Aladdin

Aladdin; animated fantasy, USA, 1992; D: John Musker, Ron Clements, S: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Gilbert Gottfried

Middle East, Agrabah. The evil Jafar, Sultan's advisor, discovered a magical lamp in a cave where only one chosen person can enter: Aladdin. He is a poor lad, but saves the life of princess Jasmine who ran away from her palace because she didn't want to get married. Jafar persuades Aladdin to find the lamp, but the cave collapses. Yet Aladdin is saved by the genie in the lamp who helps him defeat Jafar and conquer Jasmine's heart.

"Aladdin", the 31st animated feature by the Walt Disney studios, is the 25th most commercial film of the 20th century, but it is not as beautiful as some other Disney films, such as "Snow White". Besides  the fact that it has all the stereotypes of almost all Disney animated films til date ever since "Snow White", "Aladdin" has a more pressing problem: it would have been nothing without the score and Robin Williams' colossal, tour-de-force comic performance—the storyline is as developed as an episode of a morning TV cartoon show, while the overt goofiness wipes out a large amount of pathos and emotions. For instance, the entrance of the secret cave is shaped like a cat's head (!) that moves its rocky mouth when it talks and thus looks absurd. Equally banal is the sequence where the guards are chasing after the title hero and sing, ending in compost, as well as the one where Aladdin is disguised as a prince and arrives with a giant kitschy balloon shaped like a monkey... Needles to say that all these attempts at jokes seem lame. Still, despite its chaotic nature, "Aladdin" is an interesting animated film, but the already mentioned performance by Williams, who provides the voice of the comic genie, is simply perfect—who among others makes humorous impersonations of Jack Nicholson, Rodney Dangerfield and William F. Buckley—and thus his character is a notch above the entire rest of the film, probably even one of the top three best animated Disney characters of the 20th century. The story is thin, yet appropriately fairylike, especially in the enchantingly beautiful sequence in which the love couple Aladdin and Jasmine fly on a magic rug through the clouds, accompanied by the perfect song "A Whole New World".

Grade:++