Aladdin (1992)

Robin Williams's dizzying and hilarious voicing of the Genie is the main attraction of Aladdin, the third in the series of modern Disney animated movies that began with 1989's The Little Mermaid and heralded a new age for the genre. After a sultan (Douglas Seale) gives his daughter, Jasmine (Linda Larkin), three days to find a husband, she escapes the palace and encounters the street-savvy urchin Aladdin (Scott Weinger), who charms his way into her heart. While the sultan's Vizier, Jafar (Jonathan Freeman), weaves a spell so that he may marry Jasmine and become sultan himself, Aladdin discovers the Genie's lamp in a cave, rubs it, and sets the mystical entity free, leading the Genie to pledge his undying loyalty to the dazzled youth. Aladdin begins his quest to defeat Jafar and win the hand of the princess, with the Genie's help. Monsters, Disney's trademark talking animals, and a flying carpet all figure into the ensuing adventures, but Williams' Genie, who can change into anything or anybody, steals the show as he launches into one crazed monologue after another, impersonating figures from Ed Sullivan to Elvis Presley. — Don Kaye

Edition Details
Edition	Special Edition
Release Date	10/5/2004
Packaging	Keep Case
Screen Ratio	1.66:1
Audio Tracks	ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC] FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1 SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
Layers	Single Side, Dual Layer
No. of Disks/Tapes	1

Personal Details
Purchase Date	6/28/2005
Owner	Thomas Eisenmann
Store	Best Buy
Purchase Price	$17.99
Condition	Excellent
Reviewed	Widescreen Review
Bit Rate	448 KB
Anamophic	Yes
Links	DVD Empire Amazon US IMDB

Anamophic

Disc One of this two-disc special edition includes four deleted musical numbers in storyboard form (with introductions) and two deleted scenes. There is also a Music & More selection, which includes the Clay Aiken music video for the deleted song “Proud Of Your Boy” a “Proud Of Your Boy” story reel, and a three-minute behind-the-scenes of the music video; the original Regina Belle and Peabo Bryson music video for “A Whole New World”; and Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey music video and behind-the-scenes highlight for their remake of “A Whole New World.” In the Backstage Disney selection, you will find two audio commentary tracks (one with producer/directors John Musker and Ron Clements and co-producer Amy Pell, and the other featuring character animators Andreas Deja, Will Finn, Eric Goldberg, and Glen Keane) and a pop-up fun fact track. Starting with the Games & Activities selection on Disc Two, you can take a Virtual DVD Ride on Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Adventure, go on a guided (or self-guided...complete with blueprint) tour of Genie’s lamp, play a Wishes game to reveal your fortune, or view postcards from Genie’s world tour. The Backstage Disney selection immerses you in 110-minutes of the making of Aladdin (a segmented feature hosted by Leonard Maltin), introduces you to composer Alan Menken, and exposes you to The Art Of Aladdin (with a nine-minute art review and still galleries) as well as Publicity (with the trailer, sequel trailers, and publicity stills.SH

Story Synopsis:
Set in the mythical city of Agrabah, the story follows a street-smart peasant named Aladdin and his mischievous pet monkey, Abu. Aladdin falls in love with the free-spirited Princess Jasmine-but she can only wed a royal suitor. His luck changes with one rub of a magic lamp that releases a shape-shifting, fun-loving, wish-giving Genie-who turns Aladdin into a prince. But the evil sorcerer, Jafar, and his wisecracking parrot, Iago, also crave the lamp’s power. If Aladdin is to defeat them and win Jasmine’s heart, he must learn to be himself-and that’s one wish the Genie can’t grant! (Gary Reber)

DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced and windowboxed/pillarboxed 1.66:1 DVD picture exhibits bright and colorful animated images that pop from the screen. The animation is sharp and detailed, with many sequences offering an excellent sense of dimensionality. There are no distracting edge halos or bothersome pixel breakup for a visual experience that is certain to impress the whole family. (Suzanne Hodges)

Soundtrack:
You can listen to the DVD of Aladdin in either the “Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix” or the usual Dolby® Digital 5.1 surround sound formats. The optimal version to experience Aladdin on DVD for the first time is with the Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix. The enhanced version gives the listener a much more personal and highly effective listening experience. Even after adjusting for the -6 dB dialnorm offset, the Disney Enhanced version sounds much better with much deeper bass extension, more intelligible and accurately reproduced dialogue, much better channel separation across the front three screen channels, and more overall sonic immersion from all 5.1-channels. Most noticeable is that the surrounds are much more active in the enhanced version. Many times throughout the presentation, the aggressive bass really gets the subwoofers going, and its in these moments the entire listening environment just rumbles and shakes with authority. Spatial dimensionality in the enhanced version is much more expansive and larger in scale. If you A/B both versions, the enhanced version just sounds more lively and realistic than the basic Dolby Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack. Aladdin is known for its wonderful and charming songs, and these songs come to life in this DVD soundtrack presentation. Disney, once again, shows that it really knows how to do a DVD soundtrack. I was very impressed with this effort and wish more studios would give the home theatre sound afficionado a more intimate and involving mix with these sort of “Enhanced Home Theater Mixes.” To read more about Disney’s “Enhanced Home Theater” mixes, refer to our 2004 DVD Movie Guide (page 28). (Jeffrey Kern)

This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
Reference Quality

Scott Weinger	Aladdin (voice)
Robin Williams	Genie/Merchant (voice)
Linda Larkin	Jasmine (voice)
Jonathan Freeman	Jafar (voice)
Frank Welker	Abu (voice)
Gilbert Gottfried	Iago (voice)
Douglas Seale	Sultan (voice)
Bruce Adler	Narrator (singing voice)
Brad Kane	Aladdin (singing voice)
Lea Salonga	Jasmine (singing voice)
Charles Adler	Additional Voices (voice) (as Charlie Adler)
Jack Angel	Additional Voices (voice)
Corey Burton	Additional Voices (voice)
Philip L. Clarke	Additional Voices (voice)
Jim Cummings	Razoul (voice)

Director	Ron Clements John Musker
Producer	Ron Clements John Musker
Writer	Roger Allers Ron Clements Ted Elliott