The History of Animation: Richard Williams

Richard Williams is probably one of the single most talented animators that there ever was.

He had a long history animating that began with The Little Island, a highly philosophical cartoon that explores tons of different ideas.

When one observes The Little Island, it is difficult to believe that this would be the same man who'd animated Raggedy Anne and Andy's Musical Adventure and Who Framed Rodger Rabbit.

Oh yeah, he did that one!

One cannot discuss this man's work without mentioning The Thief and the Cobbler.

It was his passion project for years and years of his life, and really, everything he did, such as Raggedy Anne and Andy's Musical Adventure, were merely for-hire jobs he took so that he could fund his passion project.  However, over the nearly twenty years he worked on it, all on his own, he made only about twenty minutes.  Eventually, there was no choice but to unveil compromised versions of the story, which is really sad, because try to watch any version of this story, and try to remind yourself that it involved almost no computers at all.  I dare you.

• The Recobbled Cut can, in various editions, be found online.