Today marks Disney’s 100th anniversary and to celebrate the animation studio have made a special short film featuring 543 cartoon characters from a century of 85 animated movies.
Once Upon a Studio, which is streaming now on Disney+, follows Mickey Mouse organising a 100th photo with the characters from past and present outside the Disney Animation Studio on the Los Angeles lot.
Around 40 voice actors returned to reprise their roles including actual Aladdin outtakes of Robin Williams’ Genie.
The comedian died in 2014, but his estate gave special permission for the few lines of dialogue to be included in the short.
Speaking with Variety, producer Bradford Simonsen said: ““We tried to take them [Robin’s estate] on the journey with us to say, ‘We’ve got this very special short that we’re doing. Robin as the genie means so much to so many people and we would really love to involve him.’
“So [director] Dan [Abraham] listened to the outtakes from the original recording and he found those little bites that we could use. We went back to the estate and said, ‘This is what we hope to do.’ Eric, 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.”
Once Upon A Studio is streaming now on Disney+.
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