Aladdin

Yeah, Disney's Aladdin. I haven't even thought of this movie in ages, but stumbling across a parody of the "Prince Ali" song put a bee in my bonnet, so I figured, "Why not review it while I rewatch it?" See if I can't peel some nostalgia film off my glasses, or maybe the movie really is that good. If anyone hasn't seen this movie, be careful, I'm gonna be spoiling the crap out of this.

Okay, well, the introduction is still funny, and the first appearance of Aladdin himself is properly sympathetic and charismatic. The songs are still good, and I'm catching a lot more of Genie's references now that I'm older. The cave escape sequence has not held up well, though. The CGI backgrounds coupled with the hand-drawn characters looks like a really, REALLY badly done blue screen effect. Apart from little hiccups like that, the animation's still pretty kickin'. Character designs are pure Disney. Jafar's pointy like all good villains, Jasmine's rocking the exposed midriff, the Sultan's the classic portly and dumb, and Aladdin is amazingly averagely built.

The plot has the standard holes. Why does no one recognize Aladdin as Ali? It's a change of clothes. That's it. He talks in his normal voice a lot. Jasmine only recognizes him because of his repeating lines (though she thought he was dead, so it's a little more understandable), but Jafar's not stupid. He had absolutely no clue. Next plot hole is the standard "I'm insecure so I'm going to deceive absolutely everyone and end up screwing everything up." If Aladdin had simply gone ahead and freed the Genie after his second wish, movie over. Jafar would have been boned. Last plot hole I care to mention is right at the end. "Hey, you got one wish. Whatcha gonna use it on?" YO. Jasmine is RIGHT THERE. She's a nice girl. I'm sure she'd wish for it. Or how about the Sultan? Abu's fairly intelligent, could he make a wish? Wait, can animals make wishes? Iago doesn't seem so altruistic. Why didn't he take a crack at the lamp? Maybe animals can't, intelligent or no.

Still, despite that, I gotta say, the movie still holds up pretty well. I still laughed at the jokes, and found the plot enjoyable. It's bright, and shiny, and wacky enough to entertain kids, but still fun for adults, as long as you like the singing and animated wacky. I was rather struck by how dark it got, though. Then I thought about it. A lot of Disney movies get rather dark, don't they? I'm going to have to do more research....