Disney's Aladdin

I used to be a big fan of Disney when I was a child, hell most kids are. I actually still enjoy a lot of the classic films like Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty. This particular one was done during the so-called ‘Disney Renaissance’ of the early 90’s, and it’s enjoyable for one thing: Robin Williams as the Genie. I was shocked at seeing this again, since I hadn’t since I was a kid, and realizing how uninteresting and cliched most of the characters are. Aladdin and Jasmine are basically your typical pretty kids who look as Arabic as much as I look Asian, and most characters are simply Arabian stereotypes. Disney has always been famous for it’s complete ignorance when it came to race relations, and this is no exception. For some reason it actually makes it kind of entertaining, especially when it comes to the villain Jafar, who’s a borderline homosexual. But the movie definitely picks up after the Genie shows up, getting a lot more energetic, more cartoony and more entertaining as a whole. You can tell they basically let Williams go crazy, doing voices like crazy, and you hear impressions of guys like Ed Sullivan and Peter Lorre. Actually now that I think about it, Gilbert Gottfried also does a great job as an annoying parrot, and Frank Welker does a good job as monkey Abu, although he’ll always be the voice of Megatron to me. Anyway, this is an over-rated film, but it is good for the kiddies and adults will get a kick out of Robin Williams’ performance. Just try to keep a straight face in the middle of the blatant racism.