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Aladdin (1992 film)
Encyclopedia
Aladdin is a 1992 American animated family film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation
and released by Walt Disney Pictures
. Aladdin was the 31st animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, and was part of the Disney film era known as the Disney Renaissance
. The film was directed by John Musker
and Ron Clements
, and is based on the Arab folktale of Aladdin and the magic lamp
from One Thousand and One Nights. The voice cast features Scott Weinger
, Jonathan Freeman, Robin Williams
, Linda Larkin
, Frank Welker
, Gilbert Gottfried
, and Douglas Seale
.
Lyricist Howard Ashman
first pitched the idea, and the screenplay went through three drafts before Disney president Jeffrey Katzenberg
greenlight
ed the production. The animators based their designs on the work of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld
, and computers were used for both colouring and creating some animated elements. The musical score was written by Alan Menken
and features six songs with lyrics written by both Ashman and Tim Rice
, who took over after the former's death.
Aladdin was released on November 25, 1992 to positive reviews, despite some criticism from Arabs who considered the film racist, and was the most successful film of 1992, earning over $217 million in revenue in the United States, and over $504 million worldwide. The film also won many awards, most of them for its soundtrack. Aladdins success led to many material inspired by the film such as two direct-to-video
sequels, The Return of Jafar
and Aladdin and the King of Thieves
, an animated television series
, toys, video games, spin-offs, and merchandise.
to the Sultan of Agrabah, is attempting to retrieve a magical oil lamp
containing a genie
from the Cave of Wonders. After seeing a petty thief's failed attempt to enter the cave, Jafar and his parrot Iago
, learn that only a "Diamond in the Rough" can enter the cave.
Jasmine
, the Sultan's daughter, frustrated with her life in the palace, flees to Agrabah's marketplace. There she meets street rat
Aladdin and his monkey, Abu. The two discover they have a lot in common. When Aladdin is detained for thievery, Jasmine orders him released, but Jafar lies to her that Aladdin has been executed.
Disguised as an elder, Jafar releases Aladdin and Abu from prison and lead them to the Cave of Wonders. The tiger-shaped head of the cave says to touch nothing but the lamp. Aladdin and Abu enter the cave, where a magic carpet
guides them to the lamp. Abu's attempt to steal a ruby causes the cave to start collapsing, but the carpet flies them to the entrance. As Aladdin delivers the lamp, Jafar tries to kill him, but Abu bites Jafar and gets the lamp back as he, the carpet, and Aladdin fall back into the cave just as it closes.
In the collapsed cave, Aladdin rubs the lamp, unleashing the Genie, who reveals he will grant Aladdin three wishes—with the exception of killing anyone, making anyone fall in love, or bringing back the dead. Aladdin tricks the Genie into freeing them from the cave without using a wish. While contemplating his wishes, Genie admits he would wish for freedom, since he is a prisoner to his lamp. Aladdin promises to free the Genie for his last wish. After talking about Jasmine with the Genie, Aladdin decides to use his first wish to become a prince so he can woo Jasmine.
Aladdin returns to Agrabah just as Jafar tries to trick the Sultan into arranging a marriage between himself and Jasmine. When Aladdin parades into the Sultan's palace as "Prince Ali", Jasmine rejects Ali as a suitor. Despite the Genie's suggestion that Aladdin to tell the princess who he really is, Aladdin remains the suave prince, and takes Jasmine around the world on the magic carpet. During the trip, Jasmine exposes Ali as the Aladdin, and demands the truth from him. Aladdin instead fabricates a story that he sometimes dresses as a commoner to escape palace life. The couple kisses as Aladdin returns her home.
Afterwards, Aladdin is captured by Jafar and thrown into the ocean, but the Genie rescues Aladdin as his second wish. Aladdin returns to the palace and exposes Jafar's plot - and Jafar flees after noticing the lamp in Aladdin's possession, realizing who Aladdin is. As Aladdin gets doubtful about revealing who really is, Iago steals Genie's lamp and brings it to Jafar, who becomes Genie's new master. Jafar uses his first two wishes to become Sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Using his new powers, Jafars forces Jasmine and her father to bow, exposes Aladdin as a street rat, then exiles him and Abu to a frozen wasteland.
Aladdin uses the magic carpet to return to Agrabah, where Jafar has imprisoned both Jasmine and the Sultan as his slaves. Jasmine distracts Jafar with a seductive act as Aladdin tries to steal back the lamp, but Jafar confronts him. He imprisons Jasmine in a large hourglass
and turns himself into an enormous cobra
. As Jafar traps Aladdin in his coils, he boasts to be "the most powerful being on Earth", which causes Aladdin to shout out that the Genie is more powerful. Faced with this realization, Jafar uses his final wish to become a genie. However, Jafar discovers that genies are not free entities as he is sucked into a black lamp, dragging Iago with him. The Genie flicks the lamp into the Cave of Wonders.
After Aladdin realizes that he cannot keep pretending to be something he is not, he decides to keep his promise and wish for the Genie's freedom. Seeing Jasmine's love for Aladdin, the Sultan changes the law to allow her to marry whomever she deems worthy. The newly free Genie leaves to explore the world while Aladdin and Jasmine celebrate their engagement.
pitched to Disney the idea of an animated musical adaptation of Aladdin. After Ashman wrote some songs with partner Alan Menken
and a film treatment
, a screenplay was written by Linda Woolverton
, who had worked on Beauty and the Beast
. Then directors John Musker
and Ron Clements
joined the production, picking Aladdin out of three projects offered, which also included an adaptation of Swan Lake
and King of the Jungle – that eventually became The Lion King
. Musker and Clements wrote a draft of the screenplay, and delivered it to studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg
in 1991. Katzenberg thought the script "didn't engage", and only approved it after the screenwriting duo Ted Elliott
and Terry Rossio
rewrote it. Among the changes, the character of Aladdin's mother was removed, Princess Jasmine
was made into a stronger character, Aladdin's personality was rewritten to be "a little rougher, like a young Harrison Ford
," and the parrot Iago
, originally conceived as a "British" calm and serious character, was reworked into a comic role after the filmmakers saw Gilbert Gottfried
in Beverly Hills Cop II
. Gottfried was cast to provide Iago's voice. Several characters and plot elements are also based on the 1940 version of The Thief of Bagdad
, and many aspects of the traditional story were changed for the film – for instance, the setting is changed from "China" to a fictional Arabian
city, Agrabah.
One of the first issues that the animators faced during production of Aladdin was the depiction of Aladdin himself. Director and producer John Musker
explains:
He was initially going to be as young as 13, but that eventually changed to eighteen. Aladdin was designed by a team led by supervising animator Glen Keane
, and was originally made 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
and Calvin Klein
models.
The design for most characters was based on the work of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld
, which production designer Richard Vander Wende also considered appropriate to the theme, due to similarities to the swooping lines of Persian miniature
s and Arabic calligraphy
. Jafar's design was not based on Hirschfeld's work because Jafar's supervising animator, Andreas Deja
, wanted the character to be contrasting. Each character was animated alone, with the animators consulting each other to make scenes with interrelating characters. Since Aladdin's animator Glen Keane was working in the California branch of Walt Disney Feature Animation, and Jasmine's animator Mark Henn
was in the Florida one at Disney-MGM Studios
, they had to frequently phone, fax or send designs and discs to each other.
For the scenery design, layout supervisor Rasoul Azadani took many pictures of his hometown of Isfahan, Iran
for guidance. Other inspirations for design were Disney's animated films from the 1940s and 50s and the 1940 film The Thief of Bagdad
. The coloring was done with the computerized CAPS
process, and the color motifs were chosen according to the personality – the protagonists use light colors such as blue, the antagonists darker ones such as red and black, and Agrabah and its palace use the neutral color yellow. Computer animation
was used for some elements of the film, such as the tiger entrance of the Cave of Wonders and the scene where Aladdin tries to escape the collapsing cave.
Musker and Clements created the Genie with Robin Williams in mind; even though Katzenberg suggested actors 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 two other films he was starring in 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. It was estimated that Williams improvised 52 characters. Eric Goldberg
, the supervising animator for the Genie, then reviewed Williams' recorded dialogue and selected the best gags and lines that his crew would create character animation to match.
The producers added many in-joke
s and references to Disney's previous works in the film, such as a "cameo appearance" from directors Clements and Musker and drawing some characters based on Disney workers. Beast, Sebastian from The Little Mermaid
, and Pinocchio
make brief appearances, and the wardrobe of the Genie at the end of the film—Goofy
hat, Hawaiian shirt, and sandals—are a reference to a short film that Robin Williams did for the Disney/MGM Studios
tour in the late 80s.
, Robin Williams voiced the Genie for SAG
scale pay ($75,000), on condition that his name or image not be used for marketing, and his (supporting) character not take more than 25% of space on advertising artwork, since Toys was scheduled for release one month after Aladdins debut. For financial reasons, the studio went back on the deal on both counts, especially in poster art by having the Genie in 25% of the image, but having other major and supporting characters portrayed considerably smaller. The Disney Hyperion book Aladdin: The Making Of An Animated Film, listed both of Williams' characters "The Peddler" and "The Genie" ahead of main characters, but was forced to refer to him only as "the actor signed to play the Genie".
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.
were praised for creating a soundtrack that is "consistently good, rivaling the best of Disney's other animated musicals from the '90s." Menken and Ashman began work on the film together, with Rice taking over as lyricist after Ashman died of AIDS
-related complications in early 1991. Although fourteen songs were written for Aladdin, only six are featured in the movie, three by each lyricist. The DVD Special Edition released in 2004 includes four songs in early animations tests, and a music video of one, "Proud of Your Boy", performed by Clay Aiken
, which also appears on the album DisneyMania 3
.
releases, and numerous tie-ins and licensees being released. After a limited release on November 13, 1992, Aladdin debuted in 1,131 theaters on November 25, 1992, grossing $19.2 million in its opening weekend – number two at the box office
, behind Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
. It took eight weeks for the film to reach number one at the US box office, breaking the record for the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve with $32.2 million. The film held the top spot five times during its 22-week run. Aladdin was the most successful film of 1992 grossing $217 million in the United States and over $504 million worldwide. It was the biggest gross for an animated film until The Lion King
two years later. As of 2010, it is the eighteenth highest grossing animated film and the third highest grossing traditionally animated feature worldwide, behind The Lion King
and The Simpsons Movie
.
reported that 92% of critics gave the film a positive review based on a sample of 49 reviews, with an average score of 7.9/10. Among the "Top Critics", it has a 100% positive review rating from eight critics.
Most critics' praise went to Robin Williams' performance as Genie, with Janet Maslin
of The New York Times
declaring that children "needn't know precisely what Mr. Williams is evoking to understand how funny he is". Warner Bros.
animator Chuck Jones
even called the film "the funniest feature ever made." James Berardinelli
gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising the "crisp visuals and wonderful song-and-dance numbers". Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone
said the comedy made the film accessible to both children and adults, a vision shared with Desson Howe of The Washington Post
, who also said "kids are still going to be entranced by the magic and adventure." Brian Lowry of Variety
praised the cast of characters, describing the expressive magic carpet as "its most remarkable accomplishment" and considered that "Aladdin overcomes most story flaws thanks to sheer technical virtuosity".
Some aspects of the film were widely criticized. Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine
wrote a negative review, describing the film as racist, ridiculous, and a "narcissistic circus act" for Robin Williams. IGN
's review considered that besides the Genie and the cave-in scene, Aladdin was "totally by the numbers (...). You know how it will all turn out, it contains no surprises, and for that matter, very little that's truly special," and described the cast, particularly the protagonists, as "cookie-cutter characters". Roger Ebert
, who generally praised the film in his review, considered the music inferior to its predecessors The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and claimed Aladdin and Jasmine were "pale and routine".
and Best Music, Original Song for "A Whole New World" and receiving nominations for Best Song ("Friend Like Me"), Best Sound Editing
, and Best Sound (Terry Porter
, Mel Metcalfe
, David J. Hudson
and Doc Kane
). At the Golden Globes, Aladdin won Best Original Song
("A Whole New World") and Best Original Score
, as well as a Special Achievement Award for Robin Williams, with a nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Other awards included the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature
, a MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance to Robin Williams, Saturn Award
s for Best Fantasy Film
, Performance by a Younger Actor
to Scott Weinger and Supporting Actor to Robin Williams, the Best Animated Feature
by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association
, and four Grammy Award
s, Best Soundtrack Album
, and Song of the Year
, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
for "A Whole New World". Aladdin was among the nominees for the American Film Institute
's listed lists of best comedies, musicals and
animated films in American film, while both "Friend Like Me" and "A Whole New World" were considered for AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs.
on October 1, 1993, as part of the "Walt Disney Classics
" line. In its first week of availability, Aladdin sold over 10.8 million copies, 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
on April 30, 1994.
On October 5, 2004, Aladdin was released on DVD
, as part of Disney's Platinum Edition line. The DVD release featured retouched and cleaned-up animation, prepared for Aladdin's planned but ultimately cancelled IMAX
reissue in 2003, and a second disc with bonus features. Accompanied by a $19 million marketing campaign, the DVD sold about 3 million units, but it was less than any of the other Platinum Edition released before it. The film's soundtrack was available in its original Dolby 5.1 track or in a new Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix. The DVD went into moratorium
on January 2008, along with its sequels.
(ADC). The lyrics were changed in July 1993 from "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face," in the original release to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense." The change first appeared on the 1993 video release. The original lyric was intact on the initial CD soundtrack release, but the re-release uses the edited lyric. The rerecording has the original voice on all other lines and then a noticeably deeper voice says the edited line. Entertainment Weekly
ranked Aladdin in a list of the most controversial films in history, due to this incident. The ADC also complained about the portrayal of the lead characters Aladdin and Jasmine. They criticized the characters' Anglicized features and Anglo-American accents, in contrast to the other characters in the film, which are dark-skinned, have Arab accents and grotesque facial features, and appear villainous or greedy.
Protests were also raised to another scene. When Aladdin is attacked by the tiger Rajah on the palace balcony, Aladdin quietly says "Good kitty, take off and go..." and the word "kitty" is overlapped by Rajah's snarl. Some people reported hearing "Good teenagers, take off your clothes," which they considered a subliminal reference to promiscuity
. Because of the controversy, Disney replaced the phrase with "Down, kitty" on the DVD release.
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, 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.
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. In 1996, the final sequel to Aladdin, Aladdin and the King of Thieves
was released on video. The story concludes as Aladdin and Jasmine are about to be married and Aladdin discovers that his father is still alive, but is the king of all thieves in Agrabah.
The Aladdin characters later made a crossover
with Hercules: The Animated Series
, and were featured as guests in the television series House of Mouse and related works to those series—Jafar was the leader of the villains in Mickey's House of Villains
.
The film also inspired a Disney On Ice
presentation, and two attractions in Disney's theme parks
: "The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
", a Dumbo the Flying Elephant
-like ride at both Magic Kingdom
at Walt Disney World Resort
and Walt Disney Studios Park
at Disneyland Resort Paris
; and the show Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular
at Disney's California Adventure Park.
to Nintendo Entertainment System
, PC
, Game Boy
and Game Boy Color
. That same year, Capcom
released a Super Nintendo
game, which was ported to the Game Boy Advance
in 2002.
In 1994, SIMS released an Aladdin game for the Sega Game Gear
and Sega Master System
.
The television series inspired another game by Argonaut Games
, entitled Aladdin: Nasira's Revenge
and released in 2000 for the PlayStation
and PC. Also, in 2004 Vivendi Universal
released Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures, a chess
computer game with the Aladdin license.
The Kingdom Hearts series features a playable Aladdin world known as Agrabah. In Kingdom Hearts
and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
, the plotline is loosely related to the storyline of the original film. In Kingdom Hearts II
, it is a mixture of Aladdin and The Return of Jafar. Genie is also a recurring summon in the series.
confirmed that a musical theatre
adaptation of the show is in the works with a book written by Chad Beguelin
. The show premiered at the 5th Avenue Theatre
from July 7–31, 2011. Jonathan Freeman, who voiced Jafar in the film, played the role in the stage adaptation. Adam Jacobs and Courtney Reed played Aladdin and Jasmine. Additional included Seán G. Griffin as the Sultan; Don Darryl Rivera as Iago; and, playing Omar, Babkak, and Kassim – a trio of characters originally conceived by the film's creators but not used – Andrew Keenan-Bolger
, Brian Gonzales, and Brandon O'Neill. The show was also directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw
.
Walt Disney Feature Animation
Walt Disney Animation Studios is an American animation studio headquartered in Burbank, California. The studio, founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is the oldest subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
and released by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
. Aladdin was the 31st animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, and was part of the Disney film era known as the Disney Renaissance
Disney Renaissance
The Disney Renaissance refers to an era beginning roughly in the late 1980s and ending in the late 1990s, during which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making successful animated films mostly based on stories that were known to many, restoring public and critical interest in Disney.The...
. The film was directed by John Musker
John Musker
John Musker is an American animation director. Along with Ron Clements, he makes up the duo of one of the Disney animation studio's leading director teams.-Life and career:...
and Ron Clements
Ron Clements
Ronald Francis "Ron" Clements is an American animation director and producer. He is one half of America's leading contemporary animation team with John Musker.-Life and career:...
, and is based on the Arab folktale of Aladdin and the magic lamp
Aladdin
Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
from One Thousand and One Nights. The voice cast features Scott Weinger
Scott Weinger
Scott Eric Weinger is an American actor, television producer and writer, best known as the speaking voice of Aladdin in Walt Disney's eponymous feature film. Weinger would reprise the role in two direct-to-video sequels, for the Disney Channel television series, and the Kingdom Hearts Series. He...
, Jonathan Freeman, Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
, Linda Larkin
Linda Larkin
Linda Larkin is an American cinema and television actress. She is best known for providing the speaking voice of Princess Jasmine in the movie Aladdin and various Aladdin sequels and spin-offs, as well as in the Kingdom Hearts video game series...
, Frank Welker
Frank Welker
Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
, Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried is an American actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his trademark comedic persona of speaking in a loud, grating tone of voice. He has played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin , and...
, and Douglas Seale
Douglas Seale
Douglas Seale was a British stage and film actor.He provided the voice of Krebbs in The Rescuers Down Under . Two years later, Seale voiced the Sultan in Aladdin. He also appeared in several movies including Amadeus and Ernest Saves Christmas...
.
Lyricist Howard Ashman
Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright and lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974...
first pitched the idea, and the screenplay went through three drafts before Disney president Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...
greenlight
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
ed the production. The animators based their designs on the work of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld
Al Hirschfeld
Albert "Al" Hirschfeld was an American caricaturist best known for his simple black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars.-Personal life:Born in St...
, and computers were used for both colouring and creating some animated elements. The musical score was written by Alan Menken
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
and features six songs with lyrics written by both Ashman and Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
, who took over after the former's death.
Aladdin was released on November 25, 1992 to positive reviews, despite some criticism from Arabs who considered the film racist, and was the most successful film of 1992, earning over $217 million in revenue in the United States, and over $504 million worldwide. The film also won many awards, most of them for its soundtrack. Aladdins success led to many material inspired by the film such as two direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
sequels, The Return of Jafar
The Return of Jafar
The Return of Jafar is a 1994 American animated film that is a direct-to-video sequel to the 1992 animated film Aladdin, both produced by The Walt Disney Company. The film was released on May 20, 1994 and serves as the origin of the Aladdin animated series...
and Aladdin and the King of Thieves
Aladdin and the King of Thieves
Aladdin and the King of Thieves is a 1996 animated film that is the second direct-to-video sequel to the Disney animated feature Aladdin...
, an animated television series
Aladdin (TV series)
Aladdin is an animated television series made by Walt Disney Television which aired from 1994 to 1995, based on the original 1992 feature. Coming on the heels of the direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar, the series picked up where that installment left off, with Aladdin now living in the...
, toys, video games, spin-offs, and merchandise.
Plot
Jafar, Grand VizierGrand Vizier
Grand Vizier, in Turkish Vezir-i Azam or Sadr-ı Azam , deriving from the Arabic word vizier , was the greatest minister of the Sultan, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the Sultan himself...
to the Sultan of Agrabah, is attempting to retrieve a magical oil lamp
Oil lamp
An oil lamp is an object used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and is continued to this day....
containing a genie
Genie
Jinn or genies are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic teachings that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind. Together, jinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of Allah. Religious sources say barely anything about them; however, the Qur'an mentions that...
from the Cave of Wonders. After seeing a petty thief's failed attempt to enter the cave, Jafar and his parrot Iago
Iago (Aladdin)
Iago is a fictional character in Disney's Aladdin franchise, starting out as a secondary villain and comic relief in the original film, and later supporting protagonist in the film's sequels and related TV series...
, learn that only a "Diamond in the Rough" can enter the cave.
Jasmine
Princess Jasmine
Princess Jasmine is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the 1992 film Aladdin and its sequels, The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves . She is voiced by Linda Larkin, with her singing voice performed by Lea Salonga in the first film and Disney Princess...
, the Sultan's daughter, frustrated with her life in the palace, flees to Agrabah's marketplace. There she meets street rat
Street children
A street child is a child who lives on the streets of a city, deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old.Street children live in junk boxes, parks or on the street itself...
Aladdin and his monkey, Abu. The two discover they have a lot in common. When Aladdin is detained for thievery, Jasmine orders him released, but Jafar lies to her that Aladdin has been executed.
Disguised as an elder, Jafar releases Aladdin and Abu from prison and lead them to the Cave of Wonders. The tiger-shaped head of the cave says to touch nothing but the lamp. Aladdin and Abu enter the cave, where a magic carpet
Magic carpet
A magic carpet, also called a flying carpet, is a legendary carpet that can be used to transport persons who are on it instantaneously or quickly to their destination.-In literature:...
guides them to the lamp. Abu's attempt to steal a ruby causes the cave to start collapsing, but the carpet flies them to the entrance. As Aladdin delivers the lamp, Jafar tries to kill him, but Abu bites Jafar and gets the lamp back as he, the carpet, and Aladdin fall back into the cave just as it closes.
In the collapsed cave, Aladdin rubs the lamp, unleashing the Genie, who reveals he will grant Aladdin three wishes—with the exception of killing anyone, making anyone fall in love, or bringing back the dead. Aladdin tricks the Genie into freeing them from the cave without using a wish. While contemplating his wishes, Genie admits he would wish for freedom, since he is a prisoner to his lamp. Aladdin promises to free the Genie for his last wish. After talking about Jasmine with the Genie, Aladdin decides to use his first wish to become a prince so he can woo Jasmine.
Aladdin returns to Agrabah just as Jafar tries to trick the Sultan into arranging a marriage between himself and Jasmine. When Aladdin parades into the Sultan's palace as "Prince Ali", Jasmine rejects Ali as a suitor. Despite the Genie's suggestion that Aladdin to tell the princess who he really is, Aladdin remains the suave prince, and takes Jasmine around the world on the magic carpet. During the trip, Jasmine exposes Ali as the Aladdin, and demands the truth from him. Aladdin instead fabricates a story that he sometimes dresses as a commoner to escape palace life. The couple kisses as Aladdin returns her home.
Afterwards, Aladdin is captured by Jafar and thrown into the ocean, but the Genie rescues Aladdin as his second wish. Aladdin returns to the palace and exposes Jafar's plot - and Jafar flees after noticing the lamp in Aladdin's possession, realizing who Aladdin is. As Aladdin gets doubtful about revealing who really is, Iago steals Genie's lamp and brings it to Jafar, who becomes Genie's new master. Jafar uses his first two wishes to become Sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Using his new powers, Jafars forces Jasmine and her father to bow, exposes Aladdin as a street rat, then exiles him and Abu to a frozen wasteland.
Aladdin uses the magic carpet to return to Agrabah, where Jafar has imprisoned both Jasmine and the Sultan as his slaves. Jasmine distracts Jafar with a seductive act as Aladdin tries to steal back the lamp, but Jafar confronts him. He imprisons Jasmine in a large hourglass
Hourglass
An hourglass measures the passage of a few minutes or an hour of time. It has two connected vertical glass bulbs allowing a regulated trickle of material from the top to the bottom. Once the top bulb is empty, it can be inverted to begin timing again. The name hourglass comes from historically...
and turns himself into an enormous cobra
Cobra
Cobra is a venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. However, not all snakes commonly referred to as cobras are of the same genus, or even of the same family. The name is short for cobra capo or capa Snake, which is Portuguese for "snake with hood", or "hood-snake"...
. As Jafar traps Aladdin in his coils, he boasts to be "the most powerful being on Earth", which causes Aladdin to shout out that the Genie is more powerful. Faced with this realization, Jafar uses his final wish to become a genie. However, Jafar discovers that genies are not free entities as he is sucked into a black lamp, dragging Iago with him. The Genie flicks the lamp into the Cave of Wonders.
After Aladdin realizes that he cannot keep pretending to be something he is not, he decides to keep his promise and wish for the Genie's freedom. Seeing Jasmine's love for Aladdin, the Sultan changes the law to allow her to marry whomever she deems worthy. The newly free Genie leaves to explore the world while Aladdin and Jasmine celebrate their engagement.
Cast and characters
- Scott WeingerScott WeingerScott Eric Weinger is an American actor, television producer and writer, best known as the speaking voice of Aladdin in Walt Disney's eponymous feature film. Weinger would reprise the role in two direct-to-video sequels, for the Disney Channel television series, and the Kingdom Hearts Series. He...
as Aladdin: A poor but kind-hearted Agrabah thief. Brad KaneBrad KaneBradley Caleb Kane is a singer, actor, and writer.-Career:Kane began to act when he was three years old, with a small role in the movie Six Weeks. At the age of eight, he obtained the role of one of the four chorus boys in the Broadway musical Evita...
supplies the character's singing voice. Weinger sent in a homemade audition tape with his mother playing the Genie, and after several call backs he found six months later that he had the part.
- Robin WilliamsRobin WilliamsRobin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
as The Genie/The Narrator: A comedic genieGenieJinn or genies are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic teachings that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind. Together, jinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of Allah. Religious sources say barely anything about them; however, the Qur'an mentions that...
, with nigh omnipotent power that can only be exercised when his master wishes it. Clements and Musker wrote the part of the Genie for Williams, and when met with resistance created a reel of Williams' standup to animation of the Genie. When Williams watched the video, he "laughed his ass off" and agreed to do the project.
- Jonathan Freeman as Jafar: The power-hungry Grand Vizier of Agrabah and the main antagonist of the film. Jafar was originally envisioned as an irritable character, but the directors decided that a calm villain would be scarier. Animator Andreas DejaAndreas DejaAndreas Deja is as an animator most noted for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Deja's creations include the Disney villains Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Jafar from Aladdin and Scar from The Lion King. He is a recipient of the 2006 Winsor McCay Award.-Early life:Andreas Deja was born...
tried to incorporate Freeman's facial expressions into the character.
- Linda LarkinLinda LarkinLinda Larkin is an American cinema and television actress. She is best known for providing the speaking voice of Princess Jasmine in the movie Aladdin and various Aladdin sequels and spin-offs, as well as in the Kingdom Hearts video game series...
as Princess JasminePrincess JasminePrincess Jasmine is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the 1992 film Aladdin and its sequels, The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves . She is voiced by Linda Larkin, with her singing voice performed by Lea Salonga in the first film and Disney Princess...
: The princess of Agrabah, who is tired of life in the royal palace. Lea SalongaLea SalongaLea Salonga-Chien is a mezzo-soprano singer and actress from the Philippines well known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and...
supplies the character's singing voice. Larkin was chosen nine months after her audition, and had to adjust her pitch to reach the voice the filmmakers were looking for the character.
- Frank WelkerFrank WelkerFranklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
as Abu: Aladdin's kleptomaniaKleptomaniaKleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...
c pet monkey with a high-pitched voice. The animators filmed monkeys at the San Francisco Zoo to study the movements Abu would have. In the three years it took to record the film, Welker did not meet Weinger or Williams. Welker also voiced Jasmine's tiger Rajah, and the Cave of Wonders.
- Gilbert GottfriedGilbert GottfriedGilbert Gottfried is an American actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his trademark comedic persona of speaking in a loud, grating tone of voice. He has played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin , and...
as IagoIago (Aladdin)Iago is a fictional character in Disney's Aladdin franchise, starting out as a secondary villain and comic relief in the original film, and later supporting protagonist in the film's sequels and related TV series...
: Jafar's sarcastic, foul-mouthed pet parrot sidekick. Iago's animator Will FinnWill FinnWill Finn is an American animator, voice actor, and director. His work in animation includes characters from Disney and Don Bluth films such as The Secret of NIMH, Oliver & Company, and Pocahontas. His characters include Laverne , Iago , and Cogsworth...
tried to incorporate some aspects of Gottfried's appearance into Iago's design, specially his semi-closed eyes and the always-appearing teeth.
- Douglas SealeDouglas SealeDouglas Seale was a British stage and film actor.He provided the voice of Krebbs in The Rescuers Down Under . Two years later, Seale voiced the Sultan in Aladdin. He also appeared in several movies including Amadeus and Ernest Saves Christmas...
as The Sultan: The pompous but kind ruler of Agrabah, who desperately tries to find a suitor for his daughter Jasmine. Some aspects of the character were inspired in the Wizard of OzWizard (Oz)The Wizard of Oz, known during his reign as The Great and Powerful Oz, is the epithet of Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, a fictional character in the Land of Oz, created by American author L...
, to create a bumbling authority figure.
- Jim CummingsJim CummingsJames Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...
as Razoul: The Captain of the Guard. He was named after layout supervisor Rasoul Azadani.
- The Magic Carpet is a sentient carpetCarpetA carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...
who is able to fly. Animator Randy CartwrightRandy CartwrightRandy Cartwright is an American animator.Randy graduated from UCLA in 1974 where he made his student animated film, Room and Board, which won several awards and was included in the Fantastic Animation Festival...
described working on the Carpet as challenging, since it is just a square shape, who expresses himself through pantomimePantomimePantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
– "It's sort of like acting by origamiOrigamiis the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, which started in the 17th century AD at the latest and was popularized outside Japan in the mid-1900s. It has since then evolved into a modern art form...
". Cartwright kept folding a piece of cloth while animating to see how to position the Carpet. After the character animationCharacter animationCharacter animation is a specialized area of the animation process concerning the animation of one or more characters featured in an animated work. It is usually as one aspect of a larger production and often made to enhance voice acting. The primary role of a Character Animator is to be the...
was done, the carpet's surface design was applied digitally.
Script and development
In 1988, lyricist Howard AshmanHoward Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright and lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974...
pitched to Disney the idea of an animated musical adaptation of Aladdin. After Ashman wrote some songs with partner Alan Menken
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
and a film treatment
Film treatment
A film treatment is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. It is generally longer and more detailed than an outline , and it may include details of directorial style that an outline omits...
, a screenplay was written by Linda Woolverton
Linda Woolverton
Linda Woolverton is an American writer who wrote the screenplay for Disney's animated feature film Beauty and the Beast and co-wrote the screenplay for the The Lion King. Woolverton then went on to write the Broadway musical version of Beauty and the Beast and assisted in adapting The Lion King to...
, who had worked on Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
. Then directors John Musker
John Musker
John Musker is an American animation director. Along with Ron Clements, he makes up the duo of one of the Disney animation studio's leading director teams.-Life and career:...
and Ron Clements
Ron Clements
Ronald Francis "Ron" Clements is an American animation director and producer. He is one half of America's leading contemporary animation team with John Musker.-Life and career:...
joined the production, picking Aladdin out of three projects offered, which also included an adaptation of Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
and King of the Jungle – that eventually became The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
. Musker and Clements wrote a draft of the screenplay, and delivered it to studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...
in 1991. Katzenberg thought the script "didn't engage", and only approved it after the screenwriting duo Ted Elliott
Ted Elliott
Ted Elliott is an American screenwriter. Along with his writing partner Terry Rossio, Elliott has written some of the most successful American films of the past 15 years, including Aladdin, Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean. In 2004, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild...
and Terry Rossio
Terry Rossio
Terry Rossio is an American screenwriter.Rossio was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. After graduating from Saddleback High School in Santa Ana, California, he went on to study at California State University, Fullerton where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Communications, with an emphasis in radio,...
rewrote it. Among the changes, the character of Aladdin's mother was removed, Princess Jasmine
Princess Jasmine
Princess Jasmine is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the 1992 film Aladdin and its sequels, The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves . She is voiced by Linda Larkin, with her singing voice performed by Lea Salonga in the first film and Disney Princess...
was made into a stronger character, Aladdin's personality was rewritten to be "a little rougher, like a young Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
," and the parrot Iago
Iago (Aladdin)
Iago is a fictional character in Disney's Aladdin franchise, starting out as a secondary villain and comic relief in the original film, and later supporting protagonist in the film's sequels and related TV series...
, originally conceived as a "British" calm and serious character, was reworked into a comic role after the filmmakers saw Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried is an American actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his trademark comedic persona of speaking in a loud, grating tone of voice. He has played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin , and...
in Beverly Hills Cop II
Beverly Hills Cop II
Beverly Hills Cop II is a 1987 action-comedy film starring Eddie Murphy and directed by Tony Scott. It is the first sequel in the Beverly Hills Cop series. Murphy returns as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, who returns to Beverly Hills, California to track down a joint robbery/gun-running ring...
. Gottfried was cast to provide Iago's voice. Several characters and plot elements are also based on the 1940 version of The Thief of Bagdad
The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)
The Thief of Bagdad is a 1940 British fantasy film produced by Alexander Korda, and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, and Tim Whelan, with contributions by Korda's brothers Vincent and Zoltán, and William Cameron Menzies...
, and many aspects of the traditional story were changed for the film – for instance, the setting is changed from "China" to a fictional Arabian
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
city, Agrabah.
Design and animation
John Musker
John Musker is an American animation director. Along with Ron Clements, he makes up the duo of one of the Disney animation studio's leading director teams.-Life and career:...
explains:
He was initially going to be as young as 13, but that eventually changed to eighteen. Aladdin was designed by a team led by supervising animator Glen Keane
Glen Keane
Glen Keane is an American animator, author, illustrator and director. Keane is best known for his character animation at Walt Disney Studios for feature films including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, and Tangled...
, and was originally made to resemble actor Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...
. 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
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
and Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
models.
The design for most characters was based on the work of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld
Al Hirschfeld
Albert "Al" Hirschfeld was an American caricaturist best known for his simple black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars.-Personal life:Born in St...
, which production designer Richard Vander Wende also considered appropriate to the theme, due to similarities to the swooping lines of Persian miniature
Persian miniature
A Persian miniature is a small painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a muraqqa. The techniques are broadly comparable to the Western and Byzantine traditions of miniatures in illuminated manuscripts...
s and Arabic calligraphy
Islamic calligraphy
Islamic calligraphy, colloquially known as Perso-Arabic calligraphy, is the artistic practice of handwriting, or calligraphy, and by extension, of bookmaking, in the lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. This art form is based on the Arabic script, which for a long time was used by all...
. Jafar's design was not based on Hirschfeld's work because Jafar's supervising animator, Andreas Deja
Andreas Deja
Andreas Deja is as an animator most noted for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Deja's creations include the Disney villains Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Jafar from Aladdin and Scar from The Lion King. He is a recipient of the 2006 Winsor McCay Award.-Early life:Andreas Deja was born...
, wanted the character to be contrasting. Each character was animated alone, with the animators consulting each other to make scenes with interrelating characters. Since Aladdin's animator Glen Keane was working in the California branch of Walt Disney Feature Animation, and Jasmine's animator Mark Henn
Mark Henn
Mark Henn is a Disney animator, whose contributions to animation have included several Disney leading or title characters, most notably heroines. He studied in the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts in the seventies. His work includes Princess Jasmine in Aladdin,...
was in the Florida one at Disney-MGM Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...
, they had to frequently phone, fax or send designs and discs to each other.
For the scenery design, layout supervisor Rasoul Azadani took many pictures of his hometown of Isfahan, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
for guidance. Other inspirations for design were Disney's animated films from the 1940s and 50s and the 1940 film The Thief of Bagdad
The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)
The Thief of Bagdad is a 1940 British fantasy film produced by Alexander Korda, and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, and Tim Whelan, with contributions by Korda's brothers Vincent and Zoltán, and William Cameron Menzies...
. The coloring was done with the computerized CAPS
Computer Animation Production System
The Computer Animation Production System is a proprietary collection of software programs, scanning camera systems, servers, networked computer workstations, and custom desks developed by The Walt Disney Company together with Pixar in the late-1980s...
process, and the color motifs were chosen according to the personality – the protagonists use light colors such as blue, the antagonists darker ones such as red and black, and Agrabah and its palace use the neutral color yellow. Computer animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
was used for some elements of the film, such as the tiger entrance of the Cave of Wonders and the scene where Aladdin tries to escape the collapsing cave.
Musker and Clements created the Genie with Robin Williams in mind; even though Katzenberg suggested actors such as John Candy
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...
, Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
, and Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
, Williams was approached and eventually accepted the role. Williams came for voice recording sessions during breaks in the shooting of two other films he was starring in at the time, Hook
Hook (film)
Hook is a 1991 American fantasy film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, and features Maggie Smith, Caroline Goodall, Charlie Korsmo, Amber Scott, and Dante Basco. Hook acts as a sequel to Peter Pan's original adventures, focusing...
and Toys. Unusually for an animated film, much of Williams' dialogue was ad-libbed
Ad libitum
Ad libitum is Latin for "at one's pleasure"; it is often shortened to "ad lib" or "ad-lib"...
: for some scenes, Williams was given topics and dialogue suggestions, but allowed to improvise his lines. It was estimated that Williams improvised 52 characters. Eric Goldberg
Eric Goldberg (film director)
Eric Goldberg is an American animator and film director. He is best known for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He's also well known as the creator of Disney character Genie in Aladdin...
, the supervising animator for the Genie, then reviewed Williams' recorded dialogue and selected the best gags and lines that his crew would create character animation to match.
The producers added many in-joke
In-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
s and references to Disney's previous works in the film, such as a "cameo appearance" from directors Clements and Musker and drawing some characters based on Disney workers. Beast, Sebastian from The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid (1989 film)
The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the film was originally released to theaters on November 14, 1989 and is the twenty-eighth film in...
, and Pinocchio
Pinocchio (1940 film)
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the story The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It is the second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, and it was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was released to theaters by...
make brief appearances, and the wardrobe of the Genie at the end of the film—Goofy
Goofy
Goofy is a cartoon character created in 1932 at Walt Disney Productions. Goofy is a tall, anthropomorphic dog, and typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fedora. Goofy is a close friend of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck...
hat, Hawaiian shirt, and sandals—are a reference to a short film that Robin Williams did for the Disney/MGM Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...
tour in the late 80s.
Robin Williams' conflicts with the studio
In gratitude for his success with the Disney/Touchstone film Good Morning, VietnamGood Morning, Vietnam
Good Morning, Vietnam is a 1987 American comedy-drama film set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, based on the career of Adrian Cronauer, a disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio Service , who proves hugely popular with the troops serving in South Vietnam, but infuriates his superiors with what they call...
, Robin Williams voiced the Genie for SAG
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
scale pay ($75,000), on condition that his name or image not be used for marketing, and his (supporting) character not take more than 25% of space on advertising artwork, since Toys was scheduled for release one month after Aladdins debut. For financial reasons, the studio went back on the deal on both counts, especially in poster art by having the Genie in 25% of the image, but having other major and supporting characters portrayed considerably smaller. The Disney Hyperion book Aladdin: The Making Of An Animated Film, listed both of Williams' characters "The Peddler" and "The Genie" ahead of main characters, but was forced to refer to him only as "the actor signed to play the Genie".
Williams and Disney had a bitter falling-out, and as a result, Dan Castellaneta
Dan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
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
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
production head Joe Roth
Joe Roth
Joe Roth is an American film executive, producer and film director. He co-founded Morgan Creek Productions in 1987 and was chairman of 20th Century Fox , Caravan Pictures , and Walt Disney Studios before founding Revolution Studios in 2000.-Life and career:Roth was born in New York, New York,...
(whose last act for Fox was greenlighting Williams' film Mrs. Doubtfire
Mrs. Doubtfire
Mrs. Doubtfire is a 1993 American comedy film starring Robin Williams and Sally Field and based on the novel Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine. It was directed by Chris Columbus and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It won the Academy Award for Best Makeup...
), Roth arranged for a public apology to Williams by Disney. Williams agreed to perform in Hollywood Pictures
Hollywood Pictures
Hollywood Pictures is one of The Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures brand, it produces films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures.-History:...
' Jack, directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
, 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.
Music
Composer Alan Menken and songwriters Howard Ashman and Tim RiceTim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
were praised for creating a soundtrack that is "consistently good, rivaling the best of Disney's other animated musicals from the '90s." Menken and Ashman began work on the film together, with Rice taking over as lyricist after Ashman died of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
-related complications in early 1991. Although fourteen songs were written for Aladdin, only six are featured in the movie, three by each lyricist. The DVD Special Edition released in 2004 includes four songs in early animations tests, and a music video of one, "Proud of Your Boy", performed by Clay Aiken
Clay Aiken
Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released...
, which also appears on the album DisneyMania 3
DisneyMania 3
-Track listing:# Raven-Symoné - "Under the Sea" - 3:15# Jump5 - "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" - 3:04# Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson - "A Whole New World" - 4:11...
.
Themes
The filmmakers thought the moral message of the original tale was not appropriate, and decided to "put a spin on it", by making the fulfillment of wishes seem like a great thing, but eventually becoming a problem. Another major theme was not trying to be what the person is not – both Aladdin and Jasmine get into trouble faking to be different people, and the Prince Ali persona fails to impress Jasmine, who only falls for Aladdin when she finds out who he truly is. Being "imprisoned" is also discussed, a fate that occurs to most of the characters – Aladdin and Jasmine are stuck to their lifestyles, Genie is attached to his lamp and Jafar, to the Sultan – and is represented visually by the prison-like walls and bars of the Agrabah palace, and the scene involving caged birds which Jasmine later frees. Jasmine is also depicted as a different Disney Princess, being rebellious to the royal life and the social structure, and trying to make her own way, unlike the princesses who just wait for rescue.Theatrical run
A large promotion campaign preceded Aladdins debut in theaters, with the film's trailer being attached to most Disney VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
releases, and numerous tie-ins and licensees being released. After a limited release on November 13, 1992, Aladdin debuted in 1,131 theaters on November 25, 1992, grossing $19.2 million in its opening weekend – number two at the box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
, behind Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a 1992 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It is the second film in the Home Alone series and the direct sequel to Home Alone. The film stars Macaulay Culkin in the lead role as Kevin McCallister, while...
. It took eight weeks for the film to reach number one at the US box office, breaking the record for the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve with $32.2 million. The film held the top spot five times during its 22-week run. Aladdin was the most successful film of 1992 grossing $217 million in the United States and over $504 million worldwide. It was the biggest gross for an animated film until The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
two years later. As of 2010, it is the eighteenth highest grossing animated film and the third highest grossing traditionally animated feature worldwide, behind The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
and The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...
.
Critical reception
Aladdin was well received by critics. The review aggregator website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 92% of critics gave the film a positive review based on a sample of 49 reviews, with an average score of 7.9/10. Among the "Top Critics", it has a 100% positive review rating from eight critics.
Most critics' praise went to Robin Williams' performance as Genie, with Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
declaring that children "needn't know precisely what Mr. Williams is evoking to understand how funny he is". Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
animator Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
even called the film "the funniest feature ever made." James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising the "crisp visuals and wonderful song-and-dance numbers". Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
said the comedy made the film accessible to both children and adults, a vision shared with Desson Howe of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, who also said "kids are still going to be entranced by the magic and adventure." Brian Lowry of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
praised the cast of characters, describing the expressive magic carpet as "its most remarkable accomplishment" and considered that "Aladdin overcomes most story flaws thanks to sheer technical virtuosity".
Some aspects of the film were widely criticized. Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
wrote a negative review, describing the film as racist, ridiculous, and a "narcissistic circus act" for Robin Williams. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's review considered that besides the Genie and the cave-in scene, Aladdin was "totally by the numbers (...). You know how it will all turn out, it contains no surprises, and for that matter, very little that's truly special," and described the cast, particularly the protagonists, as "cookie-cutter characters". Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, who generally praised the film in his review, considered the music inferior to its predecessors The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and claimed Aladdin and Jasmine were "pale and routine".
Awards
Aladdin also received many award nominations, mostly for its music. It won two Academy Awards, Best Music, Original ScoreAcademy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
and Best Music, Original Song for "A Whole New World" and receiving nominations for Best Song ("Friend Like Me"), Best Sound Editing
Academy Award for Sound Editing
The Academy Award of Merit for Best Sound Editing is an Academy Award granted yearly to a film exhibiting the finest or most aesthetic sound editing or sound design...
, and Best Sound (Terry Porter
Terry Porter (sound engineer)
Terry Porter is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Best Sound. He has worked on over 170 films since 1980.-Selected filmography:* Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home...
, Mel Metcalfe
Mel Metcalfe
Mel Metcalfe is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-Selected filmography:* Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home * Beauty and the Beast * Aladdin -External links:...
, David J. Hudson
David J. Hudson
David J. Hudson is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-Selected filmography:* Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home * Beauty and the Beast * Aladdin -External links:...
and Doc Kane
Doc Kane
Doc Kane is an American sound engineer. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Best Sound. He has worked on nearly 300 films since 1984.-Selected filmography:* Beauty and the Beast * Aladdin...
). At the Golden Globes, Aladdin won Best Original Song
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:...
("A Whole New World") and Best Original Score
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947...
, as well as a Special Achievement Award for Robin Williams, with a nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Other awards included the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature
Annie Award for Best Animated Feature
The Annie Award for Best Animated Feature is an Annie Award, awarded annually to the best animated feature film and introduced in 1992. In 1998 the award was renamed Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature, only to be reverted back to its original title again in 2001...
, a MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance to Robin Williams, Saturn Award
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
s for Best Fantasy Film
Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film
The following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Fantasy Film:...
, Performance by a Younger Actor
Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor
The following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Performance by a Younger Actor:- References :* , Saturn Awards...
to Scott Weinger and Supporting Actor to Robin Williams, the Best Animated Feature
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Feature
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Feature is one of the annual awards given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.This award had been given since 1989.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association was founded in 1975. Its main purpose is to present yearly awards to members of the film industry who have excelled in their fields. These awards are presented each January...
, and four Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s, Best Soundtrack Album
Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
The Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media has been awarded since 1960. Until 2001 the award was presented to the composer of the music alone. From 2001 to 2006, the producer and engineers shared in this award...
, and Song of the Year
Grammy Award for Song of the Year
The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year...
, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media has been awarded since 1988 and is awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media...
for "A Whole New World". Aladdin was among the nominees for the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
's listed lists of best comedies, musicals and
animated films in American film, while both "Friend Like Me" and "A Whole New World" were considered for AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs.
Home media
The film was first released in VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
on October 1, 1993, as part of the "Walt Disney Classics
Walt Disney Classics
Walt Disney Classics was a brand name used by Walt Disney Home Video on their American, Japanese, European and Australian home video releases of Disney animated features. The first title arrived in stores on December 6, 1984...
" line. In its first week of availability, Aladdin sold over 10.8 million copies, 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
Moratorium (entertainment)
A moratorium in the home entertainment business refers to the practice of suspending the sales of DVD movies or DVD boxed sets after a certain period of time...
on April 30, 1994.
On October 5, 2004, Aladdin was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, as part of Disney's Platinum Edition line. The DVD release featured retouched and cleaned-up animation, prepared for Aladdin's planned but ultimately cancelled IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
reissue in 2003, and a second disc with bonus features. Accompanied by a $19 million marketing campaign, the DVD sold about 3 million units, but it was less than any of the other Platinum Edition released before it. The film's soundtrack was available in its original Dolby 5.1 track or in a new Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix. The DVD went into moratorium
Disney Vault
The "Disney Vault" is the term used by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment for its policy of putting home video releases of Walt Disney Animation Studios's animated features on moratorium...
on January 2008, along with its sequels.
Controversies
One of the verses of the opening song "Arabian Nights" was altered following protests from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination CommitteeAmerican-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee states that it is the largest Arab American grassroots civil rights organization in the United States. According to its web page it is open to people of all backgrounds, faiths and ethnicities and has over 40 chapters in 24 states and members in all...
(ADC). The lyrics were changed in July 1993 from "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face," in the original release to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense." The change first appeared on the 1993 video release. The original lyric was intact on the initial CD soundtrack release, but the re-release uses the edited lyric. The rerecording has the original voice on all other lines and then a noticeably deeper voice says the edited line. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
ranked Aladdin in a list of the most controversial films in history, due to this incident. The ADC also complained about the portrayal of the lead characters Aladdin and Jasmine. They criticized the characters' Anglicized features and Anglo-American accents, in contrast to the other characters in the film, which are dark-skinned, have Arab accents and grotesque facial features, and appear villainous or greedy.
Protests were also raised to another scene. When Aladdin is attacked by the tiger Rajah on the palace balcony, Aladdin quietly says "Good kitty, take off and go..." and the word "kitty" is overlapped by Rajah's snarl. Some people reported hearing "Good teenagers, take off your clothes," which they considered a subliminal reference to promiscuity
Promiscuity
In humans, promiscuity refers to less discriminating casual sex with many sexual partners. The term carries a moral or religious judgement and is viewed in the context of the mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships...
. Because of the controversy, Disney replaced the phrase with "Down, kitty" on the DVD release.
Animation enthusiasts have noticed similarities between Aladdin and Richard Williams's unfinished film The Thief and the Cobbler
The Thief and the Cobbler
The Thief and the Cobbler is an animated feature film, famous for its animation and its long, troubled history. The film was conceived by Canadian animator Richard Williams, who worked 28 years on the project. Beginning production in 1964, Williams intended The Thief and the Cobbler to be his...
(also known as Arabian Knight under Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
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, 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.
Sequels and spin-offs
Aladdin was followed by Disney's first direct-to-video sequel, The Return of JafarThe Return of Jafar
The Return of Jafar is a 1994 American animated film that is a direct-to-video sequel to the 1992 animated film Aladdin, both produced by The Walt Disney Company. The film was released on May 20, 1994 and serves as the origin of the Aladdin animated series...
in 1994. The film saw the debut of a new character, Abis Mal, voiced by Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...
, and all of the original cast, except for Robin Williams, replaced by Dan Castellaneta, and Douglas Seale, replaced by Val Bettin
Val Bettin
Val Bettin is an American voice actor, known for using a British accent in all of his roles.-Early life and career:He was born Valentin Bettin in La Crosse, Wisconsin. In 1948, he went to England, to enter the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and graduated in 1950. There he met his wife Hildy, and...
. 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 Return of Jafar
The Return of Jafar is a 1994 American animated film that is a direct-to-video sequel to the 1992 animated film Aladdin, both produced by The Walt Disney Company. The film was released on May 20, 1994 and serves as the origin of the Aladdin animated series...
, the Aladdin TV Series
Aladdin (TV series)
Aladdin is an animated television series made by Walt Disney Television which aired from 1994 to 1995, based on the original 1992 feature. Coming on the heels of the direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar, the series picked up where that installment left off, with Aladdin now living in the...
was aired on television. The episodes focused on Aladdin's adventures after the events of the second film. In 1996, the final sequel to Aladdin, Aladdin and the King of Thieves
Aladdin and the King of Thieves
Aladdin and the King of Thieves is a 1996 animated film that is the second direct-to-video sequel to the Disney animated feature Aladdin...
was released on video. The story concludes as Aladdin and Jasmine are about to be married and Aladdin discovers that his father is still alive, but is the king of all thieves in Agrabah.
The Aladdin characters later made a crossover
Hercules and the Arabian Night
"Hercules and the Arabian Night" is a crossover episode of Disney's Hercules: The Animated Series featuring characters from Aladdin.-Summary :...
with Hercules: The Animated Series
Hercules: The Animated Series
Hercules is an animated series based on the 1997 film of the same name and the Greek myth. The series follows teenage Hercules training as a hero as well as trying to adjust to life. With his free-spirited friend Icarus, his future-seeing friend Cassandra and his teacher Philoctetes , he battles...
, and were featured as guests in the television series House of Mouse and related works to those series—Jafar was the leader of the villains in Mickey's House of Villains
Mickey's House of Villains
Mickey's House of Villains is a direct-to-video film produced by The Walt Disney Company. It is a film adaptation of the Disney Channel animated television series Disney's House of Mouse, starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Daisy Duck and Disney Villains that have appeared in...
.
The film also inspired a Disney On Ice
Disney on Ice
Disney On Ice is a touring ice show produced by Feld Entertainment under agreement with The Walt Disney Company. Aimed primarily at children, the shows feature figure skaters dressed as Disney cartoon characters in performances that each derive their music and plot from elements collected from...
presentation, and two attractions in Disney's theme parks
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds, and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises...
: "The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin is a ride in Magic Kingdom, at Walt Disney World. It is based on the 1992 film, Aladdin. It is similar to the ride Dumbo the Flying Elephant, in that riders in the front rows control how high their carpets fly, and the ride lasts about 90 seconds. There is Aladdin's...
", a Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Dumbo the Flying Elephant (ride)
Dumbo the Flying Elephant is a carousel-style ride located in Fantasyland at five Disney parks around the world. The original attraction opened at Disneyland in October of 1955, three months after the park opened...
-like ride at both Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort located near Orlando, Florida. The first park built at the resort, Magic Kingdom opened Oct. 1, 1971. Designed and built by WED Enterprises, the park's layout and attractions are similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, California...
at Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...
and Walt Disney Studios Park
Walt Disney Studios Park
Walt Disney Studios Park is the second theme park to open at Disneyland Paris, owned and operated by Euro Disney S.C.A.. It is located to the west of the hub, next door to Disneyland Park at the heart of the resort in Marne-la-Vallée....
at Disneyland Resort Paris
Disneyland Resort Paris
Disneyland Paris is a holiday and recreation resort in Marne-la-Vallée, a new town in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. The complex is located from the centre of Paris and lies for the most part within the commune of Chessy, Seine-et-Marne....
; and the show Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular
Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular
Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular is a musical show with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, that plays at Disney California Adventure. Based on the Disney film by the same name, the show plays inside Hyperion Theater in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot...
at Disney's California Adventure Park.
Video games
Along with the film release, three different video games based on Aladdin were released. A coproduction between Virgin Games and Walt Disney Feature Animation for the Sega Genesis was released in late 1993 and later portedPorting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
, PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
and Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color
The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...
. That same year, Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
released a Super Nintendo
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
game, which was ported to the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
in 2002.
In 1994, SIMS released an Aladdin game for the Sega Game Gear
Sega Game Gear
The was Sega's first handheld game console. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress....
and Sega Master System
Sega Master System
The is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....
.
The television series inspired another game by Argonaut Games
Argonaut Games
Argonaut Games plc was a British video game developer. Founded as Argonaut Software by teenager Jez San in 1982 the company name is a play on his name and the movie title Jason and the Argonauts. It had its head offices in Edgware, London....
, entitled Aladdin: Nasira's Revenge
Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge
Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge is the Aladdin franchise video game which was developed for the PlayStation and PC by Argonaut Games and distributed by Disney Interactive in 2000.-Plot:...
and released in 2000 for the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
and PC. Also, in 2004 Vivendi Universal
Vivendi
Vivendi SA is a French international media conglomerate with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications, the Internet, and video games. It is headquartered in Paris.- History :...
released Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures, a chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
computer game with the Aladdin license.
The Kingdom Hearts series features a playable Aladdin world known as Agrabah. In Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts
is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The first game in the Kingdom Hearts series, it is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney...
and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and Japanese studio Jupiter and published by Square Enix in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance. The game serves as an intermediary between the two larger-scale PlayStation 2 games in the Kingdom Hearts series. It was one of the first GBA games to...
, the plotline is loosely related to the storyline of the original film. In Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts II
is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and published by Buena Vista Games and Square Enix in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console...
, it is a mixture of Aladdin and The Return of Jafar. Genie is also a recurring summon in the series.
Musical adaptation
In November 2010 Alan MenkenAlan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
confirmed that a musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
adaptation of the show is in the works with a book written by Chad Beguelin
Chad Beguelin
Chad Beguelin is an American playwright who wrote the lyrics and co-book for the Broadway musical The Wedding Singer. He was nominated for two Tony Awards for his work on the musical, as well as a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics...
. The show premiered at the 5th Avenue Theatre
5th Avenue Theatre
The 5th Avenue Theatre is a landmark theater building located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It has hosted a variety of theatre productions and motion pictures since it opened in 1926. The building and land is owned by the University of Washington and was once part of the original campus...
from July 7–31, 2011. Jonathan Freeman, who voiced Jafar in the film, played the role in the stage adaptation. Adam Jacobs and Courtney Reed played Aladdin and Jasmine. Additional included Seán G. Griffin as the Sultan; Don Darryl Rivera as Iago; and, playing Omar, Babkak, and Kassim – a trio of characters originally conceived by the film's creators but not used – Andrew Keenan-Bolger
Andrew Keenan-Bolger
Andrew Keenan-Bolger is an American musical theatre actor and singer. He originated the role of Robertson Ay in the first national tour of Mary Poppins and is currently appearing in that role on Broadway...
, Brian Gonzales, and Brandon O'Neill. The show was also directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw
Casey Nicholaw
Casey Nicholaw is an American theatre director, choreographer and performer. He has been nominated for Tony Awards for directing and choreographing The Drowsy Chaperone , for choreographing Monty Python's Spamalot , and choreographing The Book of Mormon , as well as winning for his co-direction...
.