Reviewing - The Aladdin Collection
Welcome back to the faraway place where the caravan camels roam - the legendary Agrabah. Here we get the complete adventures of the thief Aladdin, the princess Jasmine, and the unforgettable Genie of the Lamp. With terrific music, vibrant design, and irreplaceable voice acting, this trilogy is just the thing for adventurous children - and children-at-heart.
Aladdin (****1/2)
In which a street rat willingly unleashes a supreme deity upon the earth, only to have the being travel to Disneyland
Disney hits another home run with stellar visuals, great music, and an iconic performance from Robin Williams.
It’s hard to believe how much of a winning streak Disney achieved in this time period. If we forget about The Rescuers Down Under (and we do), Disney is on its third straight mega-hit with Aladdin. Alan Menken - the mastermind behind the music of their last two hits – returns to give us memorable classics like “Friend Like Me”, “Prince Ali”, and the iconic “A Whole New World”. The animation is just as incredible as its predecessors have been, taking us to the exotic world of Agrabah and its desert landscape.
But let’s be honest. It’s not the animation or music that people remember most about this movie. It’s all about the Genie. Honestly, getting Robin Williams into an animated Disney film was an unbelievably perfect decision. Animation allows you to bring the impossible to life, and Robin Williams jumps from caricature to caricature at a speed so insane that only animation like this can keep up. The Genie is a Saturday morning cartoon on steroids. He infuses the story with life and energy, and though some of his references admittedly go over my head, his comedic timing and intonation is nothing short of hysterical. He’s a blast.
The other character who steals the spotlight for me is Iago, voiced by Gilbert Gottfried. He’s got one of those irreplaceable voices, so shrill and ill-tempered that he was the perfect pick for a cranky parrot henchman. That’s not to say that the other characters weren’t good. It’s just hard to compete with characters with such massive on-screen presence.
The story of Aladdin learning the value of telling the truth is one that we as adults should definitely get behind. This is the kind of story I want my kids to watch, because the message underneath is a good one. That said, there’s a sequence in this film that hasn’t aged particularly well. When Jafar wishes for Jasmine to fall in love with him, Jasmine goes along with it as part of a ruse to buy Aladdin more time. Already dressed in an unarguably provocative outfit, Jasmine now saunters towards Jafar and ultimately plants a kiss on him. Now I imagine that a small number of people might want to twist this scene into an example of female empowerment, i.e. “She’s using what she has to get things done”. But at the end of the day, I think this is a bit of a humiliating sequence for her character. Think of Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi. Would you put Luke or Han in the same kind of outfit she had to wear? Because if not, there’s something wrong with your scene. Jasmine finds herself having to give in to the lustful desires of a sincerely creepy guy in order to get what she wants – and it doesn’t even work out for her in the short term. This isn’t the kind of princess we want our kids to model themselves after.
I don’t want to throw Jasmine out the window – it was just that one scene I had an issue with. Other than that, she was a strong character who resisted (at least to some extent) the traditional role she found herself in. Aladdin, too, has some good characteristics kids can take away. He learns the value of honesty, and that’s a lesson we’re never too old to learn.
While not necessarily one of my favourite films in the Disney Renaissance, I can’t deny the caliber of the presentation. It’s another classic that will be remembered for generations.
The Return of Jafar (**1/2)
In which there are bat-winged Pegasus horses
Disney’s first direct-to-video sequel ever has much in common with many of its descendants: it’s cheap, relatively unimportant, but not without a few nuggets of fun.
First and foremost, I have to give credit for this amazing three seconds from the movie. Aladdin is in chains, begging Jasmine to help him. She turns to a guard, and says, “He shall die at dawn for the murder of my father.” Now THAT’S good stuff! And there's bat-winged Pegasi in this movie. That rocks.
I know it’s no use nitpicking in a situation like this, but you’re really going to have to do better than this if you want to bring back a villain that you thoroughly defeated in the original film. Let’s not forget that after getting sucked into a Genie’s lamp, Jafar was flicked off to spend a couple thousand years in the Cave of Wonders. You remember that place, right? Very hard to get to. And even if you find it, there’s a slim chance that you’ll be allowed to enter. But when this movie kicks off, Iago is crawling out of the sand with his bottom half still stuck in the lamp. Now, sure, I can get behind Iago escaping. Technically speaking, he’s not supposed to be in that lamp. But it doesn’t look like he’s gotten them out of the Cave of Wonders. It looks like they’ve just been lying two feet under the sand, and Iago finally crawled out. If that’s all our heroes have accomplished, that’s really not much of a victory. My point is driven home when Jafar is released within like ten seconds by someone who passes by and finds the lamp.
Now, to their credit, I liked how Jafar operated very differently from the way our original Genie did. Jafar is bound to the rules of being Genie, but it turns out there’s a lot of grey area in regards to what he can or cannot do. He turned the wishes of his master against him, and manipulated his way into getting back to Agrabah. I didn’t mind that. But the movie lost some of its urgency when we were reminded that Genies can’t kill people. So in the final sequence where Aladdin is jumping over lava that Jafar created, it was impossible to forget that Aladdin could not have perished. It was cool to see that Jafar was able to hurt our characters, but knowing that he was powerless with regards to permanently stopping them took some of the danger away.
As is par for the course with these sequels, the music sucked big-time. The animation was significantly cheaper than the original film, and the story wasn’t all that great. But the nugget of goodness that I mentioned earlier comes from Iago, who is arguably the star of the film. His character arc goes from an ex-henchman to a reformed convict, and the turmoil he experiences is genuine and intriguing. His final sacrifice in particular was actually well executed. And they got Gilbert Gottfried back as his voice, which was really the only way to do it.
Speaking of voices, it was nice to have all of the big character voice actors back. Jafar, Iago, Aladdin, and Jasmine are all still themselves. But tragically, Robin Williams is gone. To make a long story short, Disney kind of screwed Williams over during the release of the original film, so he refused to come back the second time around. Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson) gives it his best shot, but he’s just not Robin Williams. As a result, the whole film suffers.
One last thing. I hate it when sequels undo the progress of the original film, and that totally happens here. Aladdin learned already that you’ve gotta tell the truth, but he sinks back into lying and covering up stuff within minutes of appearing onscreen. What is going on, man?
Aladdin: The Series (***)
Sure to please fans of Aladdin and the Genie, this show does a decent job without bringing anything new to the table.
I loved this show as a kid, for two big reasons. Firstly, it was animated. Secondly and more importantly, it had swords in it. There weren’t any other shows I could watch with swordfights, so this was a surefire win for a young boy. Watching this now as a grown-up, I appreciated other things about it. I loved how the original voices of Aladdin and Jasmine returned, and how we’ve still got Gilbert Gottfried as Iago. Having the original voice actors makes such a huge difference. On that note, the big departure in terms of voice acting is Dan Castellaneta as the Genie. He’d voiced the Genie once already in “Return of Jafar”. Even if Disney and Robin Williams hadn’t had the fallout that they had, there’s little chance that Williams would’ve agreed to provide voices for a serial television show. So I know that I’m asking for a lot in asking for Williams back, but Castellaneta didn’t make me laugh once as I watched five of these episodes. He gives it his best shot, and there are some jokes that come close to being funny, but I can’t justify getting behind him.
I think it’s great how there’s a coherent linear timeline to this franchise. Return of Jafar follows Aladdin, and this series begins immediately after Return of Jafar. The upcoming ‘King of Thieves’ serves as both a series finale to the show and the final film in the Aladdin trilogy. Being able to see some sense of chronology was refreshing for me, considering there were a few retcons in the Little Mermaid franchise and the Cinderella trilogy treats time like silly putty.
Unfortunately, I can’t really recommend this show to anyone other than kids who liked the Aladdin movie. There’s not much in here that I found particulary ambitious or creative. Whereas The Little Mermaid show gave us some really cool under-the-sea creatures, this show seems a bit unadventurous in the design department. Still, there’s sword fighting. So it’s not the worst thing ever.
Aladdin and the King of Thieves (***)
In which there's a fist-fight with a guy with brass knuckles except they're knives - yes, this is a kid's movie
Unexpectedly dark, Aladdin’s final animated adventure takes us deeper into the world of Agrabah with an emotional story and an applause-worthy return of the legendary Robin Williams.
Aladdin had been missing the real Genie for quite a while. When Robin Williams initially signed on to play the Genie, he agreed on the condition that his character not be used as a major marketing strategy. Disney not only went against this condition – they made the Genie the center of everything: the ads, the merchandise, and anything that had to do with the film. On one hand, you can’t blame Disney. The Genie is unquestionably the star of the show. Then again, Disney made a deal and they went back on their word. I get why Robin Williams refused to come back for the sequel.
It wasn’t until a new chairman of Walt Disney Studios came into the position that they were able to win Williams back. By the time this happened, Dan Castellaneta had already recorded all of the Genie’s lines. Disney torched Castellaneta’s tapes, and had Williams re-record the whole thing, even adding in another scene to give him more screen time.
And boy, it paid off. Robin Williams breathes life back into the franchise with his zany, out-of-this-world hilariousness. I laughed so many times, and it unfortunately highlighted just how inferior Castellaneta was in comparison. Just like in the original, the Genie is the best part of this movie.
But beyond the Genie, this movie impressed me with its story. On one hand, it’s a very predictable tale. Aladdin finds his long-lost father who turns out to be far from the model parent. As they go on an adventure together, they learn to make up for lost time while each learning new things about themselves. But on the other hand, John Rhys-Davies kills it as Aladdin’s father. He brings a richness and depth to the character, and the way they interact is a lot of fun. The voice of Lumiere returns as one of the forty thieves, and he’s a surprisingly intimidating villain. There’s a fist fight between him and Aladdin that comes across much grittier than anything we’ve seen in the franchise yet – it’s not quite over the line, but it’s close enough to really raise the stakes for this final entry.
This wasn’t unforgettable or even great, but it was a pretty decent final adventure in Agrabah. But even if you didn’t watch the sequel or series, this is still basically worth it just for more jokes from the Genie.
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