I have to agree on that. The art is amazing, but the story feels as if Williams went about this like "I want to animate something, let's cobble together some quick story to hold it together". Seriously, this movie is a Cliché Storm in so many aspects...
And another thing I have to complain about... what is the deal with the sex jokes? I mean seriously... balls? Princess Yum Yum? One-Eye is coming? This feels really out of place in the movie, and it's something I would expect from a horny teenager, not from a 31 year old* animation veteran. What was he thinking?
- His age when he started working on the movie.
Even 31 year old animation veterans enjoy sex jokes.
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
I'd get that if these were at least clever sex jokes... but most of them felt like something more fit for a cheesy porno. Probably the most facepalm-inducing one was the storyboard where the Balls get into the Thief's suit and form the shape of, well, balls. What was originally supposed to be the target audience, again?
Adults. Richard Williams wanted to make an animated feature for adults.
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
Oh. Well then.
Though this makes me question even more why didn't he go with a more nuanced story. Unless people were more lenient back then and what today is considered painfully cliche, back then was the kind of story that keeps you on the edge of your seat and you keep wondering what happens next?
No, no, it wasn't; but the fact is, this was meant to be a more artistic animated film, for adults.
Much like, say, Fantasia, the animation is why you watch the Recobbled Cut.
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."Leave a Comment:
Beautiful but Hollow
I finally got the chance to see The Thief and the Cobbler (version 4 of the "Recobbled Cut"), to satiate my curiosity over this legend of animation. And, indeed, it is a tragedy that the movie was never completed — it is a richly animated thing of beauty, an unforgettable work of art that truly earns the A-word, where Richard Williams' love and sacrifice is evident in every scene, every step, and every gesture.
Unfortunately, for all the attention placed on the art, there's almost none placed into the story and the characters. Taken as a whole, Cobbler is a 90-minute Excuse Plot to take the viewer from one lavish scene to the next.
Consider Tack the Cobbler, who is now my go-to example of a Pinball Protagonist — for the first two-thirds of the movie, he's largely dragged around by other characters from one situation to the next. What little action he takes feels largely perfunctory, and he ends up being a Generic Guy — which makes his abrupt bout of (off-screen) heroism in the climax feel like an unexpected Ass Pull.
The other characters fare little better, most of whom are generic stereotypes with a single additional trait. King Nod is an ineffectual Sleepy Head with a touch of Papa Wolf, Princess YumYum is the Only Sane Woman who doesn't do anything beyond giving an infatuation excuse to drag Tack to the next scene, ZigZag is an Evil Chancellor who's simply evil For the Evulz, and Mighty One-Eye is a Paper Tiger whose mighty army is felled by the most beautifully animated set of Disaster Dominoes ever seen. The unnamed Thief is the closest person this movie has to an actual character, but even then he's simply a Cute Mute in the vein of Harpo Marx or The Tramp, who is destined to remain a Butt Monkey just to get him into another beautifully-animated escapade.
Don't get me wrong, this is a movie that's worth watching if you have even a modicum of interest in animated art or moviemaking. Just be prepared for what it is, a long string of truly lovely scenes, jaw-dropping animation, subtle slapstick, and a hackneyed Excuse Plot with vapid characters.