The 1992 movie Robin Williams knew was doomed: “I’m basically selling it door-to-door”
As evidenced by the number of flops he starred in throughout his career, Robin Williams‘ popularity was pretty much bulletproof, which is just as well, when he had to weather his fair share of fiscal storms.
It takes a special kind of star to suffer through Death to Smoochy, Cadillac Man, Fathers’ Day, Man of the Year, What Dreams May Come, Jack, Bicentennial Man, Old Dogs, RV, and many more, falling embarrassingly short of expectations at the box office and emerging unscathed on the other side.
Fortunately, because he was so obviously talented and almost unanimously popular, Williams wasn’t held back, hamstrung, or kicked several runs down the Hollywood ladder for his transgressions. They say it often only takes one bad movie to derail a career, something he clearly laughed in the face of.
There were times when the actor and comedian had an inkling that one of his projects was on a hiding to nothing, though, and that happened in the midst of what may have been his career’s most curious year. In 1992, Williams appeared in three pictures, and each of them had an unusual story to tell.
In his animated debut, he voiced Batty Koda in FernGully, which shouldn’t have been an issue if it hadn’t been for Disney’s Aladdin releasing a few months later. He’d already committed before agreeing to play the Genie, but Jeffrey Katzenberg still tried to force him out of the film, with producer Wayne Young alleging that the ‘Mouse House’ had tried to sabotage them out of spite.
Of course, Aladdin became one of Williams’ most iconic roles and biggest hits, but he was still betrayed by the studio when Disney reneged on the agreement that his name and likeness wouldn’t be used in the marketing, an outcome he wanted partially to avoid any conflicts with Barry Levinson’s Toys, which was set to arrive on the big screen a month later and relied heavily on his presence to sell itself to audiences.
He was aware that one film needed the boost his star power and recognition provided more than the other, but he never sounded convinced that it would be enough. “Aladdin doesn’t need my promotion,” he explained. “I did the film because I wanted to do something for my children. Besides, singing the songs was a blast.”
However, his third and final feature of 1992 did. “Toys is an unusual film,” Williams said. “It needs people to champion it. I’m basically selling it door-to-door.” No matter how hard he tried or how many metaphorical doors he knocked on, it was a doomed errand, and the picture flopped in cinemas.
It was a strange thing, a surrealist farce masquerading as a family-friendly vehicle for the boundlessly energetic star, one that earned two Academy Award nominations and one at the Razzies, with Levinson making the ‘Worst Director’ shortlist. Williams could have chapped a million doors and championed it to anyone he would listen, but from its first day in multiplexes, the writing was on the wall.
