Aladdin Review: Disney Marathon

Spoilers

I loved Aladdin as a child. Out of all the Disney Renaissance movies it was definitely the one I watched the most. It had everything a child could want. Action, great music, humour, and great likeable characters. Do I still like it now though? Yeah, I love it even more now in fact. I’ve watched it dozens of times since I was a child and I find something new to appreciate on every new viewing. So, let me gush over Aladdin for you.

The movie starts with a sweeping view of an Arabian desert. It looks gorgeous and can I tell you that after watching and reviewing 30 Disney movies in a row, how nice it is to finally be in an environment that isn’t a pretty forest or a modern-day city. Never did I think I’d be happy to see sand. The camera sweeps across the sands to the city of Agrabah where we meet a merchant who never appears in the movie ever again. This was because he was going to be revealed to have been the Genie all along but for some reason, they cut that. He sings the song “Arabian Nights” which is a great way to set the scene and a nice reference to the movie’s inspiration. Aladdin was based on the Middle Eastern story collection “One Thousand and One Nights” also known as, you guessed it “Arabian Nights”. The original movie was based in China though, so you can see they took some creative liberties. Also, other fun fact the original Aladdin wasn’t part of the original “One Thousand and One Nights” but was added later by a Frenchman named Antoine Galland. So yeah, this story has some strange origins. Imagine the most famous story in your story-collection being something added later by someone else. The merchant tries to sell the audience a lamp, we’re apparently not interested so he starts to tell us a story about the lamp. This is how the story is told although he doesn’t narrate anything and is never brought up again so his inclusion is kind of pointless.

The story properly starts with us being introduced to the two antagonists of the movie, Jafar and his parrot Iago. Jafar is a great villain. He’s the Sultan’s advisor who wants to become the Sultan himself, the only way he can do this is with the magic lamp. He’s calm and cunning at first but later on in the movie when he starts to get more power, his pure rage and love for being evil really shows. Essentially, he’ll be as evil as he can in a situation without being stupid about it. He can’t be outwardly evil when he is the Sultan’s advisor but when he becomes an actual God later in the movie, he starts to enjoy destroying everything around him. He’s a great villain. Iago is the comic relief villain. Disney has a habit ocf making terrible comic relief characters but I find Iago genuinely funny. He’s the complete opposite of Jafar, he has a short fuse and unless he is in front of the Sultan will constantly yell and complain about how terrible he has it.

Anyway, Jafar and Iago manage to get both parts of a magical golden scarab beetle, thanks to a thief who got it for them. Jafar has to keep up appearances, he won’t go around stealing stuff himself, he’ll just get others to do it. With both pieces of the golden scarab beetle the Cave of Wonders opens up. It’s shaped like a tiger’s head and exclaims that the only person who can enter is the diamond in the rough. Jafar orders that the thief enters anyway and the thief gets eaten by the giant tiger cave. Jafar needs to find the diamond in the rough if he wants to get the magic lamp which is located inside.

We cut to Aladdin the protagonist of the movie. He’s great as well, he’s super charismatic, friendly but also not perfect. He lies to Jasmine throughout a huge chunk of the movie and considers not freeing Genie later on in the movie for his own gain. But that’s the point, he’s had a shit life, and he is so happy to finally have something going his way that of course he is going to do some morally questionable things to keep it going his way. The important thing is that he learns from it.

Aladdin has stolen a loaf of bread and if running away from some guards. He has his pet monkey Abu who I didn’t realise was meant to be saying human words until Disney Plus’s subtitles subbed him. It was kind of creepy listening to him after that, you know those videos where dogs and cats make noises that sound like human words and it sounds disturbing and almost painful. No? Just me? Well, that’s what subtitles did to Abu for me so thanks a lot Disney Plus. Aladdin and his monkey escape the guards but just as they are about to eat their spoils, they notice a couple of starving children so decide to give them the bread instead. During the escape scene Aladdin and the rest of Agrabah sing the song “One Jump Ahead” and it’s great, its catchy and explains Aladdin as a character. He’s not bad for stealing, if he didn’t, he would literally starve to death.

We then cut to the palace where the Sultan is struggling to find his daughter a husband.

Princess Jasmine wants to marry someone she actually loves, not some snobby Prince asshole. Jasmine at this point in the marathon is my favourite Disney Princess. She’s just like Aladdin, fun, can do some morally questionable things (like set her pet tiger on someone) but has a heart of gold. She doesn’t need no man but still likes the idea of romance, just not with the rich, spoiled Prince’s that have been presented to her. Jafar does some magic to determine who the diamond in the rough is. No surprise, it’s Aladdin.

Princess Jasmine escapes the Palace because she doesn’t want to be forced into marriage with someone she doesn’t like, and wants to actually see the world. Here she meets Aladdin who rescues her from having her hand chopped off. Aladdin doesn’t know she is the princess which she’s chill with, she’s put that life behind her. Jasmine shows herself to be a ninja jumping across the rooftops just as well as Aladdin is doing.  Aladdin the smooth boy shows her his home which has a view of the Palace. Probably kind of impressive to anyone who doesn’t live in the palace mate. When at Aladdin’s home the pair are about to kiss. Now you may think this is quick but just look at the two characters. Princess Jasmine has never met a guy who isn’t interested in her for her huge amounts of money. If your entire life has been surrounded by men who don’t want you for you, it’s not going to take much time to fall for someone who genuinely likes you. Aladdin is shown to be a bit of a lady’s man, women compliment him throughout the movie on his looks and he flirts back with a few of them. Of course, he’s gonna be cool with kissing a girl he’s just met, especially someone who can keep up with him which very few people can.

The guards stop them from kissing and are about to arrest them both when Jasmine reveals she is a Princess and demands that Aladdin is set free but it turns out that Jafar has demanded Aladdin’s capture. Would Jafar really have more authority than Jasmine? I’m genuinely curious. I know things weren’t exactly progressive in the time period this is set but she’s royalty, Jafar is essentially the top servant.

We cut to later in the palace. Jasmine tells Jafar to let Aladdin go. According to Jafar, Aladdin was executed which makes Jasmine storm off to tell Daddy. To nobody’s surprise Aladdin is still alive and is locked in a dungeon. Jafar dressed as an old man convinces him to go to the cave of wonders. He tells him that if he can give him the lamp then he’d have all the treasure in the world, and those who are rich can make the rules, therefore he’ll be able to marry Jasmine. See peasants and royalty can’t marry.

Aladdin, Abu, and Jafar escape the prison and go to the cave of wonders. This is great, Aladdin and Abu navigate a gold-filled dungeon with one rule, only touch the lamp, don’t touch anything else. So they immediately touch a sentient flying carpet but nothing happens. I guess saying “don’t touch anything but the lamp and I guess you can also touch that flying carpet but I’m not happy about it” doesn’t sound as cool. The flying carpet is sentient so they can sell merch of him, no other reasons. Anyway, the dumbass monkey touches a gem so the cave of wonders starts to fill with lava, luckily Aladdin finds the lamp and the trio escapes.

Ok, the escape from lava scene on the carpet. This is the first time where computer animation looks like shit in one of these movies. It’s aged well in movies like Beauty and the Beast and The Great Mouse Detective because it is used in very simple geometry. The CGI here looks like one of those bowling alley animations that play when you get a strike. Excluding the terrible use of CGI, the scene is great, it’s a lot of fun, and it has some tension as the lava rises and almost swallows the heroes. They’re almost out but Jafar grabs the lamp and throws them to their deaths. Abu grabs the lamp from Jafar before he falls with Aladdin and the carpet.

Again, to nobodies surprise they all survive this. With nothing else to do, Aladdin rubs the lamp setting free the Genie. Ok, this is where the movie turns from amazing, to a masterpiece. The late Robin Williams does one of the best voice acting performances ever. Apparently, Robin Williams just kept making jokes and improvised a lot of the script, it’s perfect and the animation matches his performance. Almost every line the Genie says is accompanied by some bizarre surreal animation. I was laughing at almost every one of his lines. Some people have complained about too much referential humour here. Now I’m both English so I don’t get a lot of the American references the Genie makes and this movie was made before I was born so even more of the references are lost on me. It doesn’t matter though, Robin Williams does such a great performance that I don’t need to know who he’s referencing all the time, that isn’t the joke, it’s how Robin Williams performs them that makes them funny. The Genie is so loveable, at the end of the movie I almost teared up not just because the Genie was leaving but because it almost felt like saying goodbye to Robin Williams.

Genie explains to Aladdin the rules, Aladdin has three wishes, they can be anything as long as it isn’t making anyone fall in love, killing someone, giving you extra wishes, or bringing someone back from the dead. Jafar later just makes himself the most powerful sorcerer of all time, that way he can do all the magic himself and not have a limit on it, that’s probably what you should wish for Aladdin. Genie explains everything in the song “Friend Like Me” which is great. Not only is the song super catchy but the visuals that accompany it are perfect. This is honestly one of the most fun scenes in Disney history. Aladdin tricks Genie into getting him out of the cave without even using one of his three wishes.

Aladdin asks Genie what he’d wish for.

On a side note I made that joke before watching the remake and was annoyed to find out that the rest of the internet had already made it. Anyway, back to the review, I’ve got to leave some Aladdin (2019) jokes for when I actually review that atrocity. Genie says that there is only one thing he’d wish for, to be free. Aladdin tells Genie that after he’s made his first two wishes he’ll set the Genie free.

Ok, so Aladdin has the ability to make three wishes, what does he wish for? To become a Prince apparently. That way he can marry Jasmine, ok that makes sense. We get some amazing scenes of the Genie turning Aladdin into a Prince before they charge through Agrabah with a crew of servants and dancers. Wait, did the Genie create life for a musical number? This song is the most fun song in the entire soundtrack and the second best one. “Prince Ali” is great, it’s the Genie advertising Aladdin as being the best Prince ever. It’s sung by Robin Williams who has a great singing voice. This is also the point in the remake where I truly had enough. There’s so much autotune in the remake’s version of this song and it was actually disgusting. Like I’m sure Will Smith is a chill guy and I felt for him, you can’t be as good as Robin Williams. Will Smith was the best part of that dumpster fire of a movie, he just can’t sing, let’s stop talking about it, I’ll review that piece of shit movie eventually, just not today.

When Aladdin, now known as Prince Ali meets Jasmine, she shuns him as she’s not interested in some dumb Prince. Oh, that backfired Aladdin. Aladdin takes Princess Jasmine on a magic carpet ride however, where Jasmine starts to feel things for him. I’ve seen people argue that Princess Jasmine has fallen for someone very quickly again. I disagree, she mostly knows that this is Aladdin in disguise, at the end of the carpet ride she tricks him into confirming it. This is one of the best love scenes in any movie ever, to be honest it might be my second favourite after the define dancing scene from WALL-E. They fly over the world with the duet “A Whole New World” being sung by the couple. The best Disney romance song. It is about Aladdin showing her the world, something she’s craved her entire life. He pulls her hands away from her eyes, he’s literally opening her eyes to the rest of the world. That’s what makes it so great, anyone can fall in love but this is the concept of them sharing in adventure, in a common interest. Also, the sequence is absolutely beautiful.

At the end, as previously mentioned, Jasmine tricks Prince Ali into coming forward as Aladdin. Now Aladdin has a chance to properly come clean about him not being a Prince. Does he take it. Of course not. He’s still obsessed with class; he thinks if Jasmine finds out he’s a peasant she won’t like him anymore. Of course he’s not going to come clean yet. He claims he’s a Prince who sometimes likes to pretend to be a peasant out of boredom and that’s why she met him as Aladdin. Oh Aladdin.

Aladdin and Jasmine return to the Palace and Jafar gets some guards to kidnap Aladdin. They attach a large metal ball to his leg and throw him in a lake. I guess that’s one way to solve your problems. The Genie comes to Aladdin’s aid but counts his rescue as a wish. I’m sorry? The Genie claims that he can’t give Aladdin any freebees so has to count it as a wish. You gave him a freebee earlier when you rescued him from the cave. It wouldn’t even require magic for you to rescue him from this lake. He didn’t make a wish. This shouldn’t count as a wish. It’s very clear that this whole segment was kind of shoehorned in so Aladdin can make his second wish and they have an excuse for everyone to find out Jafar is evil.

Aladdin returns to the castle and tells everyone that Jafar is evil but he escapes. Princess Jasmine says that she wants to marry Aladdin and the Sultan tells Aladdin that he’ll soon be Sultan. Aladdin has a mini panic attack and tells the Genie that he can’t free him as he might need the third wish when he’s Sultan. Understandably the Genie gets a bit annoyed. Ok, what I never got was why they couldn’t have made a deal here. Genie is still magic when he’s free, Aladdin could have set him free on the condition that he helped him be Sultan for a while. The Genie is a chill guy and would probably agree. Jafar realises that Aladdin has the lamp and that’s how he’s doing all this shit so makes Iago take the lamp from Aladdin.

Aladdin feels bad because he’s been lying to Princess Jasmine and has lied to the Genie so decides to come clean to Jasmine but before he can do that Jafar makes his first wish with his newly acquired lamp. The first wish he makes is that he can become Sultan. When Aladdin tries to stop him and get the lamp back Jafar makes his second wish. He wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the entire world. So yeah, Jafar is now essentially an unstoppable God. He tells Jasmine that Aladdin has been lying to her. Jafar sends Aladdin to some snowy place miles from Agrabah. On today’s segment of “Who the Fuck Writes the Disney Wiki?” we have this line when describing where Aladdin is sent “Antarctica, the mountains of Austria, the Arctic or possibly the Himalayas”. What? Nobody gives a shit about your personal speculation on the location, just keep writing the plot summary. It’s like me starting this review by talking about every possible country that Agrabah could be in. Anyway, for some reason Jafar sent the flying carpet to Antarctica, the mountains of Austria, the Arctic or possibly the Himalayas with Aladdin so he quickly uses it to fly back to Agrabah.

Here we get such a cool scene of Aladdin trying to fight a literal God. Now many movies would end with Aladdin beating Jafar with pure strength but nah, he’s a God, Aladdin isn’t going to win with brute strength. Aladdin mocks Jafar, claiming that he’ll never be as strong as Genie. The power hungry Jafar makes his third wish, he wishes to be an all-powerful genie. Aladdin then puts that dumb ass all powerful genie in his lamp. This is great, when a powerful villain is established the way the hero beats them is normally just by believing enough or something. Not here, they trick him in a believable way. Jafar is power hungry, of course he’s gonna want to be more powerful than the Genie.

Aladdin uses his last wish to free Genie and as I mentioned earlier I almost cried. The Genie is such a charming character and its heart-warming seeing him finally be set free. With Aladdin’s lies being shared with Jasmine earlier they can’t marry, the law says she can’t marry a peasant. Her father however changes the law, allowing Jasmine and Aladdin to get married. The end.

I love Aladdin. Other than some mild CGI problems, the merchant, and the second wish making no sense, the movie is perfect. I could talk about this movie for ever but seeing that I’ve already kept you for more than 3000 words I’ll let you go. Tomorrows review is probably going to be longer anyway. Tomorrow we’re reviewing The Lion King.

9 / 10