Zigzag

"Oh great King Nod have no fear, Zigzag your Grand Vizer is here."

- Zigzag presenting himself to King Nod. "I, I, I, I'm Zigzag the Great of the Golden Land!"

- Zigzag, introducing himself to the Mighty One-Eye.

See also: ZigZag (Brendam)

Zigzag is one of the two main antagonists of the 1993 animated fantasy film The Thief and the Cobbler.

He is an evil sorcerer with strangely light blue skin, several colored rings on his fingers, five fingers and a thumb per hand, and long shoes that extend as he walks. He is King Nod's Grand Vizier, but even the king doesn't seem to trust him. He usually speaks in rhymes in a manipulating fashion. He has a pet vulture named Phido, whom he sometimes abuses and rarely feeds him.

Although he describes himself as a sorcerer, his magic is fairly weak, and he occasionally slips up on his tricks. He relies more on smooth-talking and manipulation to get what he wants, dazzling people with an impressive performance that suggests he is more powerful than he is.

He is voiced by Vincent Price (in his final film role), who also voiced Ratigan.

Biography
At the beginning of the film, Zigzag stepped on one of Tack's nails, and had him taken to the palace, intending to have his head cut off. He was planning to marry Princess Yum-Yum so he could become king and take over the kingdom. When Tack (who was fixing Princess Yum-Yum's shoe) chased after the Thief, who stole it, he ran into Zigzag, who took the opportunity to lock him in a cell. Later in the film (in the original workprint) he took Phido into Tack's cell to have him eaten, but he had to leave due to being summoned by King Nod.

After the Thief stole the three golden balls that protected the Golden City, he lost them, and Zigzag sent his sycophants to retrieve them. He asked King Nod for Princess Yum-Yum's hand in marriage should he return the Golden Balls, but King Nod laughs at him, claiming that his advisor marrying his daughter is ridiculous and rejects his request, to Zigzag's fury. So Zigzag tracked down the Mighty One-Eye and teamed up with him, charms One-Eye's alligators, and gives One-Eye the Golden Balls.

One-Eye made Zigzag ride in the front during the battle, but when Tack set off a chain reaction that destroyed One-Eye's war machine and his entire army, Zigzag later stepped on a tack and fell into a pit, where One-Eye's alligators were, and they began to eat him, as he forgot to feed them. Phido, who was itching for a meal throughout the movie, entered the pit and swallowed Zigzag's head. In the Calvert and Miramax cuts, Zigzag attempted to kidnap Princess Yum-Yum after the war machine starts to collapse, but was stopped by Tack, who defeated him in combat. In the end, Zigzag fell into a dark pit, and met his demise when he got eaten alive by Phido and the hungry crocodiles.

Trivia

 * He was voiced by the late legendary actor Vincent Price. The film was released posthumously in 1995 two years after his death in 1993.
 * Price had also voiced another villain, Ratigan, from The Great Mouse Detective.
 * In all three versions of the film, Zigzag's role, voice, and death are the same.
 * Zigzag had possibly inspired the Disney villain, Jafar from Aladdin. Both of them are evil magical advisers to the king, want to take his place as king, marry his beautiful daughter, and kill the hero.
 * His death is similar to Scar from The Lion King, as both were eaten by their henchmen (who they address as "friends") in return of their promise of food.
 * During the development of The Majestic Fool, an scrapped animated movie from the 1960s that would eventually become The Thief and the Cobbler, Zigzag was originally known as "Anwar", who served as the Grand Vizier to the King of Persia, as well as the main antagonist.