyVoiced: The Thief (by Creator/JonathanWinters) and Phido (by Eric Bogosian) in the Miramax version. Technically, Phido spoke in squawks provided by Donald Pleasence, and he was still dubbed in anyway.

* BigNever: In the original, the King's reaction when Zigzag asks for [=YumYum=]'s hand in marriage in return for the golden balls. In later adaptations, he just laughs Zigzag off while still stating the big "Never!".