If for some horrible reason Robin Williams had declined the role he was clearly born to play, Disney needed another hilarious A-list actor to fill Williams’ talented shoes. And that’s exactly what wound up on the big screen! When he pulled a bra out of the box-a product that sadly did not make it to the final version-he joked that it was a double slingshot, a double yarmulke, and then slyly mused, “Mmm, I should have called her.” Look, Disney, it’s been 25 years, so why not release the darn tapes? Disney had a Genie back-up plan Behind the scenes, Jeffrey Katzenberg had the idea to fill a box with unexpected objects, cover it with a cloth, then record Williams describing the items in character as he pulled them out of the box. In addition to playing the Genie, Williams pulled double duty as the merchant narrator at the beginning of the movie, pushing his wares on the viewing audience. Williams improvised IRL as The Peddler using a secret box As for the urban legend that Williams’ epic improv cost Aladdin its chance at being nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar? Well, that’s just wishful thinking. At the end of filming, Williams had recorded 16 hours of improvised material on top of his normal dialogue. A gifted mimic and impressionist, Williams would perform certain lines multiple times, flitting between doing them as celebrities like Groucho Marx, Peter Lorre, and W.C. Because the filmmakers wanted Williams’ manic energy and natural hilarity in order to bring the Genie to life, they let the actor go hog wild in the studio. Robin Williams improvised a lot while making Aladdin. Robin Williams improvised 16 additional hours of dialogue The results, thankfully, spoke for themselves… no second head required. But did you know that in order to get Robin Williams to accept the role of Genie, the film’s directors, Ron Clements and John Musker, had their animators mock up test animations synced to Williams’ stand-up routines? According to animator Ed Goldberg, what sold Williams was seeing his routine about schizophrenia brought to life in the form of the Genie growing a second head to argue with himself. The role of Genie was written specifically for Robin Williams If you’re having trouble picturing it, just imagine Aladdin playing beach volleyball or jumping on a couch and freaking out Agrabah’s number one talk show host. To give Aladdin the sex appeal that they were after, they decided to make the would-be prince go shirtless and modeled him after another ’80s icon: Tom Cruise. However, the early designs proved to be a little too boyish for what the filmmakers wanted. Fox was the original character model inspiration for Aladdin. That’s right- Teen Wolf teen heartthrob Michael J. Aladdin was originally modeled after Michael J.

Aladdin old guy