| The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Science-Fiction |
|
|
| Horror |
|
|
| Fantasy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ALADDIN
Rating: 
USA. 1992.
Directors/Producers – Ron Clements & John Musker, Screenplay – Ron Clements, John Musker, Ted Elliott & Terry Rossitto, Music – Alan Menken, Songs – Menken, Howard Ashman & Tim Rice, Production Design – R.S. Vander Wende. Production Company – Disney.
Voices:
Scott Weinger (Aladdin), Robin Williams (Genie), Linda Larkin (Princess Jasmine), Jonathan Freeman (Vizier Jaffar), Douglas Seale (Sultan), Gilbert Gottfried (Iago)
Plot: The Sultan gives his daughter the princess Jasmine an ultimatum to choose a husband within three days. Tiring of the suitors that come, she flees into the marketplace disguised as a commoner. She is saved from trouble by the young thief Aladdin and the two are attracted to one another. But then Aladdin is arrested by the sultan’s conniving vizier Jaffar. Jaffar realizes that Aladdin is the one destined to steal a magical lamp from a deadly cave in the desert and fools Aladdin into going there. But when Aladdin becomes trapped in the cave, he unintentionally releases the zany genie that is trapped in the lamp. The genie offers Aladdin three wishes. The first that Aladdin chooses is to become a prince in order to win Jasmine’s hand. However he must then deal with the treachery of Jaffar who wants both the lamp and Jasmine’s hand.
Aladdin was one of the biggest hits of the 1990s renaissance of Disney animation. Indeed Aladdin comes from the same directing and musical team that spearheaded the modern 1990s revival of Disney animation with The Little Mermaid (1989). Aladdin is firmly intended as a crowd-pleaser – the downside unfortunately is that is it. It is well-made and enjoyable, but ultimately an exercise in calculation. The plot feels like a constructor set compilation of just about every plot device from every Arabian Nights fantasy from The Thief of Baghdad and the Sinbad films to Ali Baba – marshalling such stock themes as that of the evil vizier manipulating the good-hearted but weak and overweight sultan; the thief who poses as a prince; the thief’s winning the princess’s heart despite his lack of station; she being desired by the vizier; the genie; the monkey companion; the quest for a magic object (that the thief is tricked into by the vizier) that the thief must make in order to win the princess. Even the character’s names seem generic – Princess Jasmine, Vizier Jaffar. The only real character that is not a cliche in all this stew is the princess who, in the new Disney mold, is considerably more liberated and in charge of her own destiny than most of the wall-decoration types that had served as women’s roles in Disney films up until this point.
Disney conducted quite a casting coup in managing to obtain Robin Williams in the role of the genie – indeed Aladdin began the process of animated films casting star names in voice roles. But the presence of Robin Williams is something that seriously bends Aladdin out of shape. He bursts in with a manic barrage of one-liners, something the animators vainly try to keep up with and give literal image to. But there is an irritably hip modernness to it – “Call me Al,” Aladdin states gratingly at one point – with Williams conducting anachronistic impersonations of everything from Jack Nicholson to Arsenio Hall, transforming into microphones, air hostesses and submarines, even in-references to Pinocchio (1940). It’s amusing enough and certainly Robin Williams gives the film and its cliches a big boost of energy, but one wishes we had had an Arabian Nights tale that was more genuine in feeling and one less obviously and relentlessly attuned towards a modern audience.
Another problem with Aladdin is the more stretched form of representation in the animation, a la Sleeping Beauty (1959), something that seems far less appealing and less human in shape. The pace is quite dizzying – although this seems something too calculated too. Aladdin is at its best during its quieter moments such as the romance between Aladdin and Jasmine, although that has its curious lack of plausibility too – the business about she not buying who he is going on far too long.
Aladdin was followed by two animated made-for-video sequels – The Return of Jafar (1994) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), as well as a popular animated tv series, Aladdin (1993-6).
The directing team of Ron Clements and John Musker had previously worked on the splendid The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and then went solo for The Little Mermaid. Into the 1990s they have become one of the most successful of Disney’s directing teams with the likes of Hercules (1997), Treasure Planet (2002) and The Princess and the Frog (2009). But all of their works betray the same irritatingly hip, modernist attitude towards the source material.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1993
|