Richard Williams Retrospective- The Thief and the Cobbler

Richard Williams was an animator who had huge goals for what independent animation and animation in general could be- he embarked on a feature film called "The Thief and the Cobbler" that he worked painstakingly on for over a decade after finding funding for it himself. It came to a highly depressing end, but the work that was done on it is still remembered and drooled over by generations of animators. 

Depressing video cover that tried to make it look like ALL OTHER movies, which it wasn't.
The fact that this exists is a clue to the dastardly things that helped to kill the movie.

There is a documentary about him called "Persistence of Vision" that was released last year- it tells the story of his career and, I assume, what happened with this masterpiece that never was. It is being screened this Friday in NYC as part of a Richard Williams retrospective, if anyone finds themselves in NYC for some reason, GO TO IT AND SEE EVERYTHING. Here is info on the events.

A background. Are you kidding me.

My new goal in life is to get this documentary and have a screening of it as well as a screening of the footage from the feature. Here is some stuff to get warmed up on though in the meantime as I try to meet some deadlines. Here is the trailer:

And here is a clip from the movie- the chase scene:

He had grand dreams but how far he got is heartening, even though the project was never finished in a way that was intended it still exists for everyone to see and obsess over and it does show how far animation can go if people just push it there.