The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut Mark 4. A new restoration of the legendary unfinished film by the three-time Academy Award winning animator of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and A Christmas Carol. Richard Williams spent 23 years on the film. It was nearly completed when he was fired from the project.

My name is Garrett Gilchrist. In 2006 and 2008, I edited the Recobbled Cut Mark 1-3, which used different versions of the film and rare footage from all over the world to put together a watchable version of what was intended to be Richard Williams’ masterpiece.

You can watch the entire 2008 Mark 3 restoration at http://youtube.com/thethiefarchive along with hundreds of other videos from Richard Williams’ incredible animation career.

But the Mark 4 Restoration is much more complex. Thanks to donations from people like you, we’ve transferred over 30 minutes of 35mm film footage in full HD to get big screen quality. Incredibly complex editing unlike any fan restoration ever attempted has removed dirt, splices and damage and recreated shots the way Richard Williams intended. Thousands of frames have been cleaned up and fixed in Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and After Effects. Transitions from one source to another are seamless. New artwork. New composite shots from many different sources. Footage never seen before, and certainly not in this kind of quality.

This is an unofficial, not for profit restoration, to be completed and released in 2013.

Here is a 20 minute video showing some of the new and restored shots:

Here is an early rough cut of the first 15 minutes of the film.

Here is an interview done for the blog of Richard Williams’ son Alex, followed by hundreds of images from the restoration with commentary by Garrett Gilchrist.

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