Review of Aladdin (1992) by Kai82 — 30 Jan 2022

I have fond childhood memories of the movie as me and friends watched it in cinema back then. It is one of my favorite Disney movies and also one of the best movies for the Aladdin story. It is based on the famous “One Thousand and One Nights” where Scheherazade has to tell her husband Shahryar stories to avoid her demise (He is not evil but life has harmed him seriously).

It is a mixture of stories from many genres and full of great tales and themes anyone recognizes. Aladdin is one of he most famous figures from this despite being not in the original (Added later). There are countless movies, stories and series about him as his tale is a timeless classic.

The movie starts with a merchant who wants to sell an old lamp and tells the story of it. The rest I think I don't need to say as the themes are familiar. Anybody is familiar with the story and elements somehow.

It is a great retelling with charming characters, great humor and so immersive you feel along with the characters. In this regard it is an amazing work and many see this as classic. It is the best Disney movie of the era.

The animations were excellent and the style is unique and won the audience over. They capture the Arabian or Oriental setting really well and the facial animations deliver the full extent of the characters feelings.

The other part are the voice actors which enhance this to a 11/10 ;-). Nearly everyone praises Robin Williams for his role as Genie and rightfully so. He alone is worth watching the movie. But it ends not there as Jonathan Freeman as Jafar, Scott Weinger as Aladdin, Linda Larkin as Jasmine and Gilbert Gottfried as Iago give also a praiseworthy performance.

There is no weak performance in the movie and I see this clearly as I want to praise more characters. Like I said the humor works well, it is immersive and the characters feel like real people. This is a / the hallmark of great movies.

I have also to talk about the fantastic soundtrack. It is one of the best Disney soundtracks, quite memorable and won Academy Awards. Overall this is a timeless classic I recommend for everyone. It shows the strengths of Disney movies of that time.

Bonus knowledge: There is the fan theory that this movie is actually set in the far future after society collapsed in a catastrophic event because the Genie is familiar with our culture and had slept for a long time.