One of Disney's weaker recent efforts

Rating: 8/10 (30 September 1999)

`Aladdin' caused a few ripples of shock in animation circles. It seemed that Disney had started to pick up some tricks from Warner Brothers, like the rapid-fire topical references and Hollywood-star-of-the-day caricature. Most people were pleased. It's orthodoxy in animation circles that the Warner Brothers style is a great one, much more lively than Disney's.
I beg to differ. Warner Brothers cartoons are under-characterised, talky, brash WITHOUT being energetic, and they don't age well. They fail to be comic despite the fact that every other virtue is sacrificed for comedy's sake. I wish it to be said that none of this applies to the very fine efforts of Chuck Jones. SOME of his cartoons are masterpieces. But some - the Pepe Le Pew series, for example - are dreadful; and what has happened here, I think, is that he has been poisoned by the Warner Brothers style. So too has `Aladdin' been poisoned. In another decade everyone will have forgotten why Robin Williams was meant to be so funny and we will watch the genie only for Eric Goldberg's animation - which is technically superb, but a bit too literal, and too willing to follow Williams's lead.
There are a couple of other flaws in `Aladdin' that will become more obvious as the years roll. For one thing, the computer generated images just don't fit the other images. (The Cave of Wonders is a visual debacle, which is sad, considering how good the rest of the art direction is.) More importantly, Aladdin isn't an appealing hero. Get this for shallow: he refuses to free the genie from servitude in order to perpetuate a deceit practised on Jasmine because of a crisis of confidence that, so far as one can tell from the opening song, he doesn't really feel.
Of course we all know the film was a huge success, and it's not hard to see why: it offered the best character animation in the world, expertly staged songs, an uncynical look at an old story - all of the usual things, with a luscious princess thrown in. Like ALL of Disney's recent animated films it's easy to enjoy. But consider the other two of these films worked on by the team of Musker and Clements: `The Little Mermaid' and `Hercules'. `Aladdin', as much fun as it is, clearly lacks the heart of the former and the energy and technical brilliance of the latter, without offering a value-for-money trade off. But don't let this stop you watching it.