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Aladdin (1992)
Topic Started: Aug 12 2014, 08:48 AM (322 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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In the fabled city of Agrobah, a teenaged street urchin named Aladdin longs for the hand of the Princess Jasmine, while the evil Vizier Jafar longs for a magic lamp with a genie in it, and circumstances are going to allow each of them to help the other get what they want. Plus songs! Romance! A flying carpet! A monkey! A funny parrot! And the wackiest genie EVER.

Great Disney fun headed by Robin Williams; an okay film soars once he pops out of that lamp and sings "A Friend Like Me". Following The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, Disney went for belly-laughs and sure got 'em. It's a delight to watch the film and try to catch all the references Robin makes (including Groucho Marx and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson).

I've told this tale before (here for example) but the newest, shortest version is that we were snowed in all winter when this thing played at the local $2 second-run house and duly trudged a few blocks every weekend to see it for three solid months. Now THAT'S a good time (my sons were then 9 and 11). The climactic battle, with Jafar morphing into a giant cobra, is as terrifying a pants pee-er as the Disney studio has ever done. Bravo.

Besides Robin, Gilbert Gottfried is a hoot as Iago the parrot. The big love song here is "A Whole New World". The film won two Oscars, both for its score. It seems to have been a bittersweet production for everyone who worked on the film; lyricist Howard Ashman passed away during production, and the songs were finished by Tim Rice.

As I said, a great film, and if you read my reviews (and you DO, don't you?) you know I don't say that often. Surprisingly, no Blu-ray for this one yet. C'mon, Disney! We can get Fun and Fancy Free on BD but not Aladdin?!?!?
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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i don't expect we'll get it this year. Disney suits won't want Robin Williams' name associated with them until greed takes over, which should be in, say, 18 months or maybe a little longer.

I got no problem at all with Fun and Fancy Free. One of the best anthology pictures.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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JazzGuyy
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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A Blu-Ray is available from England and is supposed to be region-free so it should work here in the U.S. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aladdin-Blu-ray-Region-Scott-Weinger/dp/B003ARSYOO/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1407928354&sr=1-2&keywords=aladdin

It's also pretty inexpensive.
TANSTAAFL!
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Laughing Gravy
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The Blu-ray is out now stateside, and we watched it last night, and it's a pip.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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