Movie Thoughts: Aladdin (1992)

• Released: 25 November 1992
• Directed by: Ron Clements, John Musker
• Running time: 1 h 30 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

A poor boy finds a magical lamp which contains a genie, thus obtaining three wishes. He uses these to try to win a heart of a princess, but soon finds out that being true to your own heart is much more important.

My Thoughts

Another Disney movie I didn't grow up with, but am still very fond of. I don't really known many people that dislike this movie. Everyone keeps going on and on about it and Robin Wilson's Genie in particular.

But yes, I am of the opinion that it's good as well. The Disney renaissance has just been going pretty damn strong so far. Aladdin is yet another great installment. We get a great movie with likable main characters. I particularly liked our leads, Aladdin and Jasmine. 

We also get some beautiful visuals. The animation is once more great, and also for the first time obviously relies a lot of more on 3D CGI to me. It was definitely there in stuff like Beauty and the Beast, but it was rather obvious here. It hasn't aged perfectly, but for the time it was definitely impressive. I also really liked the color palette of this movie, it's just really pretty, with its reds and blues in some of the scenes. Beauty and the Beast looked good, but the color palette was less appealing to me, with its more pastel shades. Aladdin often has more aggressive lighting and stylization, which has my preference.

Something else that was great was the villain, Jafar. Is he my favorite Disney villain? No, but his presence is definitely threatening and I like how just unapologetically evil he was. His sidekick Iago was a bit more annoying (with his VA constantly screaming all his lines), but not unbearable or anything.

Then there's the elephant in the room: Robin Williams' Genie. Everyone loves this guy. Me? I love him, too, of course. However, not for the same reason other people do. I keep seeing reviewers go on and on about how funny he is. And, while I really like the character, I just...do not consider him to be funny. Maybe my sense of humor is just different, but I genuinely didn't crack a laugh at his constant random reference jokes. To me, the Genie is at his best at his more mellow moments where he connects with Aladdin, such as the scene where our lead promises to set him free with his last wish. Those are the scenes with him that I think are wonderful. But his humor just wasn't for me. It was a bit obnoxious and overstimulating at times even (please don't kill me for saying that). But, again, I do love this character. Just not for the reasons everyone else does. The more quiet moments with him were by far the best scenes in the movie.

I do have some issues with the relationship between Aladdin and Jasmine. Not any major ones, but I just didn't really see any true chemistry between these two. They have some neat scenes together, but I don't really buy them as a couple. It went by a little too fast. Heck, all they really connected over was feeling trapped and a magic carpet ride. But it still went too fast. I think I'd have preferred if their connection was developed more thoroughly over a longer amount of time, but since there's only 3 days until Jasmine has to get married it all feels very rushed and we don't feel a true connection between these two bloom. I do like their characters individually, I just don't really buy them as a romantic couple (yet).

Then there's the songs. Man, what an amazing soundtrack. There's, again, only one song I really didn't vibe with, and it's "Friend Like Me". Why is honestly the same reason as why I didn't like "Be My Guest" in Beauty and the Beast: it's too busy, fast and there's too much going on. Maybe kids like this stuff, but for me it feels overstimulating and unpleasant. I'm not saying they're not well-put together songs, but they're just not for me. But the rest of the soundtrack in this one was great. I loved "A Whole New World" and "Arabian Nights". Alan Menken did a great job on them.

While I do have some (admittedly minor) issues with the film, I absolutely recommend Aladdin. I'm sure there's some cultural stuff in here that hasn't aged as well (such as the cast being primarily white as far as I can see), but for what it is, it's a very well put-together movie.