Aladdin (film) Totally Explained

Everything about Aladdin Film totally explained

Aladdin is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe- and Annie-Award winning 1992 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 25, 1992. The thirty-first animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, based on the Arab folktale Aladdin and the magic lamp from One Thousand and One Nights. Several characters and plot elements are also based on the 1940 version of The Thief of Bagdad. As is usual with Disney film adaptations, many aspects of the traditional story were changed for the film—for instance, the setting is changed from a mythical Islamic "China" to a fictional Arabian city, Agrabah. It was released at the peak stretch of the era known as the Disney Renaissance beginning with The Little Mermaid. It was the most successful film of 1992, with over $217 million in domestic revenues and over $504 million worldwide.
   It was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, both of whom had just finished writing and directing The Little Mermaid (1989). The musical score was created by Alan Menken, which received the 1992 Academy Award for Original Music Score for his work, and the song lyrics were written by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. The main soundtrack song "A Whole New World" (sung during the closing credits by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle) won a Grammy Award as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Menken and Rice in 1992. and the parrot Iago, originally conceived as a "British" calm and serious character, after the filmmakers saw Gilbert Gottfried in Beverly Hills Cop II was turned into a comic role, voiced by Gottfried. The concept of calm, serious British bird would later be worked into The Lion King's Zazu.
   Most characters' designs were based on the work of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. Aladdin, designed by a team including supervising animator Glen Keane, was originally thought to resemble actor Michael J. Fox. During production, it was decided that the design was too boyish, and wasn't "appealing enough," so the character was redesigned to add elements derived from actor Tom Cruise, rapper MC Hammer, and Calvin Klein models.
   Musker and Clements created the Genie with Robin Williams in mind—even though Katzenberg suggested names such as John Candy, Steve Martin, and Eddie Murphy, Williams was approached and eventually accepted the role. Williams came for voice recording sessions during breaks in the shooting of his other two films at the time, Hook and Toys. Unusually for an animated film, much of Williams' dialogue was ad-libbed: for some scenes, Williams was given topics and dialogue suggestions, but allowed to improvise his lines.

Princess Jasmine, voiced by Linda Larkin, is the princess of Agrabah. Sick and tired of life in the royal palace, she sneaks out to find a new life. According to the law, she must find a prince to marry before her next birthday. Her singing voice is supplied by Lea Salonga.

Abu, voiced by Frank Welker, is Aladdin's kleptomaniac pet monkey with a squeaky voice. He is based on the character of Abu the thief, played by Sabu in The Thief of Bagdad.

Carpet, a sentient magic carpet whom Aladdin and Abu meet inside the Cave of Wonders. Carpet is Aladdin's primary mode of transportation in the film and one of the Genie's oldest friends.

Iago, voiced by Gilbert Gottfried, is Jafar's sarcastic, foul-mouthed pet parrot.

The Sultan, voiced by Douglas Seale, is the pompous but kind ruler of Agrabah. He tries desperately to find a suitor for his daughter Jasmine. He is visually based on Miles Malleson in The Thief of Bagdad.

Razoul, voiced by Jim Cummings, is the head of the palace guards with a lust for killing and who desperately wants to capture Aladdin. He is extremely loyal to the Sultan and Jafar.

Rajah, voiced by Frank Welker, by composer Alan Menken and songwriters Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. The following six songs are featured in the movie.

"Arabian Nights" (Ashman) is the intro theme, sung by an off-screen Bruce Adler. It was originally longer, and one excerpt of the cut lyrics was featured in Return of Jafar, and later became the title theme of the TV series. A reprise of the song originally planned for Aladdin's ending is featured in the Aladdin and the King of Thieves closure.

"One Jump Ahead" (Rice) features Aladdin singing while running from the guards. Later, Aladdin sings a small song in the same vein, entitled "One Jump Ahead (Reprise)".

"Friend Like Me" (Ashman) sung by the Genie. In the song, the Genie shows off his powers to Aladdin, telling him that he's a friend unlike any other.

"Prince Ali" (Ashman) is sung by the Genie, and is used to introduce Aladdin's royal alter ego, Prince Ali Ababwa.

"A Whole New World" (Rice) is a love theme sung by Aladdin and Jasmine while they travel the world on the magic carpet. The song won the Academy Award, Grammy Award, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

"Prince Ali (Reprise)" (Rice) is sung by Jafar. Using his newly gained powers, Jafar sings this spoof of "Prince Ali" while revealing Ali is only a street rat, and sending him to the ends of the earth. On, this includes A Whole New World on the and One Jump Ahead on the . And on Disney's Greatest Hits, this also includes A Whole New World on the blue disc.
   Eight others were written, but removed from the film (most of them sung by Jafar). The DVD Special Edition released in 2004 includes four songs in early animations tests, and a music video of one of them, "Proud of Your Boy", performed by Clay Aiken. with most praise to Robin Williams' Genie. Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones even called the film "the funniest feature ever made." However, some criticism was reserved for the couple, Aladdin and Jasmine, and many reviews considered it inferior to its predecessors The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.
   It was the most successful film of 1992, with $217 million in the United States and over $504 million worldwide, the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, the MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance to Robin Williams (the only one ever delivered to an animation) and the Saturn Awards of Best Fantasy Film, Best Performance by a Younger Actor (Scott Weinger) and Best Supporting Actor (Robin Williams). The original lyric was intact on the initial CD soundtrack release, but the re-release uses the edited lyric. Entertainment Weekly ranked Aladdin in a list of the most controversial films in history, due to this incident.
   The ADC also complained about lead characters Aladdin and Jasmine being portrayed as light-skinned, with Anglicized features and Anglo-American accents, in contrast to the other characters in the film, who are dark-skinned, have Arab accents and grotesque facial features, and appear villainous or greedy.

Similarities to The Thief and the Cobbler

Animation enthusiasts have noticed similarities between Aladdin and Richard Williams's unfinished film The Thief and the Cobbler (also known as Arabian Knight under Miramax Films and The Princess and the Cobbler under Majestic Films International). These similarities include a similar plot, similar characters, scenes and background designs, and the antagonist Zig-Zag's resemblance in character design and mannerisms to Genie and Jafar. Though Aladdin was released prior to The Thief and the Cobbler, The Thief and the Cobbler was started much earlier in the 1960s, its production being mired in difficulties including financial problems, copyright issues (when it was about Mulla Nasruddin in the 1970s), and late production times caused by separate studios trying to finish the film after Richard Williams was fired from the project for lack of finished work. The late release, coupled with Miramax (a Disney-owned studio) purchasing and re-editing the film, has sometimes resulted in The Thief and the Cobbler being labeled a "copy" of Aladdin.
   Williams and Disney had a bitter falling-out, and as a result Dan Castellaneta voiced the Genie in The Return of Jafar, the Aladdin animated television series, and had recorded his voice for Aladdin and the King of Thieves. When Jeffrey Katzenberg was fired from Disney and replaced by former 20th Century Fox production head Joe Roth (whose last act for Fox was greenlighting Williams' film Mrs. Doubtfire), Roth arranged for a public apology to Williams by Disney. Williams agreed to perform in Hollywood Pictures' Jack, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and even agreed to voice the Genie again for the King Of Thieves sequel (for considerably more than scale), replacing all of Castellaneta's dialogue.
   When Williams re-teamed with Doubtfire director Chris Columbus for 1999's Bicentennial Man, Disney asked that the budget be cut by approximately $20 million, and when the film was released on Christmas Day, it flopped at the box office. Williams blamed Disney's marketing and the loss of content the film had suffered due to the budget cuts. As a result, Williams was again on bad terms with Disney, and Castellaneta was once again recruited to replace him as Genie in the Kingdom Hearts video game series and the House of Mouse TV series. The DVD release for Aladdin has no involvement whatsoever from Williams in the bonus materials, although some of his original recording sessions can be seen.
   He is currently working on the film Old Dogs with close friend John Travolta, which is being co-produced and distributed by Walt Disney Studios.

Alleged hidden message

In the scene where Aladdin is attacked by the tiger Rajah on the palace balcony, Aladdin quietly says "Come on... good kitty. Take off and go." Some people reported hearing "All good girls take off their clothes," or "Good teenagers, take off your clothes," which they considered a subliminal reference to promiscuity, similar to "Paul is dead". Because of the controversy, Disney replaced the phrase with "Down, kitty" on the DVD release.

Cultural references

Genie's numerous imitations aside, Aladdin features many references to popular culture, especially from Disney's previous works. While the Sultan is making a pile of toy animals, one is Beast from Beauty and the Beast; Rajah's head briefly resembles Mickey Mouse, and the Genie pulls Sebastian from The Little Mermaid out of a recipe book (meanwhile the first notes of "Under the Sea" are played); turns his head into Pinocchio's, says "Esalalumbo, shimin Dumbo!" to turn Abu into an elephant; and dons a Goofy hat before leaving on his vacation.
   Many in-jokes were also done by the filmmakers, such as a "cameo appearance" from directors Clements and Musker, drawing some characters based on Disney workers, and baptizing the character Razoul after the layout supervisor, Rasoul Azadani.
   The Goofy hat, Hawaiian shirt, and sandals that the Genie is wearing at the end of the film is a reference to a short film that Robin Williams did for the Disney/MGM Studios tour in the late 80's. In the film, Williams plays an excitable tourist who is wearing a Goofy hat, Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and sandals.
   Other impersonations of the Genie include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter Lorre, Señor Wences, Ed Sullivan, Groucho Marx, Robert De Niro, Woody Allen, Carol Channing, Arsenio Hall, Rodney Dangerfield, Jack Nicholson and William F. Buckley. and went on to sell over 25 million in total (a record only broken by the later release of The Lion King). It entered moratorium in April 30, 1994. The movie was also released on laserdisc in 1994. The CAV Japanese version had many extras, such as documentaries, trailers and the book "Aladdin: The Making of an Animated Film".
   On October 5, 2004, Aladdin was released on DVD, as Aladdin: Platinum Edition, part of Disney's Platinum Edition line of animated classic DVDs. The DVD release featured a remastered version of the film, made for a planned but never released IMAX version, and a second disc with bonus features. It sold about 3 million units, less than any of the other Platinum Edition titles so far. The film's soundtrack was available in its original Dolby 5.1 track or in a new Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix.
   In 2008, Aladdin was removed from the Platinum Edition line in favour of the inclusion of Alice in Wonderland, to be remarketed as a single-disc Musical Masterpiece Edition.

Sequels and Spin offs

Aladdin was followed by Disney's first direct-to-video sequel, The Return of Jafar in 1994. The film saw the debut of a new character, Abis Mal, voiced by Jason Alexander, and all of the original cast, except for Robin Williams, replaced by Dan Castellaneta, and Douglas Seale, replaced by Val Bettin. The plot mainly focused on Jafar seeking revenge on Aladdin. However, this time, with Iago on Aladdin's side, Abis Mal becomes Jafar's new henchman.
   Shortly after The Return of Jafar, the Aladdin TV Series was aired on television. The episodes focused on Aladdin's adventures after the events of the second film.
   And in 1996, the final sequel to Aladdin, Aladdin and the King o Thieves was released on video. The story concludes as Aladdin and Jasmine are about to be married and Aladdin discovers his father is still alive.
   Aladdin, Jasmine, Genie, Abu, Iago, Jafar, Carpet, Sultin and Rajah were also featured as guests in the TV series House of Mouse. In related works to those series, Jafar was the leader of the villains in Mickey's House of Villains. Aladdin makes quick appearance as well. Aladdin, Jasmine, Jafar, Genie, Abu and Carpet also appear in .
   A playable Aladdin world is featured in the Kingdom Hearts series known as Agrabah. Characters from the film include Aladdin, Genie, Jasmine, Jafar, Iago, Abu, Carpet and the Peddler. In Kingdom Hearts and, the plotline is loosely related to the storyline of the orginal film. In Kingdom Hearts II it's a mixture of Aladdin and the Return of Jafar.

Attractions

The Magic Carpets of Aladdin at both Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort and Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Resort Paris. These attractions are the classic hub and spoke attraction, similar to Dumbo the Flying Elephant (ride).

at Disney's California Adventure Park.

Video games

Along with the film release, three different video games based on Aladdin were released, one by Virgin Interactive for the Sega Mega Drive, Game Boy (later ported to the Game Boy Color), PC and another by SIMS for the Sega Game Gear and Sega Master System, and another by Capcom for the Super NES (later ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2002). The Nintendo Entertainment System had both the Capcom version (but this was released in Europe only) and the Virgin Interactive version (released as "Aladdin 2" in Europe, but as "Aladdin" in America).
The TV series inspired another game by Argonaut Games, entitled Aladdin: Nasira's Revenge and released in 2001 for the PlayStation and PC. Also, in 2004 Vivendi Universal released Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures, a chess computer game with the Aladdin license.

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