Cartoon Corner- Aladdin

Originally posted at the DL October 2015

Oh I come from a... hold up.



Arabian Nights- Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place~
So a casual look at the production of the movie tells you this is a bit of a holdover from an earlier version of the script in which the Peddler is in fact Genie.  This doesn't fully jive with the finish product, although you could make the argument of course.  So in the final film this is mostly an extension of the framing device, which never fully closes at the end.  It feels a bit out of place as a result, but y'know... damn I love Robin Williams (fake edit: apparently they got a sound alike, but ANYWAY) on this song.  And while it doesn't quite fit narratively due to orphaning the framing device, it's a nice little microcosm of the film in general so hey, works.

One Jump Ahead- So the opening of Aladdin's story is really pretty heavy if you present it naturally.  Kid has to steal to eat, is surrounded by people even worse off who lack the talent and physical health to do even that, and you can tell in the scenes right after this he actually has some pretty deep self-loathing problems; a puffed up princeling fires off a pretty cheap insult, and it SERIOUSLY gets to him.  But by presenting this as comedy then sorta lifting the curtain on the tragedy, we keep the tone from becoming completely depressing.  Also just a great chance to see Al in action, both physically and mentally, which is pretty important to the film as a whole of course.

On Jump Ahead (Reprise)- more just a sung line.  See above.

Actually quite a long song drought here.  Okay so the scene where Jasmine and Aladdin meet is great.  You can see why these kids would be so smitten with each other right off, and I love how the crowd at the end of the scene is just in awe at the con they and Abu pull off.  Everyone looks VERY entertained by the spectacle of it when Abu gives away the game at the end.  Granted, Aladdin's presumably been living like this for years so if people didn't like him for SOME reason he'd probably have been given up by now.

Frank Welker remains god tier.  We all knew that but he gets to really show off in this one.

Friend Like Me- "Guys we got ROBIN WILLIAMS, let him rock it out man."  Honestly I... don't wanna talk too much about this one just because...

Hold that thought.  God the physical acting in this one is great.  Like, Abu's just gone through a full cycle of rapidfire transformations, then gets a brief reprieve while Genie conjures up the Elephant form, and the way he retreats is so great.  Okay back to the songs.

Prince Ali- Okay, the sheer size and bombast of this song is amazing.  It's really nothing more than an extended boast, but it's a great fit for this part of the movie and the imagination of Ali's feats and possessions really sells the thing.  And for the most part Friend Like Me is basically the same song, except without those amazing little details.  The visuals in Friend Like Me are, well, WACKIER but honestly this one is a lot more impressive overall.  It's so busy and the rapidfire cycling of all Ali's stuff always makes me smile.  Especially that little bit at the end where Jaffar is literally shoving the entire retinue out the door.  Details man.

A Whole New World- Hello award bait song.  Unsurprisingly I actually like the earlier scene for setting up the romance, but there's certainly good plot stuff in this one.  As a song it's memorable but not something I'm in love with.

Prince Ali (Reprise)- So now let's talk about Jaffar.  The sheer joy he takes in his evil is definitely a big part of the movie, especially since most of the plot is actually driven by his machinations.  Hell, he basically makes a point of humiliating the Sultan and Aladdin for... fairly minor slights on the whole, because why not.  The song captures the whole of the character pretty well.  Just a lot of fun.

So before this new blu-ray release, I hadn't seen Aladdin in like 10 years, and I'd kinda thought that I was probably overestimating it in memory because it had the better follow up series and sequel movies.  And... actually no, there's tons going on in this movie that's easy to forget over time.  I was a little reluctant to talk it up against Mulan in particular, but rewatching it... nah, there's definitely a reason that Aladdin's basic structure is the one the latter Renaissance films copied.  Genie works so damn well, because Robin Williams can dial from comedy to heartwarming on a dime because he could do that, not because it was necessarily a good film-making formula.

Rating- 9/10.  ;_;