Aladdin is the 4th movie in the Disney Renaissance period and it may possibly be the most comedy-driven story out of all the movies around the time. Directors Ron Clements and John Musker return after their major success with directing The Little Mermaid as they head to the fictional city streets of Agrabah to tell a simple and sweet film with a comedic edge.
In the city of Agrabah, Aladdin is your typical street rat as he struggles for survival by stealing food and causing mischief with his monkey companion Abu by his side. Meanwhile, in a nearby palace, Princess Jasmine is forced to marry by order of the sultan who is her father. The father tries everything he can to comfort Jasmine but with no luck. One day, Jasmine sneaks out of the palace walls only to bump into Aladdin as they both escape the guards of the streets. Aladdin falls in love with Jasmine and later finds out that she’s the princess.
Desperate to win her over, Aladdin unknowingly comes across the evil Jafar disguised as a middle-aged man and manipulates him into finding a lamp in the cave of wonders promising to make his wishes come true. Jafar reveals himself and betrays Aladdin trapping him inside the cave but Aladdin escapes with the lamp in his hands and discovers that there’s a genie who has been trapped inside for a millennium. The Genie gets Aladdin out of the cave and gives him three wishes as Aladdin uses one of them to impress Jasmine and win her over. Jafar hears about Aladdins escape and uses all his manipulation and the help of his parrot sidekick to steal the Genie away from Aladdin.
The story has a lot of laughs most of them coming from the late Robbin Willams as the Genie himself. His improvisations are what makes the comedy work and the best part is that the references in no way make the film too dated or behind the times. I can almost picture that the filmmakers were letting Robin go with his adlibbing as many of his line delivery feel like something you’d see at one of his standup shows. The filmmakers clearly understand Robin Willams and the multiple talents he possesses. It’s not all about Robin Willams though as the people who play Aladdin and Jasmine are also full of character and likeability. They only know each other for a few days but you really do believe they are in love. Aladdin has your typical bad boy but wide eye innocent teenager which makes him incredibly relatable and Jasmine has a bit of an edgy and adventurous spirit to make her stand out from the other Disney Princesses. Then there is Jafar who counties the trend of creating memorable villains that have a lot of evil personalities and even funny moments where you can love to hate how evil he is. All these characters come together to tell a romantic but also comedic perilous adventure.
The 2D animation is incredible and truly feels like being in an Arabic town with the palace in the background and the city streets being littered with shops and common folk. There is a very rich color pallet to back the backgrounds stand out and the character designs have that signature Disney fairytale look while also making them fit in with the Arabic/Egyptian styles. One of the stand out visuals is what the animators can do with the genie in how he can shape-shift and do all sorts of powerful magic seeing that he’s the only character allowed to do such things. The music score like most Disney musicals is full of wonder and really speaks to your inner child. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman come back once more to deliver on songs that are memorable to the point that they become household tunes. Songs like “Never Had a Friend Like Me” can be funny and bouncy while other songs like “A Whole New World” can be charming and kind heartfelt. The music really does help set the tone for being in an Arabian city.
While it’s arguable if this is the best film from the Disney Renaissance Era, Aladdin hits all the right notes in order to tell a solid comedic story with Beautiful 2D animation, Memorable Songs and Music Compositions, and characters that we can root or boo for in all the right ways possible. Get on your magic carpet and fly on over to discover the tale that is one wild adventure in the making.
(Final Grade: A-)