The Thief and the Cobbler Workprint [1992] Full.avi

Enjoy the original version of this lost animation classic, written and
directed by three-time Academy Award winning animator Richard Williams
(animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit).

On a certain Tube video site, [TheThiefArchive] you can see The Thief and the
Cobbler: Recobbled Cut, an unofficial restoration of the film by Garrett
Gilchrist. (orangecow.org)

But this is Richard Williams' original, unrestored workprint from 1992
[production on the film began in the mid 1960s!] ... many scenes are unfinished
and the quality isn't spectacular, but it's a great way to see what Williams had
in mind, especially if you've already seen the restored Recobbled Cut.

It's in PAL AVI format, and if you have a better version, PLEASE get in touch
with TheThiefArchive [on a certain Tube video site].

Nearly 30 years in the making, a labor of love by a team of animation greats,
this was to be the masterpiece of Williams' career, perhaps the most ambitious
independent animated film ever conceived. Williams funded the film over the
years with his millions of dollars of his own money, until after Roger Rabbit,
Warner Brothers decided to fund the film. The Thief was the inspiration for
Disney's film Aladdin, which proved to be its undoing. After over two decades of
work, the film was taken away from Williams when he couldn't meet his deadline.
It was eventually recut and destroyed, bought by Disney and destroyed further.

Directed by Richard Williams
Screenplay by Richard Williams and Margaret French
Master animator Ken Harris
Produced by Imogen Sutton and Richard Williams

"Animation among the most glorious and lively ever created." - The New York Times

"It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and
in the depths of the emerald seas, and upon every grain of sand in the vast
deserts, that the world which we see is an outward and visible dream, of an
inward and invisible reality ... Once upon a time there was a golden city. In
the centre of the golden city, atop the tallest minaret, were three golden
balls. The ancients had prophesied that if the three golden balls were ever
taken away, harmony would yield to discord, and the city would fall to
destruction and death. But... the mystics had also foretold that the city might
be saved by the simplest soul with the smallest and simplest of things. In the
city there dwelt a lowly shoemaker, who was known as Tack the Cobbler. Also in
the city... existed a Thief, who shall be ... nameless."

Also known (in horrifically butchered form) as Arabian Knight and The Princess
and the Cobbler.