CARTOON VOICES: ALADDIN, FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST
When Walt Disney unveiled his first animated feature film, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, in 1937, everything was new about it (unless you had read the story it was based on). There had been animated shorts, but never a full-length tale, and it had never looked this polished. More germaine to this column is it also didn't sound familiar. With few exceptions, the Disney animated films didn't feature recognizable voices in them. Part of that, of course, was probably snobbery on the part of actors and such; after all, animated features and shorts were considered kids stuff. But it also seemed like Disney didn't want people saying, "Hey, that's so-and-so!" while watching the movie. All of that has since changed, especially since THE LITTLE MERMAID engineered a Disney renaissance in 1989. First of all, studios now want star power to help sell the movie to the adults as well as the kids. Secondly, stars with children see this as a way of doing movies for their kids. Though he's hardly the first star to do voices for animated films, Robin Williams, with his rapid-fire comic delivery, seems tailor-made for the format, and he did memorable voice work for two animated films in 1992, ALADDIN and FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST.
Except for Williams, ALADDIN, which was the follow-up to Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, pales in comparison to that movie. True, the look of the film also outdoes even BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. A scene where Aladdin (voiced by Scott Weigner, of TV's "Full House") is flying away from bad guys on a magic carpet, is as exciting as any live-action chase scene. And as usual for a Disney film, things are bursting with color and spectacular images, such as the castle where Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin), the object of Aladdin's affection, lives.
However, the story and the songs - two of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST's strengths - are lackluster here. The story is more in line with THE THIEF OF BAGDHAD than the original Arabian Nights tale. Here, Aladdin, a thief, is picked by the evil Jafar (Jonathan Freeman), advisor to Jasmine's father the Sultan (Douglas Seale) to try and steal the lamp of the genie that grants three wishes. With these, Jafar hopes to become all-powerful and wrest control of the kingdom from the Sultan, whom he controls Rasputin-like anyway. He also has the hand of Jasmine promised to him. But Jasmine has other ideas, and so does Aladdin.
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