4. Genie – The Return of Jafar (1994)
From an iconic character to an iconic actor, let’s talk about Robin Williams. His performance as Genie in 1992’s Aladdin was by far the best aspect of the film, and without a doubt the only reason it was so wildly successful. That success prompted a sequel, titled The Return of Jafar, but Williams was notably absent.
It turns out that Williams had taken the role for a small fee on the condition that he was left out of any marketing. Disney failed to uphold the deal, so Williams refused to return. Simple, right? Well, it would be, had that not landed Disney with the task of replacing someone who is truly irreplacable.
Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer in The Simpsons) tried valiantly to fill Williams’ shoes – mostly by doing a pretty poor imitation of his predecessor and masking it with as many accents as possible. It was weird and it made Genie decidedly less lovable than he was in Aladdin, so Disney brought Williams back for the third film. All it cost them was $1 million and an apology, because Robin Williams was truly a class act.