Aladdin

Aladdin is a street-smart young thief in the mythical city of Agrabah. He meets and falls in love with the Sultan's daughter, Jasmine, an independent soul who, much like Aladdin, seeks escape from her circumstances.

Jafar, the Sultan's evil vizier, deceives Aladdin into helping him retrieve a magic lamp, which ends up in the possession of Aladdin and his monkey friend, Abu. The lamp's occupant is a lunatic, shape-shifting genie, who promises his master three wishes, and though he cannot make Jasmine fall in love with Aladdin- he can certainly make things easier for him.

Posing as the rich and handsome Prince Ali, Aladdin completely fails to impress the Princess, and discovers that it was his true self she was interested in all along. Using his own cunning and courage, Aladdin defeats Jafar and his evil schemes, earning princely tide-and the hand of the Princess.

Aladdin, Jasmine, Abu, Rajah, The Genie, The Sultan, The Flying Carpet, Jafar, Iago

Release date reflects the date of general release to the public. This film went into limited release the week before the general release, with shows in Los Angeles and New York.

With the success of the last film, #31 on the list was eagerly anticipated by audiences all over the world. By all accounts, Aladdin did not disappoint. Still a musical, but heavy on the adventure and the comedy, served up at an energy level that only comic crazy Robin Williams could achieve.

Aladdin was first proposed by Howard Ashman during the build up to The Little Mermaid in 1988. Beauty and the Beast writer Linda Woolverton took a whack at the story and directors John Musker and Ron Clements picked it from among three projects offered as a follow up to 1989's The Little Mermaid. (The other two projects offered were Swan Lake and King of the Jungle – which would morph into The Lion King).

Screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were brought in to clean up Musker and Clements first drafts. They dropped Aladdin's mother, and make Jasmine the main female character. Aladdin's was changed from a 13 year old boy to an 18 year old young man. The character was updated to be more like Tom Cruise than Michael J. Fox, and "a little rougher, like a young Harrison Ford." His dancing- and, to some extent, his wardrobe, was inspired by rapper M.C. Hammer. The parrot Iago, originally to be a calm and serious character, was reworked into a manic role inspired by Gilbert Gottfried's character in Beverly Hills Cop II.

But the production really hit its stride when Robin Williams came on board as the Genie. In an unusual move for an animated film, the directors had Williams' ad-lib all his dialogue. Musker and Clements would give Williams topics and direction for the dialogue, but allow him to just go crazy with his lines. Eric Goldberg, supervising animator for the Genie, then reviewed Williams' recorded dialogue and selected the best gags and lines to fit into each scene. Typically, animators work from established dialogue. But in the case of using a someone so known for on the spot improvisation as Williams, letting him go wild was probably the best way to create more energy ion the film.

Williams did the film for scale- $75,000- but demanded that neither his name or image could be used to promote the film. Disney reneged on the deal, and this caused a rift between the two that lasted years. The first two direct to video Aladdin sequels featured Dan Castellaneta voicing the Genie because of this. Williams remained miffed at the studio until Katzenberg left, and his replacement Joe Roth apologies for the studio.

Further controversies continued to follow the film; one was incited by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) who felt the lyrics to the opening song "Arabian Nights" were offensive to their sensibilities. Specifically, they felt the line "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" portrayed Arabs in a demeaning light. In July 1993 the line was changed to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense."

Later, Anna Runge and the American Life League suggested (among other allegations) that Aladdin says "Good teenagers, take off your clothes," to Rajah the Tiger during the balcony scene. The groups considered this a subliminal reference to promiscuity, and totally inappropriate for inclusion in a film their kids watched endlessly. Disney's official statement was the line reads "Good kitty, take off and go..." and the word "kitty" is overlapped by Rajah's snarl. After the word kitty, a second voice can be heard which has been suggested was accidentally grafted onto the soundtrack. Because of the controversy, Disney replaced the phrase with "Down, kitty" on the DVD release.

The film was made for about 28 million dollars. It ended up making back 20 million its first weekend, and 207 million US /504 million worldwide in its initial release. A slow climber, it opened as the number two film in the US, but by its fifth week had risen to number one, a rank it held 5 times during its 22 week run. Aladdin is the twenty-sixth highest grossing animated film and the third highest grossing traditionally animated feature worldwide, behind The Lion King and The Simpsons Movie.

Aladdin set a new record for video sales, according to The Guinness Book of Records. The video was released in North America in October 1993, and had sold over 24 million units in the United States and Canada by April 1994.

The film achieved record admissions in Brazil, where the video sold 280,000 units, also setting a new record for video sales in that country. The video also set a sales record in Japan (2.2 million copies by 1997).

Although the sultan allows Aladdin and Jasmine to wed, they don't actually manage this until the end of the second sequel.

This was the 31th film in the official Disney list of animated films.

Academy Award Winner, Best Music (Original Score), Alan Menken, 1993.
Academy Award Winner, Best Original Song, "A Whole New World" (Music: Alan Menken.
Lyrics: Howard Ashman), 1993.
Academy Award Nominee, Best Original Song, "Friend Like Me" (Music: Alan Menken.
Lyrics: Howard Ashman), 1993.
Academy Award Nominee, Best Sound, David Hudson, Doc Kane, Mel Metcalfe, Terry Porter, 1993.
Academy Award Nominee, Best Sound Effects Editing, Mark Mangini, 1993.
Golden Globe Award Winner, Best Original Score, 1993.
Golden Globe Award Winner, Best Original Song (Motion Picture), "A Whole New World", 1993.
Golden Globe Award Winner, Special Achievement Award, Robin Williams, 1993.
Golden Globe Award Nominee, Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), 1993.
Golden Globe Award Nominee, Best Original Song, "Friend Like Me" (Music: Alan Menken.
Lyrics: Howard Ashman), 1993.
Golden Globe Award Nominee, Best Original Song, "Prince Ali" (Music: Alan Menken.
Lyrics: Howard Ashman), 1993