Disney/Pixar
Tom Hanks attributes the success of ‘Aladdin’ to the boom in animated films
The late one, great. robin williams You may have never voiced a character in a pixar film, but it still played a role in the studio’s success. At least according to the Academy Award winner Tom HanksWho knows a thing or two about Pixar’s rise after playing Woody in the movie? toy story Franchise for more than 30 years.
During a recent interview to promote the release of toy story 5which is now showing in theaters and looks set to gross more than a billion dollars, Oscar winner Tom Hanks accredited Robin Williams legendary performance as the Genie in aladdin essentially with creating the conditions that made Toy Story possible.
Tom Hanks says Robin Williams’ performance in aladdin launched the practice of casting movie stars for animated films
According to Hanks, Williams served as a proof of concept and marked the beginning of the practice of casting established Hollywood stars in lead voice roles in animated films, which was not standard practice when aladdin hit theaters in 1992. Three years later, Pixar cast Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz Lightyear in toy storyand the rest is history.
Hanks argued that Williams’ performance as the Genie was such a must-see that adults felt compelled to see the film, too.
“Disney released Aladdin with Robin Williams as the Genie. And if you hadn’t seen the movie and other people had seen it, they’d say, ‘You have to go see this new Disney movie because Robin Williams is hilarious.'” Hanks said High performance when the interviewer pointed out that “movie stars didn’t do much voice-over.”
“I think it may have been the first time that a Disney animated movie was enormously popular because of the casting, because Robin was incredible. And the benevolent overlords of Disney at the time, it was all business; it was a business decision they had made. And then they said, ‘Oh, wait a minute, if we get ‘above the title’ actors, it won’t just be a kids’ movie.”
Tom Hanks shares a great backstory on voicing the original Toy Story in 1995.
He says it only happened because Robin Williams broke it off with Aladdin a few years earlier. Hollywood realized that a big star could sell an animated movie (give something to parents).
So, Hanks and Allen… https://t.co/pfIvhiydxC pic.twitter.com/2uAAYMHX37
– Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) June 22, 2026
If we look at the state of the animation genre a decade after the release of Aladdin, Hanks’ opinion becomes clear. shrek became a phenomenon in 2001 starring Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz, while Pixar released Monsters Inc.
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