DVDizzy Forum

I was watching Robin Williams as a guest on Inside the Actor Studio (on the Bravo channel) and I heard robin mention that they had over 16 hours of "Genie" voice material. I wish the Alladin:SE producers had put that track in the special features. I would love to listen what was left in and what was left out - even if the joke doesn't work. It gives us Disney movie enthusiasts a glimspe of how the process of Disney animators directors and actors shape and selct raw voice recording.
I hear that Robin went, as he said, a little "blue" - which is not appropriate for children. That's why I think there should be something like a Collector's Issue of Enthusiast's Issue of Alladin that have a lot of the raw production and see how the Diamonds were chosen from the Rough.

In any case I know studio's dont want to give special attention to just one voice actor, but one has to admit that the Genie is one of the most amazing characters to be part of the Disney family - and so I think the voice actor does deserve special attention for making the genie the way we know him.

If they ever decide to put out a Colector's Issue of Alladin with this special feature in mind I would buy it immediately regardless of cost. It could be fifty bucks - a hundred buck! I would buy it no matter what.

So I ask you reader, would you buy it? Post your reply.

-indrajit

Welcome to the forum, indrajit!

I don't think anyone among us would NOT want to hear some of Robin's voice recordings. Even if it wasn't all of the material, and it doesn't seem feasible that we COULD get all the material. Maybe like a "Best of the Unused Material" featurette, of course knowing that we wouldn't hear some of the more off-color material. The uneasy Williams/Disney relationship over <i>Aladdin</i> specifically makes it unlikely that we'd get to see something like this, I think. If not because Disney didn't want to release it, but if because it sounds like Williams might not want something like that.

Look forward to hearing more from you!

Thanks for the welcome, Luke!

Well I would *wish* for the entire recordings, but a "Best of" is a compromise I am more than happy to make. I think the Disney and robin have reconciled enough to allow the recordings to pass - but williams might want a cut of the profit since it is his material- unless he signed it away in which case Disney can do anything they want with it.

I do not see why williams might be against it other than he wont get some of the profits. I don't think that would be one of Disney's problem - especially if they own the rights.

I just hope someone in the studio had some forsight to save the material.

Ohh, what I wouldn't pay to hear it just once.

Listening to 16 hours of Genie antics? Heaven!

-indrajit

16 hours would be WAAAAY too long to fit on a DVD.

it's just voice audio. Voice audio is incredibly compressible. I'm sure it will be much much less than 4GB!

If not....put it on two DVDs.

Without using the calculator (yeah, right ) i asume that at best the recordings would be simple stereo mic 2 channel, if not mono. If they dolby-digitally compressed them to the 192kbps 2.0 rate the track would be about 1.4 gB in total (about the same size of a 5.1 Full Rate-DTS movie soundtrack more or less.) If you go the other extreme, uncompressed CD quality PCM mono would be like a full double layer DVD but only filled with audio. (Stereo would be 2 dvds.) But since probably the next Aladdin edition will be bluer than the Genie, there might be the possibillity they include some or all of it there, even uncompressed.

16 hours.. sounds like the unreleased Beatles' Get Back sessions, which have had lots of beatleg releases. What's next? genielegs?

It would be great to have Robin's recordings, but I wouldn't want the whole 16-hour version. It's way too long. I think they should cut out the boring or not-so-funny parts and put everything else together. That would be fantastic.

deathie mouse wrote:But since probably the next Aladdin edition will be bluer than the Genie...

Nice joke, deathie mouse!

I would have loved that! All 16 hours definitely! And what about a similar bonus fetaure for the Aladdin and the King of theives DVD?

I'm probably one of the few who would not like such a feature. I'd like to hear maybe 10 minutes of the best unused gags, but that's my limit. So much of the humor of Robin Williams comes from seeing him, so having just the audio diminishes the quality.

I loved the DVD release of Aladdin very much. If I had to ask for one more thing, it would be more material about Abu.

No way!!! That's to long it would have to fit on 4 DVDs or even more.
It would be cool but think how much it would cost.

Deathie mouse thanks for the numbers! I have a amatuer understanding of digitized audio so these numbers really help give me the idea that it is possible to put it on one dvd.

I think having a movie long audio track at 192kbps of the 16 hr material would do nicely (maybe as one of the commentary audio tracks). I'm sure all would agree, that we dont need uncompressed sound to hear the nuances!

I haven't seen Aladdin:KOT dvd. Did robin do the voice. If so then I wholeheartedly agree - put the raw genie track on that one too! Although I'm not sure if it has much value after the fact that genie has already been created. You see, I feel that the tracks for the first track is more important because the genie character didn't exist yet. I want to see how the it all happened - which I believe started when Robin stepped into the booth, let loose, and Disney went "Hmmmm...we didn't expect this!"

About it being way too long - *nothing* is too long for the obsessive enthusiast! It's like asking a trekkie how much of star trek is enough - its never enough.
Boring and unfunny is subjective, so none of it should be left out. Besides, I want to also hear what failed miserably, I want to hear what was tried and changed. What kind of direction did they give robin? How much did robin give back? It is a record of a creative process - it may be personal, but I think it will give great insight into the creative process.

MickeymousePal, welcome, you're the first to challenge the numbers. Let's us know your calculations. If it's indeed not possible I'd be very sad.
The cost is a problem - not for me, but probably for Disney.

This gives me an idea. Perphaps should create a Disney Online Archives. Here they can digitize and store all the stuff from their movies. And for a small access fee, charge the enthusiast for acess to the archive. Of course it would be nice if Disney did this for free - but hey we're not living in Disneyland.

So what do you'all think?

- indra

p.s. BrandonH,....Abu??? please explain why and what you would liek to know!

how about a choice: yes but edited for lenght

yes, there should be that choice, but it's my first time writing a poll- and I screwed up.

In my mind, I always want everything - good and bad. the bad tells exactly how good the good is!

indrajit wrote:yes, there should be that choice, but it's my first time writing a poll- and I screwed up.

In my mind, I always want everything - good and bad. the bad tells exactly how good the good is!

Just Myself wrote:16 hours would be WAAAAY too long to fit on a DVD.

i know. aladdin's what, an hour and a half? 16 hours would be way to long. maybe an assortment of the funny ones liek a 20 minute segment of the recording booth would ahve been neat but 16 HOURS!?no way

Actually, didn't it say somewhere on the Aladdin DVD that Robin did 5 4-hour (or maybe it was 4 5-hour) voice sessions? Wouldn't that make for 20 hours of material?

In any case, I think it'd be hard for me to sit through hours upon hours of dialogue, so a nice best-of clip like others have mentioned would have been great. Of course, I'm just grateful that we even got to see Robin in the behind-the-scenes stuff.

6 hrs. 16 hrs. 160 hrs. It doesnt matter. The point is that there should be a choice for hardcore fans to get it. I wouldn't mind sitting thru an hour or two every night. It doesn't have to be all at one sitting!

I'm sure if they had put the 16 hrs of material on the aladdin:SE, *eveyone* would listen to it. No matter what.

Did you listen to the two commentaries in Pirates of the Carribean? I did, and enjoyed them. more than two hrs each. Did you sit for the umpteen hrs in theatres for *all* the lord of the rings trilogy bac to back inculding the two extended editions in one sitting when the third part came out? I did. No bathroom breaks, man. By the time the movie ended I thought I had gone to Mordor and back!
Who watches every episode of family guy from season 1 to season 3 without stopping?
Hardcore fans, man. people like me!

We need this stuff like vampires need...well you know.

Whew. Almost got into a rant there!

keep posting, y'all! I luv talking and reading this stuff!

hardcore indrajit wrote:yes, there should be that choice, but it's my first time writing a poll- and I screwed up.

Not as bad as i did on my first poll

we were poll virgins


Well, a tight edited 8 hours could fit in a CD-Rom edition as mp3 or AAU coded files (or the whole thing on 2 CD-Roms.) That way you could listen to your favorirete sound bytes while reading UltimateDisney in your computer or using your mini iPod

Or your online download idea. Can we say Disney iTunes!
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ooooh shiny

shdwrlm3 wrote:Actually, didn't it say somewhere on the Aladdin DVD that Robin did 5 4-hour (or maybe it was 4 5-hour) voice sessions? Wouldn't that make for 20 hours of material?

In any case, I think it'd be hard for me to sit through hours upon hours of dialogue, so a nice best-of clip like others have mentioned would have been great. Of course, I'm just grateful that we even got to see Robin in the behind-the-scenes stuff.

I think alot of the recording of a animation voice is repeating the same lines many times. The directors and animators pick the best reading for use in the final film. This process is seen on a number of Disney DVDs.

While Robin Williams undoubtably improvised and added a lot to the character, I'm also sure a lot of the lines were said as written too, and may have been recorded several times, eating to the recording sessions.

I think its unlikely we'll ever see (hear) such footage, as, well, basically I'm sure it wasn't part of Robin's original contract for such material to be made public "en mass", and lets face it, it would be like going to 3 of Robin's live gigs.

The bonus feature I wish they included was the original making of TV special.