The Thief and the Cobbler

The Thief and the Cobbler
An unreleased poster from the latter days of the film's production, before the film was taken from Richard Williams
Directed by	Richard Williams
Written by	Richard Williams Margaret French
Produced by	Richard Williams Imogen Sutton Jacobus Rose
Starring	See voice cast
Music by	Robert Folk
Distributed by	The Princess and the Cobbler Majestic Films International Filmayer Arabian Knight Miramax Family Films The Weinstein Company (2006 DVD) Alliance Communications (theatrical and VHS, the company exited during the film's release) Alliance Atlantis (DVD, the company exited after the film was released) Universal Studios Home Entertainment (VHS/DVD, distributing for Alliance Atlantis)
Release dates	1993 August 25, 1995
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Language	English

File:Thieflogo.png

The official logo that was used on posters of the film until Richard Williams' departure

"Arabian Knight" redirects here. For other uses, see Arabian Nights (disambiguation).

The Thief and the Cobbler (released as The Princess and The Cobbler in Australia and South Africa and Arabian Knight in most other countries) is animated feature film by Canadian animator Richard Williams, who worked 26 years on the project. Beginning the work in 1964, Williams intended for the film to be his masterpiece, and a milestone in the art of animation. The Thief and the Cobbler was in and out of production for over two decades, until Williams, buoyed by his success as animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, signed a deal in 1990 to have Warner Bros. finance and distribute the film. This deal fell through when Williams was unable to complete the film on time. As Warners pulled out, The Completion Bond Company assumed control of the project and had it finished by producer Fred Calvert without Williams.

Two versions of Calvert's completed The Thief and the Cobbler were released; one was issued in Australia and South Africa in 1993 as The Princess and the Cobbler and the other in the United States in 1995 as Arabian Knight, distributed by Miramax Family Films. While both are significantly different from Williams' intended version, the Arabian Knight version included new voice work by actors such as Jennifer Beals, Matthew Broderick and Jonathan Winters. Although the film was not a financial success, the film's history and intent has given it significant cult status among animation professionals and fans.

Video copies of workprints made during Richard Williams' involvement on the project often circulate within animation subcircles. In addition, several different people and collectives, from animation fans to The Walt Disney Company's Roy E. Disney, have initiated restoration projects intended to create a high-quality edit of the film which would mirror Williams' original intent as closely as possible. Because it was in production from 1964 until 1995, a total of 31 years, The Thief and the Cobbler holds the record for having the longest production time for a motion picture in history.

The film was the final appearance of Vincent Price (d. 1993), who recorded his dialogue from 1967 to 1973.

Plot

The Thief and the Cobbler

After an unsuccessful attempt to rob the Princess's nanny, the thief decides to try his luck at Tack's home. However, Tack accidentally sews the thief's clothes to his own (in his sleep) while the thief is leaning over him. The thief tries to leave with Tack still attached to him. They tumble out into the street and all of Tack's tools and tacks go rolling into the street.

Zigzag, the rhyming Grand Vizier (who is proceeding through the street), steps on one of the tacks and orders Tack's arrest. The thief manages to escape. Tack is brought to the palace by Zigzag to a sleepy King Nod (who wakes up only at the mention that Zigzag has brought him a "bountiful maiden from Mombassa" as a plaything). Before Zigzag can convince King Nod that Tack needs to be beheaded, Princess Yum Yum (King Nod's daughter) purposely breaks one of her shoes and tells her father that she needs a cobbler at the moment. Tack goes with the princess to fix her shoe; after a while, the princess goes to take a bath.

Meanwhile, the thief climbs up the drainage/refuse pipes of the castle. He first reaches the toilet of the room where King Nod is entertaining himself with the maiden from Mombassa inside a palanquin. The thief accidentally flushes himself down the toilet. Later he comes up in Princess Yum Yum's bathing room and steals golden backscratchers from her. He walks out of the bathing room and bumps into Tack. The thief quickly grabs the princess's now-fixed shoe from Tack's hands and runs down the stairs of the palace, with Tack in close pursuit. Tack chases the thief through the multipatterned rooms of the castle (which are filled with optical illusions) and finally manages to grab the shoe from the thief. However, he bumps into Zigzag, who takes the shoe from him, says that there is now no need for a cobbler, and throws him into prison. Tack thinks of Yum Yum and feeds his dinner to the dungeon's rats.

The next day, Yum Yum attends a polo match with her father and Zigzag, while the thief sets his sights on stealing the three golden balls, not knowing of their actual purpose.

While Zigzag describes the Golden Land as perfect, the camera pans into the view of some mountainous terrain where a race of One-Eyed men conspire to take over the Golden City and destroy its people. Unseen by the frenzied conquerors, a dying soldier musters enough strength to mount a horse and ride it to the Golden City, in order to warn the king. He rides day and night, holding his intent in mind to the exclusion of all else and thereby keeping himself alive.

Zigzag is then shown in his high tower, making a soliloquy that reveals his plan to marry Yum Yum and take power. During his talk about his plans, viewers see Phido, his pet king vulture, who thinks ill of Zigzag for unwittingly throwing him into hot coals and disturbing his sleep. Zigzag later takes the bird down to the prisons to eat Tack.

King Nod, having a nightmare of invasion, calls Zigzag from the dungeons. Zigzag, who has been about to feed Tack to his vulture Phido and is apparently reluctant to miss seeing the demure cobber dismembered, pulls Phido back, thus sparing Tack's life for the moment. As Zigzag talks to the king about the nightmare, the Thief is shown trying to steal the balls.

Having expended much effort, the Thief takes the balls. Tack manages to escape his cell, using his own shoemaking instruments to do so. He begins to move around the kingdom in search for Yum Yum, while evading Zigzag.

When trying to come down from the minaret, the Thief crashes down into it, and the three balls crash out of the windows, bouncing around the golden city (with three-noted bell-like sounds), causing mass panic and chaos. This is a perfect opportunity for Zigzag and his lackeys to take the balls. Moments later, the dying soldier arrives, giving King Nod his final message on his dying breath: "One Eye is coming!" When Nod sees that the balls are gone from the minaret, he panics wildly as the camera pulls away from him into the sky, where darkness and thunder begin to loom over day.

King Nod addresses his shocked people about the dark moment, and orders his armies to protect the city with his blessing. The Thief enters a secret entrance (into which Zigzag's lackeys stumble) and tries to steal a gem in a jar, only to be caught by guards. At the same time, Princess Yum Yum is looking for Tack. The Nurse suggests he may be in the dungeon, which frustrates the princess. She arrives there to find Phido in front of the door. She drives the bird away, but finds that Tack is missing.

The guards sentence the Thief to having his arms chopped off before the citizens of the golden city. Resourcefully, the Thief uses Princess Yum Yum's backscratchers as "arms", which the guards chop off.

Later that night, Zigzag thanks his lackeys for bringing him the three balls, and threatens them in order to keep it a secret from King Nod. Tack and the Thief, both wandering around in the palace, stumble onto his secret. Zigzag goes to see King Nod and offers to use magic to restore the three golden balls in exchange for Princess Yum Yum's hand in marriage. King Nod, who is infuriated by the very notion, banishes him from the kingdom. Frustrated by this humiliation, Zigzag takes the balls and exits the palace, planning to consult with the Mighty One-Eye. Unbeknownst to him, Tack is nearby, heading in the opposite direction.

King Nod decides to send Princess Yum Yum on a perilous journey to see the Old Witch, an oracle who lives in a towering, hand-shaped mountain in the desert. At the foot of the mountain, a sacred Buddhist idol with a ruby in its forehead is the key to the mountain's door, which opens only when the sun shines on the ruby. Just as Tack stumbles along, Yum Yum suggests taking Tack along as a guide, due to his resourcefulness. The Thief is intrigued by the promise of a ruby, and follows the Princess. Unbeknownst to both parties, Zigzag, on horseback, is on his way to the One Eye camp.

In the desert, the princess and her company encounter a group of dim-witted, obese, superstitious brigands. The Princess enlists these brigands as her bodyguards.

Zigzag enters the One Eye Army's camp; upon tearing down one of their flags, he deliberately lets himself be captured by soldiers of One Eye, who take him to their king. There, Zigzag and the viewers see a luxurious pavilion, wherein sits the hulking King One-Eye on a throne made of the bodies of his green-skinned slave girls. Zigzag offers his services to One-Eye, using the flag and a prosthetic dragon as props by which to demonstrate his skills as a sorcerer. He then extravagantly reveals the golden balls, claiming that no one can conquer the Golden City without possessing them. King One-Eye, desiring half-seriously to test Zigzag, orders the magician to be thrown to the alligators, much to Phido's delight.

In the desert, the Princess, Tack, and the Brigands are camped in an oasis. The Thief steals random shiny items from the site, only to fall into a ditch of water, much to the laughter of a nearby camel. When the party has arrived at the Hands of Glory, Tack discovers the door leading into it. He and the princess enter, while the Thief attempts to steal the idol's ruby. Having failed to bypass the mysterious, menacing guards of the idol, he plucks off two huge leaves from a tree and uses them as makeshift wings. Before successfully taking flight, he spreads his wings to an excerpt of Modest Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" musical suite (as an obvious homage to the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment in Disney's Fantasia).

Tack and Yum Yum enter the palm of the hand, which closes. The Old Witch appears before them. When paid handsomely by Yum Yum's guards, the Witch predicts that only one among them is capable of saving the city, and picks out the most unlikely candidate: Tack! This intrigues and puzzles Yum Yum; to satisfy them, the Witch swings around the mountain (and crashes into the flying Thief along the way, knocking him into the brush below) and lands in a hanging basket in front of Tack and Yum Yum, summoning "mystic fumes" from the ground below her to "show her the way". When she ignites the fumes, they explode; the Witch, now ghostly, appears before Tack and gives him a cryptic puzzle: "Attack, Attack, ATTACK! A tack, see? But it's what you do with what you've got! Go home... NOW!"

Zigzag tames the alligators by promising to feed them with things much plumper than he, and uses them as a transport to appear before the Mighty One-Eye, demanding that he be not treated lightly. One-Eye, impressed, takes him as advisor and arranges for the sorcerer to ride at the front of the attack.

Tack, Yum Yum, Nurse, the Brigands and the Thief return to the Golden City before the attack can begin. Tack and his companions reach the city just as the One Eye's ominous, giant War Machine, driven by the entire army, approaches it, being poised to destroy. King Nod perceives both his daughter in the midst of danger and the Golden Balls atop the War Machine. Realizing what the Witch's riddle meant, Tack throws a boot-nail into the enemy's midst, setting off a Goldberg-esque chain reaction which the conquerors into a panic. Fiery chaos in the War Machine ensues. The Thief, who arrives late, notices the Golden Balls atop the War Machine, and tries again to steal them. He succeeds, though his passage to and from the site of theft is complicated by an amusement-ride-like series of contraptions (probably part of the War Machine) through which he must go. One-Eye is killed by his own slave women.

Zigzag, rationalizing to himself that "the greatest wizard has to know exactly when it's time to go", attempts to escape. Having trodden on the same boot-nail used to start the rout, he falls into a hole, where his alligators await hungrily. Phido joins them; with Zigzag's final line, "You too Phido; man's best friend. For Zigzag, then, it is . . . the end", the vulture eats his head off in the dark.

When One-Eye's army has been broken, the Thief emerges but is stopped in his tracks by Tack, who fights him for the Golden Balls. In the struggle, they both stand on large seesaw-like remains of the War Machine, above a pit filled with blades. Tired and frustrated, the Thief lets Tack keep the balls and walks away. Tack emerges as a hero and King Nod is reunited with Princess Yum Yum. Tack and the Princess marry; while it is clearly Yum-Yum's idea, Tack surprises her at the end with the film's final line.

Over a beautiful silhouette view of the Golden City, the title "THE END" appears in golden letters. The Thief then appears and steals each golden letter and, literally, the entire film.

The Princess and the Cobbler

After an unsuccessful attempt to rob the Princess's nanny, a soliloquizing, gold-obsessed thief decides to try his luck at the home of cobbler Tack. However, Tack accidentally sews the thief's clothes to his own in his sleep while the thief is leaning over him. The thief tries to walk out with Tack still attached to him. They tumble out into the street and all of Tack's tools and tacks fall into the street.

Zigzag, the rhyming Grand Vizier who is proceeding through the street, steps on one of the tacks. Agonized, he orders Tack to be thrown in jail, while the thief escapes.

Inside the palace, Nanny is dressing Princess Yum Yum for the day. Yum Yum tells Nanny that she is tired of living a life of "regal splendor" and desires at least to help one person. She then sings the song "She is More". Tack is brought to the palace by Zigzag to a sleepy King Nod, Princess Yum Yum's father. Before Zigzag can convince King Nod that Tack needs to be beheaded, Yum Yum purposely breaks one of her shoes and tells her father that she needs a cobbler at the moment.

Zigzag is then shown in his high tower making a soliloquy about how he intends to marry Yum Yum and take power. During his talk about his plans, we see Phido, his pet king vulture, who thinks ill of Zigzag for unwittingly throwing him into hot coals and disturbing his sleep.

Tack goes with the princess to fix her shoe; after a while the princess goes to take a bath. Meanwhile, the thief climbs up the drainage/refuse pipes of the castle. He first reaches the toilet of a room wherein is a chubby maiden concealed inside a pink tent. The thief accidentally flushes himself down the toilet. Next, he comes up in Princess Yum Yum's bathing room and steals a backscratcher from her. He walks out of the bathing room and bumps into Tack. The thief quickly grabs the princess's now-fixed shoe from Tack's hands and runs down the stairs of the palace, with Tack in close pursuit. This "stairs scene" is one of the most famous scenes in the film; Tack chases the thief through the multipatterned rooms of the castle (which are filled with optical illusions) and finally manages to grab the shoe from the thief. However, he bumps into Zigzag who takes the shoe from him, says that there is now no need for a cobbler, and throws him into prison. Tack and Yum Yum think about one another that night; together they sing "Am I Feeling Love?".

The next day, Yum Yum attends a polo match with her father and Zig Zag, while the thief sets his sights on stealing the three golden balls, not knowing of their actual purpose. While Zigzag expounds on the idea that the Golden Land is perfect, the camera pans into the view of some mountain terrain, ending with a shot of One-Eye. This becomes a nightmare for King Nod, who calls Zigzag immediately. As Zigzag talks to the king about the nightmare, the Thief is shown trying to steal the balls.

With much effort, the Thief soon takes the balls. They are seized by Zigzag's minions, who sneak the treasures into their master's room. The dying soldier, pale and worn, arrives in the palace. He survives only long enough to stammer "One... Eye... is... coming!", then collapses dead on the floor. The King, recalling his dream, is aghast and terrified. He sets about warning the people of the Golden City.

Zigzag demands that the King give the Princess in marriage to Zigzag in exchange for the balls. The King, finding it ridiculous that his minister, who is a sorcerer, should wed a princess, who is only allowed to marry someone pure of heart, laughs Zigzag out of the room. Angry, the sorcerer takes the golden balls and leaves the Golden City. He intends to rendezvous with King One-Eye and give the balls to him.

The Princess, accompanied by Tack and pursued by the curious thief, makes a journey to the great tower known as the Hands of Glory. This tower, which resembles one human hand made up of many, is home to an Oracle known as the Witch, who is the benevolent twin sister of the evil One-Eye. At the foot of the mountain, a sacred Buddhist idol with a ruby in its forehead is basically the key to the mountain's door, which opens only when the sun shines on the ruby.

On the way, the Princess recruits a troupe of loafers who were sent twenty years ago by the King to guard his borders. Because none of them is literate, they do not know when to return and have become banditti. They sing the song, "Bom Bom Bom Beem Bom" to describe their situation. They are impressed into service as personal Royal Guards by the Princess, but do not accompany her to meet the Witch. She and Tack are the only ones who do the latter. Below, the thief paces around the golden idol, trying to snatch the ruby from its forehead.

The Witch appears before them, first in the form of an eye and later as a ghostly Indian lady. Yum Yum asks her for a solution to stop the One Eye Army's attack on the Golden City. The Witch gives a riddle; "When to the wall you find your back; a tack, a tack, a tack! Belief in yourselves is what you lack! A tack, a tack, and never look back!"

Zigzag has been captured by King One-Eye's people. He proves his skill at magic with several tricks, including an exaggerated unveiling of the Golden Balls and a dramatic taming of crocodilians. King One-Eye takes him as advisor, prepares to strike the next day, and arranges that the sorcerer ride at the front of the attack.

When the battle begins, Tack and his companions have reached the city. Realizing what the Witch's riddle meant, Tack throws a boot-nail into the enemy's midst, throwing the conquerors into a panic that changes their attack into a rout. Rationalizing to himself that even "the greatest wizard has to know exactly when it's time to go", Zigzag attempts to escape. He steps on the nail that defeated One-Eye and falls down a hole into the jaws of his vulture and the crocodilians.

When One-Eye's army has been broken, the thief emerges and (pricked by conscience) hands the Golden Balls to the King. Tack and the Princess marry, and Tack eventually becomes king. There are flashbacks of all their times together up to that point, while the song "It's So Amazing" plays. Tack mentions that the thief gave him his word that he would never steal again. The film ends with the Thief stealing the letters from "THE END", and eventually, the film itself.

Arabian Knight

After an unsuccessful attempt to rob the Princess's nanny, the thief decides to try his luck at Tack's home. However, Tack accidentally sews the thief's clothes to his own in his sleep while the thief is leaning over him. The thief tries to walk out with Tack still attached to him. They tumble out into the street and all of Tack's tools and tacks go rolling into the street.

Zigzag the rhyming Grand Vizier, who is proceeding through the street, steps on one of the tacks and orders for Tack to be thrown in jail. The thief escapes.

Inside the palace, Nanny is dressing Princess Yum Yum for the day. Yum Yum tells Nanny that she's tired of living a life of regal splendor. She wants to be able to do more, and at least be able to help one soul. She then sings the song, "She is More". Tack is brought to the palace by Zigzag to a sleepy King Nod, Princess Yum Yum's father. Before Zigzag can convince King Nod that Tack needs to be beheaded, Yum Yum purposely breaks one of her shoes and tells her father that she needs a cobbler at the moment.

Zigzag is then shown in his high tower making a soliloquy about his plan to marry Yum Yum and take power. During his talk about his plans, we see Phido, his pet king vulture, who doesn't think much of Zigzag for unwittingly throwing him into hot coals and disturbing his sleep. Phido secretly wants to kill Zig Zag and eat him.

Tack goes with the princess to fix her shoe, and after a while the princess goes to take a bath. Meanwhile, the thief climbs up the drainage/refuse pipes of the castle. He first reaches the toilet of a room, to find a chubby maiden concealed inside a pink tent. The thief accidentally flushes himself down the toilet. Next, he comes up in Princess Yum Yum's bathing room and steals a backscratcher from her. He walks out of the bathing room and bumps into Tack. The thief quickly grabs the princess's now-fixed shoe from Tack's hands and runs down the stairs of the palace, with Tack in close pursuit. What follows is the "stairs scene", one of the most famous scenes in the film; Tack chases the thief through the multipatterned rooms of the castle (which are filled with optical illusions) and finally manages to grab the shoe from the thief. However, he bumps into Zigzag who takes the shoe from him, says that there is now no need for a cobbler and throws him into prison. Tack and Yum Yum think about one another that night, and together they sing "Am I Feeling Love?".

The next day, Yum Yum attends a polo match with her father and Zig Zag while the thief sets his sights on stealing the three golden balls, not knowing of their actual purpose. While Zigzag goes on to say that the city of Baghdad is perfect, the camera pans into a view of some mountain terrain, ending with a shot of One-Eye. This becomes a nightmare for King Nod, who calls Zigzag immediately. As Zigzag talks to the king about the nightmare, the Thief is shown trying to rob the balls.

In Yum Yum's room, the Nanny is scolding Yum Yum for liking a lowly cobbler so much. Yum Yum tells her Nanny she needs new glasses, because there is more to him than meets the eye.

With much effort, the Thief soon takes the balls. They are seized by Zigzag's minions, who sneak the treasures into their master's room. The dying soldier, pale and worn, arrives in the palace. He survives only long enough to stammer "One... Eye... is... coming!", then collapses dead on the floor. The King, recalling his dream, is aghast and terrified. He sets about warning the people of Baghdad.

Zigzag demands that the King give the Princess in marriage to Zigzag in exchange for the balls. The King, finding it ridiculous that his minister, who is a sorcerer, should wed a princess, who is only allowed to marry someone pure of heart, laughs Zigzag out of the room. Angry, the sorcerer takes the golden balls and leaves Baghdad. He intends to rendezvous with King One-Eye and give the balls to him.

The Princess, accompanied by Tack and pursued by the curious thief, makes a journey to the great tower known as the Hands of Glory. This tower, which resembles one human hand made up of many, is home to an Oracle known as the Witch, who is the good sister of the evil One-Eye. From her, the Princess gathers information with which to destroy King One-Eye and recover the Golden Balls.

On the way, the Princess recruits a troupe of loafers who were sent twenty years ago by the King to guard his borders. Because none of them is literate, they do not know when to return and have become banditti. They sing the song, "Bom Bom Bom Beem Bom" to explain this. They are impressed into service as personal Royal Guards by the Princess, but do not accompany her to meet the Witch. She and Tack are the only ones who do the latter. Below, the thief paces around a golden idol, trying to snatch a ruby from its forehead. He is foiled; but by whom he has no idea. It is suggested, but not verified, that the idol is guarded by the thugs that make a ring around it.

The Witch's advice is cryptic: "When to the wall you find your back, a tack, A Tack, A TACK! Belief in yourself is what you lack; a tack, A Tack, and never look back!"

Zigzag is captured by King One-Eye's people. He proves his skill at magic with several tricks, including an exaggerated unveiling of the Golden Balls and a dramatic taming of crocodilians. King One-Eye takes him as advisor and arranges that the sorcerer ride at the front of the attack.

When the battle begins, Tack and his companions have reached Baghdad. Realizing what the Witch's riddle meant, Tack throws a boot-nail into the enemy's midst, putting an end One-Eye's campaign and throwing the conquerors into a panic. Chaos follows, wherein the thief tries again to steal the Golden Balls. Meanwhile, Zigzag tries to kidnap Yum Yum, who fights back and throws Zigzag off his horse. Tack interferes, whereupon Zigzag tries to strangle him. Tack ties up the wizard in his cobbler threads and saves Yum Yum. Nanny sees the act and deems Tack worthy of her Princess. Rationalizing to himself that even "the greatest wizard has to know exactly when it's time to go", Zigzag attempts to escape. He steps on the nail that defeated One-Eye and falls down a hole into where his death awaits him. He is eaten by the crocodillians while Phido the vulture eats off his head.

When One-Eye's army has been broken, the thief emerges and (pricked by conscience) hands the Golden Balls to the King. Tack and the Princess marry, and Tack becomes Prince and the first Arabian Knight. Whilst they do, the thief attempts to steal the balls again. Tack ends the story by saying: "So whenever you see a shooting star, be proud of who you really are. Do in your heart what you know is right, and you too shall become an Arabian Knight."

Tack mentions that the thief eventually remains jail for years, but when released, becomes the Captain of the Guards. The King agrees to let him steal one last thing. The film ends with the Thief stealing the letters from "THE END", and, literally, the film itself.

Voice cast and crew (incomplete)

Character	Original version	Majestic Films version	Miramax version
Zigzag the Grand Vizier	Vincent Price
Tack the Cobbler	Sean Connery	Steve Lively	Matthew Broderick (speaking) Steve Lively (singing)
Narrator	Felix Aylmer		Matthew Broderick
Princess Yum-Yum	Hilary Pritchard	Bobbi Page	Jennifer Beals (speaking) Bobbi Page (singing)
The Thief	Unknown (never speaks)Template:Refun	Ed E. Carroll	Jonathan Winters
King Nod	Anthony Quayle	Clive Revill Anthony Quayle (speech scene)Template:Refun
Nurse	Joan Sims (unconfirmed)	Mona Marshall	Toni Collette
Mad Holy Old Witch	Joan Sims	Joan Sims Mona Marshall
Chief Roofless	Windsor Davies
Mighty One-Eye	Paul Matthews	Kevin Dorsey
Phido the Vulture	Donald Pleasence		Eric Bogosian
Dying Soldier	Clinton Sundberg
Goblet	Kenneth Williams
Tickle
Gofer	Stanley Baxter
Slap
Dwarf	George Melly
Hoof	Eddie Byrne
Hook	Thick Wilson
Goolie	Frederick Shaw
Maiden from Mombassa	Miriam Margolyes	N/A
Laughing Brigand	Richard Williams (uncredited)
Speaking Brigands	Joss Ackland Peter Clayton Derek Hinson Declan Mulholland Mike Nash Dermot Walsh Ramsay Williams	Joss Ackland Peter Clayton Geoff Golden Derek Hinson Declan Mulholland Mike Nash Tony Scannell Dermot Walsh Ramsay Williams
Singing Brigands	N/A	Randy Crenshaw Kevin Dorsey Roger Freeland Nick Jameson Bob Joyce Jon Joyce Kerry Katz Ted King Michael Lanning Raymond McLeod Rick Nelson Scott Rummel
Am I Feeling Love? Pop Singers		Arnold McCuller Andrea Robinson
Additional Voices	-		Ed E. Carroll Steve Lively Mona Marshall Bobbi Page Donald Pleasence

Williams's production in London

• Created and Directed by: Richard Williams
• Producers: Imogen Sutton & Richard Williams
• Screenplay by: Richard Williams and Margaret French
• Executive Producer: Jake Eberts
• Art Director: Roy Naisbitt
• Master Animator: Ken Harris
• Background Styling by: Errol Le Cain
• Director of Photography: John Leatherbarrow
• Editor: Peter Bond
• Supervising Sound Editor: Mike Le-Mare, MPSE
• Original Music Composer: Howard Blake

Artistic Supervisors

• Special Effects: John M. Cousen
• Character Animation: Neil Boyle, Tim Watts
• Background: Paul Dilworth
• Color Model: Barbara McCormack
• Paint and Trace: Maggie Brown
• Assistant Paint and Trace: Sally Burden
• Head Tracer: Katherine McDonald
• Checking: Atlanta Green
• Lead Animators:
  • Art Babbitt
  • Paul Bolger
  • David Byers-Brown
  • Denis Deegan
  • Gary Dunn
  • Sahin Ersoz
  • Steven Evangelatos
  • Margaret Grieve
  • Jurgen Gross
  • Alyson Hamilton
  • Emery Hawkins
  • Dietmar Kremer
  • Holger Leihe
  • Robert Malherbe
  • Mark Naisbitt
  • Brent Odell
  • Tahsin Ozgur
  • Philip Pepper
  • Dean Roberts
  • Michael Schlingmann
  • Alan Simpson
  • Mike Swindall
  • Venelin Veltchev
  • Roger Vizard
  • Andreas Wessel-Therhorn
  • Alex Williams
  • Richard Williams
• Assistant Animators

^ In the original version of the film, the thief is heard making short grunts/wheezes in a few scenes - though not as many as in the Majestic Films version. It is unclear who provided these sounds. Ed E. Carrol, who did them for the Majestic Films version, was an American-based character actor and was thus unlikely to get called over by Richard Williams' UK-based production for such a small part. The grunts/wheezes are in Richard Williams' voice range, but there is no evidence either for or against his involvement.

^ Although Sir Anthony Quayle's voice was mostly replaced by Clive Revill in the re-edited versions of the film by Miramax and Majestic Films, Quayle's voice (uncredited) can still be heard for an entire scene when King Nod gives a speech to his subjects.

History

Production

Development and early production on Nasruddin

Richard Williams began development work on The Thief and the Cobbler in 1964, planning to do a film about the Mulla Nasruddin, a "wise fool" of Near Eastern folklore. Williams had previously illustrated a series of books by Idries Shah, which collected the philosophical yet humorously wise tales of Nasruddin. An early reference to the project came in the 1968 International Film Guide, which noted that Williams was about to begin work on "the first of several films based on the stories featuring Mulla Nasruddin."

Like director Orson Welles before him, Williams took on television and feature-film title projects in order to fund his pet project, and work on his film progressed slowly. In 1969, the Guide noted that animation legend Ken Harris was now working on the project, which was now entitled The Amazing Nasruddin. The illustrations from the film showed intricate Indian and Persian designs.

In 1970, the project was re-titled The Majestic Fool. For the first time, a potential distributor for the independent film was mentioned: British Lion. The International Film Guide noted that the Williams Studio's staff had increased to forty people for the production of the feature.

Dialogue tracks for the film, now being referred to as Nasruddin!, were recorded at this time. Vincent Price was hired to perform the voice of the villain, Anwar (later re-named "Zigzag"), originally assigned to Kenneth Williams. Sir Anthony Quayle was cast as King Nod. Williams was a great fan of Vincent Price's work, and Zigzag became his favorite character to animate.

Falling out with Shah Family

The film went through many name-changes before becoming The Thief and the Cobbler - other names included The Thief Who Never Gave Up and Once.... One can see within the Once... logo old character designs as well as characters that were later removed from the film

In 1972, Williams had a falling-out with the Shah family. In a promotional booklet released in 1973, Williams made an announcement about the status of his project:

"Nasruddin was found to be too verbal and not suitable for animation, therefore Nasruddin as a character and the Nasruddin stories were dropped as a project. However, the many years work spent on painstaking research into the beauty of Oriental art has been retained. Loosely based on elements in the Arabian Nights stories, an entirely new and original film entitled The Thief and The Cobbler is now the main project of the Williams Studio. Therefore any publicity references to the old character of Nasruddin are now obsolete."

The publicity release, however, failed to mention that almost all of the Nasruddin footage, characters and scenes that did not have Nasruddin himself were retained. While the story's focus and tone was shifted, several characters, including Anwar/Zigzag, were all carried over to the "new" film, which Williams was promising as a "100 minute Panavision animated epic feature film with a hand-drawn cast of thousands."

Williams worked on the production in-between various TV commercial, TV special, and feature film title assignments, such as the 1977 feature Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure. In an interview with John Canemaker in the Feb. 1976 issue of Millimeter, Richard Williams stated that "The Thief is not following the Disney route." He went on to state that the film would be "the first animated film with a real plot that locks together like a detective story at the end," and that, with its two mute main characters, Thief was essentially "a silent movie with a lot of sound."

Gaining and losing financial backing

In 1986, Williams met producer Jake Eberts, who began funding the production through his Allied Filmmakers company and, according to the August 30, 1995 edition of The Los Angeles Times, eventually provided $10 million of the film's $28 million budget. Allied's sister distribution and sales company, Majestic Films, began promoting the film in industry trades, under a new working title, Once....

After serving as animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Williams received funding and a distribution deal for The Thief and the Cobbler with Warner Bros. Pictures. At this point, with almost all of the original animators either dead or having long since moved on to other projects, that full-scale production on the film began, mostly with a new, younger team of animators, including Richard Williams's son Alexander Williams. In a 1988 interview with Jerry Beck, Williams stated that he had two and a half hours of pencil tests for Thief and that he had not storyboarded the film as he found such a method too controlling.

The film was not finished by the 1991 deadline that Warner imposed upon Williams; the film was still several months and fifteen minutes of screen time away from completion. Meanwhile Walt Disney Feature Animation had begun work on Aladdin, a film which (coincidentally or not) bore striking resemblances in tone and style to The Thief and the Cobbler; for example, the character Zigzag from Cobbler shares many physical characteristics with both Aladdin's villain, Jafar, and its Genie (further, Jafar and Zigzag are both evil Grand Viziers who keep pet birds and tend to throw protagonists into dungeons). The thief from Cobbler finds his counterpart in Abu from Aladdin; for example, in the Cave of Wonders Abu sees a ruby and wants to steal it, almost exactly a frame-for-frame copy of the thief-ruby subplot in The Thief and the Cobbler. Williams's film had been in production so long that scenes from it had been seen or worked on by many people in the animation industry, some of whom had gone on to work at Disney.

With that film's release and its potential competition as a threat to Cobbler's commercial viability, Williams was asked to show the investors a rough copy of the film with the remaining scenes filled in with storyboards. Williams had avoided storyboards up to this point, but within two weeks he had done what the investors had asked. This rough version of the film was not well received; by September 1992, Warner had backed out of the project, and the Completion Bond Company had seized control of the film. (Some accounts surmise that executive producer Jake Eberts had lost confidence in Williams' ability to deliver the project at this point; if so, this may have been another factor in Warner's pulling out of the project.)

Television animation producer Fred Calvert was assigned by the Completion Bond Company to finish the film as cheaply and quickly as possible. In the process, Calvert made several significant changes to the film. Much of Williams's finished footage was deleted from the final release print to make way for newly created scenes and song sequences. Steve Lively was brought in to record a voice and narration for the previously mute character of Tack and several other characters that already had vocal tracks prepared for them were re-voiced. The new scenes were produced on a very low budget, with the animation being produced over a short period of two months by freelance animators in Los Angeles (some from Kroyer Films, who is also credited), former Williams animators at Premier Films in London, and Don Bluth animators working under Gary Goldman in Ireland. The ink and paint work was subcontracted to Wang Film Production in Taiwan, who themselves outsourced most of the work to their satellite studio in Thailand; additional ink and paint work was done at Varga Studios in Hungary. The end results have been compared to Saturday morning cartoons from Korea, and it is obvious that little regard was given to matching the painstaking quality of Williams's original scenes; the primary concern was to complete the film in as little time and for as little money as possible.

Releases

Calvert's version of the film was distributed outside of the United States as The Princess and the Cobbler; in the U.S., the Disney subsidiary Miramax released their own version, Arabian Knight, in which the film was recut even further. The voices of Matthew Broderick and Jonathan Winters were added over nearly every scene of the film; Williams' version had been largely dialogue-less. The character of the Old Witch was entirely removed (save for a few lines of dialogue and ghost-like image), as was most of a climactic battle sequence. Arabian Knight was quietly released by Miramax on August 25, 1995. It opened on 510 screens, and grossed just over $300,000 (on an estimated budget of $24 million) during its theatrical run. Ironically, to this day the film has never been released, in any form, in the United Kingdom, where the majority of the production took place.

Response

The Miramax version of the film was a commercial failure. Critical response to this version was negative. Film website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the film a score of 20%. In 2003, the Online Film Critics Society ranked the film as the 81st greatest animated film of all time.

Restoration attempts

In the late-1990s, Walt Disney Feature Animation head Roy E. Disney began a project to restore The Thief and the Cobbler to as close to Williams' original intent as possible. He sought out original pencil tests and completed footage, much of which was by this time in the possession of various animators and film collectors. Roy Disney left the Walt Disney Company in November 2003, and the Thief and the Cobbler restoration project was put on hold.

External links

• The Thief and the Cobbler at IMDb