Aladdin (1992)
Directed by John Musker
In the boorish city of Agrabah, kind-hearted street urchin Aladdin and Princess Jasmine fall in love, although she can only marry a prince. He and power-hungry Grand Vizier Jafar vie for a magic lamp that can fulfill their wishes.
10 connections found
View:
10 films that influenced Aladdin
What critics say influenced Aladdin
Williams' volatile delivery has never been more suited to a character--and in enabling the animators' sense of mischief (it's doubtful they would have made those po-mo references isolated from Williams' contribution (including killer homages to Raiders of the Lost Ark , Cleopatra , and the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment from Fantasia) without the spectre of his manic performance to goad them), he honours Mel Blanc's legacy better than latter-day Looney Tunes have.
Pinocchio even makes a cameo appearance, along with Sebastian from "The Little Mermaid," and there's even a reference to "Fantasia."
The first of these was Swan Lake, a never-realised project that would have completed the studio's adaptations of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's three great ballets (following "The Nutcracker Suite" in Fantasia , and Sleeping Beauty ); King of the Jungle, later renamed The Lion King ; and the Ashman/Menken/Woolverton Aladdin.
I like the film much more when it's content to steal unashamedly from the 1940 The Thief of Bagdad : adventure, spectacle, good humor and adventure, leading me to suppose that if Aladdin wasn't going to commit to being a dramedy like Beauty and the Beast, it should at least have gone for being a straight-up comedy swashbuckler that didn't take its romantic subplot seriously at all; as it stands, it's awfully close to being a great story, but it keeps having to settle for pretty damn good.
A lot of early exposition time is also used to explain the chicanery of Jafar (voice by Jonathan Freeman), the Sultan's evil vizier, whose chilling, bony features suggest a composite of Nancy Reagan (the animators have mentioned this as a deliberate reference, along with a more pointed one to Conrad Veidt in "The Thief of Bagdad") and Captain Hook.
Families today will note how heavily Disney’s Aladdin borrowed from this version of The Thief of Bagdad: Disney’s treacherous grand vizier Jafar is overtly modeled on Veidt’s Jaffar, who similarly plots to marry a princess who is in love with a beggar who claims to be a prince, and whose dwarfish, childlike sultan father (Miles Malleson) is the archetype for Jasmine’s father.
The same low-flame romance was mirrored in Disney's " Aladdin " (1992), greatly influenced by both versions of the "Thief," combining Abu and Ahmad as "Aladdin."
Anticipating the swashbuckling fare of Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power, not to mention the Disney-ride silliness of Pirates of the Caribbean (and an animated Aladdin that seems to lift whole segments from Thief) this star vehicle for Douglas Fairbanks was a sensation in 1924.
Aladdin this is not.
Maybe it's just because of the pleasant nature of so many of the jokes, rather than the calculated snarkiness of a DreamWorks film: playful references to other Disney characters (I think it has more cameos than any other Disney film), and a gag in the "Friend Like Me" number stretching all the way back to the 1936 Mickey short "Thru the Mirror" for its winking reference.
Meanwhile there are some subtle cinematic homages inserted, including Aladdin’s retrieval of the lamp reminiscent of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” while the water ride on the rug evokes “Superman: The Movie.” Disney’s “Aladdin” sticks to the convention with success, providing a film that’s fun and exciting all at the same time.
Williams' volatile delivery has never been more suited to a character--and in enabling the animators' sense of mischief (it's doubtful they would have made those po-mo references isolated from Williams' contribution (including killer homages to Raiders of the Lost Ark , Cleopatra , and the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment from Fantasia) without the spectre of his manic performance to goad them), he honours Mel Blanc's legacy better than latter-day Looney Tunes have.
Like Raiders of the Lost Ark , the film’s style and energy will outlast more technically advanced imitators.
Advertisement
Ashman and composer Alan Menken did all the songs for "Beauty and the Beast," but half the lyrics for "Aladdin" ended up being written by Tim Rice, responsible for "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita."
Half the film's lyrics are by Tim Rice ("Evita" and "Jesus Christ Superstar"), whose style is so much more conventional than Mr. Ashman's that the difference is instantly apparent.
It has been a constant fact in Disney's features ever since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that some characters are essentially realistic representations of the human form, while others are unabashed cartoons; the degree to which this is true changes from film to film, but at any rate I cannot quickly think of a Disney feature previous to this, the studio's 31st, in which no character stands out as especially realistic or especially caricatured.
Where 1989's The Little Mermaid and especially 1991's nauseating Beauty and the Beast tried to pass themselves off as Golden Age Disney (1937 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)-1950 (Cinderella), for argument's sake), before a certain stateliness loosened its grip on the house style, 1992's Aladdin took its cue from Uncle Walt's twilight years, the sixties, when he was interested in telling--as he geared up to pass the torch, perhaps--mentor stories (The Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book) and pop culture had finally caught up with his incongruous predilections for psychedelia and bohemianism.
Modeled on Tom Cruise in "Top Gun," Aladdin is played by Scott Weinger, though his songs go to Brad Kane.
Advertisement
Where 1989's The Little Mermaid and especially 1991's nauseating Beauty and the Beast tried to pass themselves off as Golden Age Disney (1937 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)-1950 (Cinderella), for argument's sake), before a certain stateliness loosened its grip on the house style, 1992's Aladdin took its cue from Uncle Walt's twilight years, the sixties, when he was interested in telling--as he geared up to pass the torch, perhaps--mentor stories (The Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book) and pop culture had finally caught up with his incongruous predilections for psychedelia and bohemianism.
The requisite role of the villain who is far more visually exciting and thus more memorable than anyone else in the film was this time played by the wicked vizier Jafar, voiced with silky tones by Broadway actor Jonathan Freeman, and supervised by Andreas Deja, one of the poor bastards whose first job at the studio was during The Black Cauldron .
In terms of fitting into the Disney canon, Aladdin belongs somewhere in the middle; it's better than something like The Black Cauldron, but not even remotely as effective as The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast.