Film Review #26: Aladdin

You'd have to be the most impossibly perfect film in the history of Hollywood to surpass the brilliance of Beauty and the Beast.  This put almost unbearable pressure on Disney's next animated film to be a film comparable and worthy of succeeding their acclaimed jewel of the year prior.  Could a film about an Arabian thief with a magic lamp possibly reach the brilliance of Beauty and the Beast?  Aladdin had the unbearable task to match it's predecessor in virtually every category.  Did it?  Surprisingly, despite my love for Beast, this Walt Disney Classic is even better!  How?  Let's find out.

Plot: On the streets of the fictional city of Agrabah, a peasant boy named Aladdin constantly has to dodge the guards as he and his monkey sidekick Abu must steal to survive.  One day, he comes across a beautiful girl named Jasmine in the marketplace and the two instantly hit it off.  But to Aladdin's astonishment, Jasmine is the Princess of Agrabah!  Aladdin is taken away to the dungeons after finally being caught.

The Sultan's diabolical vizier Jafar tricks Aladdin into entering the magical Cave of Wonders to retrieve a magic lamp for him.  But the cave collapses in and traps the boy and his monkey inside.  While trying to read the inscription on the lamp, Aladdin unleashes the Genie of the Lamp, who decrees that he must grant Aladdin three wishes.  After tricking the Genie into freeing them from the cave in, the street urchin learns that all the Genie wants in life is his freedom from the lamp, which Aladdin agrees to let him have.  Aladdin uses his first wish to become a Prince so he could marry Jasmine, but Jafar sees through the disguise and tries to kill Aladdin on multiple occasions.  Fearing for his life, Aladdin decides to hold off on freeing the Genie, which heart breaks the poor blue guy.  Jafar's parrot sidekick Iago manages to steal the lamp and Jafar uses the Genies powers to take over Agrabah.  Now, without Genie and Jasmine, Aladdin must save Agrabah from the wicked sorcerer, who now has the powers of the cosmos at his disposal.

What's Bad?: After watching and re-watching this film multiple times before this review, I am surprised to say that I can't find a single flaw in this film.  If there is any, I couldn't detect it and I would be more than willing to hear about it from you guys.

What's Good?: With the possible exception of the dramatic undertone, Aladdin picks up and improves upon everything in Beauty and the Beast.  This film takes a more free formed  style to it's animation, which is a welcome delight after the realistic films of The Rescuers Down Under and Beast.  The animation is beautiful.  The film takes after the designs of artist Al Hirschfeld, as all but Jafar are designed in the soft and wavy curves that Al was so well known for.

While probably not as hateful as Gaston was, Jafar is one of the most entertaining villains in Disney History.  While his design was based off of the fabulously evil Maleficent, Jafar is his own character, constantly seeking more and more power even though he was a freaking "all powerful sorcerer".  It always astounds me when Jafar is axed off so early in Kingdom Hearts and Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.  Jafar is one of the most perfect villains in history, and his sidekick Iago (Gilbert Gottfried) is one of the most obnoxiously funny sidekicks of all time.

While Aladdin doesn't have as many fleshed out side characters as Beast does, Robin Williams' electric performance as the Genie is easily the best part of the movie.  Not only is this Genie capable of being Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Rodney Dangerfield, but also goes out on a limb and can be the both comedic and heartfelt Robin.  The genie is not only the funniest character in Disney history, he is the best fleshed out and most enjoyable character to see.

Aladdin and Jasmine are also properly fleshed out.  Considering that the film is more about the Genie's desires than Aladdin or Jasmine's, you'd think that Disney would just skip over all of that.  But no, they don't.  Instead, the film gives us our time to focus on both Aladdin and Jasmine's desires, while not detracting from the fast paced story and action.  The two leads also do have chemistry.  Where Disney films afterwards would just say they're in love because they're in love (Pocahontas, Tarzan, etc.), these two do have things in common besides the fact that they're attractive, and they do talk about their problems and work around them because they love each other for who they are instead of just for their looks.

The songs and score are also perfect.  The score is faster paced than the score in Beast, and the jazzy Genie musical number "Friend Like Me" is still my number one favorite song in any Disney movie, "Circle of Life" included.  The other songs in the movie are also really good.  It makes me wonder why Disney waited so long to put it on Broadway.  But I digress.

Overall: The film is just pure gold.  The songs are gems, the story is solid, the characters are well crafted, and the animation is just beautiful.  If Disney was going to top this, they were going to have to put out all the stops and create an even better film than Aladdin?  Could it be done?  Well, better get my "Hakuna Matata" into gear.

Report Card: 

Hero:                                           A+
Heroine:                                      A-
Villain:                                        A+
Side Characters:                        A+
Songs:                                         A+
Musical Score:                           A+
Animation:                                 A+
Special Effects:                          A+
Themes:                                     A+
Story:                                         A+

Final Grade:                              A+