Aladdin (1992 movie)

Aladdin
Directed by
Screenplay by
  • Ron Clements
  • John Musker
  • Ted Elliott
  • Terry Rossio
Story by
Based on"Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" from One Thousand and One Nights[a]
Produced by
  • John Musker
  • Ron Clements
Starring
Edited byH. Lee Peterson
Music by
Production
company
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures
Release date
  • November 11, 1992 (1992-11-11)[4]
Running time
90 minutes[5]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$28 million[6]
Box office$504.1 million[6]

Aladdin is a 1992 American animated musical fantasy movie based on the Middle Eastern folk tale "Aladdin" from "One Thousand and One Nights" which was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The movie was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. Starring Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, and Douglas Seale, the movie centers on an Arabian street urchin named Aladdin who discovers a magic lamp containing a genie, with whose help he disguses himself as a wealthy prince and attempts to impress the Sultan of Agrabah and win the heart of his free-spirited daughter, Princess Jasmine, while the Sultan's evil vizier, Jafar, plans to acquire the magic lamp.

Lyricist Howard Ashman pitched the movie's conception to Disney president Jeffrey Katzenberg and the screenplay went through three drafts before Katzenberg agreed to its production. The animators based their designs on the work of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, and computers were used to both finish the hand-drawn artwork and create some additional animated elements. Composed by Alan Menken, the film's musical score features six songs with lyrics written by both Ashman and Tim Rice (who took over following Ashman's death in 1991).

Aladdin was released by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution on November 11, 1992, to critical and commercial success: critics praised the animation and Williams' performance as the genie, and it became the highest-grossing movie of the year, with an earning of over $504 million in worldwide box-office revenue. On release, the film became the first animated feature to reach the half-billion-dollar mark, and was the fifth highest-grossing movie at the time of its release and the highest-grossing animated feature of all time until it was surpassed by The Lion King (1994).

Aladdin garnered two Academy Awards, as well as other accolades for its soundtrack, which had the first number from a Disney feature to earn a Grammy Award for Song of the Year, for the theme song "A Whole New World", which was performed by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. The film's home VHS release set a sales record, grossing approximately $500 million in the United States. Aladdin's success led to various derived works and other material inspired by the film, including two direct-to-video sequels, The Return of Jafar (1994) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996); an animated television series (1994–1995); and in 2011 a stage musical adaptation. A live-action movie adaptation directed by Guy Ritchie was released in 2019.

Plot

In the city of Agrabah, the Sultan wants his daughter Princess Jasmine to marry a prince, but she rejects every suitor and temporarily leaves the palace. At the marketplace, she meets a "street rat" named Aladdin.

Jafar, the Sultan's vizier, discovers that Aladdin is the only one who can enter the Cave of Wonders and find a magic lamp. Jafar orders him to get the lamp. Aladdin and his pet monkey, Abu, enter the cave, where they befriend a magic carpet and obtain the lamp. Abu inadvertently grabs a forbidden treasure and the cave collapses itself. Jafar believes Aladdin has died.

After surviving, Aladdin rubs the lamp and meets the Genie, who grants three wishes for him. Aladdin uses the first one to disguise himself as a prince so that he can meet Jasmine again. Pretending to be a prince, he returns to the city, and meets the Sultan and Jafar. After Jasmine discovers the identity of Aladdin, the Sultan decides to promote him.

When Jafar steals the lamp and releases the Genie. Jafar uses two of his wishes to become a sorcerer and to make himself the sultan. However, Aladdin tells Jafar that he is still not as powerful as the Genie. This makes Jafar wish to become a Genie as well, but this means that he is now trapped in a lamp forever along Iago, Jafar's parrot.

Aladdin uses his third wish to free the Genie and he sets off to see the world. Aladdin and Jasmine plan their marriage.

Cast and characters

  • Scott Weinger as Aladdin, an impoverished but kindhearted Arabah thief and street urchin who falls in love with Princess Jasmine. For his audition, Weinger sent a homemade audition tape as Aladdin, with his mother playing the Genie,[7] and after several callbacks, found out six months later that he had been cast as the title character.[8] Aladdin's supervising animator was Glen Keane.
    • Brad Kane provides Aladdin's singing voice.[9]
  • Robin Williams as the Genie, a hyperactive jinn who has the power to grant three wishes to whoever possesses his magic lamp and serves as the movie's comic relief. Clements and Musker had written the role of the Genie for Robin Williams, but when met with resistance, created a reel of Williams's stand-up animation of the Genie. The directors asked Eric Goldberg, the Genie's supervising animator, to animate the character over one of Williams's old stand-up comedy routines to pitch the idea to the actor. The resulting test, in which Williams's stand-up about schizophrenia was translated to the Genie growing another head to argue with himself, made Williams "laugh his ass off", and convinced him to sign for the role. Williams's appearance in Aladdin marked the beginning of a transition in animation to use celebrity voice actors rather than specifically trained voice actors.[10]
    • Williams also provides the voice of a peddler who appears at the beginning of the film, whom the directors intended to be the same Genie in disguise narrating the story.[11][12][13]
      • Bruce Adler provides the peddler's singing voice.
  • Linda Larkin as Princess Jasmine, the Sultan's beautiful daughter who is bored with life in the royal palace and also falls in love with Aladdin. Larkin was chosen for the role of Jasmine nine months after her audition, and had to adjust and lower her high-pitched voice to reach the voice that the filmmakers were looking for in the character.[14] Jasmine's supervising animator was Mark Henn.
    • Lea Salonga provides Princess Jasmine's singing voice.[15]
  • Jonathan Freeman as Jafar, an nefarious, deceptive, and power-hungry sorcerer and the grand vizier of Agrabah who, frustrated by the Sultan's way of ruling, devises an dastardly plot to overthrow him as the ruler of Agrabah by acquiring the Genie's lamp. Freeman was the first actor cast, and spent 21 months recording his dialogue. He eventually readjusted his voice after Weinger and Larkin were cast, as he felt that "Jafar had to be seen as a real threat to Aladdin and Jasmine",[16] as he was originally envisioned as an irritable character, but the directors decided that a calm villain would be scarier.[14] Jafar's supervising animator was Andreas Deja, while Jafar's beggar and snake forms were animated by Kathy Zielinski.[17]
  • Frank Welker as Abu, Aladdin's kleptomaniac pet monkey with a falsetto voice. Welker also voices Jasmine's tiger, Rajah, and the Cave of Wonders.[17] Duncan Marjoribanks was the supervising animator for Abu, Aaron Blaise was the supervising animator for Rajah, and Goldberg was the supervising animator for the Cave of Wonders.
  • Gilbert Gottfried as Iago, Jafar's sardonic and hot-tempered red lory sidekick. Will Finn was the supervising animator for Iago.
  • Douglas Seale as the Sultan, the naïve but friendly ruler of Agrabah who is eager to find a capable husband for his daughter Jasmine. The Sultan's supervising animator was David Pruiksma.
  • Jim Cummings as Razoul, the Captain of the Guards. Phil Young and Chris Wahl animated him and the other guards.
  • Charlie Adler as Gazeem, a thief whom Jafar sends into the Cave of Wonders at the beginning of the movie. Gazeem was animated by T. Daniel Hofstedt.
  • Corey Burton as Prince Achmed, an arrogant prince whom Jasmine rejects as a suitor.

Additional voices are provided by Charlie Adler, Jennifer Darling, Vera Lockwood, Jack Angel, Debi Derryberry, Sherry Lynn, Corey Burton, Bruce Gooch, Mickie McGowan, Philip Clarke, Jerry Houser, Patrick Pinney, Jim Cummings and Phil Proctor.

International Versions

Danish Dubbing år: 1993

  • Aladdin – Søren Launbjerg
  • Genie (Ånden) – Preben Kristensen
  • Jasmin (Dialog) – Ilia Swainson
  • Jasmin (Sang) – Louise Norby
  • Jafar – Nis Bank-Mikkelsen
  • Jago – Torben Zeller
  • Sultanen – Ove Sprogøe
  • Peddler – Kurt Ravn
  • Additional Voices: Peter Zhelder, Vibeke Dueholm, Peter Aude, Lasse Lunderskov, Lars Thiesgaard

References

  1. ↑ Razzaque, Arafat A. (September 14, 2017). "Who "wrote" Aladdin? The Forgotten Syrian Storyteller". Ajam Media Collective. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019.
  2. ↑ Horta, Paulo Lemos (2018). Aladdin: A New Translation. Liveright Publishing. pp. 8–10. ISBN 9781631495175. Archived from the original on September 25, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  3. ↑ Nun, Katalin; Stewart, Dr Jon (2014). Volume 16, Tome I: Kierkegaard's Literary Figures and Motifs: Agamemnon to Guadalquivir. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 31.
  4. ↑ "Aladdin (1992)". The Numbers. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Aladdin". Disney. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  6. 1 2 "Aladdin (1992)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved March 17, 2009.
  7. ↑ Abbott, Jim (January 5, 1993). "As Genie, mom helped grant son's wish for 'Aladdin' role". St. Paul Pioneer Press. Archived from the original on June 2, 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
  8. ↑ Caporaso, Jenna; Trucks, Leigh; Pompa, Andrew (February 27, 1994). "Aladdin's Voice Speaks". The Charlotte Observer. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
  9. ↑ Hischak, Thomas S. (2011). Disney Voice Actors: A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-7864-6271-1. Archived from the original on July 29, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  10. ↑ Meslow, Scott (October 28, 2011). "How Celebrities Took Over Cartoon Voice Acting". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on May 6, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
  11. ↑ Buchanan, Rose T. (October 17, 2015). "Peddler at beginning of Aladdin is the Genie, directors finally confirm". The Independent. Archived from the original on February 28, 2024. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
  12. ↑ Romano, Nick (October 17, 2015). "'Aladdin': Genie, peddler theory confirmed by directors". EW.com. Archived from the original on November 29, 2024. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
  13. ↑ Lutz, Jaime (October 18, 2015). "Fan Theory About Aladdin's Genie Confirmed True by the Movie's Directors". Glamour. Archived from the original on January 1, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
  14. 1 2 Cite error: The named reference popup was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  15. ↑ "Disney Legends: Lea Salonga". Disney.com. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
  16. ↑ Hill, Jim (June 13, 2011). "Jonathan Freeman returns as Jafar in new stage musical version of Disney's 'Aladdin'". Jim Hill Media. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
  17. 1 2 Cite error: The named reference comm1 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
Notes
  1. ↑ "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" was authored by Hanna Diyab;[1][2] it was added to the One Thousand and One Nights by Antoine Galland, appearing in his French translation Les mille et une nuits.[3]
  2. ↑ The 2019 reissue was produced under its current name, Walt Disney Animation Studios.

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