Culture: “The Thief and the Cobbler,” the saddest story in film history
- In the era of startup culture, there’s much to learn from Richard Williams. Williams, a brilliant, highly respected animator, had a crazy dream to build his own masterpiece, based loosely on Persian culture. Williams started the project in 1968 as a side-project on top of a bunch of other things, and later turned his skill into a gig as animation director for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” which won him a bunch of Oscars. That’s where the trouble began.
- losing a projectThe film, built around two largely mute characters, was picked up by Warner Bros. in the late 1980s. They eventually grew angry with Williams after he went over deadline and over budget, and dropped out of the project altogether. The insurance company then kicked Williams out of his own project. The heartless bastards! What nerve!
- blame “ALaddin”At the time that “Thief” had been pulled out from under Williams, a movie greatly inspired by his work was being produced by Disney. “Aladdin” was a monster success. When “Thief” was finally released as “Arabian Knight” in 1995, it was loaded with unnecessary dialogue, terrible songs, and cheap, awful animation. And it bombed.
- legacy and lessons“Thief,” a massive failure that Williams doesn’t talk about anymore, has been re-cut by a fan (see above), but it’s not the same. If you ever needed proof that sometimes money ruins great things, here you go. Protect your ideas. Protect their integrity. Fight for their creative purity. It can be taken away like that. source