The graphic arts portion of the Miramax® animation materials for ARABIAN KNIGHT (THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER) spans the 1960s-1990s and encompass 221 oversized boxes, with more than 23,000 pieces of artwork. The collection consists of materials from all aspects of the film commonly known as THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER (1995), representing the entirety of the thirty-one-year production process, materials from CIRCUS DRAWINGS (2010), as well as materials from the unfinished film I. VOR PITTFALKS, THE UNIVERSAL CONFIDENCE MAN.

The Production Art subcollection consists of production files for THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, CIRCUS DRAWINGS, and I. VOR PITTFALKS, THE UNIVERSAL CONFIDENCE MAN. The ARABIAN KNIGHT (THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER) production files series comprises the bulk of this collection and contains all of the artwork related to the film, including animation drawings, cels, backgrounds, concept drawings, cel and background layouts, original storyboards, color models, field and camera guides, exposure sheets, and production notes. Materials in this series were produced both by Richard Williams Animation Ltd. in London, as well as studios in the United States, Hungary, and Thailand that were hired to complete the project after Warner Bros. forfeited rights to the film.

The ARABIAN KNIGHT (THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER) production files series is divided into subseries using numbered sequences from the film. The sequences are numbered 1 through 12 and 100 through 1400; sequences 1 through 12 appear to have been produced by Richard Williams Animation Ltd., while sequences 100 through 1400 appear to have been completed by studios hired by the Completion Bond Company. The single digit sequences correlate with the sequences numbered in the hundreds and the double digits correlate with the thousands (for example, sequences 12 and 1200). There are also original sequences from Williams’s studio that were identified using names instead of numbers and those items have been associated with corresponding numbered sequences whenever possible using visual similarities and context from the plot. Materials from unidentified sequences and those from named sequences that have not been associated with corresponding numbered sequences appear in the Unidentified subseries. The collection includes materials that were not in any final versions of the film, such as animation drawings and cels featuring the mullah Nasruddin, which are also found in the Unidentified subseries.

Notable materials include animation cels and drawings depicting the card-shuffling magic trick Zig Zag performs for Mighty One-Eye, animation drawings, cels, and backgrounds depicting the One-Eye army’s war machine, drawings of early versions of characters that appear in the film, intricate concept art such as an oversized map of the Golden City designed by Roy Naisbitt and completed by Errol Le Cain, and other materials including a functioning shooting jig that enables aspects of an animation background to move while the rest remains stationary.

Williams’s work on THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER began in the mid-1960s when he illustrated a collection of Sufi folk tales written by the British author Idries Shah. This partnership led Williams to work with the Shah family on a series of animated shorts that evolved into a plan for a feature-length film starring the mullah character. After disputes over funding and copyrights in the early 1970s, the Shahs parted ways with Richard Williams and claimed the rights to the film’s protagonist, Nasruddin. Williams continued working on a reimagined version of the film, changing the protagonist to a thief based on a man he had met in Morocco.

Without the Shahs’ backing, Williams shifted his focus back to the commercials for which his London studio was gaining acclaim. Though various external funding opportunities arose from the 1970s through the end of the 1980s, Williams chose to self-finance THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER to maintain creative control using revenue from his commercial work. After winning a special achievement Academy Award for WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (1988), Williams signed a deal with Warner Bros. to finish THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, but the project was seized by the California-based Completion Bond Company, which had insured the film’s financing, when he missed a deadline in the spring of 1992. Warner Bros. forfeited the rights and the bond company fired everyone involved in the production before hiring television animator and producer Fred Calvert to oversee the completion of the film. Under Calvert’s direction, the film was edited and re-structured into a musical to compete with Disney’s ALADDIN (1992). Where Williams had imagined the production as a silent film with some sound, the Completion Bond Company’s version saw the addition of four original musical numbers and added voices to both of the previously-speechless title characters. The film was released in Australia and South Africa under the title “The Princess and the Cobbler” in 1993, then re-cut and released with even less of the original material in the United States in 1995, under the title “Arabian Knight.” Williams never watched any of these released versions of his film.

In addition to the materials related to THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, this collection also contains original animation drawings and a sketchbook related to CIRCUS DRAWINGS (2010) and animation cels from the title sequence of I. VOR PITTFALKS, THE UNIVERSAL CONFIDENCE MAN, which comprise their own respective series.

Miramax Films Corporation was formed in 1979 by Harvey and Bob Weinstein and named after their parents, Miriam and Max. The Company was known for releasing independent films domestically and abroad on serious, adult subject matter. In May of 1993, The Walt Disney Company purchased the independent distributor, which would continue to operate as a separate company and expand into production. In 2005, the Weinstein brothers left Miramax after their contract expired in September of that year. Currently the company operates under the Disney division, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group.

Richard Williams (1933-2019) was born Richard Edmund Williams on March 19, 1933 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Williams, a Canadian-British animator and director of animated films, was active from the early 1950s until his death. He developed an interest in animation at the age of five, when his mother took him to see SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937). After a brief career as a fine artist, Williams returned to animation, working at George Dunning’s company, T.V. Cartoons Ltd., in the mid-1950s before winning a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Animated Film for his first production, THE LITTLE ISLAND (1958).

The critical and financial success of his next animated short LOVE ME, LOVE ME, LOVE ME (1962) enabled Williams to establish his own studio, Richard Williams Animation Ltd., where he and his staff alternated between working on personal projects and commissioned work, averaging over one hundred forty television commercials, film title sequences, and other works per year. He gained wide acclaim for the titles and bridging sequences for THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1968), a United Kingdom feature film directed by Tony Richardson.

Williams’s work on his seminal film THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER began during this period when he illustrated “The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasruddin,” a collection of Sufi folk tales written by the British author Idries Shah. This collaboration evolved into plans for a feature-length animated film. Williams’s working relationship with the Shah family ultimately dissolved, but the filmmaker continued to work on the project over the next two decades using the money earned from his commercial work to self-finance what had become his passion project.

After winning a special achievement Academy Award for the animation direction of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (1988), Williams signed a deal with Warner Bros. to finish THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, but the project was seized when he missed a deadline in 1992. The Completion Bond Company that insured the film’s financing hired Fred Calvert to oversee completion. Under Calvert’s direction, the film was edited, re-structured, and finished by animation studios across the United States, Hungary, and Thailand, without Williams’s involvement. It was released in Australia and South Africa under the title “The Princess and the Cobbler” in 1993, then re-cut and released in the United States under the title “Arabian Knight” in 1995. Williams never watched any of these released versions of his film.

Richard Williams earned over two hundred fifty international awards throughout his career, including three Academy Awards. In addition to his special achievement Academy Award, Williams also received Oscars in the Short Subject (Animated) category for A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1972) and for Visual Effects, together with his colleagues Ken Ralston, Edward Jones, and George Gibbs, on WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (1988). He is also known for his seminal animation textbook, “The Animator’s Survival Kit” (2001), which has been turned into a DVD box set and an iOS App in the years since its initial publication. Williams received his final Academy Award nomination for his animated short film PROLOGUE (2015) and was in the process of completing a related feature-length adaptation of "Lysistrata" when he died on August 16, 2019 in Bristol, England.