Aladdin - Does It Hold Up?
Welcome to the classic hold up, where we analyze media from the past. Each episode features a different host that brings a fresh take on a film, TV show, video game, or music album of their choice. Do old favorites have a shelf life? Will the classics hold up?
Speaker 2:Hello, and welcome to another episode of the classic hold up. My name is Emily Duran Hollis, and I'll be your host for today. I'm a junior year student at Michigan State University majoring in digital storytelling. Ever since I was little, my family and I have always been huge Disney fans. Well, the first movies I ever remember watching were Disney and I have a lot of fond memories of watching them.
Speaker 2:As I got older, started to get more and more interested in the behind the scenes aspects of these movies and TV shows, animated and live action. It was always so much fun to see the people and processes that go into making these types of things. I could never get enough of it. I always thought of how much fun it would be to be a part of that. Like many kids, most of my first movies were animated and a lot of them were also Disney.
Speaker 2:I'm a big fan of a lot of the Disney classics, but I would say that my all time favorite has to be Aladdin, which is what we'll be diving into today. So Aladdin was released in 1992 making it the thirty second animated film to be released by Disney. It was the highest grossing film of the year bringing in $504,000,000 worldwide. At the time of its release, it surpassed all previous animated films. One interesting fact that I found out is that it was the first Disney film to use CGI or computer animated imagery in addition to the traditional hand drawn techniques of the time.
Speaker 2:This is pretty groundbreaking because it was a brand new technology. The film won two Academy Awards, one for best original score and the other for best original song for A Whole New World. It was popular enough to spawn two sequels, the first Disney film to have a sequel, and an animated series. Over the years, this inspired merchandise, video games, and even a more recent live action remake released in 2019. So one thing people probably remember most about this movie is the amazing cast, which featured the most popular actors of the time, most notably Robin Williams as a voice of the genie and Gilbert Gottfried as Iago, the parrot sidekick, the movie's main villain.
Speaker 2:This actually ended up being pretty revolutionary because at the time, a list celebrities tended to stay away from voice acting. But after Robin Williams work on the genie, it gained a new respectability and soon celebrities became more willing to lend their voices to animated characters. His take on the genie was so likable and comedic, and the role was pretty much made for him. As a matter of fact, producers actually took a comedy set of his and animated genie to it using that to pitch the idea of the role to him, and it worked. He actually improvised many of his lines in the film, and this made it appeal to both adults and kids alike.
Speaker 2:The story takes place in the fictional Middle Eastern kingdom of Agrabah, where we're introduced to Aladdin himself, a kind hearted but poor young man who spends his days roaming the streets, jumping on the rooftops, and stealing food to survive. It starts when one day he unknowingly encounters Jasmine, the princess, and the two of them begin to form a connection. Shortly after, Aladdin is arrested by Jafar, the Sultan's royal vizier who covets the throne and tasked with finding a magic lamp that contains a genie. Aladdin ends up befriending said genie and knowing that the law requires Jasmine to marry a prince, uses his first wish to become one in order to get closer to Jasmine. From there, the movie follows Aladdin's attempts to win over Jasmine while also preventing Jafar from using a genie to take over the kingdom.
Speaker 2:Aladdin was one of the first movies I remember watching as a kid. And like many kids, I tended to watch it over and over. I remember one specific night when I was lying in a makeshift cozy nest watching it on a VHS TV. I remember I also watched it once as a distraction while in an MRI machine. In 2014, my family got the opportunity to see the live stage show while I had it at the Wharton Center, my local theater.
Speaker 2:This was so exciting for me because I never gotten the chance to see a live action Disney stage show before. Even though it had a few tweaks to the story, it still still remained at its core the one that I always knew and loved. I also actually enjoyed watching the sequels and the series despite what some people may say about it, even though I didn't discover them until much later. With his timeless themes of friendship, loyalty, and finding your true self worth, it's easy to see why Aladdin remains a classic to this day. Welcome back.
Speaker 2:Let's step back into our topic. I'm here with Ashley, who's a fellow Disney fan and digital storytelling major. Nice to be
Speaker 3:here, Ashley. Hi. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:So you've seen Aladdin. Right?
Speaker 3:Yes. I have. And what do you think of it? I I enjoy it. I think that the story is from from what, like, it's based off of, I think it's definitely edited down to what Disney, like, what Disney represents and how well, not what Disney represents, but how Disney shows, like, their stories, especially for the time, like, the Renaissance age in which they released it.
Speaker 3:So Definitely. So I've heard that your family are big Disney fans too. Like, what kind of experiences have you had with with that? With Disney?
Speaker 2:Or Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So my family are very big Disney fans. We're Disney Vacation Club members. I've grown up going to Disney World. Enjoy I try to watch almost all of the movies.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Things things like that. I own a very large Minnie Ear collection. Oh, wow. So, yeah.
Speaker 3:I I unabashedly call myself a Disney adult.
Speaker 2:So Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about how it was viewed on its release. Mhmm. So at the time, it was the animation, quality, an engaging story. It was all, like, praised highly.
Speaker 2:Obviously, Robin Williams' performance was Yeah. Very popular. I mean, obviously, neither of us were around yet back when it was first released. But Yeah. You know, from what we've heard, and from what I've heard from my mom because she had my two cousins were young back then, and she remembers when it was actually released.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think it was released in, what, late nineties. Right?
Speaker 2:'92.
Speaker 3:Yeah. '92. Oh, not late nineties. Yeah. I think for the time, like you said, Robin Williams' performance was highly praised.
Speaker 3:He was a very well known actor at the time and even still to this day. I think also Leah Salong's performance, I think she did she both voice and sing for Jasmine?
Speaker 2:I think she just sang.
Speaker 3:Did she just sang? Okay. But having like that that Broadway voice as well, I think really helped amp up both press, being able to showcase like, hey, this is what this is the cast that we're working with. And also just being able to have, like, her clear singing voice is just amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Definitely. So I think that also helped. And it is it isn't the first time that Disney has, like, used a Broadway cast or used Broadway singers within their movies. I think Beauty and the Beast was almost an entirely Broadway cast. So I think I think they knew what they were Disney knew what they were doing when they went into this to get the cast.
Speaker 3:They knew what would hype up the film. They knew what would work well with audiences. So
Speaker 2:Yeah. Definitely. So now, I wonder, has that image changed much today? Because I feel like nowadays, people sometimes are getting a little more sensitive.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. I think one of the big things that people get up in arms about is Jasmine's outfit. The bikini top almost and the long pants, I know within like the Disney parks, they from when I grew up going, she had her classic, you know, film or movie identical almost costume when you would go and do meet and greets with her. And since then, I think around twenty tens, they changed that to where it's like a one piece where she's not showing as much skin. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Because adults and families really thought like, sexualized it and thought
Speaker 2:of it as such.
Speaker 3:So I think that didn't necessarily hold up well. But when you think about it, like, granted they didn't take Disney animators didn't take direct, like, wardrobe from, like, a specific con like, a specific culture or a specific specific time period. They took inspiration. Right? They didn't Right.
Speaker 3:Just copy and paste from something. That and the whole land of Agrabah, like, is is not it's not based off of one specific area.
Speaker 2:Right?
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's just You have the palace looking like the Taj Mahal. You have other aspects. You you have you have the inspirational pull, and it's not just one thing. And I think that people tend to forget that, especially, like, if you go back even further in movies, like, things are going to become dated.
Speaker 3:Things are going to become considered stereotypical Yeah. Or things are going to be taken in different light now compared to when things were released. I think
Speaker 2:For sure.
Speaker 3:Like I said, I think her outfit is definitely one of them. I think the fact that we had, like, a semi brothel scene is also definitely something that didn't necessarily hold up well, at the same time, kids aren't gonna know what that is. So it's it kinda goes over their heads and it's it's it's for the parents. It's for
Speaker 2:the adults that are watching the movie. I mean, that even kinda I I mean, is that really what that's supposed to be? Because It is.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It is actually. I some some animators, I believe, talked about it a little bit. So, I think that's that's interesting. And of course, as that came out, people are then speculating even more about like what actually went down in that scene and why they why the girls knew Aladdin and that's just a whole thing I'm not even gonna get into.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But I think that and then just Jasmine's interactions with Jafar and everything, like, yes, it holds it it somewhat holds true to what the original stories and original folk tales and things like that Aladdin is based off of. However, it it when you the forced marriage and the the the age difference and the fact that she's a young teen, it's just Yeah. I don't I don't think that something like that would necessarily be produced now. And if it was, I think it would be produced in a very different way.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Probably. I mean, like, even back then, there were sort of like, in the opening song Mhmm. There was one line that had to be changed because some people just got up in arms about it because they said that it was, you know, too too what's the word?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I yeah. I think unless it is something, like, extremely bad and you can take bad in whichever way you want. I I I am opposed to, like, changing changing film for, like, sensitivity purposes in that way just because like, if it holds true to the time period in which it was Right. In which it was created.
Speaker 3:Like, you need to give and take it. Yeah. And I get where people are coming from, but at the same time, like, if you're if you're saying, oh, something her outfit needs to be remastered now so that like future generations can see it. Like, no.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Come on.
Speaker 3:No. We're not gonna we're we're not gonna go and completely redo all of that. And I guess in a way they kinda did with the live action version. They kind of were able to change outfits and things like that. But Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think the line was like, they've changed it from when they where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face to Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think that one might have angered some people in, like, relation to the Bible maybe a little bit. I don't know. I I I I'm not one who has, gone in-depth into the Bible, so I can't speak too much on that. But the whole eye for an eye situation Yeah. I don't yeah.
Speaker 2:So, obviously, there's all that. It makes me curious as to what people think of it, like, in the future. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:I think in the future I mean, it's always gonna hold up as like a Disney princess film. Right. So it's always going to be categorized within that franchise of just Disney princesses in itself. And I think in that sense, it'll hold up. I think it I I think it'll always be popular.
Speaker 3:I do think that future audiences and, like, kids aspect, and I think adults maybe too are going to be a little hesitant in, like like, the dress up aspect of it because we've gotten we we've as we've talked, the, like, cultural sensitivity aspect of it, which I agree that we shouldn't be going and dressing up as other cultures and, of course, not, like, accurate depictions of that. At the same time, however, I am a little disappointed that like young girls can't just dress up as their favorite princesses. Yeah. Especially for hallow like things like Halloween. Like, if if I see a little five year old girl running around as Jasmine and she's not necessarily this exact depiction of Jasmine, I'm not gonna think, oh my gosh, she thinks like the worst things about these people type thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Mean I mean, it doesn't have to be like that. No. No, it doesn't.
Speaker 3:And I think that's that that that's society and adults putting pressure on children that the child won't understand, and that's a whole other discussion. Yeah. But I think on, like, the the aspect of or not on the aspect. I think on the younger level, this film will hold up. There might be some things that they're like, oh, I don't quite understand it.
Speaker 3:Like, what do you mean? And which the parents can or the adult can explain a little bit like, oh, you know, at that time, you know, you would be arrested for getting an like stealing an apple, which you still maybe get police interaction for that now, but it probably isn't like a full arrest like they were trying to do or a loaf of bread type thing when you get into Les Mis, like that whole thing. But I think I think it'll hold up. I think I mean, we've already made it, what, twenty years now since its release, a little over twenty years if it was '92. I and most things, if they don't hold up well generationally, they're gone by now, I feel like.
Speaker 3:Or there have been big discussions about it, and they aren't necessarily, like, class people don't think of it as classics or as like a classical movie. I think Aladdin will hold up as, you know, that that Disney cult classic. That Yeah. That Disney princess, that Jasmine will always be one of the main ones. Like, when you think of Disney Princess, you think Cinderella, you think you think Jasmine, you think Ariel, you think Belle, the like.
Speaker 3:Whereas, with some of, like, the newer Disney Princesses, I think it's kind of a question of whether people actually consider them, like part of the the main bulk of Disney princess, you know. Like, when you think of one of the characters, you're not necessarily thinking of all of the rest of the all of the rest of the princesses. Right. I think marketing wise, Jasmine is still on, like, a bunch like, all of the main princess themed stuff. Like, when you get a when you see around the holidays, you see, like, a multi doll pack of Disney princesses.
Speaker 3:I think Jasmine is in there and it's, you know, I think it'll hold up with with audiences, especially the younger generation. Right.
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Speaker 2:Alright. Now we'll take some questions from the audience. So first question, does this rank out of Disney's animated movies in popularity? I would say that it's pretty standard popularity for a Disney movie.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think if you bulk it within Disney princesses, it would probably rank a little higher. But also, we have just a huge bulk of Disney princess movies now, which we did not have at the time. So, yeah, I think it's pretty standard. There's definitely some Disney movies that people just have never heard of, and that goes at the bottom of the list.
Speaker 3:But when you say Aladdin or Princess Jasmine, I think that's people automatically know what and who you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay. Next question. Was Aladdin an existing story? If so, how does the movie compare?
Speaker 2:It actually was an existing story. Interesting thing is this, I believe, was the first Disney movie to not be based on a fairy tale. Instead, it was based on an old Arabian folktale Mhmm. Part of the a thousand and one Arabian Nights.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I I I mean, most most of Disney's not just princesses, but other movies too are based off of, you know, the Grimm's brothers and Hans Christian Andersen. So I I think it was smart of them for wanting to use Arabian folktale because you're not necessarily you aren't necessarily pulling from this the stock of fairy tales that they had already been pulling from. And I think it was something that wasn't necessarily expected from the audience because at the time you already have, you know, Cinderella, you have Snow White, which are all I believe those are all Grimm's brothers. So people couldn't be like, oh, the next one's gonna be, you know, x y z or pulling from The Arabian folktale, I think was very smart on their hand to kind of pivot, but also just give, like, a different point of view of, like, a different culture because a lot of what we were seeing at the time was very European folktales, European fairy tales.
Speaker 3:So I think Disney greatly pulled from the folktale, but then I think they they also took their own creative liberties. So
Speaker 2:Yeah. As they tend to do.
Speaker 3:As they tend to do. And I mean, that's with within their right. They're in a sense creating a whole new story. Like, you don't want to distribute a story that has already been told, you know, thousands of times, at least not from their perspective. Like, that that wouldn't make money because, yes, they're storytellers, but they're also trying to make money.
Speaker 2:Next question is, what was the budget on Aladdin? I believe it was 28,000,000, and it made 504,000,000. So, yeah, it's safe to say that the
Speaker 3:I think they cut even a little bit or broke even. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a decently sized budget.
Speaker 3:I don't know where other films that Disney was creating within that time, specifically animated films. I don't know where they were ranking budget wise at least. But I I wouldn't be surprised if that was, like, their average budget sense for one of their animated films, especially for one that maybe they thought was gonna produce a little bit more in the box office.
Speaker 2:Next question. How long on average did it take to draw one frame? I know that, as I said earlier, back in these days, it was more common for animated movies to be drawn using like hand drawn Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Things. Yeah. They were doing the whole, you know, flip back and forth to make sure that they're not drawing the whole facial the the same facial expression twice over, but changing it just a little bit so it's a flipbook situation for animation. I don't know how long exactly it would take to draw one frame because they're layering, like, so many different drawings on top of each other to create one still. I'd imagine it'd take quite a while.
Speaker 3:Oh, definitely. I know for me, like, I I'm awful at drawing. But for an animator, I would assume that they were doing maybe a frame or two a day, I would assume. That could be a very large misrepresentation of someone's drawing capabilities. They they may have been doing five frames a day.
Speaker 3:Who knows? I mean,
Speaker 2:it's it's kinda hard to say because, you know, part of it kinda depends on how good the people are and
Speaker 3:Yeah. And and it also depends on what you consider creating a frame. Like, does that mean just getting the sketch down? Like, just the drawing what the character is doing? Or does that also include, like, the color and the painting of it to digitizing it?
Speaker 3:That type of thing. Like, is that what you consider creating one frame? That all of in itself would of course take much longer than just sketching it out and drawing it and putting it down.
Speaker 2:So And last question, how many songs are in Aladdin? I believe there's six. That sounds about right.
Speaker 3:I I enjoy the music in Aladdin. I mean, part not part of your world. Jeez. That's a different that's a different movie entirely. A whole new world Right.
Speaker 3:I think is that that's the song that was the main one that everybody knows.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Every Disney movie has a song like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's their key song. I think also A Friend Like Me is one of the the key songs for this film
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That if somebody were to be asked like, oh, what songs were in Aladdin? They'd be like, oh, you know, A Whole New World and A Friend Like Me. I think those two will be people's like top two answers. The Disney Disney knows what they're doing. Their songwriters are amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So now let's talk about if we think, does this movie still hold up today?
Speaker 3:I think it does. I mean, I think if it didn't, we wouldn't be hearing a lot about it anymore. I think if it didn't, we wouldn't be seeing the commercialization of it with, you know, toys and books and things like that, especially for children. So I I mean, as long as someone still as long as someone or a child still says that Jasmine is their favorite Disney princess or Aladdin is their favorite movie, I think it'll always hold up. Right.
Speaker 3:For a hundred years from now, I don't know. Like, that that's too far to be able to tell. But I think within the next ten, twenty years, I think it'll still hold up unless, of course, something drastic changes. So I mean, I
Speaker 2:would say for the most part, a lot of it still holds up today. I know that there may be some things that people might look at and think, oh, that's too dark, too stereotypical, whatever world.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think I don't think with a move with anything, you're never going to please everyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right? So you you have to think about what's going to please the majority of the audiences or what's going to appeal to the children. So I think I think yeah. I think it it holds up pretty well regardless of what people may now think of as, you know, too dark, too racy, things like that. So
Speaker 2:See, Aladdin takes place, I think, like, sometime between the eighth and fourteenth centuries. And I know, like, there's this one scene where, like, this fruit vendor, she he catches Jasmine trying to steal an apple, and they seem like he's about to cut off her hands. Mhmm. And I've heard some people might see that as, like, dark or the thing is, it took place in a different time. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So and like it or not, that's kind of a fairly accurate depiction of what The Middle East was like back then.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think that it this goes back to just remembering not necessarily the time in which the film was created, but the time that the film was created about. It's always going to be different than what we experience now today. Yeah. I think that it's important to remember that, I mean, our society is still pretty violent and has been even around that time in the nineties.
Speaker 3:I think what was it? The statistic that I saw recently. It was we as a the world was still using the guillotine by the time the first Star Wars movie was filmed and, like, distributed. I mean, if you really wanna get into, like, really wanna get into it, like, we're still there there are still states in The United States that are using the death penalty. Like, it's not it's not something that we're seeing in everyday society.
Speaker 3:It's not something that when you go to the grocery store, you think you're gonna see someone's hand cut off. Yeah. But it's still not that far of a reach for us to understand
Speaker 2:where and when that might have happened. Right. I I think that Jasmine was the first Disney princess who kind of broke away from the whole damsel in distress stereotype.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Of course, I can't remember exactly when specific movies came out. I know Snow White, you'd probably say would would be your damsel in distress. Cinderella would be your damsel in distress. I don't I think Beauty and the Beast maybe came out after.
Speaker 3:I know it came out in the nineties. I can't maybe '96. I can't remember exactly. But Jasmine breaking out and, like, not being the damsel in distress is definitely starting a pattern of these Disney princesses that aren't wanting to be the damsel in distress type thing. Like, you have Belle in Beauty and the Beast.
Speaker 3:Like, yes, she may have been captured, but then she was, like, she was fighting for her father type thing. And then, Ariel, I mean, I guess some could say she was a damsel in distress type situation, but she was fighting for what she wanted in a sense. Yeah. Granted, that involved her getting her voice taken away and haunted by a sea witch in a sense. But it definitely starts creating that pattern and it's not like the biggest jump when we start seeing more and more Disney princesses that are wanting like their life for themselves and to make their own choices type thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Alright. So what's the verdict? Does Aladdin hold up?
Speaker 3:I think so. Yeah. I think it does. I think, like I said before, as long as we're still hearing about it and as long as it's still someone will still consider it as their favorite movie or their favorite princess, I think it'll hold up.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, obviously, the themes of Mhmm. Like, friendship and loyalty, those are always gonna be timeless.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Those are always going to be timeless, like you said. I mean, we're we're seeing many of the themes from Aladdin in current Disney films or in current films in general. So the the stereot not the stereotypical. The I guess, in some peep some people would say cringey, you know, power of friendship type thing main themes.
Speaker 3:I mean, you still have your theme of love and, like, finding true love type thing. As long as we're still seeing those themes today and as long as people are still enjoying it, we'll all wait. The it'll always be a classic and it'll it'll always hold up. Yeah. For sure.
Speaker 2:Alright. Well, I think that's about all the time we have. Thank you so much again for helping with this Ashley.
Speaker 3:Thank you. I had a great time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the classic hold up. Be sure to check out our other episodes, and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 1:Find the classic hold up on Spotify, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us at audio video land for updates, teasers, and behind the scenes content of all audio video land productions. The classic hold up is an audio video land production by students of the college of communication arts and sciences at Michigan State University in collaboration with Impact eighty nine FM.