Robin Williams' Genie Returns in Short Film Celebrating Disney's 100th Birthday

Producer Brad Simonsen says Walt Disney Animation Studios used original recordings of Robin Williams in 1992's 'Aladdin' to bring the Genie back to life

Disney is celebrating its 100th birthday by bringing back one of Robin Williams' classic characters.

As the Walt Disney Company continues to celebrate 100 years of Disney animation, the company has released a new animated short film titled Once Upon a Studio Sunday. The film, which features 543 animated Disney characters from more than 85 Disney films, "as they assemble for a spectacular group photo to mark Disney's 100th anniversary," according to an official synopsis for the movie.

One of those characters is the Genie, who the late Williams memorably portrayed in 1992's classic Aladdin. Though Williams himself died at 63 in 2014, the short film's cowriters and co-directors Dan Abraham and Trent Correy sought out using the character with Williams' family's permission, as producer Brad Simonsen told Variety.

“We tried to take them 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,' " Simonsen said.

The producer said that Abraham "listened to the outtakes from the original recording [of Aladdin] and he found those little bites we could use."

Related: Disney's Most Groundbreaking and History-Making Moments of the Last 100 Years

"We went back to the estate and said, ‘This is what we hope to do,’ " the producer told Variety. " '[animator Eric Goldberg], 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.”

The 13-minute short film features Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse stepping outside of a photo at Walt Disney Animation after its employees leave for the day on the company's 100th birthday. Once the employees leave, Mickey and Minnie — aided by Tinker Bell, Peter Pan and dozens of characters from the company's history — get together to take a group photo in celebration.

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Williams' Genie bursts out of a sketch book created by Frozen's Olaf (Josh Gad) roughly three minutes into the short film. The character can also be seen standing next to Aladdin, Jafar and Jasmine, directly behind other Frozen characters for the group photo itself, as the characters come together to sing "When You Wish Upon a Star."

Genie's appearance in Once Upon a Studio utilized existing recordings of Williams' voice. It comes just two weeks after Williams' daughter, Zelda, criticized replications of her father's likeness and voice using artificial intelligence made without her family's consent.

Related: Remembering Robin Williams' Life in Photos

The actress and director, 34, shared a message to her Instagram Stories referencing the use of AI, a major issue central to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, writing in part that she has “witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like dad.”

“This isn't theoretical, it is very very real,” she continued in the post, according to screenshots obtained by Entertainment Weekly. “I've already heard AI used to get his 'voice' to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings.”

"These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for,” she concluded.

Once Upon a Studio is streaming now on Disney+.

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