Nine years after his death, Robin Williams returns to Genie at Disney (making-of video)

Article updated with an excellent video shared by one of its animators, which shows the making of this unexpected meeting between Olaf from Frozen and the magical being from Aladdin.

To celebrate the centenary of Disney studios, its animators created a short film bringing together its main heroes, entitled Once upon a time there was a hero. “A real headache” to make, its creators told us. Because in just 9 minutes, they bring together 2D and 3D animated characters, 554 in all taken from 85 films shot between 1937 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and today. And sometimes dubbed by actors who had not performed them again for 20 or 30 years. The same goes for the animators, some of whom, like Ruben Aquino, the designer of Ursula for The little Mermaidwere officially retired!

The trailer is here, and the entire short film is now visible on Disney+:

Robin Williams: unpublished takes from his dubbing of Genius resurface

We also share its making-of, which has just been published by Hyrum Osmond, one of its animators on X. You can read below our article from October 2023 dedicated specifically to the return of Robin Williams’ voice, made possible thanks to an exceptional agreement from his heirs, because the actor had stipulated in his will that he did not wish his work – neither his image nor his voice – can be resumed until 25 years after his disappearance. Whether through stock images or the use of AI.

“I saw Aladdin in the cinema eight times, writes Osmond above this manufacturing video. Genius is the reason why I wanted to become an animator. Being able to work alongside the brilliant Eric Goldberg to animate this scene was an extraordinary experience for me. Olaf and the Genie reunited, I can’t believe it. Thanks to the animation team, and thanks to him for helping to create this beautiful short film. And for making one of my dreams come true.”

Premiere – Special issue n°23: Disney, 100 years of hidden treasures

Article from October 17, 2023: To bring back the Genius ofAladdinthe Disney teams must have cheated, since its voice actor Robin Williams tragically passed away in 2014. The team was able to use an archive recording of the actor, who had improvised a lot of lines during the making of the animated film by John Musker and Ron Clements, released in 1992 at the cinema. Then which was dubbed by Richard Darbois for its French version.

Dan Abraham and Trent Correy, his co-directors, explain to Variety : “We did everything we could to bring his heirs on board with us in this project. We explained to them that we were preparing a very special short film, that Robin’s Genius was so important to many people that we really wanted him to be part of it. Dan listened to all the soundtracks from the time, all the voice recordings, then we chose a few pieces that we could reuse. We told them clearly: ‘This is what we would like to do.’ We therefore asked Eric (Goldberg, who animated the Genie in the animated film, editor’s note), to take charge of reviving it for this short. It was magical to see him come back.”

The duo insists that these are genuine recordings of Robin Williams, and not a vocal double, or worse, an artificial intelligence imitating his voice. Because the actor had anticipated the development of these new technologies, and had stipulated in his will that he did not want his image, nor his voice, to be recreated for future projects (films, series, advertisements, etc.) and this for 25 years. He also specified that he also did not want recordings made during his lifetime to be reused for future variations ofAladdinbut his heirs have obviously agreed to make an exception with this birthday short.

This precaution may have been surprising 9 years ago, but it turns out to be perfectly justified today, at a time when scandals are breaking out around AI: recently, we learned that extras had been scanned on the set of the series WandaVision, for example, so that their digital double can be used in future Disney+ projects. An advertisement for dental practices recreated the image of Tom Hankswithout having the agreement of the actor, which pushed him to warn his fans against this type of practice.

Moreover, Zelda Williams, Robin’s daughter, denounced a few days ago the creation of a false voice inspired by that of his father for a video shared on social networks, judging this process worthy of the story of Frankenstein.

This is why extras are scanned by Hollywood studios (video)