Last week was the 25th anniversary of Aladdin, the classic Disney movie best known for the iconic performance of Robin Williams. Williams' daughter Zelda remembered her father on the special day. As it turns out, the Thanksgiving week isn't just special to the Williams family because of Aladdin but also because the actor's son was born at the same time. Zelda Williams remembered both events in a very cute social media post.
Unfortunately, there's no follow-up Twitter post with video of the two Williams siblings doing this, so we'll have to simply imagine the recreation of this moment from Aladdin.
Time passes fast, so true. It's hard to believe that we've been without the voice of the Genie for so long. Luckily, fans have his body of work so they can still look back and remember how great he was. It's likely a lot of people remember Williams most for Aladdin. For those of us that saw it in the theater when it was first released, it's hard to believe that it's been 25 years.
Disney's Aladdin was a really big movie in many ways. It came in the middle of the Disney Renaissance and was a massive success, in no small part due to the fact that Robin Williams voiced the Genie in the lamp. It was really the first time that a major Hollywood star voiced a character in an animated movie. It certainly wouldn't be the last. The film started a trend of casting big names in animated films that continues to this day.
And there's no real surprise there considering how well Aladdin worked. Who'd have thought that Robin Williams style of humor and constant impressions would have worked in an adaptation of the story of Aladdin? It's a fairly bizarre movie in that regard, as much as it works as a Disney movie, at the time it was very different, which likely also led to a great deal of its success.
Robin Williams famously worked for scale to do the role, on the condition that his voice wasn't used to sell merchandise. When Disney did so anyway it led to a falling out with the company that resulted in Williams not reprising his role in the direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar. Once Disney apologized Williams returned for the third Aladdin film Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
This won't be the only tribute to Robin Williams that we'll be seeing in the short term. The sequel to Jumanji is hitting theaters in December, and after it recently screened for critics, several mentioned that the film includes numerous references to the original movie. Those moments will likely act as a tribute to Robin Williams in their own way.
There's a good chance we'll see some sort of tribute as well in 2019, when the live-action version of Aladdin comes from Disney.
