Aladdin grant the fan's wishes, by being a great film. A whole new world.

Rating: 8/10 (11 October 2013)

Aladdin is a key piece to the comeback of Disney. Before Aladdin, Disney was still struggling after a long period of fail animated block-busters films. The biggest blow to the company, came in 1981's The Fox and the Hound when long-time animator Don Bluth left Disney, taking 11 Disney animators with him. Disney came back with 1989's Little Mermaid and 1991's Beauty and the Beast, but with the success of Aladdin, Disney spark the era known as the Disney Renaissance, that continue until the early 2000's. These film restore public and critical interest back into Disney. Aladdin was a very controversial choice for a kid's movie when it came out. Aladdin is based on the Arab folktale of Aladdin and the magic lamp. It's still unknown if Aladdin is not actually part or not part of the 1001 Arabian Nights stories. The tale of Aladdin was somewhat violence and had various forms of erotica. The original story had Aladdin, with the help of his magical ring full of Djin, kidnapped Jasmine on her honeymoon. How romantic, a kidnapping movie! Glad, they change the plot somewhat from the original tale. One of the verses of the opening song "Arabian Nights" in the film had to be altered following protests from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) due to its violence lyrics about cutting ears. There is also protest raise by another scene where Aladdin is mistaken by critics due to the line, 'Good Kitty, take off' which the critics thought he was saying 'Good teenagers, take off your clothes'. Because of the controversy, Disney replaced the phrase with "Down, kitty" on the DVD release. People have also took noticed with the similarities between Aladdin and Richard Williams's film The Thief and the Cobbler AKA The Princess and the Cobbler (1993). Though Aladdin was released prior to The Thief and the Cobbler, The Thief and the Cobbler was started much earlier in the 1960s, so they have been dispute who rip off who even up to today. The film story is about Aladdin (voiced by Scott Weigner) a poor but kind-hearted Agrabah thief who finds himself arrested for thievery. Jafar (voiced by Jonathan Freeman) promise him a reward in return for retrieving the lamp from the Cave of Wonders, a mysterious magical cave. Jafar tries to betray him for the lamp, and Aladdin find himself trapped in the collapsed cave. In the collapsed cave, Aladdin rubs the lamp, unexpectedly unleashing Genie (Voiced by Robin Williams), who reveals he will grant Aladdin three wishes. Seeing this as his way out, Aladdin created a new life as Prince Ali to get closer to the princess Jasmine (voice by Linda Larkin). Jafar starts to question Prince Ali believing him as the poor thief that he betrayed and start to make plans to steal the lamp once and for all. The movie has a great message for the children about being yourself and not allow yourself to be imprisoned. Glad they didn't go with the Greed is good message. The animation is great. Even today, I have to say when the Cave of Wonders, Sand Tiger come alive, it brings chills down my neck. The magic carpet ride through the cave was collapsing was intense. I can't help thinking of those scenes, even now. The music to the film is ground breaking good to hear. Composer Alan Menken and songwriters Howard Ashman and Tim Rice were praised for creating a soundtrack that is amazing. I love 'A Whole New World'. One of the best love songs of the 1990's. It has an amazing melody that complements the scenery very well. I too love how the song speeds up, giving it a very romantic yet magical and adventurous feel to it. The other songs like 'Friends like me', 'Street Rat', 'One Jump Ahead' and 'Prince Ali' also work. I do have to say the 2004, Special Edition released kinda ruin it, by having a new song "Proud of Your Boy", performed by Clay Aiken which I thought was mediocre. Now there has been a couple of fan theories that goes with this film, that I like to address like The Merchant is the Genie. Both look very similar, and it seems to make sense because Robin Williams voices both characters. Another variation of this same theory says the man made the whole story up to sell the lamp, so Aladdin wasn't really a true story. The last theory is the most outlandish. Some people think that Aladdin takes place in a Post- Apocalyptic future where technological marvels had been long forgotten and been taking as magic. Some critics even think the Magic Carpet is a time- traveling device. The Genie proves this theory by making impressions of ancient, long-dead celebrities like Groucho Marx, and Jack Nicholson. Still, it can make sense that the Genie is an all-powerful being who can see into the future, so he can make jokes like those, but why would he make jokes that Aladdin wouldn't get. The truth is, Robin Williams was making cultural references jokes to get more people to see the film. Much of Robin Williams' dialogue was ad-libbed and it was estimated that Williams improvised 52 characters for animation to work on. It was no surprised that the film has so many in-jokes impersonality as Robin is known for that at the time. This was a new type of Disney humor that wasn't in much kids movies at the time. Disney would later use this type of humor in other animation films like 2001's Emperor New Groove, and 1997's Hercules. In an odd way, Aladdin also take place in the same period as Hercules, so a crossover was used in later projects. Check out, Disney's first direct-to-video sequel, 1994's The Return of Jafar and the TV Show. 1996's Aladdin and the King of Thieves was OK so check it. Overall: Aladdin is a great nostalgia movie that takes us back to when we were kids. Worth watching.