In 1995, Disney-owned Miramax Pictures released a little picture called Arabian Knight. I was in attending the University of Saskatchewan at the time, which held a critics’ screening of the film in their on-campus theatre (Place Riel), which has since been converted into a classroom.  I grew up watching many Disney cartoons in this theatre as Saturday afternoon matinees, and many other film classics in my early adult years.  By this point, I was a fan of Disney’s films, and had been aware of their purchase of Miramax a few years earlier.  This made me eager to see this film at possibly it’s only airing in Saskatoon at the time.

By now, hopefully you’ve heard about this film and all of the history behind it.  If you haven’t, I point you now to two excellent articles by “Papa Vineyard” (Vincent Zahedi) of Ain’t It Cool News. The first is about how he recently had a chance to see a 1992 version of the film, assembled before Miramax got their hands on it, and the second is an interview with Kevin Schreck, the director of a documentary titled “Persistence of Vision” which is all about the 30-year-plus making of The Thief And The Cobbler, and legendary filmmaker Richard Williams’ vision with regards to his masterpiece project.  I suggest you check out both articles.