Aladdin (1992 Disney film)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The 1992 animated Disney Movie

  • Accidental Innuendo: The movie has a famous example of unintentional innuendo in the song "A Whole New World".

I can open your eyes,
 Take you wonder by wonder;
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride.
A whole new world!
A new, fantastic point of view.
No one to tell us no, or where to go,
Or say we're only dreaming.

Unbelievable sights!
Indescribable feeling!

A whole new world!
Don't you dare close your eyes.
A hundred thousand things to see.
Hold your breath -- it gets better!

    • Well at least the song has a happy ending. At the end, they hold hands as literal fireworks are shown going off.
  • Adaptation Displacement: Did you know that in the original tale, Aladdin had unlimited wishes instead of just three? Or that he had a second genie in a magic ring? Or that the story was set in China? Chances are that you don't.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Is Jafar's controlling the incompetent and childish Sultan the only reason the kingdom hasn't fallen apart decades ago? The idea was exploited by the parody musical Twisted, but it was around earlier.
    • When Jafar tried to wish that Jasmine would fall in love with him, was it because he was attracted to her? Or was it just a means of gaining his ultimate victory over her?
    • Was the Genie imprisoned for a reason?
    • Is Aladdin a nice guy who simply uses a good thing to his advantage and falters from time to time only to do the right thing in the end, or is he a selfish opportunist who lies and uses people to get his way and frees Genie because leaving him enslaved would break Aladdin's bond with Jasmine?
    • The Genie does not technically grant Aladdin his wish; or rather, he goes about it in a much more subtle and sophisticated way than it seems. Aladdin wishes to be a Prince to marry Jasmine, but as both he and the Genie note throughout he is not actually a prince, in spite of his newfound mountains of magical wealth, servants and royal clothes- he doesn't even have a country to be a prince of. But he does become a Prince eventually, since he ultimately marries Princess Jasmine which would (in theory, at least) raise him to the status of Crown Prince of Agrabah and sultan-in-waiting. This is Fridge Brilliance of the highest order and raises the Genie to the status of a chessmaster sidekick and a Ditzy Genius par excellence.
  • Award Snub: There was some buzz about Robin Williams becoming the first voice actor to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
    • The film wasn't allowed to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay because too much of the Genie's dialogue consisted of Robin Williams' ad libs.
  • Crazy Awesome: The Genie, a creature that bends logic on a regular basis, is missing a marble or two, which makes his relentless over-the-top personality nothing short of amazing.
  • Crossover Ship:
    • There is a surprisingly large contingent of people who like shipping Jasmine/Esmeralda, which most likely comes from their statuses as Ms. Fanservice and their similar designs. While there are plenty of fans who ship the streetwise gypsy girl with Aladdin as well, that pairing's numbers are nowhere near as high.
    • Aladdin/Hercules also has a pretty devoted following. It helps that the characters shared an actual crossover between their respective television shows, in which, despite getting off on the wrong foot, they soon come to an understanding and become good friends by the end with Aladdin telling Hercules that he's on his way to becoming a great hero.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Jafar has fans that see him this way, saying that he just wants to save his home from ruin that's caused by an idiot sultan, a con artist. and an irresponsible princess. Uh huh. Remember that he commits treason, tries to murder Aladdin twice, enslaves the ruler and his daughter, and planned to use his last wish to make the latter fall in love with him (meaning that anything he would've done to her would've been without her true consent). Also, Jafar was pretty much already in charge by hypnotizing the Sultan and tried to openly assume power out of egotism more than anything, and hated the Sultan despite the guy trusting and respecting him.
  • Ear Worm: Prince Ali, mighty is he, Ali Ababwa! Strong as ten regular men, definitely!
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Iago. Gets a Heel Face Turn, a more important role, and his own song in Return of Jafar.
    • Again when Agrabah was reintroduced in Kingdom Hearts II. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive, Iago finds them, and warns them of a Heartless ambush. In exchange, he asks for Sora to put in a good word for him to Jasmine and Aladdin. Iago then guiltily tells Sora and Aladdin where Jafar's lamp is, in the Cave of Wonders, only to discover that the Peddler got it first. Pete then steals it from him, and Sora gets it back. During the second visit, Iago lures Sora and Aladdin to the ruins, while Jafar takes over Agrabah.
      • Iago is also useful in a "World Runner" deck in the short lived Kingdom Hearts card game. He appeared in the fourth and final American set, as a level 0 (Meaning he can be played if you have no other friend cards in the friend area.) If you discard him, you can remove a Heartless card from your current Agrabah world card. Which is helpful, because two of the three Agrabah cards have no dark limit, meaning your opponent can play as many Dark or Nobody cards as they wish on your world, and some of them have little means of being extinguished.
  • Evil Is Cool: Jafar is up there with Maleficent, Scar, and Hades as one of Disney's most famous and popular villains.
  • Fanon: Jasmine is often thought of as a Belly Dancer, despite her being a princess and belly dancing as we know it not existing in her time period.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: The Genie cutting off his own head to demonstrate that he can't kill anyone ("so don't ask"), when Robin Williams actually would commit suicide. Complete with Aladdin grabbing his throat as the Genie cuts his head, as if to say "Sheesh, that looks painful". Also the part where the Genie yanks on a tie he's wearing after he loses an important chess piece to Carpet, given how Williams killed himself. Doubles as Harsher in Hindsight.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The fact that Abu sounds just like Donald Duck foreshadows the Kingdom Hearts games, where Donald and friends interact with Aladdin.
    • Jafar's voice actor's name? Jonathan Freeman!
      • Also hilarious right away considering Jafar's living conditions at the end of the movie.
    • Aladdin and Jasmine's world tour in "A Whole New World" includes visits to Greece and China (the latter even with fireworks); in the former case, given the subsequent cartoon crossover, that would suggest Hercules himself was around at the time.
    • Jafar tricks Aladdin into getting the lamp by dressing as a bald, scrawny, eccentric, old man with bad skin. Twenty years later, Disney created a similar character that lives in a fictional town in Oregon.
    • The first lyrics in "Friend Like Me" include a reference to the Forty Thieves. Flash forward to the third movie and learn that Aladdin's father is their leader (and would've been during the first movie's events).
      • In the same vein, a woman in "One Jump Ahead" says "I'd blame parents, except he hasn't got'em".
      • The big obstacle keeping Aladdin from marrying Jasmine is that he is not a prince. The third movie reveals his father is the King of Thieves, making him the Prince of Thieves.
    • In one scene of the first movie, Jafar deceives Jasmine into believing that Aladdin has been executed "by beheading" while Al is actually alive and imprisoned. In the first sequel, Al is condemned to death by decapitation, and nearly beheaded by Public Execution when Genie arrives in time to save him in a Big Damn Heroes moment. In the TV series's episode, Al finally gets his head "cut off" by Caliph Kapok... or rather separated, since the rest of Al's body is still alive while his friends find a way to reunite it with his head. Weird. (Though since his brain and heart became no longer connected, he becomes a complete Jerkass.)
    • "Look at that, Abu! It's not every day you see a horse with two rear ends!" Four years later, a costume of a horse with two rear ends appears at the Feast of Fools.
    • The Swedish dub eventually became this. In this dub Jafar is voiced by Mikael Samuelsson who originated the role of [[The Phantom Of The Opera|in Sweden and Aladdin is voiced by Peter Jöback who as of 2016 has played the Phantom on the West End, Broadway, and Stockholm. While performing it in London one of the actresses playing Christine against Jöback also voiced Jasmine (though not in the Swedish dub).
    • The Genie is bald save for his topknot, sports facial hair, has primary-coloured skin, four fingers on each hand and a burly physique. When he wasn't being voiced by Robin Williams, he was being voiced by Dan Castanella a.k.a. Homer Simpson!
    • When trying to flee the Cave of Wonders, Aladdin tells Abu, "This is no time to panic!"
  • Ho Yay: Some of the Genie's actions towards Aladdin could easily be chalked up to him being a very playful genie, but others could also be considered rather flirtatious, such as tricking Aladdin into kissing him during "Friend Like Me" and later forcefully smooching him. The line from him in particular stands out:

"Oh, Al. I'm getting kinda fond of you, kid. Not that I wanna pick out curtains or anything..."

  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Love to Hate: Jafar.
  • Memetic Molester: Jafar, so very much. Brainwashing a 16-year old princess into being your sex slave? Way to stay classy.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • "Prince Ali, X is he, Ali Ababwa!"
    • [=HE'S GOT THE MONKEYS! LET'S SEE THE MONKEYS!=]
    • [=PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!=] [--...itty-bitty living space.--]
    • "How about a little more BAKLAVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
    • "Do you trust me?"
    • Some Moral Guardians made a bit of a stink over a bit in the balcony scene where Aladdin seems to be saying "Good teenagers, take off your clothes."
    • DeviantART artists that like drawing Bound and Gagged people have a field day on alternating the scene where Aladdin is ambushed, Bound and Gagged by Jafar's men and tossed into the sea until he accidentally rubs Genie's lamp under the sea, saving his life. They just replace Aladdin with any character they like, and either stop before the character 'rubs a lamp'... or use an equivalent of Genie to save the day.
    • "Jafar, Jafar, he's our man. If he can't do it, GREAT!!!"
    • Thanks to Team Fortress 2, one can never take the "your eternal reward" scene seriously ever again.
  • Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Yes it's a very Disneyfied take on Arabian mythos, but that didn't stop Arabs from enjoying the film. Recently, many people of Arabic descent have praised Aladdin for offering positive portrayal of Middle Eastern people, rather than depicting them as only terrorists and savages.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Jafar leaving Aladdin to die in the Cave of Wonders, once the latter gives him the lamp.
  • Nightmare Fuel: See here.
  • No Problem With Licensed Games: Both the Virgin Games Sega Genesis game and the Capcom SNES game were well received by the gaming community. The Game Gear and Game Boy Color versions, on the other hand, are bad.
  • Older Than They Think: Aladdin is actually the fourth attempt at the "three wishes" rule for genies by Disney; it had been used twice on DuckTales (1987), on one regular episode and in that show's feature film, and it was on one episode of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.
  • Painful Rhyme: "His forty fakirs, his cooks, his bakers"... Ouch. 'Fakir' in English is usually pronounced "fah-KEER", or maybe "FAY-KEER", but not the same as "faker". Also, technically, since all those people are just creations of the Genie, they're all fakers.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Aladdin has the unfortunate tendency of being on the receiving end of this. His detractors cite the fact that he's a thief and that he lied to Jasmine about his true identity, even though Aladdin only stole food because outside circumstances forced him to do it out of survival, and he had no other choice but to lie if he wanted to legally court Jasmine since Agrabah's marriage laws dictated that the princess could only marry a price. Even with this in mind, Aladdin still does the right thing in the end by giving some homeless kids the food he initially stole anyway and later, he outright apologizes to Jasmine for lying to her. She herself even acknowledges that there were no other options available for him at the time, so keeping his true identity a secret from her was understandable.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: This was the film that really set the trend of Anachronism Stew and Parental Bonus in animated films, on top of casting popular comedian Robin Williams as the voice of the Genie, which was different to what Disney and most other companies were doing at the time since A-List actors did not star in speaking roles before. However, this has influenced countless subsequent movies such as Shrek, and it was worn so thin by the time Quest for Camelot came around that only Genie could really get away with it.
  • Signature Scene: The showstopping "Friend Like Me" number is the most famous part of the film.
  • Signature Song: "A Whole New World".
  • Smurfette Breakout: Jasmine is a supporting character while the story is about Aladdin, but she is included in the Disney Princess franchise and is actually the only princess in the lineup who isn't the main character in her film.
  • Special Effects Failure: While the CGI head of the Cave of Wonders and the integration of CGI and hand-drawn animation with the magic carpet and the lava still holds up well today, some of the CGI bits inside of the cave (i.e. the escape sequence) are really showing their age now, especially if you watch it on Blu-Ray.
  • Squick: Jafar isn't particularly attractive on his own, but any scene where he puts advances on Jasmine makes him look even slimier, causing major squick! Even in the movie's own universe, Abu and Iago have a Squick noise at Jasmine and Jafar's kiss. Jasmine looks pretty grossed out as well during that.
  • Tear Jerker: Genie's goodbye to Aladdin made some fathers in the audience cry. It's even harder to watch now due to Robin Williams' passing.
    • When Jasmine thinks that Aladdin has been executed, and she realizes: "I didn't even know his name!"
  • Testosterone Brigade: Jasmine has a huge one, and may have the biggest of any of the Disney Princesses (possibly behind Ariel). This is due to her very sexy bedlah outfit, making her one of the more scantily clad princesses, and the additionally revealing red number Jafar traps her in. What's more is her feisty personality and the fact that she establishes herself as an Action Girl in spin-off media.
  • Unfortunate Implications: One of the lyrics from the opening number "Arabian Nights" - "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. It's barbaric, but hey! It's home" - came under fire for being offensive towards Middle Eastern people and their culture. The line was later changed to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense" for the VHS release to assuage these concerns.
  • Values Dissonance: This stands out amongst later Disney films based on non-American cultures. Disney does a lot of research into presenting the cultures accurately and respectfully. Aladdin on the other hand isn't a particularly accurate film and some aspects have been considered offensive (such as how "Arabian Nights" needed to be censored to remove some violent references). This wasn't a well-known issue in the early 1990s, but in modern times, the film would be written much differently.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: What is Rajah supposed to be, again? The tiger is likely a male since the female equivalent to "Rajah" would be "Rani" but this is not in the movie.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The spirit that acts as the entrance to the Cave Of Wonders still looks amazing to this day (especially since the relatively-dated CGI, combined with its flat-tone art style and smooth animation, gives it an otherworldly feel).
  • Woolseyism: In some translations of "Prince Ali", the lyrics get pretty damn naughty, especially for the harem girls admiring him for much more than his manners and his clothes - for example in German the girls sing "I'm so hot I'm about to start groaning", "I'll file for Divorce" and "I'm really ravished by him". In Latin American, they sing "I've never seen a body like that, oh I can't breathe". Genie sings in the French dub "It's crowded/packed at the balcony" which is slang for having large breasts, "Prince Ali, Sexy like never" in German, which in German context would mean, "Nobody is sexier", and "I know there's a hottie around here" in Latin American to the Sultan.

Sequels

  • Badass Decay: Genie. It seems to come with being free. He in fact states this outright at one point, saying that his powers are now "Semi-phenomenal, nearly-cosmic".
  • Complete Monster: Sa'luk is the only adversary of Aladdin's who comes close to this trope.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Jafar, while more of a Smug Snake in the first movie, became a lot more competent in the sequel, developing a more thought-out plan to take over Agrabah. If it wasn't for Iago pulling a Heel Face Turn and betraying him, he would had succeeded.
  • Narm: "Are You In Or Out" in King of Thieves is supposed to show the remnants of the Forty Thieves planning to return to their bloodthirsty rampaging roots after Cassim reformed them into Noble Demons. But it's hard to take some of them seriously since several of them are still humorous in design, and the lyrics include "I'm the prince of generosity" and "Imagine the fear on their faces / when we drop by for cookies and tea."
  • Nightmare Fuel: See here.

TV Series

Mozenrath: You see, I'm going to transport my essence into your body.

    • Mozenrath has this with Jasmine too from time to time, with the way he's constantly teasing her and calling her cute, or gently touching her chin when she's captured. She also has a very impish smile on her face when she uses her whip on him.
    • Not to mention his brief encounter with Eden. A lot of it simply comes from the way Mozenrath talks to people.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Iago occasionally.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Mozenrath. He hasn't even met half the characters he gets shipped with.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Mozenrath. The fact that he's the only villain to ever hear Aladdin say the words "you win", and mean it, says a lot.
  • Moe: Sadira.
  • Nightmare Fuel: See here.
  • Ugly Cute: Xerxes is usually just plain ugly, but can sometimes cross into this when it's shown how devoted he is to his master.
  • The Woobie: All of the main characters gets their moments, or even entire episodes, of this. ...Yes, even Carpet.
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