It slices! It dices! It plays the saxophone! It's five writeups in one!
(Nobody better ever accuse me of noding for numbers.)
1) The TV Show
Following quickly on the success of 1992's
Aladdin and its
direct-to-video sequel,
The Return of Jafar,
Disney set about creating a cartoon series based on Aladdin and Company's adventures after the events of the two movies, to run in
its two-hour block of syndicated shows known as the
Disney Afternoon. It became one of Disney's most popular
animated series, lasting
three seasons (86 episodes).
Part of the reason for the show's success - besides it being based on a hit movie and (arguably) having better writers than most children's
shows - may have been the unusual fact that nearly all of the
voice actors from the movies reprised their roles in the cartoon series. (The
only notable exception is the absence of
Robin Williams as
Genie - Williams had also refused to lend his voice to
The Return of
Jafar after Disney reneged on agreements he had made with them regarding the use of his voice and character.
Dan Castellaneta - best
know as the voice of
Homer Simpson - replaced him in both the second movie and in the cartoon series.) Usually when a movie spawns a TV
show, the latter has different actors - witness
M*A*S*H and
Stargate SG-1. The fact that this didn't happen with "Aladdin" may have
helped the characters to seem more genuine to young viewers.
Some of the characters underwent changes to their personality or demeanor for the animated series. The
Sultan, while still rather easily
flustered, is a lot less airheaded than in the movie (presumably the effects of Jafar's
hypnosis staff had worn off completely by this
time).
Iago's traded in the malevolence he showed in the movie for mere greed and rudeness, and is part of Aladdin's "posse", so to speak
(a development that occurred in
The Return of Jafar).
Razul, who was portrayed as something of a
sadist in the movie, is now
somewhat more amiable (he still doesn't like Aladdin, but he doesn't try drowning him anymore). And so on.
Here are the major villains of the series:
Abis Mal: After all that business with Jafar (whose lamp he found in the second movie), you'd think this guy wouldn't want to tangle
with Aladdin again. He's a bungling, incompetent oaf, but somehow he manages to keep finding magical items to use against his foe - probably
with a lot of help from his much more intelligent
right-hand man, Haroud Hazi Bin. Voiced by
Jason Alexander (
George Costanza on
Seinfeld).
Mechanikles: Self-proclaimed "Greatest of the great Greek geniuses." If he were
Roman, one might think Mechanikles responsible for
the abortive
industrial revolution that nearly occurred during the later years of the
Roman Empire. He is a master of invention, using
his knowledge of mechanics to create all sorts of engines of destruction; from robotic
wasps with razorblade stingers to a 50-foot tall
battle mech (no, I'm not kidding). Unfortunately for him (and fortunately for Agrabah), his machines always have one fatal flaw that allow
Aladdin and his pals to destroy them. Voiced by
Charles Adler.
Mirage: An anthropomorphic cat... who also happens to be "evil incarnate". Fun. Her magical ability is very great, and she seems to
take perverse pleasure in tormenting Genie. Voiced by
Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith from
Cheers).
Mozenrath: A young
wizard from lands far beyond. His only goal in life seems to be to gain as much power (magical, political, you
name it) as possible. He may very well be Aladdin's most dangerous enemy, since his magic can usually match that of the Genie's. Mozenrath
was originally going to be the focus of the third and final Aladdin movie (the plot was that Mozey turned out to be Aladdin's long-lost
brother), but those plans were scrapped. Mozenrath wears a leather-like glove on one hand as the source of his power, and is assisted by a
flying
eel thing (his
familiar, perhaps?) named
Xerxes. Voiced by
Jonathan Brandis (
Seaquest DSV).
(There were other recurring villains, of course, but these are really the only ones who appeared for more than two or three
episodes.)
"Aladdin" currently airs on
Toon Disney several times a day.
Sources:
IMDb's pages on the movie Aladdin: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103639
IMDb's pages on the TV Show "Aladdin": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105935
TV Tome's page on the TV Show "Aladdin": http://www.tvtome.com/Aladdin
My own memory
2) Genesis Video Game
Title: Aladdin (A.K.A. Disney's Aladdin)
Platform: Sega Genesis1
Genre: Platform/Action
Developers: Virgin Games and
Disney Software
Publisher: Sega of America
Release Date: November 11, 1993 (
North America)
VRC Rating2: GA (General Audience - equivalent to
ESRB rating of E)
1: An Aladdin game was released at the same time on the SNES, and at some time for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. Since I
haven't played any of these, I can't really say anything about them - including whether or not they're the same essential game on different
platforms. The SNES game is being ported to the Game Boy Advance and is due to be released in October 2004.
2: The Videogame Ratings Council was an advisory board wholly owned and operated by Sega. It provided ratings for their platforms' games
for a brief period - about early 1993 til the advent of the ESRB in late 1994. A "GA" rating is defined as "Appropriate for all
audiences".
Even in the early 90's, just about every Disney movie or TV show that was even mildly successful branched out into video games.
Aladdin was no exception. The Genesis game was released exactly a year after the first
LA/
NYC showing, which may or may not have been a coincidence. It follows Aladdin's adventures in Agrabah more or less faithfully to the
movie.
I can describe the content of this game in two words: Jumping puzzles. For reference, allow me to
channel the game developers' thought
process:
"Okay, so he's in the streets of Agrabah... I know! We'll have him jump from
rooftop to rooftop!"
"Okay, so he's in the Cave of Wonders... I know! We'll have him jump from one inexplicably floating rock to another!"
"Okay, so he's in Jafar's Palace... I know! We'll have him jump from platform to platform, and if he falls in the
fountain he'll die (even
though it can't be more than a foot or two deep)!"
I think we've seen enough.
Okay, I guess I'm being a little unfair. It's not *all* like that, but a good deal of it is. There isn't really any
combat to speak of;
every enemy except the bosses is a one-hit kill (with the
scimitar, anyway), although some enemies can block your attacks. The main issue
is often just getting in a position where you can hit them without taking damage yourself. I'm not saying it's a horrible game, mind; it's
certainly good for killing a few hours (if you're not easily frustrated by instant deaths). And it could be that I judging it through the
lenses of hindsight, but I think I was similarly irritated with the game when I first played it back in '93 or '94.
I mentioned that the game is pretty faithful to the movie, and I want to elaborate on that. It follows the storyline pretty well; however,
there are a lot of little quirks in it that vary from the movie or simply make no sense at all. In the game, for instance, Jafar approaches
Aladdin with his proposition, with the caveat that Aladdin has to find the
scarab; in the movie, Jafar already has half of it (and the
other half is given to him by a hired thief at the very beginning). Then, too, there's the Princess ordering Razul to let you go, when you
haven't even met her. And why is Iago attacking you when Jafar just sent you to get the scarab? For that matter, what are the palace guards
doing in the middle of the desert, or in their own
dungeon? Playing
pinochle?
Ah, well. Like I said, it's got its share of problems, but if you're bored, this isn't a horrible game to play.
3) Game Gear/Master System Game
Title: Aladdin (A.K.A. Disney's Aladdin)
Platform: Sega
Game Gear/
Sega Master System
Genre: Platformer
Developers: Virgin Games and
Disney Software
Publisher: Sega of America
Release Date: March 25, 1994 (
Japan - can't find exact North American release date)
VRC Rating2: GA (General Audience - equivalent to
ESRB rating of E)
I'm not going to say very much about this one, because frankly, I only got to level 3 before I got fed up with the damn thing and shut it
off. Remember what I said about the Genesis game being mostly jumping puzzles? (Of course you do. It was only a couple paragraphs ago.) This
game really
is all jumping puzzles. The animation is jagged, gameplay extremely bad. And the problems here are not due to
hardware
limitations; there've been many Game Gear games that didn't suffer from such low-quality animation and yawn-inducing gameplay -
Land of
Illusion (to pick another Disney example) is an excellent example of how much that little 8-bit wonder could do. This was simply a result of
shoddy
game design, nothing more.
One thing I
will say in defense of it, however, is that it's much more successful at keeping the plot coherent than its Genesis
equivalent.
4) Goofs and Trivia in the Movie
Powers already did an excellent writeup of the movie
Aladdin. What follows is a list of some tidbits and seeming mistakes in it.
(For obvious reasons, there are spoilers here.) None of these are listed at
IMDb, presumably either because nobody's noticed/submitted
them, or because IMDb didn't consider them to be legitimate. In any case, here they are:
Aladdin may not have advised that "all good teenagers take off their clothes", but there's at least
one rather obvious case of sexual innuendo (or maybe I just have a dirty mind): During the song "One Jump Ahead", when those three sisters
sing, "Oh it's sad, Aladdin's hit the bottom", one of them (quite unambiguously) shoves her "bottom" into
him.
Did you notice when Aladdin jumped through those clotheslines near the beginning of the movie, one of the garments that flies up is a
bra? There's an anachronism if I ever saw one...
So, are the Agrabahnians Muslims? Because they keep swearing by Allah. I realize, of course, that Arab
Christians also use the word "Allah" for "God", but most Westerners associate it with Islam, which is why I figure they're supposed to
be Muslims. In either case, it must be a pretty liberal area, considering the way the women act and dress. (On the other hand, the punishment
for stealing is still pretty harsh.)
Geography: Where would they find "fresh fish" anywhere near Agrabah, a city that's supposed to be in the middle of the desert?
Factual Error: Jasmine remarks that when she is Queen, she can get rid of Jafar. The female ruler of a sultanate is a Sultana,
not a Queen.
Plothole: When Aladdin is captured and Jasmine reveals herself to the guards, Razul is surprised (perhaps shocked) to see the
Princess outside the Palace walls; yet he doesn't even suggest that she return to the Palace with him. Strange behavior for the Captain of
the Guard. (Obviously this was done so that there would be time for Jafar to have Aladdin "executed" before Jasmine arrived.)
Plothole: I don't care how isolated Jasmine has been, how could she not know that things have to be paid for? She made it clear
she understood the concept of money, and that in itself implies an understanding of private property.
Plothole: Why is Jasmine wearing her Princess clothes under her cloak, anyway? Isn't she trying to fit in with the common people?
Plothole:Why isn't Aladdin suspicious that a decrepit prisoner is carrying around priceless gemstones, or that he hasn't left
even though he knows of a secret passage out of the dungeon?
Plothole: Isn't Jasmine a little curious as to how "Prince Ali" wound up on her balcony?
Animation Error: When Aladdin walks over the edge and Jasmine yells for him to stop, his head pops up over the balcony as he asks
what's wrong. But when the "camera" pans out to show him on the magic carpet, his head is clearly below the balcony's railing.
Continuity Error: Isn't Jasmine a little curious as to how "Prince Ali" (who she knows, after the carpet ride, to be the same guy
she met in the marketplace before) escaped from being beheaded? (I'm calling this a "continuity error" because the character is failing to
take all past events into account.)
Plothole: The fact that the Sultan, or Jasmine, or any of Aladdin's other friends/allies could wish Genie free after he used his
third wish never seems to occur to anyone.
5) Aladdin Special Platinum Edition DVD
Starting October 4, 2004, Aladdin will be available on DVD for the first time. The Special Platinum Edition will include:
- The cut song "Proud Of Your Boy" (recorded at a time when the script called for Aladdin's mother still being alive)
- Fun Facts Trivia Track mode
- Deleted Scenes
- Documentary: "A Diamond In the Rough: The Making of Aladdin"
- Audio commentary
- "Inside The Genie's Lamp" - 3D "tour" of... the Genie's Lamp
- Genie's Magical Journey
- Disney's Virtual DVD Ride: Aladdin’s Magic Carpet activity
- The Bizarre Bazaar Game
- New music videos and sing-alongs
This info's essentially copied (with some paraphrasing) from Amazon.com's list of Product Details for this DVD. When it comes out, I'll
alter it to include more... substantial information. Disney is also offering a special "Collector's Edition" which will include lithographs
of film scenes, some plush toys, and an "Aladdin Special Edition" book.