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There was a time where I would really follow the box office. I still do, but not to the extent that I once did. And it used to be one of my goals to see every movie in the top 50 worldwide and domestic box office lists. And for the longest time the only movie I hadn't seen on those lists was Aladdin. I don't know why, but I just never bothered - like because it was an animated movie, it didn't really count. Anyways, the point is that Aladdin was always that black mark - the one that got away - my white whale. Whatever you want to call it. But not anymore, with the release of the Aladdin 2-Disc Special Edition!!
I'm sure everybody knows, but the story goes something like this... The evil sorcerer Jafar is looking to take over the kingdom. He sees acquiring a magic lamp as his way to do it. When he rubs the magic lamp, he'll be granted three wishes by the genie inside. However, there's a catch. The lamp is buried in the desert and can only be retrieved by just the right person. That person? Aladdin. His story? He's a thief on the run from the royal guard. So, Jafar has him arrested, and then cons him into coming to the desert to get the lamp. But when the plan goes awry, Aladdin is stuck buried with the lamp out in the middle of nowhere. Unknowingly, he rubs the lamp and the genie appears. Aladdin uses a couple of wishes to become a rich and powerful prince in order to impress the kingdom's princess - Jasmine. However, his lies soon catch up to him and Jafar manages to get the lamp. Evil sorcery ensues and it's up to Aladdin, Jasmine and all their animal friends to save the kingdom.
So, after all these years, what did I think? Was it worth it? Sure, I guess. I wouldn't let my kids watch it just yet (I wasn't too crazy about some of the themes and the sorcery bit was a little too scary at times) but it was entertaining.
I love the Disney Special Edition DVDs almost as much for the extras as I do for the movies themselves - and Aladdin is no exception. On disc one, besides the feature, we get a plethora of goodies. First up, there are four deleted songs - each with their own introduction as to why they didn't appear in the film. Most were due to story changes. It's important to note that one of the movie's original creators, Howard Ashman, died during the film's production, so the story took a bit of a turn from what it was originally meant to be. The same goes for the two deleted scenes included. What we get are storyboards of very early versions of the movie, one of which shows a different meeting between Aladdin and Jasmine and another dealing with Aladdin's mother, who featured prominently in the film's early draft.
Next up on disc one are some musical features. We get one of the deleted songs ("Proud of Your Boy") performed by American Idol's Clay Aiken - the song is set to a music video as well as to the storyboarded deleted footage. We also get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the video. The song is pretty moving - even if you don't like Clay. We also get "A Whole New World" performed by newlyweds Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey plus a behind-the-scenes look at their collaboration. Finally, we get the original music video featuring Regina Belle and Peabo Bryson. If I had to complain here, I would have liked to have had the original video in full blown audio. Instead we get a dated 2.0 track that really doesn't do the song justice. More musical features include a Disney Song Selection where you can skip to a song from the movie complete with lyrics.
Finally on disc one, we get Disney Backstage, which includes 2 commentaries and a pop-up text commentary with fun facts from the movie. The first commentary features producer/directors John Musker and Ron Clements and co-producer Amy Pell. This is a decent commentary with all your standard behind-the-scenes facts looking at the film's production, the cast and various story changes. Unfortunately, most of the material covered here is also covered in the second animators' track which features supervising animators Andreas Deja (Jafar), Will Finn (Iago), Eric Goldberg (Genie) and Glen Keane (Aladdin). This makes for a rather redundant listen. The fun-facts trivia track is okay. Not a lot of "fun" as the tone is a little more serious, but fun nonetheless with little insiders tidbits such as hidden animation details (watch for Mickey Mouse's ears!). Although there are too many long pauses with this track, it's a nice addition to the DVD. Also nice that you can watch the text commentary and listen either audio commentary at the same time!
Disc two provides the meat of the special features - as if disc one didn't provide enough! "Backstage Disney" holds everything you ever need to know about Aladdin. Included we get "A Diamond in the Rough: The Making of Aladdin" which is an almost two hour behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie going over such topics as the producers, the music, the animators and the voice talents. You have the option of watching it all at once, picking and choosing your chapters or an interactive tour with bonus segments. Whether you're the movie's biggest fan, or a first-timer like me, this was simply great - a feature-length documentary with every imaginable angle of the movie's production covered. And it seems as though they could've added so much more. Amazing.
More "Backstage" features include a twenty-minute feature on the musical genius behind Aladdin (and many other Disney hits) titled "Alan Menken: Musical Renaissance Man". We also look at "The Art of Aladdin" which includes an "Art Review" featurette and some stills galleries looking at the evolution of some of the film's characters. Finally, we get to look at the film's publicity which gives us trailers for this and the two Aladdin sequels, and a publicity gallery looking at various movie posters, concepts and theme park attractions.
Beyond the "Backstage" feature, we get "Games and Activities". Pretty much just for the kids, we get a virtual DVD ride titled "Aladdin's Magic Carpet Adventure", a tour (either self-guided or guided by Iago) of the genie's lamp, a three-wishes game where you try to land a coin in Jafar's mouth (think the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks) and last, but not least, which is a rather amusing feature in which we get to see a series of postcards from the Genie to Iago and Jafar showing all the places the genie has visited since gaining his freedom. You gotta love Gilbert Gottfried (the voice of Iago) who provides most of the entertainment and narration during these features. The guy is hilarious!
I feel I haven't even scratched the surface here. There is so much material covered, it is simply incredible. From the high point of Disney animation, this movie is one of the studio's last great animated features - and the extras only help to enhance and add a greater appreciation to the film itself.
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