The film holds the record for the longest production schedule of a completed feature: 28 years.
Originally conceived by Richard Williams as an attempt to make the greatest animated movie of all time, it later became his own "reason for living". After failing to secure funds from private investors or a studio to make the movie, Williams decided to finance it on his own, taking small jobs on television commercials or Saturday morning cartoons and using the proceeds to hire his own group of animators. The production moved in fits and starts until the success of Falsches Spiel mit Roger Rabbit (1988) allowed Williams to make a deal with Warner Brothers to finance and distribute the movie. As the production continued, however, it became obvious that Williams would not meet the 1991 release date originally set by the studio due to numerous delays, not the least of which were the director's insistence on absolute perfection and hesitation in using storyboards, two circumstances which often resulted in whole sequences being scrapped and re-shot. With Warner Brothers nervous over the release of Disney's Aladdin (1992), which resembled The Thief and the Cobbler in story, tone, and style (many of the animators on the Disney feature had also worked for Williams), the studio turned over completion of the movie to the Completion Bond Company, which promptly fired Williams and brought on Animator Fred Calvert to finish the movie as cheaply and quickly as possible. Calvert heavily re-edited the movie and altered the story, bringing in voice actors to re-dub the lead characters. Eventually distributed by Miramax, the movie was cut even further before debuting in theaters (See the Alternate Versions page for more details). Though bootleg copies of Williams' original work-print continue to circulate and several restoration attempts have been proposed, an official "Director's Cut" and a fan edited version by one of Williams' biggest fans named Garret Gilchrist were later released in 2006 (Mark 1 & 2), 2008 (Mark 3), 2013 (Mark 4 and Official Directors cut released by Williams himself) and 2023 (Mark 5), and were all received positively by critics and viewers on YouTube.
Vincent Price's final released acting role. Although this movie was released in 1995, he recorded his part in 1972, while he was in London to dub lines for Theater des Grauens (1973).
Richard Williams convinced a bunch of Irish voice actors to record for the Brigands sequence after making sure they had plenty to drink and had them read the script. He kept the tape rolling as they got more and more drunk. Eventually they started fighting, he got it all on tape and used it in the movie (which remains even in the edited cuts).
Sir Sean Connery was to have recorded Tack's single line at the end of the movie, but he never showed up, so instead a friend of the director's wife recorded it. Despite this, "The Recobbled Cut" of the movie still credits Connery as the voice of Tack.