From: Rich_Koster@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US (Rich Koster)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney
Subject: Aladdin
Distribution: world
Date: 28 Sep 92 20:38:33 CST
Organization: The Amiga GateWay BBS * New Orleans, La.

Max Howard, Director of Operations - Feature Animations Florida, said
the release of Aladdin will be November 20, others said November 25th,
but the consensus is "around Thanksgiving".  You can hear the soundtrack
of this film at the Disney-MGM Studios in both the Soundstage Restaurant
next to the Animation Tour, or by going upstairs to the Catwalk Lounge.
You hear it better when the place is less crowded, and you can go
upstairs to the lounge where it is more comfortable for lingering
and is above the busy din of the fast food atmosphere below, but it's
still difficult to make out the words.  Soundtrack began playing there
the first part of the week of September 14th.  We also heard it next
door in the lobby of the Brown Derby, the stairway connecting the
Catwalk Lounge to the Brown Derby, and in the restrooms there.
 
When we went into the Soundstage Restaurant last year before the release
of Beauty and the Beast (B&B for short), there were generic Old west set
decorations in there.  These were changed to the B&B "set" to promote
that movie, and the soundtrack from B&B played there as well.  About a
month ago this set was changed to look like an Arabian village instead,
but there are still traces of the original western set (you can still see
some of the wood beams from the adobe remaining).  The bartender at the
Catwalk Lounge told us that they had been playing generic Morrocan music
when they switched to the Aladdin "set" until the soundtrack was ready,
and he said the generic music was horrible!
 
The funny thing is that the folks amblin' on in, hot, sweaty, hungry and
thirsty, don't know what they are hearing and seeing:  To them, it plays
and sounds like ambient Muzak with a movie theme, when in fact they are
listening to the songs and incidental music of an upcoming blockbuster
hit more than two months ahead of time.  You can see some promotional
stills from it in the lobby of the Animation Tour.  The B&B soundtrack
is still playing in the Animation Tour lobby, as well as when you are
put on hold when calling Disney's main phone number.
 
The previews of coming attractions portion of the backstage Special
Effects Tour *does not* yet have any references to Aladdin.  It is
devoted instead to the upcoming live action films.  Speaking of the
soundtrack, a representative from the Disney records attending the
business groups portion of the Disneyana convention denies the soundtrack
is out in a public forum where it can be heard.  (But then, we found that
many Disney employees were not aware as many Disney enthusiasts are of
all the details that Disney has recently released to the public).  The
recording should be out just prior to the general release of the film.
 
Merchandising that we saw available for "Aladdin" were a jacket with
the logo on the back (not many of those) and an animated flip book,
with a scene from the movie on one side and sketchwork of the same
scene on the back.  These were at the Disneyana Convention and the
public attending it, not available to the general public at the parks.
 
We saw clips of Aladdin at the convention.  They showed us rough
drawings and completed animation rough-edited with music and time code
(computerized editing) to form a scene, and some portions had supers
(words superimposed on the film) "Property of Walt Disney Productions"
over sequences.
 
One completed portion dealt with Aladdin rubbing the lamp when he first
gets it and out comes Robin Williams' version of the Genie.  If you are
familiar with Robin's stream-of-consciousness bouncing-off-the-walls
improvisation style of stand up comedy you will know the essence of how
he plays the voice of this character, and how the animators incorporated
these mannerisms into the character of the Genie.  This particular scene
includes "A Friend Like Me", a hilarious song about how the Genie is now
in service to Aladdin so let's get on with the "wish is my command"
stuff song.  The Genie turns himself into a wide variety of personalities
in the scene, like Hitler, Ed Sullivan, dancing girls, and Elvis.  Trust
me, you will have to see Aladdin more than once just to see and get every
detail out of this scene because you'll be laughing and rolling too much
to get it all the first time.
 
The scene with the "Whole New World" duet between Aladdin and Princess
Jasmine was shown to the conventioneers.
 
Another scene they showed was Princess Jasmine confronting the evil
character Jafar about imprisoning Aladdin, featuring the parrot Iago
(comedian Gilbert Gottfried) getting caught in a door as it closes.
They played this scene four times, showing the 4 stages of production:
 
1) Script (starting from a script "because we don't have Walt anymore",
who Max Howard, Director of Operations - Feature Animations Florida,
described as the master storyteller.
 
2) Storyboard (still shots combined with just the voice portion of the
soundtrack).
 
3) Pencil Animation (storyboard shots replaced with the pencil test).
 
4) Special Effects (the clip now showed tone mattes, shadows, and
clean-up of the rough pencil drawings).
 
5) Color Backgrounds, Sound & Music (the completed version of the scene
was shown).
 
(The above is from my notes and recollections, which is why the "four
stages of production" works out to be five!)
 
The soundtrack overall is less Fats Waller sounding than rumor states,
but does sound have a strong influence of stereotypical Arabian movie
music with a lush Rimsky-Korsakov "Scheherazade" or even an Albert W.
Ketelby (composer from the 1920's look for an album called "In a
Monastery Garden" in the classical music section of a record store or
library, and listen to a cut called "In A Persian Market"). The
incidental music by Howard Mencken is beautiful and reminiscent of
"Beauty and the Beast".  The main love song in the film also has a pop
duet version at the end of the soundtrack, sounds as if Peabo Bryson is
back for another go with another female singer, sounds very similar to
the pop duet of the "Beauty and the Beast" main title tune.
 
Animators are making the rounds to fantasy and animation conventions
carting Aladdin rough cuts with them.
 
During the "Meet Prince Ali" clip (containing the genie song) during the
Disneyana convention, a surprise stage show took place while the clip
played.  In came real animals with humans dressed in costume portraying
Aladdin and Princess Jasmine.  They were riding beautiful horses which
might have been Arabian horses.  An ornery camel was also brought in,
led by his animal handler, and it was a good thing no one was riding it!
He got a little too close to those of us in the first row, and the
handler motioned to a regularly-dressed cast member to come up and tap
the camel on the rump to move it closer to the stage.  These animals
were apparently well trained not to soil the brand new carpet in the
convention center!!

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