“They crossed the line”: This was the only condition that Robin Williams set for voicing the Genie in Aladdin, but Disney broke the promise.

Obviously, almost everyone has seen the masterpiece of the tandem of John Musker and Ron Clements, Aladdin. Obviously, almost everyone remembers the crazy character of the genie in the lamp. Now, to be honest, at the time the film was discovered in theaters in French, who knew that Robin Williams had voiced the character in the original version? Not many people, obviously outside of film buff circles, watch movies in the original version. In French, we discovered the film with the famous voice of Richard Darbois.

And Williams’ comedic genius shone through with the animated character’s voice acting, for which he improvised his own dialogue. For an excerpt from this absolutely brilliant work, see below in this excerpt…

And when we say torrent, it is not an empty word. The actor recorded nearly 30 hours of dialogue, both scripted and improvised. A fabulous piece that Ron Clements talked about on the mic Diversityin 2021.

Robin added and embellished each take, so by the 25th (and final) take, the scene went from 3 minutes to about 20 minutes! Robin came up with more and more ideas. And it was always fun the one time we had it. Bringing out Genie’s main animator, Eric Goldbergfrom the recording scene because he was laughing uncontrollably and ruining the filming.” Clements adds: “I hope we picked the best elements, but there was a lot of material that we didn’t keep.”

“I don’t do that, that’s the only limit”

Instead of his usual salary flirting with $8 million, Williams accepted a serious pay cut, dropping it to $75,000. But before signing the contract, he gave Disney strict conditions: that his voice would not be used in any way to sell merchandising, and that Jean would not occupy more than a quarter of the movie’s poster.

But Disney inserted a penknife into the contract and did exactly the opposite of what was agreed with the actor. While he was on the sets of the show Today show To promote Mrs. Doubtfire, Williams expressed her dismay at the topic.

“All of a sudden they came out with an ad – part of it was a movie, and part of it was using the movie to sell stuff. Not only did they use my voice, but they took a character that I created and added it. Selling stuff is the only thing I said, ‘I’m not doing that.’

Mickey’s dangerous defense

The least we can say is that the protection provided by Disney was risky… After the actor came forward, the firm objected, explaining that it was because the actor was disappointed with the amount he was paid to work on the film. “Marsha oversees all parts of the promotional material related to marketing and Robin Williams Comments are made by the company whose comments have been recorded Los Angeles Times.

The boss of Disney at the time, a certain Jeffrey Katzenberg, tried to convince the actor. By giving a Picasso paintingIt’s worth a million dollars. Williams hung it in her living room, but in the actor’s eyes, it still wasn’t an official apology from Disney.

“If you’re angry, just burn the picture on the TV, everyone will want to see it!” whispered his friend Eric Idle, who was visiting him. Williams replied: “No, I’ll make a copy and write a copy.”

It wasn’t until 1994, and before Katzenberg’s departure from 20th Century Fox’s Joe Roth, that the firm officially apologized to the actor. Years later, in 2009, Williams was named a Disney Legend.

“Robin changed the perception of animated films” Clements said in an interview with Variety. “His brilliant comedy streak brought a mature touch to animation, which was new at the time. He was also one of the biggest stars to appear in animated film at the time.

To be clear, we didn’t want Robin because he was a big star. We wanted him because he was perfect for the role. We wanted him because we thought his talent could bring something new and innovative to Disney animated films that could be exciting and entertaining. And that’s exactly what he did! “

We couldn’t honor this giant, who unfortunately passed away too soon, in a more beautiful way. For so long, the artist…