Disney is one of the few remaining studios which continues to churn out the original ‘cartoon’ style animated movies as opposed to the CGI alternatives such as Shrek and Toy Story...although of course it does those too! Personally, I am not a huge fan of the cartoon ones, preferring the seemingly more comedic CGI versions but you certainly can’t deny the quality of these movies or their appeal to children. In Aladdin, Disney brings more fun into the movie as opposed to them being just fairytale romantic adventures a la Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid to name two which appeared closest and previous to this one. As such, it held much more appeal to me and I think its one of their best recent(ish) offerings.

This movie has one enormous thing going for it...Robin Williams. Now if anyone has read any of my more recent comments on Robin Williams you would probably have gained the impression that I’m not a huge fan of his. In fact, the opposite is true which is perhaps why I am most scathing of his recent work. Robin Williams is a hugely talented actor/comedian when he actually takes on the kind of role that a hugely talented actor/comedian should be taking on. Trashy melodramas, sickly, sugary feelgood(feel sick!) claptrap and such like are not the domain for a guy with this kind of talent and certainly not all the damn time. Bicentenial Man sucked, Jacob The Liar Sucked, Patch Adams was ermm ‘passable’...the recent list of sucky feelgood pap is endless because he hasn’t done a really good comedy movie for years..hmm yeah Flubber and Jumanji spring to mind sadly as the last I can remember. Playing the genie in Aladdin, he was given the opportunity to let the madcap personality which made him a star in the first place run wild...and he runs very wild indeed.

Aladdin features the kind of artwork you would expect from a major Disney production and whilst it may not match up to the glorious visuals that Beauty and the Beast gave us, it does certainly gives us the goods so to speak. Aladdin is also more an out and out comedy than its predecessors and for me that makes it far more appealing than a simple adventure/romance etc. that the others gave us and I think more appealing to all generations as well - much of the comedy(like the impersonations) are only going to be really appreciated by adults for example, although kids will find the antics funny. Less emphasis too is put upon the songs and for me again that makes it a hell of a lot more appealing...the kind of music which goes along with these things is all very...well not my cup of tea, I’d rather be having a laugh than be sitting glazed through another bland musical number any day. In terms of universal appeal and entertainment value I would say that this is the best of Disney’s recent animated offerings, although taken as a whole you would have to say that it falls behind the likes of Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid...its definitely the funniest anyway and the one I personally liked the best.