Aladdin (G) *** 1/2 Featuring the voices of Robin Williams, Scott Weinger Directed by Ron Clements, John Musker Year Released: 1992 A Review by Frankie Paiva
Watching the same film as a child, and then watching it again when you’re older is a totally different experience. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched this film when I was 6 or 7, but the grand total has to be somewhere between 30 or 40. Aladdin was another warped Disney fairytale that has been brought to life with great songs, flashy animation and effects, and lots of funny characters and gags. This is one of the finer examples of Disney animation because it was made during the golden age. In my opinion the golden age started in 1991, when Beauty and the Beast premiered, to 1994 when The Lion King came out. I think this is when Disney’s animators where releasing their finest work. I can officially say that I now know all of the words that confused me as a child, and have a new appreciation for this classic children’s film.
Aladdin is a street rat in the city of Agrabah who has a pet monkey named Abu. He dreams of becoming rich and living in a beautiful palace, much like that of the sultan’s. Princess Jasmine (the first Disney character in the long line of female heroines to have jet black hair) is legally contracted to marry a prince by the age of 21. She refuses all suitors because if she marries, she wants to marry for love. When Jasmine runs away from the palace to discover life on her own, and the two of them meet, they instantly fall in love. Then the sultan’s evil chief advisor named Jafar kidnaps Aladdin because he’s the only one who can enter a cave where a magic lamp has been for millions of years. When Aladdin goes in after it, the cave collapses on itself and Abu and Aladdin are trapped inside with a magic flying carpet.
That all changes when he rubs the lamp he was supposed to retrieve, instantly the crazy blue genie (Robin Williams at his best) pops out and tells him he has three wishes. Aladdin wishes to be a prince so he can win over the heart of Jasmine, but this gets in the way of Jafar’s plan to become sultan. Will the genie earn his freedom? Will Jafar take over the kingdom? Will Aladdin’s true identity be revealed to Jasmine and the rest of the kingdom? These are all questions that will be answered, even if your child may not get the main plot of the movie.
This is Disney at it’s best. Williams comes up with several very funny bits (transforming into Groucho Marx, Jack Nicholson, and Julius Caesar, among others) that make the film different from typical Disney fair. The songs are also very well written, and the animation the accompanies them is very fitting to the lyrics of the song. Your child’s favorite will probably be Abu or Iago (Jafar’s parrot) but almost all of the characters are instantly likable. The plot does have some problems (Whatever happened to the narrator? Why is the sultan so dumb?) but they will either be unnoticed or just barely recognized by you or any of your kids. The ending is a bit abrupt, but I still think that this is a great film for your entire family to watch again and again. I think that they should re-release it for its 10 year anniversary in 2002 for generations to come. Wacky, fun, and great animation are what Aladdin is all about, so this Disney classic gets *** 1/2 stars.
The Young-Uns: Jafar turns into a scary snake and there are lots of Arabian belly-dancers. Otherwise, the film is aimed right at the kiddies and they should enjoy it. Good Age: 3 & Up
A Review by Frankie Paiva The 12 Year-Old Movie Reviewer E-Mail me at SwpStke@aol.com Visit my website at: http://www.homestead.com/teenagemoviecritic/mainpage.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews