"Aladdin" - The Funny Disney Jewel That Transported Disney Into a Cave of Pop Culture and Success

Hi folks! Welcome to my My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analysis blog. A blog where I'm analyzing several Disney films, Disney or Animation in general! These entries are just meant to be my analyses. Not reviews or statements. Just fun analyses! Though I'll make some personal remarks now and then, the content of these entries are meant to be depicted objectively. They're made for entertainment purpose only and the pictures/clips are copyright Disney or other companies. 

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And finally; If you haven't seen the films, beware of spoilers! And the funny lines aren't meant to be nothing than funny. So I hope you won't find them offensive. If so, I apologize

 

  

 

1992's Aladdin is truly something that deserves be called a Disney jewel! It's a beloved and heralded classic and a part of the successful Renaissance era of the 1990's! While The Little Mermaid ushered the Renaissance and Beauty and the Beast received an Best Picture-nomination, the vigor of Aladdin was that it out-grossed it's predecessors at the Box Office! 

Originally this entry was written in the fall of 2015. To synergize with it's long awaited release on Blu Ray, which was a part of the Diamond Edition. Though one must wonder why it took so long for Disney to release it! It was supposed to be released sooner, but Europe stopped their synergy with the Diamond Line for some unknown reasons. That's why Aladdin was released in Europe prior to the Domestic release and as a separate brand (as well as with The Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians).

It would tempting to assume that the unfortunate death of Robin Williams was a reason for releasing it on the Diamond Edition line. Though unfortunately Aladdin has been given the least successful amount of Bonus Features on it's Diamond release, as it happened to be the very last of that lineup (it's a pity that the featurette for the Broadway show is the longest one, which has been a huge success).

 

 

 

 

Aladdin Identifying it`s Directors

I'm soaring, flying. Without  
High School Musical :)

If anything, Aladdin gave John Musker and Ron Clements an trademark and identity. If The Great Mouse Detective was the detective movie and The Little Mermaid their straight forward fairy tale, Aladdin gave the duo a definite trademark with comedy and pop culture references. Which they would duplicate with Hercules five years later! 
Though their dream project Treasure Planet was a straight forward adventure movie that felt overall more subdued than their zanier fare. At least The Princess and the Frog was a throwback to their sass and fun! Their latest film was Moana, their very first CGI feature. While it felt as more subdued as a whole, it was still filled with their aforementioned trademarks and components. As the wisecracking, snarky sidekick and action!

At least I'm not painting with the colors of the wind ;)

Brace yourself. It's going to 
take all night :)

Robin Williams as the Genie

What truly identifies Aladdin is Robin Williams as the Genie (and the Peddler as well, who originally was going to be the Genie in disguise). While Aladdin wasn't his first job for Disney (1987's successful Good Morning, Vietnam were), it certainly is his most remembered and iconic part. The directors wrote the part with only Robin Williams in mind, though the executives still had different ideas for the Genie (Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted a more realistic Genie, while Howard Ashman wanted a Cab Calloway type). The idea of a transforming Genie allows the time-swapping flexibility that the Genie possesses. 

What eventually convinced Katzenberg to let Williams be the voice was test animation of him in full action! Though the Genie's role was initially supposed to be much shorter than expected. The directors wrote the dialogue initially in a Williams-way. While Williams did sixteen hours of work, add libbed and recorded a scene in twenty-five different ways! Even impersonations of George W. Bush were done (which didn't make it into the final film).
The celebrity impersonations were something that the directors didn't expect. Some Williams' fans truly considers his role as the Genie as his very best performance. Though Williams was not the first A-list star to voice an animated film, he's associated with the trend which continues to this day. And at least this movie allowed Williams to sing, as he did in 1980's Popeye! And he made his contribution to Ferngully the same year as Aladdin. 
Though Disney would try to replicate the Genie with upcoming sidekicks as Timon, Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Phil (Hercules), Mushu (Mulan), Terk (Tarzan), Zini (Dinosaur), B.E.N. (Treasure Planet) and Olaf (the latter being inspired by Genie), it's evident that Genie is the most inspired out of all of them.

Don't worry, I closed the refrigerator after twenty hours :)

One particular speculation about Aladdin is whether the Genie truly is the best thing of the movie (considering that Genie doesn't appear through the half of the movie). 
Some reviewers have claimed that and were picking on the Renaissance formula that was started by Mermaid after just three movies. Personally, though, I've would claim that Aladdin contains plenty of cartoony gags, action, fun and Gilbert Gottfried's Iago to keep it up until the Genie appears (though Danny DeVito was suggested first as Iago). 
While several people have labeled Aladdin himself as bland, I personally happen to disagree with that.

Let's pretend that it's in 3D :)

In my opinion, he's one of the most successful Disney males ever made! Both spunky and feisty, yet with a good heart. He's pretty much like a semi-Robin Hood. Though he's flawed and have a slight moment of malice (where she scolds Abu and the Carpet when he's trapped in his lie for breaking his deal with the Genie), he makes up for it at the end. Voiced by a young Scott Weigner, who's known for another 90's phenomenon about an empty house (yes, note the sarcasm, folks) and sung by Brad Kane.

Let's be glad that this page wasn't dedicated to Kuzco ;)

Ultimately there's no secret that Williams had a feud with Disney. He took the part for his kids at union scale rate (the lowest payed job). He didn't want Disney to promote the character without his permission and was doing another project at the time, the flop Toys. Which was the reason for why Williams wasn't present in the Making off-material of Aladdin, in The Making off-book nor on the video/DVD/Blu Ray-supplement features.

Unfortunately the executives broke the rule and promoted the Genie even with a different voice. While Williams and Disney made up (they sent him a picture of Picasso). Dan Castellaneta voiced the Genie until Williams returned in Aladdin & The King of Thieves in 1996, where he was a part of the Behind the Scenes on that feature  Williams also starred on the 1997-remake of Flubber and was honored as an Disney legend in 2009.

Unfortunately, Williams committed suicide in august 2014 at the age of 63. An incident that shocked and saddened the world. Williams was honored on Disney Channel that same month. Last May, Disney released their mandatory live action version of Aladdin. Which was a huge success, yet received mixed reviews. It's been hard to imagine the Genie without Williams, as Will Smith stepped in the role. Disney had originally planned a prequel about the Genie (which haven't received any updates in a while). Yet one must wonder why Disney didn't considered it priorly when Williams was still alive. But due to that we're a getting a boom of live action remakes, it's not strange that they've jumped on that wagon. Despite that the first entries (started by Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella in 2015) to this bunch were praised by the critics, the trend has since turned around and now the critics are rather dismissing them.



Witchcraft! ;)

I believe I can fly ;)

   

 

The Comedic Tone

Yet I don't need to 
be a maniac, either :)

I made them appear :)

If Mermaid was the return to the fairytale and Beast the romantic date flick, Aladdin was certainly the comedic romp! It's fair to say that Aladdin was at the time the funniest Disney film to date! But the humor doesn't only come from the pop culture references! 
While most of the pranks comes from the Genie, the rest of the comedy is executed by cartoony gags (though The Emperor's New Groove would be the closest Disney would come to a Warner Bros comedy, which was labeled by Disney experts for being the funniest Disney feature since Aladdin). And as aforementioned, Aladdin does have enough action to keep up, as the impressive escape from The Cave of Wonders (the Tiger Head being the first CGI character ever made from Disney).
If anything, while this may seem like a personal, fanboyish scrutiny, it
would be easy to label Aladdin as an updated version of The Jungle Book. Since both takes place in similar (though not identical) settings and having plenty of comedy! The dynamic between Baloo and Mowgli is reminiscent to Aladdin and Genie's. The Pop Culture References may seem like a contradiction, due to that Disney movies are supposed to be timeless, but it gives Aladdin an unique flavor of it's own.

The Racial Controversy

I'm taking her with me, since your not handsome enough :)

Aladdin was a part of Disney's cultural expansion. Unfortunately the exploration of Arabian culture was something that backfired completely. Aladdin was picked for it's inaccuracy towards Arabian culture, due to that it takes place in the fictional Agrabah and not an specific Arabian country. 
Originally the composers Howard Ashman and Alan Menken had decided that Aladdin would be set in Baghdad, Iraq, but they were forced to change that. Mostly because of the Gulf War (though head of layout Razoul Azadani went to his homecountry Iran to research). 
However, the real fuzz were from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League enraging over Howard Ashman's initial lyrics to Arabian Nights ("where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. It's barbaric, but hey it's home"). But strangely enough, Disney refused to change the lyrics at first. Though it's with no doubt Howard's most daring and explicit lyric to date, one should wonder if he would continue to push Disney in a controversial direction (as Stephen Scwhartz would do with Pocahontas and Hunchback, with Savages and Hellfire).
Another complaint were how the marketers had Arabian accents, whereas Aladdin and Jasmine spoke standardized American. But the most radical change is the setting from China to Arabia (though the characters in the original tale were after all muslims). Despite how the tale is Middle-Eastern and belonging the collection of A Thousand and One Nights, they were collected by the French translator Antoine Galland, who heard it from a Syrian storyteller named Hanna Diab.

 

 

Princess Jasmine

Like it's two former Renaissance predecessors, Aladdin was (somewhat) built on a fairy tale. But Aladdin still happened to be the very first Disney animated feature that centered around an young, adult male (Peter Pan, Arthur and Taran were obviously in their early teens, though Disney would continue to make films with male protagonists afterwards). Aladdin himself is also a rare Disney commoner to become a Prince (at least compared to his counterparts). 

The movie stresses the message of being true to yourself (whether is a good thing is questionable, haha). But it's remarkable of what a non-subtle liar Aladdin is when he first lies to Jasmine about him being the boy from the marketplace. 

Due to it's nature and components, Aladdin was mostly catered to the male demographic (though several male critics preferred Mermaid and Beast, regardless). Perhaps that hampered Princess Jasmine's part (why she's not given an Arabian name is questionable, though Jasmine was among the most popular girl names in the early 90's, largely due to actress Jasmine Guy). While Jasmine has her fanbase, it's safe to say that she's pushed to the side at the expense of her male counterparts (at least compared to her former Princess counterparts). Though I'm implying that Jasmine's a utterly bland character, it's safe to say that she serves mostly as Aladdin's love interest and little beyond that (though Linda Larkin's gives her a distinctive voice, as well as Filipina Lea Salonga, who would later sing for Mulan).  

Yet the reduction of her characterization was a deliberate choice. Though Jasmine was originally conceived to be a spoiled brat and afterwards became a stronger character, she began to overshadow Aladdin and therefore deliberately reduced. Originally the screenwriters wanted her to do something heroic for her own sake, but she was victimized by it for the sake of the story. And her motivation for leave was to save her father from Jafar, but the story members thought it was too complex at the end.

It's remarkable that the heroines Mark Hehn has supervised all by himself have been non-Caucasian (alongside with Mulan and Tiana). Jasmine was the very first Disney Princess to wear pants! And it's also notable how Jasmine is the only major female lead in this very male-centric movie!

The Animators

 

Aladdin himself was supervised by Glen Keane, who would supervise his third lead in a row. Keane deliberately modeled him after Tom Cruise to give him a contemporary sex appeal (though he was originally inspired from Michael J. Fox). Aladdin's pants were inspired by no other than M.C. Hammer!
Eric Goldberg, who knew Musker priorly, made his supervising debut with the Genie after leaving his own company in London that made TV commercials. Goldberg was the very first animator to be cast on the assignment and wanted to animate the Genie from the get-go. Goldberg made the Genie Jewish, so that Williams could give Genie Yiddishism. Genie's design was simple due to his flexibility, though Goldberg didn't decide his final color. Despite Goldberg claiming that he didn't look for Williams for inspiration.

I forgot my nap, so therefore 
I look like this ;)

Andreas Deja supervised his second villain with Jafar, a slick and caricatured departure from Gaston. Duncan Marjoribanks would supervise another small sidekick in Abu. But perhaps the most impressive achievement is Randy Cartwrights' Carpet. Having been able to make a personality out of a literal rug. Al Hirschfeld was a inspiration in terms of his clean flow lines (though Hirschfeld refused to take credit for his inspiration for Aladdin and complimented Goldberg's work). 

History & Behind the Scenes Information

Aladdin was the last film to be supervised by Howard Ashman, before dying of Aids at the age of 40. Ashman and Menken began working on it in 1988 as a 1930-musical style, sticking close to the original tale. Aladdin would have three friends, one of them named Cassim (just like his father in Aladdin & The King of Thieves).  
Aladdin was originally supposed to have a mother, who was a part of the story for a long time, before being completely thrown away (though she was originally going to be older and plumb, appears in the Aladdin comic story, The Mysterious Amulet. The film was originally conceived to be a straight-forward adventure, before Musker and Clements took over the project (despite how they were offered Beast first). They were encouraged to not stick entirely to Ashman's script. Linda Woolverton was originally a part of the writing team.
It's worth to notice that Musker and Clements are a rare duo to both produce and write their films, as well as directing them. With Aladdin and afterwards Treasure Planet, they collaborated with Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. Who would gain an impressive screenplay-list afterwards with Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean-saga, Zorro and Godzilla, just to mention a few. It's no secret how Musker and Clements themselves have cameos in their films post-Mermaid, which Aladdin was their first film to do that.
The 40-Jazz Cabaret style were a conscious choice from Ashman, who wrote three songs for the movie; Arabian Nights, Friend Like Me and Prince Ali. Menken was considering writing himself, before approaching Tim Rice to write One Jump Ahead and A Whole New World. Rice and Menken never composed together before Aladdin, though. And it's no secret that Tim Rice would pen the lyrics for an following Disney project afterwards about a lion who was supposed to be a commoner (yes, note the sarcasm, folks ;)

Spinoff-series and Cheapquels

Aladdin truly has an expanded spinoff universe to be worthy to be called a franchise. It was the first movie to receive a direct-to-video sequel in Return to Jafar. It was an actual continuation of the story, though the tone of the sequel was darker than it's predecessor (in my opinion). The title is somewhat of a contradicting irony, since Iago is the true protagonist of the story.

A Television Series was produced afterwards, which expanded Aladdin's universe (and was ironically released before Jafar, despite how that cheapquel was conceived as a pilot for the series). Personally I found the tone of the series to be just as dark as well. Iago was even more callous and ruthless in the show and even Aladdin could be quite condescending at times. Remarkable how both Aladdin and Jasmine were challenged by others who yearned for their love. 
And to scrutinize the show a little, it would foreshadow upcoming elements in upcoming Disney movies: Sadira would be a predecessor to Esmeralda (both being female who were raised on the streets), just a naughtier version. The various monsters in the show were reminiscent of those from Hercules (an episode named A Sultan Worth His Salt even takes place in Greece). And Jasmine would impersonate a soldier in an episode the same way Mulan did in The Secret of Dagger Rock-episode (the show even had an episode set in China in Opposites Detract, yet in a different location than Mulan)! It even pays an homage to Beast in two episodes (in Garden of Evil where the Sultan picks a flower from a forbidden garden and in Seems Like Old Crimes Part Two, where it's climax is awfully reminiscent of the one in Beast)
A third and final full-length feature was made in Aladdin & The King of Thieves, which centers around Aladdin and Jasmine's marriage. Though the ending of the first movie indicates a marriage, it never confirmed that the lovebirds actually wedded.

Thieves is indeed the most mature and melodramatic of the Aladdin triology, though Robin Williams' Genie still dominates a lot with his pop culture references (and even more Disney-references). Aladdin may be somewhat bland in this third movie, but at least he's regained his dignity, appeal and likability back. Cassim (John Rhys-Davies) is somewhat of a predecessor to Silver in Treasure Planet: An dimensional, flawed and human character who's torn by his lust for a treasure and affection for his son. At least the film fulfills the Arabian Nights song finale that was intended for the first movie.

 

Epilogue

No matter what, Aladdin is a Disney treasure that is worth to behold. It truly deserved it's success it got theatrically and it's easy to see why it's so beloved. Though perhaps not my very favorite growing up, I still liked it a lot and saw it several times on VHS at the age of 10. Regardless of Robin Williams or not, this movie offers a fun, compelling and entertaining adventure that deserves to be worshipped for it's sheer entertainment. So rub the lamp and set the movie free ;)

It all started with a lamp. The Mouse line has been used to death ;)

 

 

 

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References:
Mouse Under Glass (David Koenig).
The Music Behind The Magic - The Musical Artistry of Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice (Steve Hochman).
Aladdin Platinum Edition.
Disney's Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules (Bob Thomas).
The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms and Beyond (Christopher Finch).
Disney's Aladdin; The Making of An Animated Film (John Culhane)
Aladdin Diamond Edition
Walt Disney Classic Aladdin Deluxe Collector's Video Edition.
The Mouse That Roared: Disney and The End of Innocence (Henry A. Giroux). 
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