There have been several bootlegs of Richard's 1992 workprint floating around for
a while, but as time goes on better versions have been uncovered.
That combined with the footage available on DVD has made it possible to "cobble"
together a more complete version of the film based on the workprint. I have seen
the results and it's amazing and the good new is that it keeps getting better as
people who worked on the film come forward with their treasures. This has taken a lot of hard work by a very
talented editor and artist named Garrett Gilchrist (orangecow.org).
In some cases, Calvert shots were reanimated and new effects created to match
Richard's original vision.
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut is available on an unofficial DVD.
This recobbled version can be watched at Youtube.com, in low quality, in its
entirety.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=55EE5872FE454FBA
The entire DVD (4GB) has been posted for download via the Bittorrent method, at
the popular Demonoid.com website.
Other materials related to Richard and the film are also available for download
there in AVI format, as the "Richard Williams Collection," parts 1, 2 and 3.
Some of those same materials related to Richard can also be downloaded via torrent at Myspleen.net.
In late May, 2004, the entire DVD was posted to the newsgroup alt.binaries.dvd,
and it may be posted again.
4/2/2012
An even higher quality copy of the ReCobbled
Cut is in the works. For the latest go to the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/379671680516/
You can watch the trailer here or
See a thread discussion about it here
http://forums.somethingawful.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=151
Also you can check this site that has links to google video
versions:
http://www.ctufilms.com/cobbler/index.htm
Don't ask me for a copy if you can't download it, but do look for these as well
on eBay since others may choose to download the disk images and sell them there.