Random Thoughts on "Aladdin"

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2005)

Just watched this recently, on the new-and-improved DVD which features a restored print, and it looks spectacular. The story is slightly shallower than the best of Disney's films, but this is balanced by the sheer lunacy of Robin Williams' bad, blue Genie. Whoever first thought of putting Robin Williams in a Disney flick should get a Pulitzer, or a Nobel, or something. The comic timing of his riffs combined with the comic timing of the animators transform the Genie from a "Deus Ex Machina" into the soul of "Aladdin."
I have a tiny issue with the fact that the most recent VHS and DVD prints of the movie have bowed to pressure from activist groups and altered a line in the opening song. The original line was, "...where they cut if your ear if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but hey, it's home." The revised line reads, "...where the land is immense and the heat is intense/It's barbaric, but hey, it's home." Protesters claimed the original line perpetuated a negative stereotype of Arab countries and peoples. But...but...but marketplaces and cities in Arabian countries still cut the hands off convicted thieves. And there's even a scene in the film which threatens to relieve the princess of an appendage. They're not being negative; they're being accurate. And, oh yeah, IT'S A CARTOON. But that's just my opinion.