Back in 1992, Disney\u2019s flick Aladdin brought in $504 million dollars which, in today\u2019s money comes to over a billion US Dollars. A huge part of the success of the film, of course, was Robin Williams\u2019s incredible performance as Genie.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Variety, longtime Disney animator and co-director of Aladdin, Ron Clements said: \u201cOn the first day of recording [Genie\u2019s intro] we had script pages written in Robin\u2019s improv style and storyboards illustrating some of the visual metamorphosing we were planning. He started out recording the script as written a few times, then took off in a multitude of directions\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he was consistently hilarious. At one point, we had to remove the genie\u2019s lead animator, Eric Goldberg, from the recording stage because his uncontrollable laughter was messing up takes\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite this, the actor actually agreed to be paid relatively little for his pivotal role.<\/p>\n
Robin recorded around 30 hours of written and improvised dialogue for Aladdin and he revealed to New York Magazine that he did this because he wanted to \u201cleave something wonderful behind for the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Business Insider explains: \u201cWilliams took a hefty pay cut and agreed to be paid $75,000 for his work on the Disney film instead of his usual fee of about $8 million \u2014 but there was a catch. Williams did not want his voice used to merchandise products.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to sell stuff,\u201d Williams later told New York magazine. \u201cIt\u2019s the one thing I don\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The execs agreed to this deal, Robin said on the Today Show, adding: \u201cThe one thing I said was I will do the voice. I\u2019m 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\u2019t want to sell anything \u2014 as in Burger King, as in toys, as in stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen all of a sudden,\u201d he added, \u201cthey released an advertisement \u2014 one part was the movie, the second part was where they used the movie to sell stuff. Not only did they use my voice, they took a character I did and overdubbed it to sell stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps surprisingly, Disney apologised in the form of a Picasso painting valued at $1 million (sure why not), a self-portrait of the artist as Vincent Van Gogh.<\/p>\n
According to Artnet, the painting clashed with Robin\u2019s interiors and his friend Eric Idle recommended he burn the painting on live TV.<\/p>\n
Of course, he didn\u2019t do that but he did return for the third Aladdin film as well as starring in Disney\u2019s movie Jack and Bicentennial Man.<\/p>\n
If anybody would like to apologise to me in the form of a very expensive art work, please feel free.<\/p>\n