Disney, where have you gone?

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2006)

This really is something special. As a kid, this was an amazing film; hilarious, thrilling, engaging and definitely on par with Disney's best. Coming back to it after so long and little has changed. However, there were a few things that detracted my present experience from that of my childhood. The first half of the film is overall a little on the boring side. Other than the unveiling of Robin Williams' show stopping Genie, the music, visuals and Jafar, the rest of characters weren't as compelling as i remember. The main protagonists and their romantic endeavour isn't the most magical in Disney's history (compared to say "Lady and the Tramp" it's desperately shallow), which is a shame since they take up most of the plot. Jasmine is still gorgeous with a fiery personality trying to break free of a restrained life, but Aladdin is quite a standard underdog, his plight not really drawing great sympathy, despite the fact he's a swell guy and all with a heart of gold. So really, Jasmine's attraction to him comes of quite "same old trick" sort of thing, both individuals having the same "trapped" feeling in life that brings them together.
Saying that, "A Whole New World" is still a breathtaking number, and that entire scene at least gives the romantic plot a more than satisfactory feeling. And that's Aladdin's key. It's last half is fabulous. From the transformation of Aladdin into Prince Ali to the very end, it's hard to find a glaring fault. For some reason everything just comes together. You care for the protagonists, Jafar just keeps getting more evil, and the animation is the definition of top draw (always is). In the end you just know you've seen something great and you don't care how it happened but your glad it did, like you've really been in a whole new world for an hour and a half (almost). The slowish first half just dissolves into memory, until you watch it again (you will), and once again, the second half will drag you back into it all and you'll love it even more.
It's also worth noting that the one absolute constant in all of this is the Genie. Once he appears with the classic "Friend Like Me", every scene he's in comes alive due to Williams' blinding comic momentum, plus the animators' endlessly imaginative play. He's definitely the most engaging, sympathetic character in the film and you really feel for him and his own wish to be free of the lamp.
Aladdin is, and always will be, a Disney classic in my books. It's difficult to pinpoint how it does it, but it just does. A shining testament of what the company was and still is capable of when they really put their soul and time into something they really want to do, instead of something they think they need to do, which sadly seems to be to keep the company on it's feet so they can make even more money. There was a time when art, entertainment and dreams trumped everything else, the reason why "Disney's Folly" as it was dismissively called so long ago, became the pioneer in one of cinema's most magical medias. That was the idea that gave birth to films like this and a whole lot of others they did themselves (right up to as recently as Tarzan and Lilo & Stitch), plus the gems that everyone else have achieved. Lets hope the company gets through this dry spell and returns for another go round. They did it before, they can do it again.