Is "Aladdin" Nothing Without the Genie?

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2012)

It's hardly a mystery why the "Aladdin" myth attracted Disney's animation crew back in 1992. This timeless story boasts everything: exotic locales, a scrappy hero, flamboyant characters, opulent royalty, giddy romance, despicable and devious villains, and, most tellingly, the endless possibilities of magic as epitomized by the genie. However, as Disney's animators crafted this dynamic spectacle of a movie, I think they must have been concerned that one of "Aladdin"'s greatest assets -the protean, boundlessly energetic, and fast-talking Genie, as voiced by the inimitable comic pantomiming maelstrom Robin Williams- might ironically turn out to be one of its greatest liabilities. In the Genie, we have a dominating, omnipotent character who can seemingly do anything. So, once Aladdin gets possession of the Genie's lamp, isn't the movie over? Just three wishes, and it's happily ever after.
Besides, doesn't Aladdin succeed solely because of the Genie? You may recall that Aladdin (voice of Scott Weinger) promises to free the unbridled genie with his third wish. However, after the Genie makes him a fabulously wealthy prince on the verge of wooing the Sultan's (Douglas Seale) alluring daughter Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin) toward matrimony, Aladdin wants to renege on the deal because he feels he cannot continue this ultimate charade without the Genie's continued help. Understandably, this puts the Genie in a funk and leads to a series of plot twists that place the Genie under the control of the ruthlessly ambitious Sultan's vizier (consultant) Jafar (Jonathan Freeman). It seems that Aladdin goes from hero back to hopeless zero.
But hold on thearrrr, as Quick Draw McGraw would say, Disney shows us that Aladdin is not such a hopeless nothing. From the beginning of the film, where we see the penniless orphan and his pilfering simian accomplice Abu (Frank Welker) acrobatically elude the Sultan's security guards led by the burly, irascible Razoul (Jim Cummings), we notice that Aladdin is nimble, clever, street smart, plucky and adaptable. Even after being trapped in the Cave of Wonders by a disguised Jafar (who needs Aladdin to obtain the magic lamp) and finding the lamp, Aladdin tricks the trickster Genie into freeing him without wasting a wish. Furthermore, even the Genie's vast power has its limits. Besides servitude to whoever has the lamp, the Genie informs Aladdin that he has no power over death or love. In other words, he can't be an assassin, or the Messiah, or Cupid. If Aladdin wants to woo Jasmine, he ultimately has to do it on his own. And when Jafar exploits the Genie to become a sultan and sorcerer and uses his power to neutralize his friends, Aladdin again has to find it within himself to defeat Jafar on his own. Instead of false princely status, he uses his courage, sly wit and Jafar's voracious desire for ultimate magic to bring him down.
So you see, "Aladdin" belies its ethereal, insubstantial structure and supernatural fantasy elements to remind us that, after all, even if you have true friends to help you along, the true magic to make your life better lies within you.