+ Q&A with Imogen Sutton
Produced over 25 years and inspired by Middle Eastern folk tales and Persian miniatures, The Thief and the Cobbler is a legendary work among animation fans. It was unreleased in the UK and neither of the two versions released in the US – The Princess and the Cobbler in 1993 and Arabian Knight in 1995 – was sanctioned by director Richard Williams. Following its sold-out screenings at BFI Southbank in 2014 and 2018, and to tie-in with the release of a new book (that he began, and which was completed by his wife and producer Imogen Sutton), we present only the third UK screening of the film in its original 1992 workprint version.
Imogen Sutton will be signing the new book Adventures in Animation: How I Learned Who I Learned From and What I Did With It (co-written with Richard Williams) following the event.
bfi.org.uk
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 centre 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…
‘Animation among the most glorious and lively ever created!’ –
The New York Times
For the first time, you can now enjoy the original version of this lost animation classic, written and directed by three-time Academy Award winning animator Richard Williams (animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Nearly 30 years in the making, a labour of love by a team of animation greats, this was to be the masterpiece of Williams’ career, perhaps the most ambitious independent animated film ever conceived.
The film was the inspiration for Disney’s film Aladdin, which proved to be its undoing. After over two decades of work, the film was taken away from Williams when he couldn’t meet his deadline. It was eventually bought by Disney, recut and destroyed. It has never been seen the way it was intended to be seen… until now. Based on Williams’ original workprint, missing scenes have been restored using storyboards and unfinished animation. Restored to its true form, this lost classic has finally been found.
Workprint premiere press notes
Prologue
An exceptional Oscar and BAFTA-nominated pencil study, detailing the combat between soldiers in ancient Greece.
THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER: A MOMENT IN TIME
Director: Richard Williams
Production Companies: Allied Film-makers, Miramax Films
Executive Producer: Jake Eberts
Producers: Richard Williams, Imogen Sutton
Screenplay: Richard Williams, Margaret French
Director of Photography: John Leatherbarrow
Master Animator: Ken Harris
Editor: Peter Bond
Music: Robert Folk
Voice Cast
Matthew Broderick (Tack, the cobbler)
Vincent Price (Zigzag, Grand Vizier)
Jennifer Beals (Princess Yum Yum)
Jonathan Winters (the thief)
Clive Revill (King Nod)
Toni Collette (nurse/good witch)
Joan Sims (witch)
Kevin Dorsey (Mighty One-Eye)
Eric Bogosian (Phido)
Stanley Baxter (Gofer/Slap)
Kenneth Williams (Goblet/Tickle)
Clinton Sundberg (dying soldier)
Windsor Davies (Roofless)
Frederick Shaw (Goolie)
Thick Wilson (Sergeant Hook)
Eddie Byrne (Hoof)
Peter Clayton, Geoffrey Golden, Derek Hinson, Declan Mulholland, Mike Nash, Tony Scannell, Dermot Walsh, Ramsay Williams (other brigands)
Bobbi Page (singing Princess Yum Yum)
USA 1992
90 mins
Digital
* Uncredited
PROLOGUE
Director: Richard Williams
UK 2015
6 mins
Digital
In association with AMPAS and Faber Books
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
Questions/comments? Contact the Programme Notes team by email