5 Hollywood actors who became the prototypes of Disney cartoon characters

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Since the late 1930s. Walt Disney began producing color full-length drawn cartoons, using sitters to create characters' images - actors who reproduced the movements of their heroes. They were filmed, and then the shots with the models were "outlined". In this way, the effect of maximum life-likeness was achieved. And the animators created the appearance of cartoon characters, focusing on Hollywood stars, who are very popular with viewers. And when cartoons were released on screens, it was easy to recognize familiar features in the characters …

Aladdin - Tom Cruise

One of the biggest problems for the creators of the cartoon "Aladdin" was the appearance of the protagonist - no one had any idea how he should look. Director John Musker said: "".

Initially, to create his image, animator Glen Keane took as a basis the appearance of actor Michael Jay Fox - the star of the movie "Back to the Future", the idol of teenagers. But later, when they decided to make the hero older and more attractive, he had a new prototype - Tom Cruise. The resemblance was not portrait, but his trademark Hollywood smile can be easily recognized from the cartoon character. In order to imagine how Aladdin's outfit should look, the animator revisited the video clips of the rapper MC Hammer, where he was in the same wide trousers.

Genie - Robin Williams

In the same cartoon, there was another very striking character - Genie. This role in the script was originally written for the comedian Robin Williams, without even securing his consent to voice this character. And, to their disappointment, at first the actor really refused to work on this project. Then the creators of the cartoon went for a trick: they shot a short episode in which they overlaid the animation of the Genie on the recording of Robin Williams' humorous monologue. The actor was so impressed that he immediately agreed to cooperate. He later explained his decision by saying that he wanted to leave "something wonderful" for his children. Williams became the first major actor to voice a cartoon character. After him, this practice became widespread.

Many of Genie's lines were improvised by Robin Williams - he came up with jokes while working on the cartoon. The actor recorded four hours-long improvisation sessions during character development, with animators rewriting each word from these sessions, selecting the most appropriate phrases for the cartoon. This is how the famous genie parodies of people popular in those days were born. The sounds of the trombone reproduced by the actor in the song "Friends Like Me" were also improvised. Initially, it was assumed that they would be recorded in the sound of real instruments, but Williams' find was so successful that it was left unchanged in the final version.

Genie's appearance resembled a caricature of Robin Williams. The animators have recreated in this character not only the features of his face, but also the outfits: the episode in which the Genie appears in a Hawaiian shirt and cap with Goofy, was based on the appearance of Williams from the short film "Back to Neverland."

Scar - Jeremy Irons

A lion named Scar, the antagonist of the main character from The Lion King, was created thanks to his prototype - Jeremy Irons. In the appearance of the character, the features of his face are guessed, and in his habits - the refined plasticity of the British actor. In addition, he gave him his own voice. True, Irons admitted that in this hero he liked only one thing: "".

Ursula - Devine

The main villain in the cartoon "The Little Mermaid" was the sea witch Ursula, whose image also had a real prototype. Surprisingly, it was a man, actor Harris Milstead, who shocked the audience in the 1970s and 1980s. on screens and on stage in the form of an extravagant drag queen star performing under the pseudonym Devine (from the English divine - "divine", "amazing"). It was this image that was taken as a basis for creating the appearance of the villainess Ursula - the screenwriter and the artist came to the unanimous opinion that, be it a film, only Milstead could play the role of Ursula. The actor intended to voice this heroine, but a year before the cartoon's premiere, he passed away at 42 from a heart attack.

The similarity between the prototype and the cartoon character was simply photographic: the animators conveyed the smallest portrait details, such as a mole on the lower right side of the face, eyebrows drawn in black pencil, bright blue eyeshadow, bright red lips, gray hair sticking up, very lush forms. The image turned out so vivid that the writers decided to increase the number of scenes with Ursula's participation. As a result, the sea witch has become one of the most recognizable Disney characters.

Prince Philip - Ed Kemmer

The inspiration for Prince Philip in The Sleeping Beauty is Ed Kemmer, a former fighter pilot. During the war, his plane was shot down, and he himself ended up in a prisoner camp, from where he managed to escape a few days later. After the hospital, he went to the cinema - in the 1950s. starred in Disney films as astronauts and pilots. But most of all he remembered his work on the cartoon "Sleeping Beauty". In the costume of his hero, he acted out all the scenes, which were then redrawn by the animators. Instead of mountains, the actor had to jump on boxes, instead of a dragon, fight with a fly swatter on a long handle, instead of a horse, saddle wooden goats.

Among the Hollywood film stars, there were also prototypes of cartoon heroines: 5 actresses who gifted their looks to Disney princesses.