9 years after his death, Robin Williams is still playing Genie in Disney

This is a gift for all fans of the magic of Disney that came in the form of a short film. Once Upon a Time Studio, a movie made for the centennial of the company founded by Walt Disney, is now available on Disney+!

This ten-minute film retraces the entire history of the studio, featuring no fewer than 554 characters from 150 feature films produced from 1937 to the present: Peter Pan, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, Mowgli, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Cuzco. Not forgetting of course Mickey and Minnie Mouse are there!

The special feature of this short film is that it brings back all the vocal artists of these iconic characters. However, for the deceased actors, the decision was made not to use artificial intelligence to reproduce their voices.

Thus, archival images made it possible to reuse dialogues from the films for the needs of this short film, which combines animation and live footage. But the case of Aladdin’s Genie was an exception because his lines of dialogue are completely new.

While in the French version it was Richard Darbois who once again voiced the character, the original version failed to bring back the late Robin Williams, who played Genie in the feature film Aladdin and its sequel Aladdin and the King. thieves.

Podcast: Meeting Richard Darboy, Voices of Harrison Ford and Buzz Lightyear:

In order not to use artificial intelligence against the wishes of his family and to honor the memory of the great actor, the two directors of the film, Dan Abraham and Trent Corey, decided to use never-before-seen recorded dialogues. cast, but which were not retained in the 1992 film.

“We listened to the soundtracks of the sound recordings of the time and found some parts that we could reuse”Dan Abraham explained to our colleagues at variety. “That’s why we asked Eric Goldbergwho brought Genie to life in the animated film, taking care of him and the result is magical.”

The short film Once Upon a Time is now available on Disney+.

Discover the list of movies currently available on the platform!