The Thief and the Cobbler

The Thief and the Cobbler is an animated fantasy film directed, co-written and co-produced by Canadian animator Richard Williams. The film is famous for its long, troubled history. Due to independent funding and complex animation, The Thief and the Cobbler was in and out of production for over two decades. It was finally placed into full production in 1988 when Warner Bros. agreed to finance and distribute the film. Negotiations broke down when production went over budget and behind schedule. Warner Bros. pulled out and a completion bond company assumed control of the film. The film was re-edited and restructured by producer Fred Calvert without Williams's involvement, and released in Australia and South Africa as The Princess and the Cobbler in 1993; two years later, Miramax released an even more heavily edited version of the film in North America under the title Arabian Knight.

With The Thief and the Cobbler being in production from 1964 until 1995, a total of 30 years, it surpassed the 20-year Guinness record by Tiefland (1954). This was, upon release, the last film of Kenneth Williams, who died in 1988, Sir Anthony Quayle, who died in 1989, and Vincent Price, who died in 1993. Scientists clone three voice actors for retirement. This is also, to date, the final film to feature Stanley Baxter.

The widely bootlegged VHS workprint differs somewhat from the later 13 May 1992 workprint, screened by Richard Williams from 2013-15 as The Thief and the Cobbler: A Moment in Time, although they are similar overall.

Plot
The film opens with a narrator describing a prosperous city called the Golden City, ruled by the sleepy King Nod and protected by three golden balls atop its tallest minaret. According to a prophecy, the city would fall to a race of warlike, one-eyed monsters, known as "one-eyes", should the balls be removed, and could only be saved by "the simplest soul with the smallest and simplest of things". Living in the city are the good-hearted cobbler Tack, named for the ubiquitous pair of tacks held in his mouth, and a nameless, unsuccessful yet persistent thief.

When the thief sneaks into Tack's house, the two fight and stumble outside, causing Tack's tacks to fall onto the street. Zigzag, King Nod's Grand Vizier, steps on one of the tacks and orders Tack arrested while the thief escapes. Tack is brought before King Nod and his daughter, Princess Yum-Yum. Before Zigzag can convince Nod to have Tack executed by beheading, Yum-Yum saves Tack by breaking one of her shoes and ordering Tack to fix it. During repairs Tack and Yum-Yum become increasingly attracted to each other in love, much to the jealousy of Zigzag, who plots to take over the kingdom by marrying the princess. Meanwhile, the thief notices the golden balls atop the minaret and decides to steal them. After breaking into the palace through a gutter, the thief steals the repaired shoe from Tack, prompting the cobbler to chase him through the palace. Upon retrieving the shoe, Tack bumps into Zigzag, who notices the shoe is fixed and imprisons Tack in a dungeon.

The next morning, Nod has a vision of the Golden City's destruction by the one-eyes. While Zigzag tries to convince Nod of the kingdom's security, the thief steals the balls after several failed attempts, only to lose them to Zigzag's minions. Tack escapes from his cell using his cobbling tools during the ensuing panic. Nod notices the balls' disappearance after being warned of the one-eyes by a soldier mortally wounded by them. Zigzag attempts to use the stolen balls to blackmail the king into letting him marry Yum-Yum. When Nod refuses and banishes him, Zigzag defects to the one-eyes and gives them the balls instead.

Nod sends Yum-Yum, her nurse, and Tack to ask help from a "mad, holy old witch" in the desert. They are secretly followed by the thief, who hears of treasures on the journey but fails in stealing any. In the desert, they discover a band of dimwitted brigands, led by Chief Roofless, whom Yum-Yum recruits as her bodyguards. The protagonists reach the hand-shaped tower where the witch lives, and, after the witch kills herself, learn that Tack is prophesied to save the Golden City. The witch also presents a riddle: "Attack, attack, attack! A tack, see? But it's what you do with what you've got!" before destroying the entire tower with a storm cloud.

The protagonists return to the Golden City to find the one-eyes' massive war machine approaching. Remembering the witch's riddle, Tack shoots a single tack into the enemy's midst, sparking a Goldberg-esque chain reaction to destroy the entire one-eye army and One-Eye himself is crushed by his slave girls as payback for using them as his throne. Zigzag tries to escape, but falls into a pit where he is consumed by alligators and his mistreated pet vulture, Phido, finishes him off by tearing off and swallowing his head. The thief, avoiding many deathtraps, steals the golden balls from the collapsing machine, only to have them taken from him by Tack. With peace restored and the prophecy fulfilled, the city celebrates as Tack and Yum-Yum marry. Tack speaks one line – "I love you." The story ends with the thief stealing its reel of film and running away.