Disney/Pixar
Tom Hanks credits the success of 'Aladdin' with the boom of animated movies
The late, great Robin Williams may have never voiced a character in a Pixar movie, but he played a role in the studio’s success all the same. At least according to Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, who knows a thing or two about the rise of Pixar after voicing Woody in the Toy Story franchise for over 30 years.
During a recent interview to promote the release of Toy Story 5, which is now playing in theaters and looks set to gross over $1 billion, Oscar winner Tom Hanks credited Robin Williams’ legendary performance as the Genie in Aladdin with essentially creating the conditions that made Toy Story possible.
Tom Hanks says Robin Williams performance in Aladdin launched the practice of casting movie stars in animated films
According to Hanks, Williams served as a proof-of-concept and ushered in the practice of casting established Hollywood stars in headlining voice roles in animated films, which wasn’t the standard practice when Aladdin hit theaters in 1992. Three years later, Pixar cast Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, and the rest is history.
Hanks argued that Williams’ performance as the Genie was so must-see that adults were compelled to see the movie, too.
“Disney came out with Aladdin with Robin Williams as the Genie. And if you hadn’t seen the movie, and other people had, they would say ‘You have got to go see this new Disney movie because Robin Williams is hilarious,” Hanks told High Performance when the interviewer pointed out that “movie stars didn’t do a lot of voice over.”
“I believe that might have been the first time an animated Disney movie was hugely popular because of the casting, because Robin was so amazing. And the benevolent overlords at Disney at the time, it was all business — it was a business decision that they had made. And so they said, ‘Oh wait a minute — if we get an ‘above the title’ actors in it, it will not just be a movie for kids.”
Tom Hanks shares a great backstory on voicing the original Toy Story in 1995.
Says it only happened because Robin Williams smashed it with Aladdin a few years prior. Hollywood realized a big star could sell an animated film (give something for parents).
So, Hanks and Allen… https://t.co/pfIvhiydxC pic.twitter.com/2uAAYMHX37
— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) June 22, 2026
If you look at the state of the animation genre a decade after Aladdin’s release, Hanks’ take becomes clear. Shrek became a phenomenon in 2001 with Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz as its stars, while Pixar released Monsters Inc.