Designed by a team led by supervising animator Glen Keane, Aladdin was initially going to be as young as thirteen, and was originally made to resemble actor Michael J. Fox. During production, it was decided that the design was too boyish and lacked appeal, so the character was made "seventeen to eighteen", and redesigned to add elements derived from actor Tom Cruise and Calvin Klein models. Other inspirations for design were Disney's animated films from the 1940s and '50s and the 1940 film The Thief of Bagdad. Some of the software that was used was Pixar's RenderMan.

Musker and Clements created the Genie with Robin Williams in mind; although Katzenberg suggested actors such as John Candy, Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy, Williams was approached and eventually accepted the role. Williams came for voice recording sessions during breaks while filming two films he was making at the time, Hook and Toys. Unusual for an animated film, much of Williams's dialogue was ad-libbed. For some scenes, Williams was given topics and dialogue suggestions, but allowed to improvise his lines. It is estimated that Williams improvised 52 characters. Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator for the Genie, reviewed Williams' recorded dialogue and selected the best lines to animate. Beast, Sebastian and Pinocchio make brief appearances, and the wardrobe of the Genie at the end of the film—a Goofy hat, a Hawaiian shirt, and sandals—are a reference to a short film that Robin Williams did for the Disney-MGM Studios tour in the late 1980s.

Disney, while not using Williams' name in commercials as per the contract, used his voice for the Genie in the commercials and used the Genie character to sell toys and fast food tie-ins, without having to pay Williams additional money. Williams unhappily quipped at the time, "You realize when you work for Disney why the mouse has only four fingers--because he can't pick up a check." Williams explained to New York magazine that his previous Mork & Mindy merchandising was different because "the image is theirs. But the voice, that's me; I gave them myself. When it happened, I said, 'You know I don't do that.' And they [Disney] apologized; they said it was done by other people."

Disney attempted to assuage Williams by sending him a Pablo Picasso painting worth more than $1 million, but this move failed to repair the damaged relationship, as the painting was a self-portrait of Picasso as Vincent van Gogh, and apparently really "clashed" with the Williams's wilder home decor. Williams refused to sign for the 1994 direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar, and he was replaced by Dan Castellaneta as the Genie's voice actor. When Jeffrey Katzenberg was replaced by Joe Roth as chairman at Walt Disney Studios, Roth organized a public apology to Williams. In turn, Williams would reprise the role in the second sequel, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, in 1996.

Music

Aladdin was the third—after The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast—and final Disney film that Alan Menken and Howard Ashman had collaborated on, with Tim Rice (who later wrote the songs for the studio's next film The Lion King) as lyricist after Ashman had died in March 1991. Although fourteen songs were written for Aladdin, only seven are featured in the film, three by Ashman and four by Rice. Menken, Ashman and Rice were praised for creating a soundtrack that is "consistently good, rivaling the best of Disney's other animated musicals from the '90s".

The Special Edition soundtrack released in 2004 included four songs in early animation tests and a music video of one, "Proud of Your Boy", performed by Clay Aiken, which also appears on the album, Disneymania 3. The pop duo version of the song, "A Whole New World", performed by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle, which plays over the end credits, is, , the only Disney song to win a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

Themes

Entertainment writer Scott Meslow wrote that, compared with the character of Aladdin, "Williams's Genie is the character audiences responded to, and — more importantly to Disney — its most marketable character by far", which he concluded led to the "celebrification" of later animated films, such as Shark Tale and Puss in Boots. Stones liked the character of Iago and wanted him in the cast, so he came up with an idea for a followup story that would free him from Jafar to join Aladdin. Stones suggested turning it into a wholesale direct-to-video sequel, as opposed to an hourlong television special, and The Return of Jafar was released in June 1994. The film saw the debut of a new character, Abis Mal, voiced by Jason Alexander, and all of the original cast returned, except for Robin Williams, replaced by Dan Castellaneta, and Douglas Seale, replaced by Val Bettin.

The plot focuses mainly on Jafar seeking revenge on Aladdin. However, this time, with Iago on Aladdin's side, Abis Mal becomes Jafar's new henchman. Aside from a preview on The Disney Channel in early 1994, the Aladdin TV series followed in September on the syndicated The Disney Afternoon block. The episodes focused on Aladdin's adventures after the events of the second film. In 1996, the final sequel to Aladdin, Aladdin and the King of Thieves was released on video. The story concludes as Aladdin and Jasmine are about to be married and Aladdin discovers that his father is still alive, but is the king of all thieves in Agrabah. and were featured as guests in the television series, House of Mouse, and related works to those series — Jafar was the leader of the villains in Mickey's House of Villains.

The film also inspired a Disney On Ice presentation, and two attractions in Disney's theme parks: "The Magic Carpets of Aladdin", a Dumbo the Flying Elephant-like ride at both Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort, Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Resort Paris and Tokyo DisneySea; and the show Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular at Disney's California Adventure Park and The Magic Lamp Theater at Tokyo DisneySea.

Video games

With the film's release, three different video games based on Aladdin were released, one by Virgin Interactive for the Mega Drive, Game Boy (ported to the Game Boy Color), Nintendo Entertainment System, Amiga and IBM PC compatibles; another by SIMS for the Game Gear and Master System; and a third by Capcom for the Super NES (ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2002).

The television series inspired another game by Argonaut Games, entitled Aladdin: Nasira's Revenge and released in 2000 for the PlayStation and PC. Also, in 2004 Vivendi Universal released Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures, a chess computer game with the Aladdin license.

The Kingdom Hearts series features a playable Aladdin world known as Agrabah. In Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the plotline is loosely related to the storyline of the original film. In Kingdom Hearts II, it is a mixture of Aladdin and The Return of Jafar. The Genie is also a recurring summon in the series. On November 8, Disney revealed that it had originally planned to use Robin Williams's unused lines from the 1991–92 recording sessions for the film, but that his will prohibited the studio from using his likeness for 25 years after his death in 2014.

In October 2016, it was reported that Disney was developing a live-action adaptation of Aladdin, with Guy Ritchie signed to direct the film. John August wrote the script, which retains the musical elements of the original film, while Dan Lin is attached as producer. Lin revealed that they were looking for a diverse cast. In April 2017, Will Smith entered talks to play the Genie. Alan Menken said that filming was slated to begin in August 2017.

Production had originally been scheduled to begin in July, but was delayed due to Disney having trouble finding the right people to play Aladdin and Jasmine. British actress Naomi Scott and Indian actress Tara Sutaria were being considered to play Jasmine. For the role of Aladdin, British actors Riz Ahmed and Dev Patel were initially considered, but it was decided that a newcomer should be cast in the role. In July 2017, it was announced that Egyptian-Canadian actor Mena Massoud had been cast as Aladdin, Scott as Jasmine, and Smith as the Genie. At the 2017 D23 Expo, Menken announced that he would be cowriting new songs for the film with Academy Award winners Pasek and Paul, while Vanessa Taylor would rewrite the script.

In August 2017, Marwan Kenzari, Nasim Pedrad and Numan Acar joined the cast as Jafar, Dalia and Hakim, respectively. The following month, Billy Magnussen and Navid Negahban were cast as Prince Anders and the Sultan, respectively. Filming began September 6, 2017, at Longcross Studios and concluded January 24, 2018. The film was released May 24, 2019.

See also

  • List of Disney animated films based on fairy tales
  • Lists of animated films

Notes

References

  • Aladdin in folklore and popular culture, at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on August 31, 2015.