From: zm4@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Zarina  Mustapha)
Subject: ALADDIN : Preview
Reply-To: zm4@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Zarina  Mustapha)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 21:09:05 GMT


Well...I just went to see the preview of Disney's latest full animated
feature: ALADDIN at a theater here in NYC.  What I am about to say is
solely from my personal point of view (which favors BatB); and my
opinion may not reflect the quality of the movie itself.

OVERALL : Viewing ALADDIN on its own, i.e. without any reference point
 	whatsoever, it is rather entertaining.
	Viewing ALADDIN and comparing it to BEAUTY AND THE BEAST or
	THE LITTLE MERMAID, well, hard to say this...but it is a MAJOR
	disappointment.

ALADDIN : His facial features were very close to those of Prince Eric's
	in THE LITTLE MERMAID.  Even his voice was like Eric's.  A flaw that I
	could detect was the difference in the "speaking" voice and the
	"singing" voice; it was rather noticeable.  Personally, I
	think that the quality of his "singing" voice was not as good as
	Gaston's (or even the Beast).  His personality was not as rich
	as the Beast's, he may be sneaky at times.

JASMINE : She was the princess in this story, and at a certain angle,
	she looked like Belle.  The introduction of a strong, politically
	correct female protagonist in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST has sort of
	"forced" Disney to keep up the good work.  In this case however, they
	tried so hard that it almost failed.  Disney did not develop her
	character enough for the audience to notice her intelligence.
	Instead, the auxiliary lines like "She is smart," or "Do you think I
	am stupid?" were used to illustrate this character.  It is true
	however, that Jasmine was sick and tired of the life within the palace,
	and that she yearned to see the world.  Somehow, she did not possess
	the strength like Belle's.  Her "speaking" voice and her "singing"
	voice did not really reveal any noticeable difference.

THE GENIE : This guy was cool.  In fact I think that this character was
	more entertaining than the protagonists.  Robin Williams did a good
	job, he deserves a nomination.  The Genie impersonated almost
	everyone, from Arnold-T2 to Ed Sullivan.  You may notice several
	additional characters from the previous animations like
	Pinnochio, Sebastian...  He made the movie entertaining.
	Otherwise...

JAFAR : This villain was eeeeeviiillll!!!  More evil than Ursula, I
	like this one.

ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS : ABU the monkey belonged to Aladdin, and he was
	cute and mischievous.  The MAGIC CARPET was very nicely made
	(animation-wise).  IAGO the parrot was equivalent to Lefou,
	except that this parrot was smarter.

THE ROMANCE : I would say, ALADDIN contained an overdose of romance.
	Jasmine and Aladdin fell in love a bit too quickly, kissed a bit too
	early.  The romance was back to the old love-at-first-sight theme like
	those in the animations before BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.  The
	ending was a bit too cheesy, it could have been better.

THE SONGS : I don't know why I did not think the songs were great.
	Except for the first two songs, the rest of the songs were not what I
	call "plot carriers".  The songs did not blend homogeneously with the
	flow of the story like THE MERMAID or BEAUTY...  The tunes were not as
	catchy.  Considering the fact that ALADDIN took place in the Middle
	East, the songs were pretty Western-like to me.

MISCELLANEOUS : Certain scenes were superb, but not as outstanding as
	the Ballroom Scene in BEAUTY...  Disney used more computer-generated
	animation in this one.  The women were rather sexily dressed for some
	reason.  There was this scene where Princess Jasmine has a
	transparent veil sliding down her body (she was dressed, otherwise
	ALADDIN would be rated R) to seduce Jafar.  Even the Genie was
	shocked!!
	Color-wise, rather dull.  Red, yellow and blue dominant.
	ALADDIN also did not have a character that could act as a window for
	the children to connect to the story.  I guess Abu, the carpet and
	Iago would do, but Chip and Flounder served a better purpose in 
	BEAUTY... and THE MERMAID respectively.

ALADDIN is not that bad.  Entertaining, as I said, but Disney could
have made it better.  Again, however, this is just a humble point of
view from behind this eyes + pair of glasses of mine.
[====================================================================]
[  <ZARINA MUSTAPHA//zm4@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu>                     ]
[   Henry Krumb School of Mines                                      ]
[   School of Engineering and Applied Science                        ]
Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney