History WesternAnimation / TheThiefAndTheCobbler

* OffModel: Happens pretty often, as one could expect from an animated film in production for ''decades'' and, in the case of the Calvert version, by several different animation studios around the world[[note]]The animation itself was largely handled by members of Sulivan-Bluth Studios in Ireland, Kroyer Films in America and Premier Films in the UK. With Creator/WangFilmProductions in Taiwan handing the bulk of the ink and paint, which in turn went to their Thailand-based studio, Creator/VargaStudio in Hungary and Creator/RoughDraftStudios' California and South Korean studios[[/note]]. It doesn't help that Calvert outsourced the remaining animation work to cheaper studios, creating a drastic difference in quality between the original Williams-animated scenes and his scenes.

** The thief never gets punished for his incredible acts of larceny. He does hand over the balls at the end, but presumably doesn't return anything else.[[note]][[LaserGuidedKarma Of course, the polo ball seems to have a mind of its own, doggedly chasing the thief around as the polo players whack both it and him.]][[/note]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/recobbledposter350.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[OpeningNarration "It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens...]] [[MindScrew ... that the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality..."]]]]

''The Thief and the Cobbler'' (also ''The Princess and the Cobbler'', or ''Arabian Knight'', depending on which version you're watching) is a legendary attempt by master animator Creator/RichardWilliams to create the greatest animated feature ever. At 31 years, it held the record for the longest production time for a motion picture-- much of it spent in DevelopmentHell-- beating out the previous record holder, Creator/LeniRiefenstahl's ''Tiefland'', which took 20 years to make. It has since been surpassed by Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Film/TheOtherSideOfTheWind'', which took 48 years from the first frames of film to the final cut (unlike Williams, Welles wasn't able to enjoy the end result of his film emerging from DevelopmentHell, as he had died 33 years earlier), though it still stands as having the longest completed production time of any ''animated'' movie in existence. Williams envisioned the film as his personal masterpiece (in the traditional sense, as in "the piece you create when you've mastered your medium") and wanted to fill the entire movie with every technique and trick he had learned from the top animators of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, effectively putting on display the ultimate capabilities of hand-drawn animation. It is considered a lost treasure of [[WesternAnimation animation]], with many critics calling it the [[MissingEpisode greatest unfinished film of all time]].

A few years after the release of the Miramax cut, Williams' personal workprint of the film, which had been smuggled out by some employees after he had been fired, appeared on the internet under the name ''[[http://orangecow.org/ocpfanprojects.html The Recobbled Cut]]'' under the supervision of Garrett Gilchrist. The cut contains virtually all of the completed animation, as well as pencil tests and storyboards, to create as close an approximation as possible to Williams' original vision, allowing it to finally be seen by the masses. It has developed an extremely strong cult following among animators and animation fans, and has topped many "Greatest Unfinished Films" lists, as a veritable holy grail in the medium of hand-drawn animation. It has seen been passed around all over the internet, sometimes in drastically different forms.

* BloodlessCarnage: Apparently, being impaled with a flagpole and a dozen arrows doesn't make you bleed.
** There is one short scene in the Recobbled Cut where there is nothing but slashing swords and blood spraying everywhere.

%%* BareYourMidriff: Princess [=YumYum=].

%%* IWantSong: "She is More" in the butchered versions.

%%* VocalDissonance: Invoked in the Recobbled Cut.

* BigBookOfWar: The Brigand’s Handbook. When news of the heroes’ caravan reaches the Brigands, Roofless consults a {{Doorstopper}} to figure out how to proceed. The page he reads from contains vaguely-related words grouped alphabetically [[WildMassGuessing (perhaps it’s a table of contents?)]], and Roofless reads with difficulty, so its actually utility is dubious.

* BigBookOfWar: The Brigand’s Handbook. When news of the heroes’ caravan reaches the Brigands, Roofless consults a {{Doorstopper}} to figure out how to proceed. The page he reads from contains vaguely-related words grouped alphabetically [[WildNassGuessing (perhaps it’s a table of contents?)]], and Roofless reads with difficulty, so its actually utility is dubious.

%%* BigBookOfWar: "When in doubt...consult..''The Brigands' Handbook!''"

Williams never oversaw the film's completion: he wound up missing the production deadline with the film fifteen minutes short of completion and, as per contractual obligations, [[ExecutiveMeddling was fired from his own pet project]] 28 years after he had begun it. The project was then farmed out to an overseas company to finish the last fifteen minutes, prompted by competition with a [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} notoriously similar upcoming film]], and was [[{{Macekre}} severely edited]] upon completion, turning it from an artful EpicMovie into a LighterAndSofter Disney-esque musical ([[DramaticIrony some overseas-edited editions of the film even advertise it as the]] [[TheMockbuster Mockbuster]] [[DramaticIrony version of]] ''[[DramaticIrony Aladdin]]''). It was given a small, [[BoxOfficeBomb ultimately unsuccessful]] theatrical release by Miramax under the title ''Arabian Knight'' in 1995.

* AdultFear: In the film's climax, the King has a major breakdown when he spots his daughter standing ''right in the path of the One Eyes war machine'' and realizes there is nothing he can do to help her.

* HumongousMecha: One-Eye's war machine, a gargantuan Clockpunk SpiderTank in the shape of a giant eyeball.

* HumongousMecha: One-Eye's war machine, a gargantuan Clockpunk SpiderTank in the shape of a [[Oculothorax giant eyeball.]]

* HumongousMecha: One-Eye's war machine, a gargantuan Clockpunk SpiderTank in the shape of a [[Oculothorax giant eyeball]].

** ''Nothing'' can stop the Thief once he spots something shiny. Subverted at the end of the original, where he and Tack are fighting over the balls, and the Thief just decides that they're not worth it and walks away, [[BreakingTheFourthWall only to come back, unknown to Tack, and steal the entire film...]]

* BulletSparks: Not an actual gun bullet, but a tack slung at an unrealistic speed ricochets with visible sparks, as the start of an epic ChainReactionDestruction.

** And there has to be a mention for the thief and a certain polo ball. You can't help but either pity the poor guy or laugh out of spite. [[TakeAThirdOption Or both.]]

* ChainReactionDestruction: Done in epic fashion at the FinalBattle, as Tack unwittingly starts one with [[spoiler:One-Eye's immense and intricate war machine]].

%%* FaceDeathWithDignity: Oddly enough, [[spoiler: Zigzag]].

** The ending is a Funny Foreground Event... The Thief steals the scene. Literally pulls it right off the projection reel.

* {{Homage}}: The Thief does his best [[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} Chernobog impression]] with accompanying theme music when he dons a fake pair of wings.

Now satisfied with ''Thief'', Williams moved on to another attempt at a personal masterpiece, an anthology film with the working title [[LampshadeHanging "I Hope I Live To Finish This"]], the first part of which, ''Prologue'', debuted in 2015. Unfortunately, since he succumbed to cancer on August 17, 2019, it’s likely we won’t see anymore of that project.