We’ve Never Had A Friend Like Him: Remembrances of Robin Williams Animated Legacy by Eric Goldberg, John Musker and Ron Clements

Robin Williams with animator Bruce Smith at Raleigh Studios during the production of the Walt Disney World theme park film "Back To Neverland" (1989)

The Genie. Popeye. A friend to animation. Robin Williams forever changed the very nature of comedy - but he also changed the way we listen to animation voice over.
Actor Robin Williams died a year ago on August 11 at the age of 63. He appears to have committed suicide by hanging himself, according to the LA Times.

I was so heartbroken when I learned of the death of voice-over icon Robin Williams, as was widely reported. Numerous news outlets have been paying tribute to him yesterday. Since he was an important key figure to animation, I thought I should do one too.

Like Mork, the character he first played on an episode of ABC’s Happy Days, this utterly original comic and movie star appeared on our television sets seemingly out of nowhere, almost as if from outer space.
But, by 1978, when ABC’s Mork & Mindy arrived on screens, Robin Williams soared to superstardom faster than you could say “Na-Nu-Na-Nu,” “Shaz-bot,” or any of the other catchphrases the improvisational comic made part of the pop culture lexicon of the late 1970s. Within two weeks of the show’s premiere, Robin was hailed as a new star. Little could we have known that he was just getting started.

Genie (in Disney's 1992 animated classic feature Aladdin) was a tour-de-force vocal performance by Williams (and visually by animator Eric Goldberg) but it was an important landmark in two ways. First, it was the first to break the structured script-driven vocal performance (compare it to Williams earlier recorded V.O. in Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest, also from 1992). Allowed to break free and improvise upon the written dialogue, Williams created a character that will live forever - and be forever tied to his unique genius.
It also began a practice that continues today - to allow the actors to go off script during the recording sessions - a practice that has enhanced the performers and their performances all for the better ever since.
Williams also brought a then unheard-of star power to the animated film. For good or ill, before the Genie, no one came to a cartoon feature to specifically hear Robby Benson as The Beast. Oh there were Hollywood movie stars in past animated features (Judy Garland in Gay Purr-ree; Bette Milder in Oliver and Company, et al), but people came out to hear Robin Williams as the Genie.
And he did it without star billing (remember that?). It was practically an open secret he was in the film. Talk about "stealing the show".

Robin was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1951, the son of an automobile executive and his wife, a former model. He was raised in Chicago and Detroit, moving with his family to the San Francisco area during his last year in high school. A gifted student, Robin majored in political science at both Marin and Claremont Colleges. While at Marin, he won a scholarship to Juilliard in New York City, where he studied with the legendary John Houseman, along with Christopher Reeve, with whom he remained lifetime friends.

Critics waxed euphoric in their attempts to describe Robin’s stand-up comedy work, a craft he turned to with vigor and perfected in the years following the conclusion of Mork & Mindy. “An outstanding lunar Wildman, out of Jonathan Winters by way of Lenny Bruce with a touch of Richard Burton thrown in,” is how one critic enthused about Robin’s performances. “An engaging, bright, and inventive actor,” said another. After taking in the sight of the deliriously manic comic’s nightclub act on an HBO special, The Hollywood Reporter characterized the incendiary performance as “unadulterated brilliance.”

Film critic Leonard Maltin stated, “I felt lucky every time I got to chat with Robin Williams, but when I once said, ‘I’d love to get inside your brain,’ he replied, ‘Leonard, you don’t want to go there.’ We’ll always be able to see him, thank goodness, but now the experience will be bittersweet.”

In 1987, Robin trained his talents on live-action and animated films and almost immediately became one of America’s biggest stars. Beginning with his Academy Award®-nominated performance as Adrian Cronauer in Touchstone Pictures’ Good Morning, Vietnam, Robin starred in an impressive string of Disney films. They included the haunting portrayal of teacher John Keating in Dead Poets Society, a hilarious voice performance as the Genie in Aladdin, and high-caliber performances in Flubber and Bicentennial Man.

“If I had only watched Robin Williams on the TV screen, in the movies or on stage, I would consider myself blessed for having simply experienced his brilliance, his joy, his humor and his heart,” composer Alan Menken says. “The fact that I had the honor of sharing the creative process with him is an honor and a privilege that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”

Along the way, Robin starred in several seminal films, including Moscow on the Hudson, for which he earned his first Golden Globe® nomination, Miramax’s Good Will Hunting, for which his nuanced role as grieving psychologist Sean Maguire earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Mrs. Doubtfire, which earned him his third Golden Globe—this time for Best Actor-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Other Disney appearances include a reprise performance as Genie in Aladdin and the King of Thieves; Hollywood Pictures’ Jack, directed by Frances Ford Coppola; and the 2009 comedy Old Dogs.
Disney paid tribute to Williams on its official Twitter account with a GIF of Genie, captioning it, “He was a true Disney Legend, a beloved member of our family, and he will be sorely missed.”
Williams voiced the shape-shifting, multi-voiced and highly entertaining Genie. He was also a big fan of animated filmmaking. He portrayed the titular hero in Robert Altman’s 1980 live-action feature film Popeye.

Williams was a go-to presenter for animation-related Oscars. Robin Williams was also a real friend to the animation community. He was honored to present the honorary Oscars to animation legends: Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones (see below) in 1996 and animation producer Walter Lantz (also below) in 1979, as well as special achievement Oscars to Richard Williams and John Lasseter.

In the course of his decades-long career, in addition to his role as the Genie, Williams surprised and delighted audiences voicing dozens of other beloved animated characters, including Batty Koda in 1992's Fern Gully, the penguins Ramon and Lovelace in the Happy Feet series, Fender in Robots, and the kiwi in the TV special A Wish for Wings That Work. Williams also voiced the cartoon characters in the Chuck Jones-directed opening of Mrs. Doubtfire.

He appeared alongside Walter Cronkite both in person and as an animated character in Back to Neverland, an animated short providing a humorous look at the animation process that played at Disney/MGM Studios’ Animation Pavilion, and provided the voice of the Timekeeper for the attraction of that name at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. The director of that project, Jerry Rees, has a page on his website documenting its making.

Director Jerry Rees and Robin Williams.

Williams also supported several independent animators, and spoke highly of the films of Faith Hubley, once telling an interviewer:

“My kids discovered her when I asked my son if he wanted to go watch a Disney movie and he said, ‘No, I don’t dad.’ So I put in a Faith Hubley movie and he would just watch it like he was seeing Picasso moving. He would watch her movies over and over again, and they were magnificent because they would talk about all these different careers and religions, history— it was like Elmer Fudd doing A Street Car Named Desire.”

Williams was also a fan of anime, and incorporated references to anime into his films. For example, in One Hour Photo, he added a reference to the Japanese series Neon Genesis Evangelion:

The following official statements from Eric Goldberg, John Musker and Ron Clements released by Disney Studios in the wake of the tragic death of celebrated actor and comedian Robin Williams:

Eric Goldberg, Supervising Animator Of "Genie" In "Aladdin":

"I am beyond devastated. I cannot express how influential and important Robin was, and will continue to be, to me and countless other animation artists. Robin gave those of us who worked on the Genie so much humor, inspiration, and just sheer delight, that we were always spoiled for choice whenever we came back from a recording session. Like the Genie, Robin's immense talent could not be contained in the lamp. I think we all knew, as the world does now, if there was ever a person who was tailor-made for the medium of animation, it was Robin. 

We have lost not just a great voice, though. We have lost a warm, human, miraculous person whose numerous and amazing talents will continue to inspire people for generations upon generations."

John Musker and Ron Clements, Directors, "Aladdin":

"We had the thrill and privilege of directing Robin Williams in Aladdin. We wrote the part with him in mind, but his performance, complete with his brilliant, improvised flights of fancy, took us and the character far beyond what we had imagined. Robin's genie defied space, time, and physics, and so did Robin's talent. Like the genie it was immeasurable, thrilling, a cosmic explosion of wit and warmth. Robin brought magic into our lives, to his animator/other half, Eric Goldberg, and to the scores of artists who brought the genie to such vivid life on the screen. But, most of all, Robin's magic touched millions of viewers who laughed and were moved by him. We will cherish the memory of this ever-giving man who made every life he touched, including our own, better."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences referenced Williams’ role as the Genie in their condolence tweet:

Robin Williams is gone but will never be forgotten.  As a memorial, below are some animated highlights from his animation career (yes, and including a clip from his live action role of Popeye - probably the only A-list actor who could have pulled that off). Rest in Peace, Mr. Williams - and thank you.

Below: An animation sequence from Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) where Williams played a cartoon voice over actor. Directed by Chuck Jones.

Below: An animation sequence from Fern Gully (1992) where Williams played "Batty Koda". Directed by Bill Kroyer.

Below: An animation sequence from Happy Feet Two (2011) where Williams played "Ramon". Directed by George Miller, Gary Eck, and David Peers

Below: Theme Park film Back To Neverland (1989) where Williams appears in both live action and animation. Directed by Jerry Rees

Below: And yeah, Williams even voiced Mork on Saturday morning cartoons.

Below:  In Robert Altman's Popeye (1980)

Below: As the Genie in a series of interstitials for ABC Saturday mornings, "Great Minds".