Before
DreamWorks and Pixar slowly entered the animated movie market, Walt Disney
Pictures dominated children’s movie nights. “Aladdin” (1992) features
old-school hand drawn animation depicting a roguish hero trying to get the
princess. It was also one of the first movies to have a major movie star
voicing one of the characters. Whereas today you have guys like Tom Hanks, Mike
Myers and Billy Chrystal voicing the main characters in animated movies,
“Aladdin” was the first time Robin Williams voiced an animated character,
something he would repeat in “”Fern Gully,” “Aladdin and the King of Thieves,”
and “Robots.” It makes perfect sense since the man is practically half-cartoon.
The
first time I saw this movie I did not understand all of the cultural references
Williams was throwing out since I saw a French dubbed version in theatres,
which lost some of the cultural references. It was in Québec and I didn’t speak
English yet back then. However by the time I got the VHS tape (remember those?)
as a present I was living in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, where I had to learn
to speak English. Plus my brother and I rented the game for Super Nintendo,
which was in English so we practiced our language skills as we played. Of
course when I say “we” I mean he played and I sat there and watched the story
unfold. But no matter the language, I remember feeling all the right emotions
Disney intended as I watched the film: laughter at the funny supporting
characters, a little bit of fear during the moments of peril, and I was rooting
for the good guy when it came time to beat the villain.
The
hero is of course a lonely boy at the bottom of the food chain. Everybody loves
an underdog. As the narrator (Williams again) explains, in the ancient Arabian
city of Agrabah there was once a young man named Aladdin (Scott Weinger) living
in the streets and stealing food with his pet monkey Abu (Frank Welker). His
life changes forever when he meets Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin) who fled her
palace so she wouldn’t have to face yet another pretentious prince her father
the Sultan (Douglas Seale) wants her to marry. Despite the fact she is royalty
and he is what the palace guards call a street rat, they of course fall in
love.
Under
the orders of Jafar (Jonathan Freeman), the sultan’s advisor and the film’s
goatee wearing villain, the guards throw Aladdin in jail. There Jafar meets
Aladdin in disguise and makes him an offer to escape the prison and seek out a
cave full of riches, which he could use to become royalty and get the princess.
The cave in the desert is a character itself. The entrance is shaped like a
tiger’s head and issues a warning: only take the lamp and do not touch the rest
of the treasure. Of course Abu cannot help himself and grabs a shiny red ruby
that was begging to be grabbed, causing the cave to collapse. When Aladdin
reaches the cave, Jafar betrays him and grabs the lamp, leaving Aladdin for
dead.
What
Aladdin does not know is that Jafar is tired of being the power behind the
throne and would rather sit on the actual throne with his pet parrot Iago
(Gilbert Gottfried). But what Jafar does not know is that Abu grabbed back the
lamp before the cave collapsed. When Aladdin rubs it, out comes a giant blue
genie (Williams) offering him three wishes. After using the first wish to get
out of the cave, Aladdin uses the second to get what he most desires: pretend
to be a prince so he can get the girl. Of course he had no idea if there is one
thing the princess hates it’s a pompous prince, so this is the part where
Disney slips in the message about being true to yourself and how even an
ordinary guy can get the girl of his dreams.
Whatever.
Most boys don’t watch Disney movies for the love story. There is however some
great animated action scenes, such as when Aladdin evades the palace guards in
the town market, escapes the collapsing cave on a magic carpet, and fights the
nefarious Jafar after he transforms into a giant snake.
Then
of course there is the highlight, Robin Williams’ hundreds of characters
spawned from his genie. His work was so impressive it was awarded a special
Golden Globe at that year’s award ceremony. For my money, his song “Friend like
Me” is the best in the movie.
“Aladdin”
was followed by two sequels and a two seasons on T.V. Better animated movies
came in the decades that followed, but as a kid I enjoyed following Aladdin’s
adventures, whether on the big screen or as part of a binge of Saturday morning
cartoons. Nothing beats the old-school.
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