The Thief and the Cobbler

The Thief and the Cobbler
An unreleased poster made near the end of the film's production, before it was taken from Williams.
Directed by	Richard Williams
Written by	Richard Williams Margaret French
Produced by	Richard Williams (all versions) Imogen Sutton (all versions) Fred Calvert (Allied Filmmakers and Miramax versions) Harvey Weinstein (Miramax version)
Starring	Vincent Price
Cinematography	John Leatherbarrow
Edited by	Peter Bond
Music by	David Burman Peter Shade David Cullen Robert Folk
Production companies	Richard Williams Productions Allied Filmmakers The Completion Bond Company
Distributed by	Majestic Films (The Princess and the Cobbler) Miramax Films (Arabian Knight)
Release dates	13 May 1992 (1992-05-13) (Workprint) 23 September 1993 (1993-09-23) (The Princess and the Cobbler) 25 August 1995 (1995-08-25) (Arabian Knight)
Running time	91 minutes (Workprint) 80 minutes (The Princess and the Cobbler) 72 minutes (Arabian Knight) [1]
Countries	United Kingdom United States Canada
Language	English
Budget	$28 million[2]
Box office	$669,276[3]

The Thief and the Cobbler is an unfinished animated fantasy film co-written and directed by Richard Williams.^[4] Originally devised in the 1960s, the film was in and out of production for nearly three decades due to independent funding and ambitiously complex animation. It was finally placed into full production in 1989 when Warner Bros. agreed to finance and distribute the film.^[5] When production went over budget and behind schedule, it was heavily cut and hastily re-edited by producer Fred Calvert without Williams's involvement. It was eventually released by Allied Filmmakers in 1993 with the title The Princess and the Cobbler. Two years later, Miramax Films, which was owned by Disney at the time, released another re-edit titled Arabian Knight.^[6] Both versions of the film performed poorly at the box office and received mixed reviews.

Over the years, various people and companies, including Roy E. Disney, have discussed restoring the film to its original version. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archived Williams's own 35 mm workprint. He acknowledged the film's rehabilitated reputation, due to projects like The Recobbled Cut, a restoration by Garrett Gilchrist, and Persistence of Vision, a 2012 documentary by Kevin Schreck detailing the production.

The Thief and the Cobbler is one of the films with the longest production times. It is the final film for several actors and artists, including animators Ken Harris (died 1982), Errol Le Cain (died 1989), Emery Hawkins (died 1989), Grim Natwick (died 1990), and Art Babbitt (died 1992), and actors Felix Aylmer (died 1979), Eddie Byrne (died 1981), Clinton Sundberg (died 1987), Kenneth Williams (died 1988), Sir Anthony Quayle (died 1989), and Vincent Price (died 1993, one month after the film's initial release). It has maintained a cult following since its release.^[7]