Who is the Audience for This Movie?

People who like animated movies with a lot of fantasy elements.

What I Liked About This Movie

First time I saw this movie I was incredibly jealous of all the major characters. Every important character in Aladdin has an animal sidekick and I wanted one too. It is a cool gimmick that no other animated movie has used as effectively as Aladdin does. Aladdin is set in an Arabian city and it looks really exotic. It was a bold move by Disney to make a movie with a Middle Eastern setting. It is good that they did though because Aladdin is a better movie for it. All of the settings seem to cement the idea that Aladdin is set in a fantasy world because as a westerner everything looks so drastically different to me

I should probably talk about the characters a bit more. Aladdin is cool, Jasmine is hot, and Jafar (the bady guy) is really really evil. Jafar is the perfect bad guy; he has no side to him that anyone could like. The whole movie you really want to see him get what is coming to him. His sidekick is voiced by Gilbert Godfrie who has a screechy annoying voice but it actually fits well with his character (a parrot). The movies stand out character though has to be the Genie. It is obvious that Robin Williams was given a lot of room to do a wide range of voices and play around with the character. His comedic style relies heavily on going off on tangents which is not usually a good thing in an animated movie. Surprisingly he is not throttled too much and the Genie’s pop culture and slapstick jokes are hilarious.

As for the songs they are solid but I would rather mention an aspect of the movie that I found epitomizes why Disney conquers the animated movie market; smooth plotting. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall while they were story boarding Aladdin because it is perfect. There is no wasted time it moves by at such a swift pace that if I were like 11 years old I would probably watch it again immediately after finishing it. At no point does the movie stall on one plot point it is as if you are flown through the emotional ups and downs on Aladdin’s magic flying carpet.

What Didn’t Work For Me

At the beginning of the movie there is a storyteller who starts the story off. He is never seen again and serves no real purpose.

Should You Watch This Movie?

Aladdin is immensely entertaining and holds up well upon repeat viewings.

My Rating (Out of 13)