Others simply wanted to be a part of this historic short. With thousands of characters to pick from, the directors had a wish-fulfillment list of who they wanted to be featured. Chernabog from Disney’s 1940 film “Fantasia” was top of Correy’s wishlist.
But there was a slight problem. “He’s the size of a mountain and he couldn’t fit into the building,” says Correy. It was Abraham who came up with the idea of the “101 Dalmatians” pups watching “Fantasia” on TV.
Disney CG animator Jorge Ruiz expressed interest in animating the character. Correy says, “He reached out and said how when he was growing up in Venezuela, Chernabog was his favorite character of all time and that was the reason he wanted to work at Disney, so Eric helped him out and Jorge drew it.”
As for bringing the voices, at least 40 original voice guests including Jodi Benson (Ariel), Jeremy Irons (Scar), Idina Menzel (Elsa) and Kristen Bell (Anna) enthusiastically said yes to returning.
Yvett Merino was simple. She says, “It said, ‘We’re working on a short film to celebrate the 100 years. We’d love you to be a part of it and many came into the recording session not knowing anything about it. For anyone that came in, we’d show them the boards. To have them come back and visit characters that they hadn’t done in years, so many were grateful to be included and to be a part of it.”
Correy and Abraham’s first recording was Auli’i Cravalho as Moana, and as each voice character came back, they’d fondly recall stories of what their characters meant to them.
From the very beginning, Correy and Abraham knew Robin Williams’ iconic genie needed to be a part of it. Simonsen and producer Merino reached out to the estate.
Says Simonsen, “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. So Dan listened to the outtakes from the original recording and he found those little bites that we could use. We went back to the estate and said, ‘This is what we hope to do.’ Eric, 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.”
Piecing the voices and characters together in a nine-minute short was a challenge. The first cut hit the 13-minute mark. With thousands of characters to choose from, the biggest challenge wasn’t just picking the characters, it was deciding who would rise to the top.
One sequence had “The Little Mermaid’s” Ariel in the restroom combing her hair. Next to her was the Dinglehopper. “She didn’t say anything,” says Correy. “We thought, ‘What are we doing?!’” With Jodi Benson returning to voice the character, they needed her to sing or at least say something, and so they shifted things around to incorporate a speaking part.
Richard Sherman’s cameo came at the suggestion of the studio’s head of music, Matthew Walker. The Award-winning composer recorded a new version of the Mary Poppins hit, “Feed the Birds.” Says Merino, “That was the pinch-me moment.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
