Aladdin (1992)
With the impending demise of GeoCities Free - which I'm sure will involve fiery explosions, collapsing girders, and men in jumpsuits fleeing with their arms folded over their heads - I've begun to migrate all my movie reviews to LiveJournal. Some of them are as old as 2002 and fairly lame, with way too much time devoted to plot summary, but posterity is posterity.
2009 Thoughts: Boy, "Aladdin." I can barely remember anything about this movie except Robin Williams being a little too much and it being just like all the other Disney movies of the era: perfectly good, disposable, overrated, and forgettable. If Pixar makes the same movie over and over again - and they do - then the Disney of the late '80s and '90s was certainly making a different kind of same movie over and over again. The Pixar movie usually has a more interesting protagonist than its Disney counterpart - Aladdin and Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" are pretty blank - but there's a slightly more mythic and subdued quality to the way Disney left out all the pop-culture quoting and endless mouthing. Still, very little of it is essential. Also, I thought it was odd how popular Disney animated movies were when I was in junior high, because I was desperately trying to appear adult.
2004 review (*** out of ****)
What a fun movie. I say that now because I’m about to say a few things that disparage “Aladdin.” I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. So I’ll say it again: what a fun movie.
There’s a fine line between tapping icons and myths and just being cliché. Each Disney “classic” of the 1990s finds a new way to straddle that line. Each time Disney taps one of our elemental desires-to “just be yourself” for instance-I can never quite tell if this is a studied adoption of a basic longing or just a room full of writer’s scraping the bottom of the narrative barrel. But Disney makes movies mostly for kids; if you’ve been watching movies for a decade or four than you don’t need to be told to “just be yourself” quite so often as, apparently, eight-year-olds need to. I guess.
“Aladdin” is firmly in that vein. I was about to say “Aladdin” is firmly in that “tradition,” but then I might be playing along with Disney’s marketing strategy of claiming that every movie of theirs that breaks even is a “classic” or a “masterpiece.” In it, young people and their various animal sidekicks learn to be themselves, learn to make choices, fall in love, face the supernatural, and assert themselves with dignity before adult authority figures. “Aladdin” is a story enormously familiar to everyone out of grade school, shaken up and put in an all-new setting with color, wit, and style. It is also remarkably efficient and fast paced; the ink is barely dry on the drawings for one setting before we’re flying off to the next. Because we know what’s going to happen we don’t want to spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for things to unfold. The all-new setting is a Persia/Middle Eastern/Arabian Nights conglomerate, with magic carpets, scimitars, viziers, onion domes, harem girls, and harmonic minor keys. Oh yes, and the matter of a lamp and three wishes…
By the time the skid-row thief Aladdin (voiced by Scott Weinger) uncovers the magic lamp where our genie lives, he has already escaped capture by the palace guards, been locked in a dungeon, fallen in love with the princess (Linda Larkin), and been tricked into a demonic cave by the vizier Jafar (Jonathan Freeman), the twisted and manipulative advisor to the sultan (Douglas Seale). This is breathless moviemaking. Aladdin’s not a very good thief, what with his tendency to give what he steals to sad-eyed and needy children. With the genie’s aid, Aladdin, his monkey sidekick, and his magic carpet (appropriately named Carpet) must set right what has been made wrong. At first, he tries to disguise himself as a prince in order to win the princess’s hand. She won’t have it. He has to-you guessed it-learn to be himself. Highpoints of the film include a chase through a collapsing tunnel and a magical climax in which all the powers of sorcerery take on the colors of a fire in the desert. Next to the Genie, the most memorable character is the vizier Jafar, who is appropriately loathsome and glowering. Everyone has an animal sidekick, if for no other reason then it would be awkward to show all these characters talking to themselves.
We also have “Aladdin” to thank for the totally anachronistic pop-culture quoting motormouths that seem to be required in every big budget animated film nowadays. In this particular film he is the genie voiced by Robin Williams. Everyone in “Shrek”-a movie populated entirely by TV addicts and sitcom characters dressed up to look medieval-is his descendent. If you like Williams running off at the mouth and screaming like a mile-a-minute maniac, then you’ll have a blast with “Aladdin.” I like Williams doing his Williams-schtick in small doses. In the course of the movie, his genie transforms into a nightclub entertainer, a Scotsman, a Scots dog, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Señor Wences, Ed Sullivan, a slot machine, Groucho Marx, a boxing trainer, a fireworks rocket, a French maître d’, a dragon, a certificate, a pair of lips, Robert De Niro, a flight attendant, Carol Channing, a sheep, a hammock, Pinocchio, a Frenchman in a beret and striped shirt, a chef, Julius Caesar, Arsenio Hall, a gay tailor, a game-show host, a drum major, Walter Brennan, TV parade hosts, a tiger, a goat, Ethel Merman, Rodney Dangerfield, Jack Nicholson, a talking lampshade, a submarine, a one-man band, a script prompter, a ventriloquist, a “Fantasia”-like devil, William F. Buckley, cheerleaders, a baseball pitcher, a tourist with a Goofy hat, and the moon. (Thank you, Internet Movie Database.) Very few of these incarnations have anything to do with Arabia in the days of Scherezade. But “Aladdin” is not concerned with historical accuracy and neither am I. Williams’ Blue Genie is only slightly more anachronistic than all the other characters, who speak with modern accents and colloquialisms. The question is, is Williams funny? After 12 years of imitators, to the point where the “Rugrats” are quoting “The Godfather?” Ehh…let’s just say I’m not howling for Williams to get an Oscar nomination for his voicework, the way many of the movie’s serious enthusiasts were.
Of course there’s stereotyping of the Middle Easterners. A passing glance over the credits does not uncover one “Mohammed” or even any last name that would sound right with “Mohammed.” It’s also worth noting that the important characters do not speak with Arabic accents, but sound like Americans or Brits. Only the peasants sound like they’re from there. This is only one of the reasons why Mickey Mouse is associated with universal American hegemony and the consumerization of the world.
As for the girl…the Disney movies of the last fifteen years, like this film, “The Little Mermaid,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” seem to rely pretty heavily on romantic courtships. When I was six, that stuff made me sick. Now I see them as basically the same kind of middling and tacked-on “romantic subplot” that might pop up in an action movie or a teen comedy. These romances are good for pacing and hammering home “the message” but don’t have a lot of magic to them. Luckily there was a lot less kissy-kissy in “Sleeping Beauty” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” I don’t recall the soft-focus prince courting the soft-focus princess in either of those movies. Mostly he just killed things. I mention this because there’s a part of me that keeps voicing a sneaking, cynical suspicion that Disney is trying to introduce children to uninspired romances as early as possible so that they’ll be prepared to spend a lifetime passively digesting more narratively-convenient-but-otherwise-uninspired romances. They’re easier on writers.
It’s a tribute the pervasiveness of Disney animation that it is the definition of normal and neutral to those of us who grew up with it. What was groundbreaking in 1992 looks a little jerky now, but it is the yardstick by which we measure all other animation. Everyone of my generation sees Disney and says “Yes, this is what animation is supposed to look like when it doesn’t want to draw attention to itself. This is how animation looks when it wants to look ‘invisible,’ the way that movies like ‘Casablanca’ are directed invisibly, without a noticeable style.” When we say that “Triplets of Belleville” is more emotive than most cartoons, we’re comparing it to Disney, and when we say the backgrounds in “Belleville” are intentionally flat, again, we’re comparing it to classic Disney.
I have to end the way I began by emphasizing what a quick, bright, and energetic film this is, with the exact right tone of pure, unadulterated fun. Any logical inconsistencies are swept under the rug by streamlined and efficient storytelling. “Aladdin” is a ninety-minute confection: it’s characters get in, get out, get chased, fall in love, and then just when you think you might start to lose interest there’s a big climax and the credits roll. And speaking of credits… isn’t everyone who loved that “A Whole New World” song over the ending credits kind of embarassed now?
Finished August 26, 2004
Featuring the voices of Robin Williams, Scott Weinger, Jonathan Freeman, Linda Larkin, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, and Douglas Seale
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker & written by no less than 20 persons, including Roger Allers and Ron Clements.
2009 Thoughts: Boy, "Aladdin." I can barely remember anything about this movie except Robin Williams being a little too much and it being just like all the other Disney movies of the era: perfectly good, disposable, overrated, and forgettable. If Pixar makes the same movie over and over again - and they do - then the Disney of the late '80s and '90s was certainly making a different kind of same movie over and over again. The Pixar movie usually has a more interesting protagonist than its Disney counterpart - Aladdin and Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" are pretty blank - but there's a slightly more mythic and subdued quality to the way Disney left out all the pop-culture quoting and endless mouthing. Still, very little of it is essential. Also, I thought it was odd how popular Disney animated movies were when I was in junior high, because I was desperately trying to appear adult.
2004 review (*** out of ****)
What a fun movie. I say that now because I’m about to say a few things that disparage “Aladdin.” I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. So I’ll say it again: what a fun movie.
There’s a fine line between tapping icons and myths and just being cliché. Each Disney “classic” of the 1990s finds a new way to straddle that line. Each time Disney taps one of our elemental desires-to “just be yourself” for instance-I can never quite tell if this is a studied adoption of a basic longing or just a room full of writer’s scraping the bottom of the narrative barrel. But Disney makes movies mostly for kids; if you’ve been watching movies for a decade or four than you don’t need to be told to “just be yourself” quite so often as, apparently, eight-year-olds need to. I guess.
“Aladdin” is firmly in that vein. I was about to say “Aladdin” is firmly in that “tradition,” but then I might be playing along with Disney’s marketing strategy of claiming that every movie of theirs that breaks even is a “classic” or a “masterpiece.” In it, young people and their various animal sidekicks learn to be themselves, learn to make choices, fall in love, face the supernatural, and assert themselves with dignity before adult authority figures. “Aladdin” is a story enormously familiar to everyone out of grade school, shaken up and put in an all-new setting with color, wit, and style. It is also remarkably efficient and fast paced; the ink is barely dry on the drawings for one setting before we’re flying off to the next. Because we know what’s going to happen we don’t want to spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for things to unfold. The all-new setting is a Persia/Middle Eastern/Arabian Nights conglomerate, with magic carpets, scimitars, viziers, onion domes, harem girls, and harmonic minor keys. Oh yes, and the matter of a lamp and three wishes…
By the time the skid-row thief Aladdin (voiced by Scott Weinger) uncovers the magic lamp where our genie lives, he has already escaped capture by the palace guards, been locked in a dungeon, fallen in love with the princess (Linda Larkin), and been tricked into a demonic cave by the vizier Jafar (Jonathan Freeman), the twisted and manipulative advisor to the sultan (Douglas Seale). This is breathless moviemaking. Aladdin’s not a very good thief, what with his tendency to give what he steals to sad-eyed and needy children. With the genie’s aid, Aladdin, his monkey sidekick, and his magic carpet (appropriately named Carpet) must set right what has been made wrong. At first, he tries to disguise himself as a prince in order to win the princess’s hand. She won’t have it. He has to-you guessed it-learn to be himself. Highpoints of the film include a chase through a collapsing tunnel and a magical climax in which all the powers of sorcerery take on the colors of a fire in the desert. Next to the Genie, the most memorable character is the vizier Jafar, who is appropriately loathsome and glowering. Everyone has an animal sidekick, if for no other reason then it would be awkward to show all these characters talking to themselves.
We also have “Aladdin” to thank for the totally anachronistic pop-culture quoting motormouths that seem to be required in every big budget animated film nowadays. In this particular film he is the genie voiced by Robin Williams. Everyone in “Shrek”-a movie populated entirely by TV addicts and sitcom characters dressed up to look medieval-is his descendent. If you like Williams running off at the mouth and screaming like a mile-a-minute maniac, then you’ll have a blast with “Aladdin.” I like Williams doing his Williams-schtick in small doses. In the course of the movie, his genie transforms into a nightclub entertainer, a Scotsman, a Scots dog, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Señor Wences, Ed Sullivan, a slot machine, Groucho Marx, a boxing trainer, a fireworks rocket, a French maître d’, a dragon, a certificate, a pair of lips, Robert De Niro, a flight attendant, Carol Channing, a sheep, a hammock, Pinocchio, a Frenchman in a beret and striped shirt, a chef, Julius Caesar, Arsenio Hall, a gay tailor, a game-show host, a drum major, Walter Brennan, TV parade hosts, a tiger, a goat, Ethel Merman, Rodney Dangerfield, Jack Nicholson, a talking lampshade, a submarine, a one-man band, a script prompter, a ventriloquist, a “Fantasia”-like devil, William F. Buckley, cheerleaders, a baseball pitcher, a tourist with a Goofy hat, and the moon. (Thank you, Internet Movie Database.) Very few of these incarnations have anything to do with Arabia in the days of Scherezade. But “Aladdin” is not concerned with historical accuracy and neither am I. Williams’ Blue Genie is only slightly more anachronistic than all the other characters, who speak with modern accents and colloquialisms. The question is, is Williams funny? After 12 years of imitators, to the point where the “Rugrats” are quoting “The Godfather?” Ehh…let’s just say I’m not howling for Williams to get an Oscar nomination for his voicework, the way many of the movie’s serious enthusiasts were.
Of course there’s stereotyping of the Middle Easterners. A passing glance over the credits does not uncover one “Mohammed” or even any last name that would sound right with “Mohammed.” It’s also worth noting that the important characters do not speak with Arabic accents, but sound like Americans or Brits. Only the peasants sound like they’re from there. This is only one of the reasons why Mickey Mouse is associated with universal American hegemony and the consumerization of the world.
As for the girl…the Disney movies of the last fifteen years, like this film, “The Little Mermaid,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” seem to rely pretty heavily on romantic courtships. When I was six, that stuff made me sick. Now I see them as basically the same kind of middling and tacked-on “romantic subplot” that might pop up in an action movie or a teen comedy. These romances are good for pacing and hammering home “the message” but don’t have a lot of magic to them. Luckily there was a lot less kissy-kissy in “Sleeping Beauty” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” I don’t recall the soft-focus prince courting the soft-focus princess in either of those movies. Mostly he just killed things. I mention this because there’s a part of me that keeps voicing a sneaking, cynical suspicion that Disney is trying to introduce children to uninspired romances as early as possible so that they’ll be prepared to spend a lifetime passively digesting more narratively-convenient-but-otherwise-uninspired romances. They’re easier on writers.
It’s a tribute the pervasiveness of Disney animation that it is the definition of normal and neutral to those of us who grew up with it. What was groundbreaking in 1992 looks a little jerky now, but it is the yardstick by which we measure all other animation. Everyone of my generation sees Disney and says “Yes, this is what animation is supposed to look like when it doesn’t want to draw attention to itself. This is how animation looks when it wants to look ‘invisible,’ the way that movies like ‘Casablanca’ are directed invisibly, without a noticeable style.” When we say that “Triplets of Belleville” is more emotive than most cartoons, we’re comparing it to Disney, and when we say the backgrounds in “Belleville” are intentionally flat, again, we’re comparing it to classic Disney.
I have to end the way I began by emphasizing what a quick, bright, and energetic film this is, with the exact right tone of pure, unadulterated fun. Any logical inconsistencies are swept under the rug by streamlined and efficient storytelling. “Aladdin” is a ninety-minute confection: it’s characters get in, get out, get chased, fall in love, and then just when you think you might start to lose interest there’s a big climax and the credits roll. And speaking of credits… isn’t everyone who loved that “A Whole New World” song over the ending credits kind of embarassed now?
Finished August 26, 2004
Featuring the voices of Robin Williams, Scott Weinger, Jonathan Freeman, Linda Larkin, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, and Douglas Seale
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker & written by no less than 20 persons, including Roger Allers and Ron Clements.