8 Iconic Movie Characters That Were Mostly Improvised

3. The Genie - Aladdin

In the immediate wake of Robin Williams' death, reports of his legendary comedy skills grew exponentially. By the time a few days had passed, it was widely publicized that Williams was such an extraordinary improviser that the screenplay for Aladdin was actually turned down by the Academy Awards for a nomination in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Though the Oscar snub may have been oversold (it's rare for any animated films to be nominated in that category), there's no doubt that The Genie was largely a creation of the zany comic. Using a template of his favorite Warner Bros characters (including Bugs Bunny), Williams went into the studio with plenty of ideas for the filmmakers to use. According to Williams:

Initially they came in and I was just doing the scripted lines and I asked 'Do you mind if I try something?' and then 18 hours of recording later, they had the genie. I just started playing, and they said 'just go with it, go with it, go with it.' So I improvised the character. I think that in the end, there were something like 40 different voices that I did for that role.

Scenes where The Genie transforms into various celebrities, animals, and other well-known archetypes were all drawn up after Williams worked the impersonations into his rants. The animator has said they never expected him to ad-lib so much, nor did they anticipate the bevy of impersonations the first time they recorded the role. But they "readapted" and "incorporated Robin's riffs into the fabric of the film." Not just any voice actor would be able to get away with riffing that much, but this role was written specifically for Williams in a time before big name stars were used in animated movies.