This is by far my favourite Disney movie (with all respect to The Lion King, but this movie is hilarious) and that has to do entirely with Robin Williams performance as not one, but two characters.
For those not familiar with the plot at this stage (the story is based on a very old Arabic folktale), Aladdin (Scott Weinger) is a poor street rat who dreams of being rich like the Sultan of Agrabah. After being arrested and thrown into the dungeon when meeting Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin), Aladdin is coerced into helping the evil Vizier Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) infiltrate the Cave of Wonders, which is filled with treasure. In this cave there is a lamp that is considered a great treasure.
I should point out how perfectly evil Freeman's performance is in this movie. As a kid I was terrified of the character of Jafar and he has a perfect sidekick in the form of Iago (Gilbert Gottfried). The art design for Jafar is amazing that it can still make me shudder at the sight of him as I watch it now.
It's at this stage that we meet the most memorable character of the movie; Genie (played superbly by Robin Williams). The entirety of Williams' performance is ad-libbed, after he recorded one performance as per the script, he was allowed to improvise all the dialogue, which is ultimately what was used. The animating team then worked the character around this voice work. This has resulted in a performance that is filled with pop culture references that go completely over any child's head, but once you grow up, you find yourself laughing at every single thing that comes out of his mouth.
There's a theory floating around that I think makes the viewing of this movie even more hilarious. At the start of the film we are introduced to a merchant (also voiced by Williams), who tries to sell the audience a lamp. The theory goes that this merchant made up the story to sell the lamp and thus inserted himself in the story as the Genie. This makes a lot of sense, especially when you look at the dimensions of the palace in Agrabah in comparison to the rest of the city.
Speaking of the city of Agrabah, the animation is amazing to look at. Not only are all the character animations are beautiful, but also the designs of static backgrounds are fantastic. In other animated movies of this time, the backgrounds normally were one-dimensional and lifeless, but these backgrounds are dynamic and colourful. This combined with the amazing early CGI defines the look of the film.
The last aspect that I want to talk about is the music. This movie has the best songs out of any Disney movie (sorry again, The Lion King). The songs are memorable and easy to sing along with. They are all very funny and/or tender and sweet.
Verdict: This Disney movie is a hilarious display of Robin Williams improvisation techniques and I recommend everyone watch it again immediately.
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