Animator Richard Williams in 1964 started the production, on his own, of an animated adventure story inspired by Near Eastern mythology like The Arabian Tales. He sought to craft a tale that would carry over his admiration for the dialogue-free artistic majesty of FANTASIA, but break the musical song & dance nonsense that Disney followed through for decades.
THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER was off and on again until the late 1980s. Williams got Warner Brothers to help put up the cash to finish the film after Williams' work on WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. With 15 minutes of total animation to finish, and having to show the investors something, Williams had to deliver a rough cut workprint edit filled with the completed animation, and pencil tests/storyboards to fill in the gaps.
Warner Brothers hated the cut, and practically abandoned it this side of a dumpster baby. With what was completed of the film taken from Williams' feeble fingers, MIRAMAX picked it up and released their own dubbed/hacked up version: ARABIAN KNIGHTS, which easily is indeed one of the worst films I've ever seen.
Linked above is that Original WorkPrint edit, and really for the so-called "Greatest Animated Film Never Finished," THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER does lives up on its own merits beyond its behind-the-scenes chaotic history...almost.
While some people might have some difficulty in trying to watch such a rough cut, what is revealed is practically the film Williams sought to make for so long.
If this film had been released in the 1980s or earlier, or even as late as 1990, it would have brought possibly the breath of fresh air for Animation away from the damn Disney formula.
In other words, almost PIXAR before there was PIXAR (but without the self-aware wit and pop culture sensibilities). Trust me, it makes sense.
The film's highlight is in the Climatic Finale, where the mute title character The Thief going through comic insanity as everything is crashing around him, as he tries to steal the greatest treasure of them all.
With a hero that is a mute as well(save for an lovely moment in the ending), Williams was right. He had directed "a silent film, but with noise."
