The Wonderful World of Disney: Disney’s 100th Anniversary Celebration premiered on ABC on Sunday, October 15th. There was an iconic debut of a new short film “Once Upon a Studio”. It featured some of Disney’s most iconic characters. Let’s dive in to find out more about these beloved characters.
The film included Robin Williams’ character ‘Genie’ from the original animated movie “Aladdin.” The legendary actor unfortunately passed away in 2014. Many fans wondered whether this was made possible by the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). But the film’s producer Yvett Merino denied this. Merino revealed that they used ‘direct lines from past recordings’ that Williams did before his passing.
‘When we do animated recordings on any feature, there are several takes. So we were able to find this line that fits so well in our short,’ Merino said.
The producer Merino added that they got permission to use this recording with the late actor’s estate. ‘Once Upon a Studio’ director Dan Abraham added that, ‘We couldn’t have made this short without Stitch. We couldn’t have made this short without Robin Hood. And we couldn’t have made it without the Genie. He’s just such a part of our history, our legacy.’
Producer Merino said, ‘It was so important to us to share our earliest version of the short with Robin’s team. So many of us who work here at Disney Animation were inspired by Aladdin and Robin’s performance’. She continued, ‘It meant the world that they said yes to his inclusion in the short — and so special that Eric Goldberg, who animated Genie for the feature film, did the animation here as well.’
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