3) Aladdin

Aladdin (1992)

Directors: Ron Clements & John Musker

Starring: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin


Aladdin is an old favourite which I’ve seen many times over the years. It comes from the last really great period in Disney 2D animation. In the early 1990s Disney managed to produce three brilliant animated musicals back to back in Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King (1994), with all three being among the very best of the many Disney animated musicals. Unfortunately the success of Toy Story and Pixar’s digital animation saw the decline of the traditional Disney hand-drawn animated film (although Disney has returned to the old formula with the recently released The Princess and the Frog).

Based on the medieval Arabian tale that appears in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), Aladdin tells the story of a street boy who finds a magic lamp containing a genie who will grant him three wishes. With the genie’s help Aladdin seeks to woo the Sultan’s daughter, Princess Jasmine.

As much as I love this film, and in particular Robin Williams’ voice performance as the Genie, it slightly hurts to know that this film, and in particular that performance, would have such a negative effect on voice acting in animated films from that point on. Prior to Aladdin, animated movies would have a cast made up of professional voice actors. These actors were hardly household names as the audience never saw their faces, or if they were a known actor they were used for their particularly distinctive voice (Gilbert Gottfried’s performance as Iago in Aladdin is a fine example of this). As perfect as Robin Williams was for the role of the Genie, the amount of marketability his profile brought to the project is seen as the catalyst for the ridiculous situation we see today where we have animated productions forking out big bucks to stars like Renee Zellweger (Monsters vs Aliens), Cameron Diaz (Shrek) and Elijah Wood (Happy Feet), who despite being perfectly adequate actors, bring nothing to the part which couldn’t be provided by a professional voice actor for a fraction of the price, except a name to put at the top of the poster.

If you haven't seen Aladdin, do yourself a favour and check it out. That is, if you are lucky enough to be able to find a copy due to Disney's ridiculous policy of locking films away in the vault. But that is a rant for another day.