Bringing Aladdin’s Genie to Life

One of the most incredible interviews, that had me in tears several times, was with Eric Goldberg. This man is the animator of Genie, from Aladdin, so you can imagine he has some funny stories to tell. Eric was the first animator on Genie while everyone else was wrapping up Beauty and the Beast.

Many times during the interview Eric mentioned his inspiration, Al Hirschfeld, whom he replicated his ‘S’ curves and drawing style. This matched the Arabian theme of Aladdin as well. Eventually, Eric was able to meet Al Hirschfeld and watched Aladdin with him. Al gave him the best compliment he could “it looks like it was all drawn with one hand.”

John Clements and Ron Musker had written the script for Aladdin and had Robin in mind for the Genie. Ron and John asked Eric Golberg to read the script and see who he was interested in animating. Eric had hoped for the Genie but didn’t want to ask. Ron and John asked him if he would be interested in Genie and Eric said SURE! Since Robin hadn’t been cast yet they decided to animate the Genie to some of Robin’s comedy routines. They brought in Robin, had him watch this animation and Eric says “it was one of the great honors of my life to make Robin Williams laugh.” With that clip Robin saw the potential of the humor he could bring to animation so he agreed to the film.

During their first session of recording, Robin Williams brought tons of voice impressions to the movie. It was hilarious. Eric sat in the recording session with Robin Williams curled up trying not to laugh to ruin the take. Robin was so wonderful and gave them so much material. His improv allowed them to add a lot of fun visual effects into the movie. There were jokes on top of jokes. Eric said this was the most improvisational films he has ever worked on so they could shift to accommodate the twists and turns from Robin. Robin provided 16 hours of material.

On the Aladdin Blu-ray is a tribute to Robin Williams entitled “The Genie’s Outtakes” which is an animation of the funniest clips from those 16 hours of material he recorded for the film.

Eric Goldberg is a man similar to Robin Williams. He was constantly cracking jokes, being very animated and using different voices to tell his story. It was such a funny interview.

One of the most amazing parts of this interview is when Eric Golberg gave us a drawing lesson and took us step by step through creating the Genie! I am definitely no artist, but drawing one line at a time was actually do-able. It was incredible. Here’s my Genie below Eric’s.

We ended our experience with a group photo and an autographed lithograph of the Genie signed by Eric. It was such a special moment and will be a treasured memory.

Aladdin is now available on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere. The Aladdin Diamond Edition Blu-ray will be available October 13.