the thief and the cobbler

upon a time . . . . how many magical journeys have you taken that began with those four words?

today i’d like you to enjoy a magical journey that doesn’t begin with those words but it could, because this is a story about a far away place and time where magic and happenstance blend into each other like grains of sand through an hourglass, each indistinguishable from the other.

"It is written among the limitless constellations, of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald sea, and upon every grain of sand in the vast desert, 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 center of the golden city, atop the tallest minaret, were three gold balls. The ancients had prophesised, 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..."

so begins the narration of the thief and the cobbler. originally intended as a collection of tales assembled by idries shah containing the philosophical yet humorous tales of nasrudin, a “wise fool” of sufi literature, the project hit a roadblock when the director richard williams (see below), had a run-in with the shah family.

today’s posting requires one hour and thirty seven minutes of your time (plus time for reading this introduction). you may find it necessary to come back to this when you’ve got more time. i will tell you that it is very worth it!

what you will see is one of the more extraordinary animated films of our time. no it’s not computer animated but it is lavishly drawn, richly coloured and the plot is very very clever. this version is the “recobbled cut mark 2”. reassembled by fans of the toronto-born director, richard williams to more closely resemble his original vision, this features film from several versions and edits and eliminates a lot of the post production chopping and overdubbing that took place in the commercially released version.



if you would like to own your own copy then go here, but scroll down to the reviews and give them a good close read before clicking the “buy now” button. this is one of those movies that obviously ran afoul of the “entertainment quotient” police who decided to mess with it to ramp up sales.