Yes, Aladdin is supposed to be a children's movie, but there's enough depth to the storyline, and enough clever jokes inserted to keep adults entertained as well. If you're a fan of Robin Williams, or just looking for a (mostly) light hearted laugh-fest, you should check this movie out, at least as a rental.
If you're worried about how you'll look hiring (or buying!) this video from the local store, just say it's for your children, or a visiting niece or nephew! ;-)
The plot
The main plotline centres around Aladdin's quest to be something more than a streetbum, and his quest to gain the love of the princess Jasmine.
Of course, it wouldn't be much of a movie if the road to happiness was a smooth one!
Complicating Aladdin's quest for the heart of the princess, is the presence of the vile, vicious and general all round bad guy, Jafar. Serving as the Sultan's chief advisor, Jafar has been plotting to become the next Sultan for many years prior to the commencement of the film.
The film is set way back in history, perhaps in a time period that never truly existed, where marriage of important personages (such as the Sultan's daughter) was decided not by love, but by who provided the biggest political, economic or military advantage.
In the bustling city of Agrabah, the law states that the Sultan's children must be married by the time they're 18.
And yep, you guessed it, that time is rapidly approaching for the young princess.
Being the loving father that the Sultan is, he tries his best to find someone suitable for the young princess to marry. It's made clear in the movie that the princess has met, and rejected, a great many suitors before the time of the movie. The Sultan is understandably feeling a little anxious about the princess' reluctance to marry anyone, but because of his great love for his daughter, he continues to allow her to push away suitor after suitor, but time is rapidly running out.
Enter Jafar.
Jafar offers himself as a potential candidate for marrying the princess, should time run out, and no suitable groom be found. He tells the Sultan that it brings him no joy to make such a sacrifice, but if that is what is necessary, he would do so.
Of course, Jafar's real motivation behind this ploy is to ensure he'll become the next Sultan, via his marriage to the princess. For the less perceptive audience members (ie; the kids this movie is supposed to be for! ;-) ) this is all explained via one of the highly amusing chats Jafar often has with his pet parrot, Iago. Some of the scenes with just these two brilliant characters are among my favorites in the film.
During all this, we have many scenes interspersed with the palace action, featuring Aladdin, and his pet monkey/friend Abu. These scenes mostly have little to do with the main plotline in the movie, they are instead mostly intended to display Aladdin's heart of gold, despite his poor life, relegated to living on the streets, and small time theivery. He is what people would call, "A diamond in the rough." ;-)
At one point in the movie, the princess runs away from the palace, intent on experiencing life outside the confines of the restrictive life a princess leads. She ventures out into the city, where of course she eventually runs into Aladdin, in a less than ideal circumstance.
It's obvious Aladdin is immediately stricken with love for this beautiful girl he meets, but of course, being a streetbum, he isn't exactly an appealing husband to be.
After another extraordinary chase scene, Aladdin is cornered by the city guards, forcing Jasmine to reveal herself as the princess, in order to save Aladdin, just as Aladdin had saved her only a few minutes earlier.
So, it's back to the palace for Jasmine, and into a dank prison cell for Aladdin. Things do not look well for our hero!
As Jasmine's rebellious streak is shown to be getting out of control, the Sultan becomes even more anxious that she won't find a suitable groom in time. The Sultan also becomes even more suspicious of Jafar. Unfortunately, Jafar is no ordinary man, he is in fact a sorceror possessing a small amount of power. He casts an enchantment over the Sultan, bending his will even further, trying to convince him that the princess should marry Jafar, and that it was the best choice for everyone.
Of course, being a Disney movie, we all know that it's a foregone conclusion that Jafar isn't going to end up getting the girl!
Enter Robin Williams! Ermmm, I mean, enter the Genie!
By far one of the best characters in this movie, the Genie is inextricably tied to a magical golden lamp, as all Genie's are.
One of the sub-plots in the film is Jafar's quest to obtain this lamp, and thereby secure the famous "Three Wishes" from the Genie contained within. Unfortunately (for Jafar!), the lamp is hidden away inside a magical cavern. Jafar is well aware of the existence of the cavern, and one of the opening scenes has him sending in some poor fool to try and retrieve the lamp in question. However, it is made quite clear that only one person may enter, and the guy that Jafar sends in ain't him!
This opening part may be a little scary for little children, as the cave does close up on the guy who enters, and it is clear that he would surely have died because of it. This fact may not be obvious, but if you're showing it to kids who are not overly brave, or easily frightened, you may do well to pick another movie, as there are some other scenes later in the film as well that may be somewhat distressing as well. My advice would be to watch it by yourself first, and decide for yourself.
In any case, this scene sets the stage very well for later in the film, where of course Aladdin is called upon to enter the cave and retrieve the lamp.
This is the point where I'm going to stop giving away the plotline, as you really need to see it for yourself, without the benefit of knowing exactly what will happen and when. Being a Disney movie, you know that everything will turn out alright in the end, but exactly how we get to the happy ending is something I think best left to the movie itself!
The Overall Presentation
Without giving away any of the plot though, I can tell you that Aladdin is probably one of the only movies that has musical numbers in it that I honestly enjoy. Ordinarily, musical type movies annoy me, as the cast suddenly burst into song, advancing the plot along a little, and then returning to their normal demeanour, acting as if nothing had truly happened.
While this is still somewhat the case with Aladdin, the musical numbers are quite often extremely entertaining. The first scene containing the Genie is a brilliant example of this. After being released from the lamp, the Genie recites the 3 basic rules that he has to abide by. One of them is not strictly a rule (bringing people back from the dead), as he can actually do the thing in question, he just doesn't like to. Thankfully, he doesn't break this rule in the film either, as it is meant to be a kid's movie after all!
To show what he can do though, the Genie bursts into song, showing off a great many of his abilities, including being able to generate riches from thin air (kind of like what spammer's promise really! ;) ). He can also shower someone with food, women, and much more. For those who have heard some of the tunes from the movie, this is done to the, "You ain't never had a friend" song. I'm unsure if it's actually Robin Williams singing this, as I always forget to check the credits, but if it isn't they have matched his voice remarkably well, as it has all the same quirks of Williams' own voice. This is one song that will have you humming the tune for day's afterward, as it's an extremely catchy tune, and probably the best scene in the film, though the second last scene gives it a run for it's money.
Excessive Praise For Robin Williams
As the Genie, Williams plays his role brilliantly. The Genie has a great sense of playful humour about him, which is likely how Williams landed the role, as they're very similar in character, with Robin obviously not possessing the magic abilities of the Genie!
Williams' control over his voice is superb throughout this film, as he's called on to provide many different styles of speaking, from a prim and proper, overly polite voice, through to an excellent impression of any number of old style Western actors, with that slow drawl made so famous many years ago by actors like John Wayne.
Probably the only competition for best voice in the film comes from Iago (Gilbert Gottfried), Jafar's parrot. Iago delivers his lines with a brilliantly incisive wit, and often upstages Jafar, much to Jafar's annoyance in the film! Williams, however, wins hands down, as he has so much more variety in tone and of course his own excellent delivery of lines. It's a great shame that he wasn't retained for some of the later versions of Aladdin, as while the replacement is quite good (and probably a lot cheaper!), he never quite manages to capture the same over-the-top quality that Williams brought to the role.
The Animation
Much was made at the time of the combination of 'normal' cartoon/animation techniques, with the computer generated effects within the film. Compared to today's techniques however, they're really nothing special. Nowadays, with films like Toy Story being completely computer generated, having a couple of computer generated scenes in a movie isn't considered so special!
However, one saving grace is that they are used sparingly, and usually don't detract from the otherwise brilliant work of the more traditional animators who draw the other scenes within the film. What is often forgotten by producers is that computer generated effects should be used to enhance an existing scene, not completely overtake the scene! Thankfully, the computer generated stuff in this film is used extremely well, and you usually won't even notice that something has been created within a computer, unless of course you know what you're looking for!
The standard scenes are all very well animated, with characters moving very fluidly, and enough detail provided, such as appropriate shadowing, to ensure that everyone looks about as 'real' as a cartoon can.
Backgrounds are all very well drawn as well, which is often something that is left out of animated films or TV shows, as it's a lot more time consuming to have to ensure the backgrounds all look okay, while characters in the foreground move over them. As the foreground characters move over the scene they cover up different sections of the background, and expose others, all of which has to be drawn in each time. This task is carried out quite well in Aladdin, with many backgrounds looking just as detailed as the foreground!
Overall
Overall, Aladdin is a typically well made Disney animation film. The main characters are all very well fleshed out, and you can relate on certain levels to many of them. The voices are all provided by excellent actors, with special merit going to Robin Williams for playing the Genie so superbly.
Despite being primarily intended for kids, there's enough depth to the plot to keep an adult engaged in the film as well, which is definitely a huge bonus for parents who ordinarily have to suffer through various other trash inflicted on them by various other TV and film producers.
This is one movie that will truly be enjoyed by the entire family, and well worth the purchase price. You'll still find it great to watch for many years to come!
A peasant and thief finds a magical lamp deep in the desert. Upon rubbing the lamp, the peasant releases a talkative genie who is bound to grant him t...More at eCOST.com
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.