When did animated movies start selling themselves
on their bankable celebrity talent? Because it wasnât always like this. For most of the life of feature film animation,
it was more analogous to how anime dubs are done in America today - career voice talent
and non-celebrities and character actors provided the voices and animated features were sold on pretty much every facet but their celebrity voice talent. And then came... And post-Shrek celebrity-driven animated feature world, well itâs not ALL there is but in terms
of sheer volume, itâs most of it. But you know where this is going - Shrek might
have codified the thing, but it did not kick off the thing - that dubious honor goes to
Aladdin. But here is the thing - the big celebrity
on whose back Aladdin was marketed did not want this to happen. This current hellscape of James Corden playing
Peter Rabbit and Patrick Stewart as the poop emoji this is a hellish mirrorhouse version of what went down with Williamâs experience with Disney. Williams did not want to be the celebrity off of which Aladdin was marketed. His name being used to market the movie and
its tie-in merchandise AT ALL created a massive rift between himself and the Walt Disney Company
that lasted for YEARS, all because Disney just couldnât resist ignoring this manâs
request NOT to be used as a marketing tool for Aladdin. This. Is the story. Before the Disney Renaissance of the 1990âs and the prestige value that came with being
in one of its movies, animated films were rarely the playground of A-list actors and
more the territory of relatively unknown character and voice actors with the occasional B-lister and C-lister thrown in. For instance, Ralph Bakshiâs Lord of the Rings hadâŚ
John Hurt. The Rescuers snagged Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor The Fox and the Hound hadâŚKurt Russell? The same year as Okay. Point being that voice casting for animated
films was less of a star-studded affair and more of âpeople you might see on Nick at
Nightâ sort of deal. Then comes 1986âs The Great Mouse Detective,
which was the first animated feature where Eisner and Katzenberg oversaw most of the
production and the distribution. And while Mouse Detective had Vincent Price
as the worldâs most extra bitter ex-boyfriend, it wasnât what one would call a star vehicle. It did, however, turn enough of a profit to convince its new studio heads that there was still money
to be made from Disneyâs animation division. Enter Oliver and Company, whose cast not only
had way more considerable star powerâincluding but whose marketing also heavily relied on pushing said cast as
a feature of the film. Oliver and Companyâs $31 million budget
was double that of Mouse Detective--presumably because of the voice cast--but it also earned
twice what Great Mouse Detective did. The big takeaway here for Eisner and Katzenberg:
star power gets attention, especially from adult move-goers. Howard Ashman, one of the lyricists on Oliver and rising star in the stage world with Little
Shop of Horrors, is hired to work on Disneyâs next two movies, The Little Mermaid and Beauty
and the Beast. And while they are (obviously) financial and
critical successes for Disney, a lot of their charm comes from being much more traditional
âbookâ musicals that are appropriately cast with stage actors. The biggest star in the Little Mermaid
is... I guess Buddy Hackett? And Beauty and the Beastâs
big Broadway gets are Angela Lansbury and ⌠Jerry Orbach. Canât believe they got Mrs. Lovett
and Babyâs dad from Dirty Dancing. But then came Aladdin. Robin Williams became famous through his stand-up
career, particularly as an improv comedian. And his starring role in television's Mork and Mindy, but he initially struggled
to translate that success into film. His first major starring role, Robert Altmanâs
1980 flop Popeye, which was partially produced by the Walt Disney company, had... yeah, it was a disaster. Which led to a film career slump that lasted throughout the early 80âs for Williams. But right around the time of the Eisner ascendency at Disney
came two opportunities for Robin Williams, produced under the Disney umbrella. His darling passion project, Good Morning,
Vietnam and The Dead Poetsâ Society, both of which garnered him Oscar nominations.
And then came Hook, a couple years later, which finally cemented Robin Williams as an A-list, bankable star. But none of these are so relevant to the story
of Aladdin as a charming little polemic by the name of-- While it seems on paper that this should be
the cheap knockoff that was capitalizing on Williamsâs popularity as the Genie, Ferngully
was actually a labor of love that had been in development for years before Aladdin. But it only really got off the ground after
Robin Williams was cast in the role of a pop culture referencing, bigoted against humans,
rapping PTSD bat: Batty Koda And, believe it or not, Williams was signed
on for Ferngully before he had even been approached for Aladdin. Ferngullyâs screenwriter, Jim Cox (who had
coincidentally worked on the first two screen treatments of Beauty and the Beast), had seen
Williams performing at open mics in LA comedy clubs between his two Oscar nods, and wrote
the role of Batty specifically around Williamsâ frenetic energy. Williams agreed to do it, according to Young,
because âHe felt strongly about the actionable green message.â So while Ferngully is going into production, by pure happenstance, we have a nearly mirror
situation over at Disney with the film Aladdin. Williams's involvement did not originate with the studio cynically wanting an A-list celebrity to draw in adult audiences - Williams had a very cartoony persona,
and he was inspiring to more than one animation studio at the same time. Not only was the part written for him--but
they had pitched Aladdin as a Robin Williams vehicle before the actor had even been approached. Said Musker: ââYeah, we wrote this part
with Robin in mind. We didnât know if he would do it,...We were
totally walking down the plank. If he said no, we were going to be in big
trouble because the whole concept for Aladdin was built around Robin.â Williams was hesitant, but was convinced to
sign-on when Musker and Clements had supervising animator Eric Goldberg create a sample reel
of the Genie set to one of Williamsâ old standup routines. Williams is said to have âlaughed his ass offâ and then signed up immediately. According to Goldberg: And so, a deal was struck between Disney and
Williams, who agreed to the do the voice of the Genie at SAG scale pay (about $70,000)
with the following caveat: He specifically requested that Disney
use his name in 25% or less of the promotional and marketing material for the movie. Part of the reason behind this was because Williams
was worried that this would cannibalize the audience for his upcoming film and passion
project, Toys, set to be released a few months after Aladdin. Which um⌠arguably is what happened. But more important for Williams was something of an ethical bent: He did not want his voice being used to sell merchandise. Said Williams: "I love animation, and Disney
is the Rolls-Royce of animation. But I told them, 'Don't use my voice to sell
merchandise,' and they agreed to that." When Disney went ahead and used his voice
in their marketing, Williams said, he felt "it was like a violation of a trust." Williams said
Donât merchandise my character. To Disney. Initially, Disney stuck to their agreement,
albeit in a roundabout way. Here's the initial teaser poster. And there's no mention of Williams or the Genie in sight, just this classy, backlit lamp. But Disney quickly found a *cough* clever interpretation
of this 25% of marketing caveat that really pushed its limits while still being technically...eh... within reason. But that was nothing of a broach in agreement
compared to⌠We can only surmise why Disney went back on
its promise with Williams, but suffice to say that it probably had a lot to do with the fact that he did not back out of being in Ferngully. Studio President Jeffrey Katzenberg, petty
asshole, legit thought Williams would drop out of Ferngully to be in the bigger,
more prestigious Aladdin. So Katzenberg, petty asshole, actively sabotaged Ferngully. Said Ferngully writer, Diana Young: âTwice we
rented facilities, and they gazumped us by paying more. When we found space in the brewery, Disney
tried to buy it. One day Katzenberg and eight or so others
marched through to inspect the premisesâwe scrambled to cover everything up! But it was also really about Robin.â According to Jim Cox, Ferngully screenwriter:
âRobin was steaming, like, âItâs my voice! You canât stop me.ââ It also didnât help that Williamsâs own
response to Katzenbergâs ire was like *bleep* you, Ferngully signed me first, Iâm rapping the batty rap So Disney's like, well, *bleep* you right back, weâre going to renege on our promise And thus began the now-infamous feud between
Williams and the Walt Disney Company, in which Williams was more than happy to start shitting
publicly on Disney while they continued to use the Genie to make money. Moreover, the moral implications of what his work was being used for irked him: "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." Not only did they use my voice, they took
a character I did and overdubbed it to sell stuff. That was the one thing I said: 'I don't do
that.' That was the one thing where they crossed
the line." A Disney spokesperson lobbed back that they
had played a completely fair game with Williams and that they had reputably ran every piece
of marketing material across him and his then-wife, Martha Marsha. Said the spokesperson: "We did not use his
voice in any way that he did not contractually agree to[âŚ]He agreed to the deal, and then he made the movie and then
when the movie turned out to be a big hit, he didn't like the deal he had made." The bridge had been burned, that even when
the Golden Globes gave Williams a special award for playing Genie, he gave a 3 minute acceptance
speech where he mostly faffed around, and mentioned the Disney company not one time. Although he did throw shade at the petty asshole. Eisner attempted to mend bridges with Williams
by sending him a Picasso painting. But Williams, asserting some big dick energy,
remained unmoved. So of course, the real dramatic irony here is not that Williamsâs involvement in Aladdin
started the trend of celebrity voice acting as marketing strategy, which it totally did,
but that the fallout was the last thing the man would have wanted. However, for better or worse, lessons were learned from the success of Aladdin. Cynical, cheap lessons. We saw it begin to some degree with the Lion King,
and then more with Pocahontas (Mel Gibson was one of the biggest stars in the world
at the time), but then after that, starting with the ones that were seriously in production after Aladdin was released, EVERY Disney movie had a Genie knockoff featuring some
extremely bankable comedic talent. But of course the most shameless, egregious
example comes from But these examples are just from the Disney side of things Let us not forget all of the other haters and losers out in the non-Disney animation world who were
quick to jump on the same formula. Don Bluth saw not a lot of success in the 90s until Anastasia. Which is not only a bald face, shameless rip off the Disney story formula, but also in
how much it crammed in its miscast A- and B-listers and MARKETED. THE. SHIT. OUT OF IT. Meg Ryan is hideously miscast as a plucky
18 year old amnesiac, Hank Azaria is our Genie, I guess. And Christopher Lloyd Yeah, thatâll be a yikes from me dawg.
But the apogee of this trend of capturing adult interest in childrenâs entertainment
by way of celebrity voice talent comes to us at the hands of ...
Jeffrey Katzenberg, Petty Asshole finds his biggest post-Disney successes by sniping Disney
ideas and being, well, an extremely petty asshole, with his first shameless rip off
of a Disney project: ANTZ! Featuring uncanny valley nightmare versions
of Woody Allen! Sharon Stone! Sylvester Stalone! Wow those are some hot tickets in 1998 but
mom and dad sure do know who they are! Not only was it rumored that Katzenberg had
decided to lift âinspirationâ from the Pixar project then-titled Bugs, but also that
he browbeat the animation team at PDI to do everything they could to make sure it
hit theaters before A Bugâs Life did. Right after that we have The Prince of Egypt,
aka pulling a favor from every famous person in Hollywood. Wow Val Kilmer just really loves playing
Moses. And thenâŚ.. Yeah, I get that you love Shrek, but it is
an extremely petty asshole movie, from its cheap, shallow digs at Disney to its totally not Michael Eisner-inspired villain, to its shameless pop culture references to a celebrity-driven marketing campaign that makes Aladdin look downright SUBTLE And joining Dreamworks were the knock-offs
which haunt us to this day! Woof. Of course there's Illumination Animation. And even further down the totem pole, Sony Pictures Animation, with even cheaper shittier movies Most of the time, yeah, they have the one exception. Like incredibly cheap. Probably more than half the budget goes to the voice actors. Like, what the hell is What? How did that get Oprah? By the time Lilo and Stitch rolled around,
there seemed to be a return to form in which Disney was casting based on a roles, as opposed to writing roles for a celebrity. And ever since Disney's animation studio got back on track, let's say starting with Tangled, the company's more or less fallen back into the spirit it originally started from Both Disney's animation studio and PIxar
produce roughly one film a year, and while they donât necessarily want for lack of
well-known talent, casting is less of a gimmick to get asses in seats and more of creative
choice that plays to the strengths of the character and the actor inhabiting role. Whether they're super famous or not. But, hey, Disney now totally owns Blue Sky Animation
after the 20th Century Fox merger, so they own shit like Epic now with its Aziz Ansari slug. Hey--if you canât beat âem, buy âem! But hey, I think we're forgetting the most important question. What about Return of Jafar? Was the big feud the reason Williams was not in beloved direct-to-video classic, The Return of Jaf? Yeah, it was. Pretty much. Williams declined to reprise the role of the genie in the not good and quite bad direct
to video sequel, itself the spark for another long, sad trend that would last more than
a decade, and we're not going to get into right now. Not because he thought a sequel was necessarily beneath him, but because he was still furious about the way Disney handled Aladdin. So Disney went ahead and made it and replaced Robin Williams with Homer Simpson. That was probably also the reason why they didn't bother giving that movie a budget. Or making it look like not ass. But in the end, the feud wasnât mended by money or Picassos, but by sincerity, or at least,
the public performance of sincerity. And by firing the petty asshole
Joe Roth, Katzenbergâs successor as studio chief, issued a heartfelt apology on the debacle,
saying: "Robin complained that we took advantage of
his performance as the Genie in the film[...]We had a specific understanding with Robin that
we wouldn't do that. (Nevertheless) we did that. We apologize for it." "I've known Robin for years and know that
none of these issues are ever about money. They are simply about principle." And with peace reinstated, Williams went on
to voice the Genie in other projects Including the slightly less shitty threequel. And boy, did Disney want you to know that
he was back. I mean, of course they did. Williams was decidedly not paid scale this time around, netting a cool $1 million for reprising his
role. After that, Williams did reprise the role of the Genie a smattering of times, but only in educational content. along with starring in other Disney produced
films as ⌠Jack ⌠and Bicentenial Man. Well it was through a Disney subsidiary that he did eventually get his Oscar for Good Will Hunting, through Disney-owned Miramax, which was owned by Bob
and Harvey Wei- oh goddamnit You could argue that Disneyâs attempts to
replicate the success of the Genie, while they might have been lucrative for the company,
were hollow imitations that missed what worked about the part: that it was molded for Robin,
that the role and the actor shaped one another, that a magical entity was the perfect animated vehicle
for his frentic, pop-culture laden stand-up style. So Danny DeVito as a satyr
saying he has a fur wedgie or Jason Alexander losing to a bird⌠It jsut doesn't jive in the same way. Having Jason Alexander do bad 14th century
improv about how he wants to *bleep* a goat is just such a shoddy attempt to recapture the magic
of the genie, because it misses what made the genie work in the first place Musker and Clements wanted Williams not because he was famous, but because his persona was
the inspiration for the part. And on some level, with art, people can tell
when inspiration comes from a genuine place of sincerity, rather than a place of corporate cynicism And while that's not to say that Disney has never been able to replicate that kind of performance with an A-list celebrity since, thereâs a reason why Robin
Williamsâs turn as the Genie still sticks with us after almost 30 years and will most
likely remain untarnished by a legacy of soulless, cash-grabbing messes. Genie isn't beloved because Aladdin was successful. It wasn't about money. It wasnât pop culture references. It wasnât because our animal brains go âoh,
hey wow, itâs Morkâ. Itâs heart.
Does anyone have a link to the Robin standup animation?
Human tales? Humans don't HAVE tails. They have big big bottoms in bad shorts! They walk around going "Hi, Helen!"
It was pretty negligent of his agent and management to allow him to a) work for scale and b) leave clauses important to the talent, presumably, out of the contract.
damn jumping right over john candy in rescuers down under to say that the big name comedy voice acting started with robin williams? the disrespect! i still quote âtake the bags, take the bagsâ from the scene where wilbur throws out his back
fuck yes, it's been too long since we've been blessed with a fresh Lindsay Ellis video
The petty asshole still is the great thing Lindsay has ever done. This should win the Hugo.
TIL Mel Gibson is in Pocahontas.
Not having finished it I would point out that Bob Newhart, and Zsa Zsa GĂĄbor were pretty big fuckin stars, especially Newhart, and her dismissal of Angela Landsbury another pretty big star is kind of mind boggling.
Didnât Robin Williams do this movie as a favor to Disney? As I recall, he was with Belushi when he odâed. All of Hollywood feared casting Robin Williams. Then Disney gave him a shot and cast him in Dead Poets Society, which restarted his career. Williams was so grateful he agreed to do Aladdin for scale. At least thatâs how I remember it