Aladdin/The Lion King

Let’s travel all the way to Agrabah for today’s review of “Disney Month” with the 1992 classic, but racist, “Aladdin.” Stephen Hunter stated in his review that, “"Aladdin" conjures up a story Scheherazade wouldn't have thought up in 2,002 Arabian nights.” How could even the best storyteller have imagined that the late comedian who started out as the alien Mork in “Happy Days” before getting “Mork and Mindy” and later have a short-lived sitcom called “The Crazy Ones,” Robin Williams would have been?

Is this a man or a spirit or a deeply wounded human being? Well, maybe he is a genie (my all time favorite Disney character). That does explain the bottomless amount of personality that seems to purge through his appearance, on screen or off, the literally unbelievable way where he goes up and brings down new voices, rhythms and world knowledge within the boundaries of a single sentence or two.

Thus the highlight of “Aladdin” is entirely Robin Williams. He made a total of 52 characters in a few minutes during his first segment in the movie and was allowed to ad-lib his lines, and he improvised many times, which is no surprise since he was the king of improvisation. In fact, the movie might be looked at as something of an attention-grabber, a technical trick, in which the opportunity was simple and intimidating: Could the Disney animators have kept up with Williams through all the constant changing of his vocal performance?

The answer is an obvious YES. The movie has been made basically as a stage-show for Williams and the Disney animators with the pencils. It doesn’t start to compare to the deeper and more significant Disneys of the near or far past, like “Beauty and the Beast” and “Snow White.” The animation itself is lighter, wispier, and sketchier, the colors don’t show off that deeply felt shine of the older animators, and the settings lack detail. The character visualizations are all average. The music is spirited but forgettable. Hunter said that, “It's as if they've cleared out the clutter to make room for Williams, much in the way the 76ers used to pull to one side of the court to let the Doctor (Julius Erving) operate.”

The story is this: Aladdin (Scott Weinger, who also played Steve the boyfriend on the horrendous sitcom “Full House”), a harmless but spirited poor boy in the Disney city of Agrabah, meets and falls in love with Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin), who is rebellious against her father’s (Douglas Seale) prediction of her arranged marriage. He’s then manipulated by Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) and Iago (comedian Gilbert Gottfried) to retrieve the long-lost lamp in the dangerous (but beautifully animated) Cave of Wonders (Frank Welker, who also voiced Abu the monkey and Rajah), but holds possession and frees the Williams genie.

Hunter described the Genie as, “This is a large blue apparition that originally appears in the guise of a grumpy Jewish delicatessen owner and quickly enough has pretty much run the gamut of the available: at one point he segues effortlessly into a version of Jack Nicholson and then Peter Lorre. He is truly the world -- black, white, male, female, famous, obscure, he just rifles through the known permutations of human flesh at the speed of light.”

The Disney animators stick to him all the way. Hunter says, “It's like watching a kaleidoscopic presentation of vaguely human shapes, as he permutes quicker than mercury, louder than a skyrocket. It's one of those out-of-scale performances that all but drives the movie around it into blur.”

The main problem, obviously, is their attempt in making the story “hip,” the Disney workers removed it from its roots in fiction and, sadly, its sources of unconscious meaning. It has no mythical character. Is this really a bad one? Not at all, for I think it’s still one of the good ones that people should check out, even though it may not be all that great. It’s superficial, but a lot of fun.

Alright, let’s now go to Africa with a movie that I just finished re-watching after so many years, “The Lion King,” released in 1994. Beautifully imaginative, “The Lion King” is the king of family entertainment, charming in every way. With a better story than “Aladdin,” it is famous also for an excellence in animation that surpasses both “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast.” The colors are brighter and of greater range, the drawings are even cleverer.

Also, what majestic creativity, as herds of wildebeest stampedes over a trick and down into a canyon. Scenes of a misty morning with scraping animals and a romantic break in a green land with waterfalls look like paintings. This is how Disney animation used to be.

Respect for nature and the life cycle, development of courage, and faith in one’s ancestors are some of the lessons given by the story of Simba, voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas (who also played Randy on “Home Improvement”), an innocent lion cub. His father Mufasa, voiced by James Earl Jones, is king of Pride Rock. Eventually, Simba will be next in line.

But in Disney’s version of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there is one who wants the throne – Mufasa’s evil, sadistic brother Scar, voiced by Jeremy Irons. If he can only rid of these two lions, he will get the throne. So he put into place a plan involving murdering Mufasa and banishing the guilt-feeling Simba to another land far away.

Supporting characters either threat or help Simba on his path to finding out the truth. The hyenas, who I think of as this film’s version of the Three Stooges, (Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, and the brilliant Jim Cummings), chase him around in the Elephant’s Graveyard. Yet loyal majordomo Zazu, voiced by English comedian Rowan Atkinson, who is from funny sitcoms like “Blackadder” and “Mr. Bean,” a small bird with great bounce back prospective, tries to warn Simba.

Then there are the favorite characters in this film, wisecracking Timon (gay comedian Nathan Lane), a skinny little meerkat, and his friend Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella), a warthog who farts a lot. They become Simba’s friends and help him into adulthood (Matthew Broderick plays adult Simba). How Timon goes to help Simba when he does return to Pride Rock is the film’s hilarious part.

Candace Russell said in her review, “It is refreshing to note that the creatures are not so humanlike as to seem any less animalistic. With priceless facial expressions, the lions move and sit with a grace common to all cats. For a film aimed straight at the very young, it is remarkably adult of the filmmakers to include scenes that reflect global social concerns. The theme of a devastated homeland could be taken from headlines about Bosnia and Rwanda. When a lion mother (Madge Sinclair) is hit in the face by Scar, it's rough domestic violence.”

There’s no sugar-coated rejection of what really happens between animals in the circle of life. How lions stay alive, by eating antelopes, is nicely explained by Mufasa to Simba.

A spiritual journey begins. When sad Simba is heartbroken about his father’s death, Rafiki, voiced by Robert Guillaume, a wise baboon, tells him to look to the stars for his father’s face. Mufasa does appear in a cloud formation, to give out wise advice. Russell says, “We can be grateful that there's not a human in the movie - not a single poacher or a busload of camera-toting tourists on safari. It's left to warring lions and hyenas to work things out.”

There’s even a love story, something that Disney cartoons cannot be complete without. Simba reunites with Nala, voiced by Niketa Calame as a cub and Moira Kelly as an adult, a lion friend since childhood, who helps convince him to return to Pride Rock. Even though Zoe Leader says one line as Nala’s mother, she still should be mentioned.

Songs by Tim Rice and the great Elton John, especially Circle of Life and the catchy Hakuna Matata, are some of the best songs in Disney history, especially Be Prepared. What’s not to like about “The Lion King?”

Well, there you have two classic Disney films, and “The Lion King” is one of my favorites. I remember seeing that a lot in my childhood with my siblings, and I still love it watching it again today. Make sure to check both of them out when you get the chance. Look out for more “Disney Month” tomorrow.