Although the new music works wonderfully, I can imagine that it must have been hard for everyone involved, to have a new person step into the very large shoes of Howard Ashman. However, when Aladdin’s mother and friends were cut, so were their songs when Jasmine because less of a spoiled character, her song that highlighted her spoiled character, “Call Me a Princess,” was cut.Īfter Howard Ashman’s death, lyricist Tim Rice was brought in to work with Alan Menken on the remainder of the songs for the film.
When the original story for Aladdin was written, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken had written a series of songs to fit that original mood. Disney eventually offered a public apology and their gestures of goodwill and apology convinced Williams to come back for the final Aladdin movie, Aladdin and the King of Thieves. In The Return of Jafar and the much beloved (to me, at least) 1994 “Aladdin” television show, Dan Castellaneta voiced the Genie. Unfortunately, this arrangement was broken, and Robin Williams distanced himself from the film and the Studio. It seems that he agreed to work for less because the part was fun, and he asked that because of this, Genie be a small part of advertising, a request that was granted (on paper).
This is that Robin Williams agreed to voice the Genie and was paid very little. However, there is a bit of a controversy with Aladdin. Then Goldberg, Musker, and Clements would pick the bits that they thought would work best in the film. GenieĪs the Genie, Robin Williams recorded the script but also improvised quite a bit as he read. When Williams saw it, he was onboard to be part of the project. Eric Goldberg, who was the lead animator on Genie, had drawn a sample reel of Genie, using an old recording of Williams doing standup comedy.
One thing that stayed pretty consistent, however, was the desire to have Robin Williams voice the Genie the script was written with Williams in mind. Work on Aladdin started in 1989, and like I said above, there were several things that changed as production went on. Of course, they rose to the challenge admirably, and the result is the film we know and love today. On a day that the crew describes as “Black Friday,” they were given eight days to rework the story, with no changes to the release date of the film. Originally, the story looked very different, with Aladdin being younger, having human friends, a living mother, and unlimited wishes.ĭuring a viewing of the storyboard, however, it became clear that no one was particularly thrilled with how it was all coming together. Aladdin and Jasmineĭespite the fact that it won so many awards, and that most of us probably remember Aladdin very fondly from our childhoods, Aladdin was faced with several roadblocks on the way to success. It was also nominated for Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing, and Best Music, Original Song for “Friend Like Me.” Overall, Aladdin won 26 awards and was nominated an additional 17 times. At the Golden Globes in 1993, Aladdin won Best Original Score-Motion Picture, Best Original Song for “A Whole New World,” and Robin Williams was given a special award “For His Vocal Work.” The film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical, and the songs “Prince Ali” and “Friend Like Me” were also nominated.Īt the Academy Awards that same year, Aladdin took home the Oscar for Best Music, Original Score, Best Music, Original Song for “A Whole New World,” and Best Sound. Like other Disney films of this new wave, Aladdin was nominated for several awards. And, of course, if you have any thoughts, burning or otherwise, please share in the comments! BACKGROUND OF ALADDINĪladdin was released on November 25 th, 1992, and was written and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who had brought us The Little Mermaid in 1989. Welcome to Revisiting Disney! Today, we are looking at the story that swept us off our feet to a whole new world, Aladdin! Like always, I have labeled each category so if you want to skip to the parts that interest you most, feel free.