ALADDIN
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
ALADDIN is an animated film from the Walt Disney Pictures. It features the voice of Robin Williams. Music by Alan Menken, with lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Rated G, suitable for all audiences.
ALADDIN, which ought to be called GENIE, is more properly a remake of THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD than a telling of the story of Aladdin. (I wonder who here has seen Tim Burton's ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP, which he made for "Faerie Tale Theatre," with Valerie Bertinelli, Robert Carradine, Leonard Nimoy, and James Earl Jones?) THE THIEF has been made four previous times, including one of the greatest of all silent films with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and directed by Raoul Walsh; others are the 1940 special-effects extravaganza with Sabu, music by Miklos Rozsa, directed by Ludwig Berger, as well two newer and more dismissible versions (one with Steve Reeves, the other made for television with Peter Ustinov as the king along with Roddy McDowell, Terence Stamp, Frank Finley, and Ian Holm).
The Disney version is totally dominated by two entirely different forces, Robin Williams and computer animation. Undoubtedly the great achievement of ALADDIN is yoking these two disparate elements into one seamless whole. The other elements of a big animated Disney musical, in the manner of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LITTLE MERMAID, at least, are unfortunately either lacking or sadly diminished in this film.
For one thing, the music is quite dismissible. There are no really memorable songs. The best number is a high-speed patter song-cum-production-number sung by Robin Williams's Genie. Nothing can compare with the score of MERMAID, where the only problem was the small number of songs (compared to a live musical). Nothing can compare with individual songs from BEAUTY, either, like Mrs. Potts singing the title song. Alan Menken's lyricist Howard Ashman died of AIDS while working on the ALADDIN score, and Menken's new collaborator, Tim Rice (who had previously collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Weber), no doubt was given a nearly impossible job to do. The results are forgettable, and I doubt the score will get an Oscar nomination, as did those of the previous two Disney musicals.
For another, the story line is skewed away from developing an interesting human character, especially in the form of Beauty, in favor of Genie's pyrotechnics. This results in a less resonant, less universal quality, and reduces the value of the film to the value one brings to Williams's unique talents. Neither the Thief nor the Princess can hold our interest on his or her own. The villain, the sorcerous Vizier, his parrot-familiar, and the bemused little king provide entertainment value, but not much in the way of human elements.
So what about Robin Williams's Genie? Nothing much, except his performance is the core of the film, the only real reason to see it (and resee it). It is a marvel of breath-taking free association, of verbal shape-shifting, and of a distinctly un-Disney sense of humor. Everything about Genie reminds one more of the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes that were constantly tweaking Disneyesque pretensions to high art. But in addition, Genie and his treatment also put me in mind the distinctly hallucinatory quality of some of Disney's most interesting films, such as THE THREE CABALLEROS, parts of FANTASIA, or even ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Genie is more alive, more intriguing, than any merely human character, and Robin Williams finds himself in the character. The fact that the animators could visualize the free-form flow of Williams's mind is a tribute to their skills and to their willingness to take chances in a very un-Disneyesque way.
All of us computer geeks will be fascinated to see the computer animation used here. I think that it must be more extensive, and better integrated, here in either of the two previous musicals. Instead of one or two set pieces, such as the chandelier and ballroom in BEAUTY, we have here computer animation in virtually every sequence; we have swooping rides on the magic carpet, we have the streets and alleys of Aqaba and the palace itself, we have a rolling cylinder, and a lot more. I look forward to the day when I won't be able to spot computer animation, and quite possibly that day has already come in some scenes and effects, but not in all. It still has a tendency to draw attention to itself, to look cold and mechanical, if I may so inexactly characterize the look. It allows animators to do things that they would not attempt otherwise, and for that I am grateful; but still one does look forward to day when it not so distractingly clever and self-apparent.
In general, ALADDIN was not the success BEAUTY was, but it still has powers and attractions and entertainment values that more than justify a matinee ticket. Remember that there will lots of kids in the audience and be patient. Once the movie starts you will hardly hear a peep from them. And of course, if you are a parent, this is your chance to get out of the house and not have a qualm. The kids will like it and you will like it.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
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