Aladdin arrived on November 11, 1992, from Walt Disney Feature Animation, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. It runs 91 minutes. It was a hit on release, and it holds up as one of the studio’s sharper musical fantasies — though not a perfect one.
Trailer, via Disney.
A Street Urchin and a Princess
The setup is simple and it works. Aladdin is a kind-hearted street urchin in the city of Agrabah who steals bread daily with his pet monkey, Abu. Princess Jasmine is bored of palace life, so she slips out in disguise and meets him. They fall in love. The catch: she can only marry a prince.
That rule drives everything. Jafar, the royal vizier and a sorcerer, wants a magic lamp hidden in the Cave of Wonders. Only “the diamond in the rough” can go in and take it. Jafar figures out that’s Aladdin, springs him from prison, and sends him into the cave. The guardian lets Aladdin in but warns him to touch only the lamp. Aladdin grabs it. Abu grabs a jewel. The cave collapses. Jafar tries to kill them, Abu bites his hand, and the two get thrown back underground — where Abu reveals he stole the lamp back.
Robin Williams as the Genie
Aladdin rubs the lamp, and the Genie comes out. Robin Williams voices him, and the performance is the reason the film still plays. The Genie grants three wishes. Aladdin tricks him into getting them out of the cave without spending one. Then he learns the Genie wants to be free, and promises his last wish will do it.
That promise is the film’s best idea: a hero who has to choose between the wish that gets him the girl and the wish that keeps his word. The movie knows it. It just doesn’t sit with it long before the next gag.
The cast is stacked. Scott Weinger as Aladdin, Linda Larkin as Jasmine, Jonathan Freeman as Jafar, Gilbert Gottfried as Iago, Douglas Seale as the Sultan, Frank Welker as Abu and the Cave of Wonders. Brad Caleb Kane sings for Aladdin; Lea Salonga sings for Jasmine.
Alan Menken’s Score
Alan Menken composed the score, with six songs and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Ashman pitched the film to Disney president Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the screenplay went through three drafts before Katzenberg greenlit it. Ashman died in 1991; Rice finished the lyrics.
The animation draws on caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, and computers helped finish the hand-drawn work and build some elements. You can see both. The lines are loose and swooping; the Cave of Wonders and the carpet move in ways cel animation alone couldn’t manage.
What holds up best, ranked:
- Robin Williams as the Genie — the whole film’s engine.
- The Cave of Wonders sequence — the one stretch with real menace.
- Menken’s songs — efficient, memorable, built to carry plot.
- The romance — thin, but pleasant enough.
What Doesn’t Hold Up
Jafar’s plan is to marry Jasmine and then kill her and the Sultan. It’s dark, and the film doesn’t flinch at it. But the third act leans on the Genie’s jokes harder than the stakes, and Jasmine gets less to do than her introduction promises.
The film’s real subject is servitude — the Genie’s, and Aladdin’s own lie about who he is. That’s more interesting than the wish-fulfillment plot around it. Aladdin is a very good movie that keeps reaching for a better one and settling for a great voice performance instead. It earns its place, and it earns 7.7.
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