History WesternAnimation / TheThiefAndTheCobbler

* AnAesop: One was [[{{Pun}} tacked]] on rather awkwardly and out of nowhere in the Miramax cut; the Witch's dialogue of "You have all you need, but it's what you do with what you got" is replaced with some message that Tack has to believe in himself, and one of his last lines in the Miramax cut is "Whenever you see a shooting star/be proud of what you really are. Do in your heart what you know is right/and you too can be an Arabian Knight."

* TheVoiceless: [[CuteMute Tack]] and the Thief. At least, originally save for one line from Tack in the end. The Fred Calvert cut adds one line for The Thief, but it's just laughter after he finds a necklace in his pocket.
* VocalDissonance: When he finally speaks in the Recobbled Cut, it's with a surprisingly deep voice (provided by Creator/SeanConnery).

* AThicketOfSpears: During the One-Eye army’s MillionMookMarch, some lower a line of wicked-looking modified spears.

%%* ArabianNightsDays

* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: [[spoiler:Zigzag]] being torn apart by crocodiles in the dark, with only eyes and teeth visible.

%%** 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.]]%%ZCE. Explain what's going on, cut the word cruft.

%%* EvilSoundsDeep: Mighty One-Eye.
%%* EvilWearsBlack: Zigzag and One-Eye.

%%* HeroicMime: Tack.

%%* TheNounAndTheNoun

Despite both finalizing the film's character designs and completing a substantial volume of footage during this period, 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 (supervised by Fred Calvert) 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 a quiet, faintly-eerie EpicMovie into a LighterAndSofter and more dialogue-heavy 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 Creator/{{Miramax}} under the title ''Arabian Knight'' in 1995, which gave Tack and the Thief extensive dialogue (or, in the Thief's case, [[InternalMonologue internal monologuing]]) respectively provided by Creator/MatthewBroderick and Creator/JonathanWinters.

Despite both finalizing the film's character designs and completing a substantial volume of footage during this period, 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 (supervised by Fred Calvert) 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 a quiet, faintly-eerie EpicMovie into a LighterAndSofter and more dialogue-heavy 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 Creator/{{Miramax}} under the title ''Arabian Knight'' in 1995.

* AnAesop: One was [[JustForPun tacked]] on rather awkwardly and out of nowhere in the Miramax cut; the Witch's dialogue of "You have all you need, but it's what you do with what you got" is replaced with some message that Tack has to believe in himself, and one of his last lines in the Miramax cut is "Whenever you see a shooting star/be proud of what you really are. Do in your heart what you know is right/and you too can be an Arabian Knight."

** The female One-eyes wear skimpy clothes and have bouncing breasts while being just as ugly as the male ones.

* FanDisservice: The witch. Her breasts are grotesquely long, floppy... and bouncing with loving care.

...That said, the Recobbled Cut of the film is ''continually'' being updated, with the most recent version extant on YouTube as of 2023.

* DeadpanSnarker: The thief's inner thoughts, as provided by Creator/JonathanWinters for the Calvert and Miramax cuts. Tends to provoke a polarizing response, with some finding it obnoxious and distracting, while others think it (along with the animation) is the only thing that makes those cuts watchable.

* FillingTheSilence: The Calvert cut added narration from an older Tack to the film, while the Miramax cut gave him full voice acting and narration from Matthew Broderick. The Miramax cut also added many more voices, including an inner monologue for the Thief (done by Jonathan Winters). In addition, many characters, such as [=YumYum=], have significantly more dialog added. The original intention by Williams was to create several purely physical characters for the animators to have total freedom with, and Calvert and Miramax added dialog.

%%* GagDub: The Miramax re-edit

* IWantSong: "She is More" from the Miramax version, in which [=YumYum=] sings about how dissatisfied she is and would like to do more than merely be a LivingProp by her father’s side.

* {{Redubbing}}: The Allied Filmmakers and Miramax editions redubbed the main British voices with American ones, except for Creator/VincentPrice.

* VillainProtagonist: The Thief. While he's not the BigBad, he isn't exactly a good guy either, considering the whole mess is his fault. Miramax apparently felt pity for him and made him an AccidentalHero when the King believes that he recovered the golden balls for the city and he gives the balls back out of guilt (and not wanting to be attacked by the King's guards).

* TheVoiceless: [[CuteMute Tack]] and the Thief. At least, originally. Though the Recobbled version adds a single line.

** In the Miramax version, the last we see of Zigzag's henchmen is an odd scene where he ambiguously threatens them, and it looks almost as if he stabs them in the face the second after the camera fades out. In the Recobbled Cut, they appear briefly to show shock and remorse for what's happened, and it's clear that Zigzag was simply scaring them in the earlier scene.

The movie began in the mid-'60s as a pet project which Williams and a few colleagues worked on in between profession gigs at his studio in London and was in and out of various stages of production for many years. Initially a more dialogue-heavy and politically-oriented narrative centered on the Muslim folk character Mullah Nasrudin (based on a series of Nasrudin retellings authored by Idries Shah and illustrated by Williams), eventual creative conflicts with the Shah family led them to withdraw permission to utilize their version of the Nasrudin character. Williams responded by revamping the film's plot (retaining numerous non-Nasrudin characters from the original pitch, such as a mute thief and a malevolent vizier voiced by Creator/VincentPrice) to center on Tack, a silent cobbler, and the aforementioned thief, effectively creating the basic plot skeleton from which Williams would work for the following two decades. Simultaneously, Williams' own advancing prowess as an animator (and corresponding artistic ambitions) rendered his revamped pitch noticeably more visually-oriented and lushly-animated than its previous incarnation. As production continued on-and-off throughout the '70s and '80s, investors came and went, initially awed by the stunning, god-tier animation that had been completed thus far, but turned off by Williams' obsessive attention which it required, often resulting in missed deadlines and overshot budgets. Williams, meanwhile, hired and fired animators at will, eventually ending up with a solid team which included longtime Warner animator Ken Harris (famed for his three-decade collaboration with Creator/ChuckJones), Disney legend Creator/ArtBabbitt, wandering master animator Emery Hawkins and a young Creator/EricGoldberg, most of whom would follow him to his directorial debut, ''WesternAnimation/RaggedyAnnAndAndyAMusicalAdventure'', which Williams took on to help fund ''Thief''. After winning an Oscar for ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' in 1989, WB offered Williams the money necessary to finally complete ''Thief'', under the proviso that it be ready [[TemptingFate by a specific date under the budget provided]], finally commencing full, continuous production after a quarter of a century.

Despite both finalizing the film's character designs and completing a substantial volume of footage during this period, 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 (supervised by Fred Calvert) 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 eerie, abstract EpicMovie into a LighterAndSofter and more dialogue-heavy 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 Creator/{{Miramax}} under the title ''Arabian Knight'' in 1995.

The movie began as a pet project which Williams and a few colleagues worked on in between profession gigs at his studio in London and was in and out of various stages of production for many years. Investors came and went, initially awed by the stunning, god-tier animation that had been completed thus far, but turned off by Williams' obsessive attention which it required, often resulting in missed deadlines and overshot budgets. Williams, meanwhile, hired and fired animators at will, eventually ending up with a solid team which included Disney legend Creator/ArtBabbitt and a young Creator/EricGoldberg, both of whom would follow him to his directorial debut, ''WesternAnimation/RaggedyAnnAndAndyAMusicalAdventure'', which Williams took on to help fund ''Thief''. After winning an Oscar for ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' in 1989, a studio offered Williams the money necessary to finally complete ''Thief'', under the proviso that it be ready [[TemptingFate by a specific date under the budget provided]].

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 Creator/{{Miramax}} under the title ''Arabian Knight'' in 1995.

* ArabianNightsDays

* EvilSoundsDeep: Mighty One-Eye.
* EvilWearsBlack: Zigzag and One-Eye.

* ForWantOfANail: The events of the film are the result of many coincidences. The whole plot is set in motion by a literal nail, and also resolved by one.

* GagDub: The Miramax re-edit

* HeroicMime: Tack.

* TheNounAndTheNoun

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the into to ''The Recobbled Cut'', the narrator is accompanied by a pair of hands over a CrystalBall. When the narrator explains that the city will be saved by "the simplest soul... with the simplest of things," the hands cover the ball and the negative space between them forms the shape of a tack.

* AccidentalAimingSkills: Tack the Cobbler, who [[spoiler:takes down One-Eye's ''entire invading army'' with a single tack]]. It is "accidental" since he previously showed no sharpshooting ability (extraordinary or otherwise).

* 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 (Rough Draft and Varga going uncredited)[[/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.
** A very noticeable instance is [=YumYum=] as Zigzag says .”..of course, oh rose of the land, your slightest whim is my command..." This is because the footage was recycled from an older test reel Williams had created to pitch the film to potential investors.

Here's the plot: in a [[CityOfGold "golden city"]] set in a pseudo-Arabian land (although, in one of the versions, they decided to [[SmallReferencePools put it in Baghdad]]), there are [[PlotCoupon three golden balls]] atop "the highest minaret". Prophecy has it that if the balls are stolen, the city will fall, unless it is saved by the [[SimplemindedWisdom simplest of souls]]. The balls are stolen by a sneaky, nameless thief, just as a vicious race of one-eyed men (simply known as the One-Eyes) are about to attack the city. The King of the city sends his daughter, Princess [=YumYum=] (yes, that is her actual name), out to find a way to stop the encroaching army, and she takes along with her the hero of our story, a meek cobbler named Tack (who has begun to fall in love with the Princess and she with him) as a guide. They are followed along the way by the Thief, who's only in it for the loot.

* {{Gainaxing}}: The witch. Her breasts are grotesquely long, floppy... and bouncing with loving care.

* GagBoobs: The witch. Her breasts are grotesquely long, floppy... and bouncing with loving care.

* BareYourMidriff: Princess [=YumYum=] wears a tiny short-sleeved orange kofta that reveals her stomach.

* AwardBaitSong: In the two "finished" cuts. It's a [[TheNineties nineties]] animated film, though it's not easy to tell which one was the song in question.

* GagBoobs: The witch. Her breasts are grotesquely long, floppy... and [[{{Gainaxing}} Gainaxed]] with loving care.
* {{Gainaxing}}: Princess [=YumYum=] at times and also the Witch and the One Eye's dancing slaves.