Robin Williams Improvised a Stunning Amount of Material in Disney’s ‘Aladdin’
Robin Williams remains one of the most beloved comedians of all time, even though he passed away in 2014. From his breakout role in TV’s Mork & Mindy to movies like Good Will Hunting, he delighted audiences. To many fans, however, Williams is best known as the voice of the Genie in the Disney animated classic Aladdin. The actor broke barriers with his no-holds-barred performance, helping the film to become a huge success. And he improvised hours of comedic material in the process.
‘Aladdin’ is a beloved Disney classic
Aladdin tells the story of a young good-hearted street thief named Aladdin, who finds a magic lamp containing a gregarious genie. The Genie, voiced by Williams, helps Aladdin to disguise himself as a prince so that he can court Princess Jasmine. Along the way, Aladdin finds that he has become a target of Jafar, the Sultan’s evil advisor. In the end, Aladdin defeats Jafar, wins the heart of the princess, and sets the Genie free.
Released in 1992, Aladdin featured a star-studded voice cast. Aside from Williams as the genie, Full House star Scott Weinger voiced Aladdin, while Gilbert Gottfried was Jafar’s parrot, Iago. However, it was Williams who walked away with the film. His energetic performance as the Genie helped make Aladdin an instant classic.
‘Aladdin’ was a critical and commercial success thanks to Robin Williams
Critics and fans praised Aladdin from the moment it debuted. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has 95% on the Tomatometer, along with a 92% audience score. “The entire production is one of collaborative innovation and ingenious filmmaking choices,” one review read. Many reviews called out Williams’ performance specifically. “Williams’ never-ending stream of impersonations and wacky characters are so consistently hilarious that the audience barely has time to breathe between belly laughs,” it reads.
Aladdin was a commercial success as well. According to IMDb, it became the highest-grossing film of 1992 with earnings of over $504 million in worldwide box office revenue. Again, much of the success of the film was credited to Williams’ performance as Genie. The comedian utilized a lot of his stand-up material for the character, improvising like crazy and ad-libbing many of his lines. As reported by IMDb, Williams improvised so much material during his recording sessions that filmmakers ended up with almost 16 hours of material to use for Genie.
Why was Robin Williams angry over his work in ‘Aladdin’?
Even though Williams was instrumental in making Aladdin a hit, the movie left a bad taste in his mouth for years afterward. Reportedly, he agreed to voice the Genie on one condition — that his presence in the film wouldn’t be used for advertising purposes.
“We had a deal,” Williams said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “The one thing I said was I will do the voice. I’m doing it basically because I want to be part of this animation tradition. I want something for my children. One deal is, I just don’t want to sell anything–as in Burger King, as in toys, as in stuff.”
But that didn’t happen. “Not only did they use my voice, but they also took a character I did and overdubbed it to sell stuff,” he shared. “That was the one thing I said: ‘I don’t do that.’ That was the one thing where they crossed the line.” Eventually, however, Disney apologized to Williams, sending him a Picasso painting in contrition. Later, after Williams’ untimely 2014 passing, the corporation honored Williams with a sweet, heartfelt statement.
