"eric goldberg"

Animator Eric Goldberg famously based the Genie, the “star” of Disney’s animated Aladdin film, on Hirschfeld’s drawings, and the artists became friends. Goldberg, and and his wife Susan proposed the idea of collaborating with Hirschfeld on a short film on a day in the life of Manhattan with Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” as its soundtrack. Hirschfeld declined to do any new drawings, but he allowed them to adapt his existing work for character designs.

The Goldbergs first found resistance at Disney, but when another Disney animated film ran into trouble, the studio “found itself with an entire animation crew that had nothing to do. Since Susan and I had already done the storyboards and art direction pieces, the execs in charge finally said, ‘Okay, you can make it’ - as a stand-alone short….Thus Al became our official Artistic Consultant for the piece, happily approving (and improving) our designs.” Eventually, the film was incorporated into Fantasia 2000, introduced by Hirschfeld’s old friend and sometimes subject, Quincy Jones, who directly acknowledged Hirschfeld and Gershwin as the inspiration for the piece, considered one of the best in the film.