Aladdin is a street-smart, penny-less peasant who lives, along with his monkey side-kick Abu, in the mystical Arabian city of Agrabah. Although he spends most of his day stealing what he needs for food, Aladdin dreams of better things. Those better things stroll into his life when he meets the beautiful and spirited, Princess Jasmine. He falls head over heels in love with her--despite the law that says she can only marry a prince. When Aladdin discovers a magic lamp--which happens to contain perhaps the wildest, nuttiest genie that ever existed--he uses its power to make himself a Prince then heads off to the Sultan's palace to find Princess Jasmine. Things, however, are complicated royally by the Sultan's evil vizier, Jafar, who wants the magic lamp for himself. Hang on to your turban, kids--it's a wild ride from start to finish!
Released: 1992
Language: English
Style: 2D animation
Rated: G
This is the last movie released that noted lyricist, Howard Ashman (who also wrote the lyrics for The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast), had a hand in before he died of AIDS about half way through writing Aladdin's songs--around 1991. His lyrical contribution consists of "Arabian Nights", "Prince Ali" and "Friend Like Me." Broadway lyricist, Tim Rice, worked with Alan Menken on Aladdin's other two songs, "One Jump Ahead" and "A Whole New World." Aladdin was actually set to be released much earlier than it was but the project was shelved because of the Gulf War. Executives felt that it would definately be a bad idea to an Arab-based movie while there was a major conflict going on between the US and an Arab nation. If the war hadn't broken out, Aladdin might have been a very different film. Before the project was shelved, Aladdin had three close friends (Babkak, Omar and Kassim) with whom he ran around Agrabah with. The story focused more around Aladdin's relationship with them and with his mother than the relationship with Jasmine--who was a very spoiled little princess in this version. One further note, there have been some comments made that the way the movie is drawn degrades people of Arab descent--for example most ordinary people in the film have exaggerated 'Arab' features while our hero and heroine have features more similar to Caucasians (white people) except their skin is darker. Whether you believe this or not is up to you, but it is interesting to look at the film with those issues in mind.
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Aladdin
