Aladdin




I don't know where she gets it from. Her mother wasn't nearly so picky.

Following Disney's slightly overly lauded Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin came along with a whole new angle and scored a niche of its own.

Street urchin Aladdin (Scott Weinger) is barely making it, having to steal just to feed himself. Jasmine (Linda Larkin) is the independent but cooped up princess of the city, who's being forced by law to marry a prince. When the two meet, they fall instantly gaga with each other. So while the evil sorcerer Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) plots to take over the kingdom, Aladdin discovers a magic lamp, and inside a boisterous genie (Robin Williams) able to grant him three wishes. A perfect opportunity to win over the girl, no?

This is something of a change up from the normal Disney animated film. Perhaps taking cues from Williams, Aladdin relentlessly employs a juvenile slapstick humor to a degree that's rarely used anywhere else. All that stuff is admittedly kind of funny, especially with Aladdin's sidekick monkey Abu (Frank Welker), who has a lot of personality but is confined to a funny little monkey voice. Despite the old Arabic setting, Williams' genie is also not the least bit afraid to resort to countless pop culture references in his largely improvised routine. It's funny, but a bit much at times. There are also issues of pacing; at several points Aladdin feels like it's sprinting. Story wise, everything doesn't turn out too bad, but it isn't all that noteworthy either. The characters are realized if not fully interesting; they each have issues with the central issue of freedom, or their lack thereof. Aladdin does benefit greatly from Alan Menken's scoring, especially with the songs "Friend Like Me" and "A Whole New World." The animators also go heavy on the blending of CGI into traditional animation, most notably during some of the action scenes, but it looks more than a tad amusing compared to ... well, most everything made in the last decade.

Scott Weinger's voice talents turn out to be fitting and capable for the young, yearning Aladdin. There's also Linda Larkin playing Jasmine, a decent Disney princess, mostly pulling off the fiery streak in her. Jonathan Freeman passes the villain test, albeit more on his dry humor than actual menace. But of course this is Robin Williams' show, and he rarely disappoints. He alone practically makes the whole thing worthwhile.

While Aladdin can't claim to rank up with the other Disney flicks of its period, it certainly can more than measure up to most of what passes for today's animated films.



-The Gnome