What if TriStar Pictures was founded in 1934?/The King and the Mokingbird

The King and the Mockingbird (French: Le Roi et l'Oiseau, literally The King and the Bird) is a 1980 traditionally animated feature film directed by Paul Grimault. Begun in 1948 as The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep (loosely based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen), the film was a collaboration between Grimault and popular French poet and screenwriter, Jacques Prévert. However the film suddenly stopped production and was released unfinished by its producer in 1952, without the approval of either Grimault or Prévert. Through the course of the 1960s and 1970s, Grimault obtained the rights to the film and was able to complete a new version as they originally intended. It was finished over 30 years after it was started.

The film is today regarded as a masterpiece of French animation and has been cited by the Japanese directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata as an influence. The film has had poor availability in English (although an English dub exists). While the completed version of the film has not been released on home video in North America, it is available for streaming on Amazon Instant and Vudu. The first English-friendly release was made in October 2013 in the United Kingdom it was scheduled for wider theatrical release in the UK in 2014, with DVD sales from April 2014. Previously, the film had been often shared by animation fans online. A low-budget English-language release of the 1952 version, dubbed The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird, is in the public domain and available free online. In that version, Peter Ustinov narrates and voices the main role of the bird.

it is the first animated movie made by TriStar Pictures and the last TriStar film distributed by United Artists, as well as the last film to be produced by Theodore E. Sullivan. after the movie's release, TriStar decided to distribute their films permanently.

Chapter 1
The film begins with a desolate landscape and a hill of rubble near the skyline; a bird known only as "L'Oiseau" walks in and addresses the audience and says that it's an honor and privilege to tell you the story you are about to see, and that for once it's absolutely true; the bird then says he knows because he was there and he wasn't alone. As L'Oiseau begins the story, the hill of rubble transforms into a great palace. The bird states he built his nest on top of the roof of the palace that was of the vast kingdom of Takicardia. In those days, the kingdom was ruled by the king with the unwieldy title of Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI, the bird states he wasn't a very good king; a heartless tyrant that hated everyone and was hated in return. He was also lonely and his favorite pastime was hunting; the bird states, "as you can imagine, we weren't the best of friends". Despite his fondness for hunting, the king is unfortunately cross-eyed – not that anyone would dare acknowledge this in front of him, as the numerous statues and paintings that adorn the palace show him with regular eyes.

Several of the king's retainers, nobles, guards, and police (who all bear a resemblance to Thomson and Thompson), are waiting for the king to appear for the hunt. L'Oiseau's wife was revealed to have been killed by the king (one in a million shot), and he now takes pleasure in taunting the terrible king at every opportunity. As horns are blown "for the hunt", the bird flies to the palace (from the grave of his wife), as the king and his dog arrive for the hunt; the king removes his crown and ruler and replaces them with a hunting rifle and hat, as the chief of police (the only one with a goatee) pushes a bird out of a box-cage revealed to be one of L'Oiseau's four children. The king starts shooting and missing to the applause of his sycophantic supporters, just as the bird swoops in and rescues his son; he denounces the king to be a murderer and an awful thug. The king retorts by calling him bird-brain, but the bird retorts back that the king is the bird-brain. L’Oiseau and his son escape as the police attempt to shoot them down.

The king, his dog, and butler reenter the palace and then enter a pod-shaped elevator (exclusively for the king's use), wherein the butler mans the controls. An announcer list out numerous locations that begin on the first floor and up including: cases pending, litigation, treasury, goldsmithery, inland revenue, liquidation, premium bonds, royal family, state prison, summer prison, winter prison, hard labor for young and old, armaments, war office, undersecretary's office in peacetime, armory, fireworks, furs, hosiery, hats, helmets, trumpets, drums, police, lavatories, armed forces, royal printing office, registered post, taxes, solitary confinement, dungeons and catacombs, umbrellas, casino, shooting gallery, war museum, zoo, portraits of ancestors, the king's studio, the king's hostel, the gallows, the royal barber, the royal pedicurist, the king's steam bath and spa, the king's chamber music, and trumpeters. (The segment is hilarious because in the original French dubbing, many of the things listed rhyme as the announcer says this all without a break in a monotone voice, as well as several of the things listed being ridiculously placed in the palace, ex. the dungeons and catacombs are usually below or beneath a palace; another being some of the items on the list are the same thing or should be listed together, ex. armaments and armory, as well as trumpets and trumpeters.) While all of this is happening as the pod approaches its destination, L'Oiseau swoops in and mocks the king by crossing his eyes and laughing as he flies off; the butler alarmed by this accelerates the pod to reach its point quicker, hilariously causing the king's crown to be temporarily stuck on his head.

Chapter 2
The pod arrives at the king's art gallery, wherein the new royal painter is commissioned to create a portrait of the king with his hunting gear; the artist succeeds in painting the king perfectly, however when he's about to paint the eyes he becomes confused over whether to paint it truthfully cross-eyed or untruthfully regular. The king suddenly looks at the artist, causing him to paint the portrait with cross-eyes; the chief of police (who's present) moans, the king moves to look at the painting with the artist and the chief on either side. The king appears to consent to artist's final touch, with the chief stepping aside and the king and the artist walking towards a velvet curtain covering the doorway to the gallery. The king presents the artist with a medal to represent his status as the new royal painter, the artist thanks the king and turns around to walk out; but unbeknownst to the artist, the king has invisible trapdoors built into the floor that lead to imminent death everywhere in the vast palace, with cords or buttons that have a skull on them. Anyone whom the king dislikes or has displeased him even in some small way, has met with this same grim fate. Once the artist walks into the outlined area, the king pulls the cord and the artist (like so many unseen others before him) is never seen again save for his wig that the king kicks like a football to his dog (even tripping over it once). The chief has two of his officers remove the king's portrait to an unknown location as the king and his dog return to the pod to proceed to the next destination.

L'Oiseau arrives back at his nest and reunites his son with his other children; meanwhile, the pod arrives at the 296th (top) floor of the palace which is the king's secret apartment where he and his dog live (and also L’Oiseau’s nest is built on top of the apartment’s roof), the butler drops off the dog but the king being paranoid or just plain evil goes to a small portrait on the wall and pushes a button hidden behind it which opens another trapdoor beneath the doormat, axing off the butler. The king climbs up a set of stairs in the dark arriving at the apartment; a large cube-shaped room with windows, several pieces of furniture, a fireplace, a potted tree that sits in the center of the floor, a piano, a large statue of a man on a horse, the beds of the king and his dog, and the walls are adorned with a collection of the king's favorite pieces of art. The king pours himself a glass of wine and winds up a music-box (that plays a song in the background) and then heads over to the painting of the beautiful Shepherdess and bashfully admires it, he then turns to look at the opposing painting of the handsome Chimney Sweep and frowns, he then turns back to the Shepherdess's painting and smiles again. The king then turns around revealing that the police had his portrait (just recently made) taken to his apartment. The king then takes a paint brush just as the bird flies in and lands on his windowsill; the king takes the brush and fixes the painting to have regular eyes, but just as he admires his handy-work, the bird taps the window gaining the king's attention resulting in the bird crossing his eyes and mockingly laughing at the king before flying off once again. The king sniffs the air then heads over to the mirror looking at his cross-eyed reflection, suddenly the king grabs a candlestick and furiously shatters the mirror into a million pieces!

As daylight dims and becomes night, L'Oiseau sings a booming lullaby to his children as they go to sleep; the lights of the palace are turned off as the song ends, then the bird continues on the same chord with a different verse, now mocking the king in his sleep hoping to give him nightmares as the full moon begins to shine; the police on patrol are angered by the bird's continued tom-foolery. In the king's apartment as the fire in the fireplace still burns bright while the king is tossing and turning in bed, it is revealed that the Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep (along with the Statue of a man on a horse) have come to life. The young lovers talk about their mutual disliking of the king as well as their mutual love for each other. The sleepy Statue (who is also a bit senile) talks about how they are not meant for each other based on his own "experience", as it's revealed that the king's portrait has also come to life as well who listens in on their conversation. The star-crossed lovers reach out of their paintings to hold hands, but the king's dog suddenly wakes up and growls; the Chimney Sweep shushes the dog who goes back to bed. As the Chimney Sweep jumps from his painting to the Shepherdess's, the Portrait King unfurls the cloth covering his painting to the shock of the couple; he declares his love for the Shepherdess but denounces the Chimney Sweep and confirms with the Statue that the king always gets the girl, the Statue confirms this and declares that the Portrait King and the Shepherdess will wed when the clock strikes 12 (right before he returns to sleep), as it is revealed that it's 5 minutes until that time.

The Chimney Sweep hurls a fruit from the Shepherdess's painting at the Portrait King (blinding him), which he then proceeds to take his ladder and use it to help the Shepherdess and himself escape from their paintings. As the couple run to the fireplace, the Statue once again talks from "experience" that they won't go far and that they'll be back; the Portrait King finally clears his eyes only to find them nowhere to be found (the couple being in front of the fireplace where a large arm-couch blocks his view), a woman holding a pitcher of water laughs at the couple's folly only for the Portrait King (who can't find them and thinks the woman is laughing at him) to shoot at her with his rifle but hitting the pitcher instead which spills out and temporarily douses the fire. The Statue is awoken once again and senilely makes shushing noises as the couple uses the Chimney Sweep's ladder to go up the chimney just before the fire comes back. The Portrait King escapes from his painting to find them gone, to which the Statue says from experience that they're gone; just as the clock strikes 12 and begins to chime, the couple find themselves sitting on top of the chimney looking at the star-covered night sky. The Shepherdess says she never thought it would be so beautiful just as a shooting star goes across the sky.

Chapter 3
But they are pursued by a non-cross-eyed painting of the king that also has come to life, deposed the real king and has taken his place. He orders the capture of the shepherdess and the sweep, but the bird is there to help when called upon. Later, the shepherdess and the Chimney sweep find themselves in the lower city, where the inhabitants have never seen the light. Meanwhile, the king summons a robot built for him, and he attacks the village. He takes the shepherdess and captures the chimney sweep, the bird, and a blind organ grinder from the village, putting the organ grinder in a pen of lions and tigers. The King forces the shepherdess to agree to marry him, threatening to kill the chimney sweep if she does not accept. When she does, the King sends the chimney sweep and the bird to paint manufactured sculptures of his head on a conveyor belt. They begin to ruin the sculptures, and are sent to jail, where the lions and tigers have been listening to the organ grinder playing. The bird convinces them to help the shepherdess, saying that her marriage to the King prevents her from tending to the sheep, which the animals eat. The animals break out of the jail and attack the interviewers and king in the chapel. The bird and his sons take control of the robot and start destroying the castle. Once the castle is in rubble, the King attacks the couple, but the robot grabs him and throws him into the distance. Sitting on the ruins of the castle the next morning, the robot sees one of the Bird's sons trapped in a cage. After freeing the bird, the robot smashes the cage, symbolizing the birds' freedom and the movie ends.

Only the early scene in the secret apartment is based on "The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep", while the rest of the movie focuses much more on the king and the bird, hence the ultimate title. In Andersen's tale, the shepherdess and the chimney sweep are china figurines, rather than paintings, and a wooden (mahogany) satyr wishes to wed the shepherdess, supported by a Chinaman, rather than a king and a classical statue. In both tales, the Chinaman/statue breaks, and the duo escape up the chimney, and delight in celestial bodies, but in Andersen's tale the shepherdess is afraid of the wide world and the duo return; this is echoed in the movie where the statue predicts that they will return.

Cast

 * Pierre Brasseur (1952 version), Jean Martin (1980 version) as l'oiseau (The Mockingbird), the King's worst enemy whom he constantly taunts. It is implied that the King may have killed his wife. He is the father to four baby chicks.
 * Fernand Ledoux (1952 version), Pascal Mazzotti (1980 version) as King Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI, the megalomaniac yet lonely tyrant who is in love with the Shepherdess painting on his wall; and also plays the voice of the Portrait King, who axes off the original king and bears many of his qualities, and hunts after the Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep, throughout the palace.
 * Anouk Aimée (1952 version), Agnes Viala (1980 version) as the Shepherdess, she is in love with the chimney sweep painting at her right.
 * Serge Reggiani (1952 version), Renaud Marx (1980 version) as the Chimney Sweep, he is in love with the shepherdess painting at his left.
 * Raymond Bussieres as the Chief of Police, who is fierclely loyal to the King.
 * Hubert Deschamps as the sententious, a gigantic automan built by the King to symbolise his power. It seems to have a soul of its own.
 * Roger Blin as the blind barrel organ player who hopes for a better world.
 * Philippe Derrez as the elevator operator and speaker
 * Albert Medina as the Beastmaster and high-howler
 * Claude Piéplu as Mayor of the Palace

1952 English version
(Supervisor: Pierre Rouve)
 * Peter Ustinov as Mr. Wonderbird
 * Claire Bloom as the Shepherdess
 * Denholm Elliott as the Chimney Sweep
 * Max Adrian as the King
 * Alec Clunes as the Blind Man
 * Cecil Trouncer as the Statue
 * Philip Stainton as the Policeman
 * Harcourt Williams as the Old Beggar
 * Joan Heal as the Kitten
 * Frank Muir as the Commentator

1952 French version
The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird is a 1952 animated film based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. It was known as La bergère et le ramoneur.

The voice cast consisted of:
 * Pierre Brasseur as L'oiseau
 * Anouk Aimée as La bergère
 * Serge Reggiani as Le ramoneur
 * Max Adrian as The King
 * Roger Blin as L'aveugle
 * Claire Bloom as Sheperdess
 * Alec Clunes as The Blind Man
 * Etienne Decroux as Le haut hurleur
 * Yves Deniaud as Le chef de la police
 * Denholm Elliott
 * Peter Ustinov