Aladdin Facts

  

1. Some of the Genie's imitations were cut from the film, including John Wayne, George Bush and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

2. Robin Williams provided the voice for the Genie, at union scale rate (the lowest legal pay rate a studio can give an actor), on the provisos that his voice was not used for merchandising (i.e. toys and such) and that the Genie character not take up more than 25% of the space of a poster, ad, billboard, or trailer. When these wishes were not granted, he withdrew his support for Disney and the film. As a result, his name was not included in "The Art of Aladdin" book (it makes constant references to "the voice of the Genie"), and he was not available for the direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar (1994) or the "Aladdin" (1994) TV show (Dan Castellaneta filled in as the voice of the Genie for these productions). In an attempt to get back on good terms with Robin Williams, Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Eisner apologized to Robin Williams with a peace offering of an original Pablo Picasso painting. Still angered and betrayed by Disney, Robin Williams would not accept the gift. It was not until Jeffrey Katzenberg was fired and a new producer hired did Robin Williams return to Disney. Through this new producer, a public apology was given (by the producer). Promises were made to right wrongs, and Robin Williams was so touched that he came back as the Genie for the second DTV sequel [Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996)]. Disney was so thrilled that they threw out the previously completed recording sessions with Dan Castellaneta.

3. The genie appears in the following guises:

*For release in India, Disney replaced the game show host with a cricket commentator.


4. In early visual development, Aladdin resembled Michael J. Fox. As the film developed, Jeffrey Katzenberg didn't think Aladdin had enough appeal to women, so he asked that Aladdin be beefed up a bit to resemble Tom Cruise.

5. Jasmine's appearance was influenced by Jennifer Connelly, as well as the sister of her animator, Mark Henn.

6. The stack of wooden toy animals that Jasmine's father plays with is sitting on a toy of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast (1991), another Disney animated movie. Sebastian from The Little Mermaid (1989) and Pinocchio (1940) can also be spotted.

7. When the Genie changes Abu into a car, the license plate reads "ABU 1".

8. The two men in the crowd that Aladdin pushes through are caricatures of a couple of the directors (John Musker and Ron Clements); the original plan was to use film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, but they couldn't get permission.

9. A rumor circulated in late 2001 that during Aladdin's balcony scene he says, "Take off your clothes." He is talking to Raja at the time, and his exact words are, "Nice kitty, take off and go, go on." This has been cut in the DVD version.

10. The idea of adapting the Aladdin story as a Disney animated musical was first proposed by Howard Ashman in 1988 at the time that he and Alan Menken were still working on The Little Mermaid (1989) and before work had begun on Beauty and the Beast (1991). Howard Ashman wrote an initial treatment for the project and collaborated on six songs with Alan Menken. When John Musker and Ron Clements finished directing duties on The Little Mermaid (1989), they turned their attention to writing a first draft of the Aladdin (1992) script, and became eventually directors for it.

11. WILHELM SCREAM: As the villagers flee in terror when the Genie (under Jafar's control) lifts the palace into the air.

12. In the first draft, Aladdin had three friends (Babkak, Omar, and Kassim), a magic ring and two genies.

13. Some of the original songs before the story was rewritten and half of the characters were cut: "Proud of Your Boy" (suppose to be sung by Aladdin to his mother (later removed from the story) while she was sleeping) "Call Me A Princess" "Omar, Babkak, Aladdin, Kassim" "Humiliate The Boy" (sung by Jafar, cut as it was considered too cruel for the film) "High Adventure" "Count on Me" (which was something Aladdin sung to his friends and family, then it was changed to "A Whole New World").

14. When Aladdin puts Jafar back into the lamp, the spell on the other characters is broken - the Magic Carpet gets returned to normal, and Jasmine's dress turns back from red to blue. Start watching when Jasmine's tiger cub jumps into the Sultan's arms. When the cub hits his arms and starts to grow back into a tiger, just before he becomes normal, the tiger's face appears as Mickey Mouse for one frame.

15. Not only is the plot similar to The Thief of Bagdad (1940) but character names Jafar (Jaffar) and Abu were apparently borrowed from the 1939 script by Lajos Biró. The characters in the silent original, The Thief of Bagdad (1924) were not given names.

16. In the original folktale, Aladdin is actually Chinese.

17. During the course of recording the voices, Robin Williams improvised so much they had almost 16 hours of material.

18. Andreas Deja based Jafar on Marc Davis's design for Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959). The two villains share more than just looks: both carry a staff which they use to execute evil magic; both have bird henchman (Maleficent's is a raven, Jafar's a parrot), and both turn themselves into gigantic animals in their respective films - Maleficent as a dragon, Jafar as a snake.

19. Bill Plympton turned down a seven-figure offer to work on this film, because any ideas and concepts he developed for his other projects while under contract with Disney would become their intellectual property.

20. While filming this movie, Robin Williams frequently received calls from Steven Spielberg who at the time was working on Schindler's List (1993). He would put him on speaker phone so he could tell jokes to the cast and crew to cheer them up. Some of the material that he used was material that he was using for this film.

21. Originally, the peddler who introduces the movie would be revealed to be the Genie at the end - hence the fact that Robin Williams voiced him, too. Notice the similarities in the design of the two, especially the eyebrows, the beard and the four-fingered hands. (All the other human characters have five fingers.)

22. Jafar at first was more hot-tempered, while Iago was a cool, haughty British type. The filmakers felt that having Jafar losing his temper too much made him less menacing, so the personalities of the two characters were switched around.

23. Production designer Richard Vander Wende devised a simple color scheme for the film, inspired by its desert setting. Blue (water) stands for good, red (heat) for evil, and yellow (sand) is neutral. For example, the villainous Jafar is clad in blacks and reds, while the virtuous Jasmine wears blue. Another example is in the Cave of Wonders, where the lamp's chamber is blue, and the ruby that tempts Abu is bright red.

24. The fire walker in the "One Step" number is a caricature of T. Hee, a former Disney story man who later taught caricature at CalArts, where many of the film's artists studied.

25. Crazy Hakim, the "discount fertilizer" salesman in the opening chase, is a caricature of animator Tom Sito.

26. Whenever Aladdin tells a lie, the plume on his hat falls and covers his face.

27. The fireworks seen at the end of the film are reused special effects from The Rescuers (1977).

28. When Howard Ashman began work on the movie, he developed the story as a fast-paced comic adventure about a young boy trying to prove his worth to his parents. But, in 1991, Ashman died, and the story problems stalled the movie. So, the plot was reworked to be about a teenager, Aladdin, seeking self-respect instead of the approval of others.

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