Der Dieb und der Schuster

The Thief and the Cobbler is an unfinished animated fantasy film directed by Richard Williams.[4] Originally conceived 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 fell behind schedule, it was heavily cut and hastily re-edited by producer Fred Calvert without Williams' involvement; it was eventually released by Allied Filmmakers in 1993 under the title The Princess and the Cobbler. Two years later, Disney's Miramax Films 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' own 35 mm workprint; Williams himself acknowledged the film's rehabilitated reputation, thanks to projects like The Recobbled Cut, a popular fan edit by Garrett Gilchrist, and Persistence of Vision, a 2012 documentary by Kevin Schreck detailing the film's production.

With The Thief and the Cobbler being in and out of production from 1964 until 1993, a total of 29 years, it surpasses the 20-year Guinness record[7] previously held by Tiefland (1954), although films exist with productions longer still, such as The Other Side of the Wind (2018) at 48 years. It was also the final film for several actors and artists, including animators Ken Harris (died 1982), Errol Le Cain (died January of 1989), Emery Hawkins (died June of 1989), Grim Natwick (died 1990), and Art Babbitt (died 1992), as well as 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, a month after the film's initial release).