Yahoo Movies Disney brings back Robin Williams's Genie in new short movie
Disney has brought back Robin Williams' Genie from 1992's Aladdin for a brand new short film to celebrate the studio's 100th anniversary.
Premiering today (October 16) on Disney+, Once Upon a Studio sees characters come together from 85 Disney feature-length and short films to celebrate "10 decades of storytelling, artistry and technological achievements".
Williams' contribution has been put together using outtakes from his sessions recording for Aladdin, with the involvement of the late actor's estate.
Using both hand-drawn and CGI animation, Once Upon a Studio sees 543 characters, including Mickey Mouse, Frozen's Princess Elsa and Peter Pan, all come to life in a Night at the Museum-style gathering at the studios.
"Is that it, they all gone?" Mickey whispers to Tinkerbell in a teaser for the short film. He jumps out of his picture frame after being given the all-clear.
Speaking about the inclusion of the Genie character, producer Bradford Simonsen explained they had wanted to honour Williams, who passed away back in 2014, without the use of AI.
"Dan [Abraham, director] listened to the outtakes from the original recording and he found those little bites that we could use," the producer told Variety, recalling how they approached Williams' estate with the idea.
He added: "We went back to the estate and said, 'This is what we hope to do. Eric [Goldberg], who originally animated the genie is on the show, and he's going to be part of it'. And it was wonderful to see that happen."
A number of voice actors have returned to reprise their much-loved animated characters, including Jodi Benson as Ariel, Jeremy Irons as The Lion King villain Scar, Auli'i Cravalho as Moana, and Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell as their Frozen characters Elsa and Anna.
Related: Frozen 3 gets exciting update from Disney's Jennifer Lee
Animators Abraham (Space Jam, Once Upon a Snowman) and Trent Correy (Raya and the Last Dragon, Moana) have directed the film, while Yvett Merino (Encanto) and Simonsen produced.
Dave Metzger, who has created music for movies including Frozen, Moana and Tarzan, has composed the short film's original score.
Other characters featured in the project include Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Winnie the Pooh as well as original Disney character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Once Upon a Studio is available to stream on Disney+.
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