Salaam, readers!
It was on this day in 1992 that Aladdin materialized on the big screen, telling the tale of Aladdin, the street-smart young man who wins the hand of Princess Jasmine with the help of the great and powerful Genie of the lamp. As if by magic, the film flew to No. 1 at the box office, breaking all kinds of records, and therefore inspiring Aladdin’s Royal Caravan parade at California and Florida Disney Parks, the Aladdin’s Oasis dinner show at Disneyland, the Aladdin on Ice show, the Aladdin TV series, as well as several direct-to-video sequels, and the Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular, which conjured up ovations at Disney California Adventure’s Hyperion Theater. Aladdin broke new ground for Disney by bringing in timely, rather than timeless, gags and humor into the picture, with a much more upbeat and outrageous style, largely due to the sometimes ad-libbed recordings of the voice of the genie, Robin Williams. At the 2009 D23 Expo, when Robin became a Disney Legend, he said, “I want to thank all the animators who made Aladdin… you really pushed the boundaries of what Disney can do. By putting Jack Nicholson in a cartoon, you’re really going to have kids grow up real quickly. And putting William F. Buckley in any cartoon is a frightening concept.” Disney certainly proved with Aladdin‘s success that if you’ve got a wish, you can achieve it with just a little punch, pizzazz, yahoo, and how.
