A fun Disney adventure with plenty of laughs and solid songs

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2019)

This classic Disney film is centred on the eponymous Aladdin, a street urchin in the city of Agrabah. Here he survives by stealing food, along with his monkey, Abu. His life is about to change because of two people from the palace. One is Jafar, the scheming Royal Vizier, who needs a 'diamond in the rough' to retrieve a magical lamp from the 'Cave of Wonders'. The other is Princess Jasmine who must marry in three days but hasn't found a suitable princely suitor. Fed up with the restrictive life in the palace she dresses in peasant clothes and goes into the city, where she meets Aladdin. Events lead to him being captured and forced to enter the Cave of Wonders; here he finds the lamp and releases the genie inside... it offers him three wishes. There are a few catches so Aladdin must use the wishes wisely... he must also avoid Jafar who wants the genie's power.
I really enjoyed this Disney animation. The story provides a fine mix of thrills, romance, comedy and solid songs. Aladdin himself is a likeable male lead and Jasmine is a good female lead. Jafar is a great villain, menacing without being too scary for younger viewers. However it is the genie, voiced by the Robin Williams on great form, who steals the show whenever he is on screen. As one would expect the animation is of a high quality; with 2D characters impressively immersed in 3D scenes. The songs are so good you'll likely find yourself humming them afterwards. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of quality animation.