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Aladdin: (Alan Menken) Flying on its own magic carpet
ride in the early 1990's, the collaboration between Disney and Alan Menken
soared from
The Little Mermaid and
Beauty and the Beast to
Aladdin in 1992 without even the slightest hiccup. Despite the
failing health of Menken's lyricist, Howard Ashman, who would pass away
before the final cut of the film,
Aladdin maintained the outrageously
profitable Disney musical craze with viewers and listeners of all ages.
Following
Beauty and the Beast was no small task, however, with the
Aladdin predecessor rivaling live action films at both the box office
and awards ceremonies (the latter of which is even more rare today than
ever). Still, audiences were ready to soak up nearly anything from Disney in
1992, and
Aladdin was yet another enormous box office and music chart
success story. None of Menken's songs for this final entry in the "Great
Disney Musical Trilogy" would achieve the same lasting greatness as those in
the other two, though, with
Aladdin suffering the most significant
neglect of the three from listeners and viewers in future generations
(despite the several substandard straight-to-video knock-off sequels). A
television cartoon spin-off of the film failed miserably with its musical
adaptations, and the original soundtrack album representing the story fell
badly out of print until a moderately remastered reprint was issued with a
different cover in 2001. Finally, in 2004,
Aladdin would be released
on DVD, and in similar fashion to the special edition of
Beauty and the
Beast, an expanded album of the
Aladdin soundtrack was released
concurrently. The original
Aladdin soundtrack pressing was among the
most common used-cd bin finds ever in the history of CDs, which is further
evidence of the film and score's poorer long-time performance.
Unlike many of the Disney musicals from the 1990's (which
often had comparably popular songs and score),
Aladdin was a curious
case in which the songs so heavily overshadowed the score in quality that
Menken's non-song work for the film had good reason to fade away. Menken's
pseudo-Arabian writing shines through in many creative ways in the songs
whereas the score seems to return to cliched cartoon methodology more often
than not. The vocal performances in
Aladdin are top-notch, led by
Robin Williams, of course, whose talents in this project are extraordinary
at the least. His comedy talents aside, his musical talents really steal the
show in two of
Aladdin's songs. The Oscar-nominated "Prince Ali" song
is among Menken's most ambitious, with the reprise performance by Jonathan
Freeman (as Jafar) serving alongside Tony Jay's performance in
The
Hunchback of Notre Dame as one of Disney's more memorable. Menken's
strong sense of when to appropriately reprise a song is applied masterfully
in
Aladdin; the reprise of "One Jump Ahead" provides an arguably more
compelling moment on both the album and in the film than its main
performance. The opening "Arabian Nights" song is a sentimental favorite,
leading into Robin Williams' comedic rant which introduces the film. The
title song, "A Whole New World" is perhaps tainted by the now-famous
interpretation "A Whole Nude World" that features filthy lyrics, but the
integrity of the original song remains intact for those who haven't been
exposed to the adult adaptation. As usual, some of the stronger score cues
exist among the songs in the album format. The score cues contained in the
latter half of the album (and film) offer more "scary" action material from
Menken than in his other efforts, holding the slapstick comedy material to a
thankfully minimal level. The finale cue is well structured with a single
bar of song from "A Whole New World" before building to the standard choral
ending.
There remain a couple of nagging issues regarding
Aladdin that should be addressed. First, the alteration of the lyrics
of "Arabian Nights" is a bothersome topic. The original film and album
featured the lyrics "...where they cut off your ear if they don't like your
face" just before "it's barbaric, but hey, it's home." The film came under
protest from Arab-American communities for its stereotypical portrayal of a
primitive Muslim culture, and the Tom Cruise look-alike as the primary
character (opposite a big angry Arab with a huge nose personifying the
villain) was a central issue. That lyric in "Arabian Nights" was changed on
the VHS to a comment about the weather in the desert, and the resulting flow
of lyrics doesn't make sense. What does the heat have to do with barbarism?
Additionally, the voice on the VHS, and this new CD (and 2001 album as well)
and DVD, simply does not match the original performer. Boo! Hiss! There
comes a time when a piece of art should stand separate from politics. This
is reason alone to hold on to the original 1992 CD. A second problem with
Aladdin is congruency problems between the speaking and singing
voices of Aladdin and Jasmine. The best performances in Disney musical
history have come when the speaking and singing voices are performed by the
same actors, and it is no wonder, therefore, that Williams' and Freeman's
songs are highlights. Finally, a third complaint exists with the expanded CD
released in 2004. Two demos of rejected songs (performed by Menken & Ashman)
appear at the end of the album, and while these are interesting to a degree,
there is extra orchestral score material that needed to be included on this
album. Those two demos were previously available on a Menken compilation
album, so they can't even be considered a significant addition.
The film always contained an enjoyable orchestral outburst
of "Friend Like Me" at the start of the end credits (in all of its forms: in
theatres, on VHS, and now on DVD), and this is absent from the album.
Tech-saavy folks can luckily burn it right off the DVD on to their own
Aladdin CD. Likewise, snippets of score heard in menus on the DVD
(always suspected to exist before the DVD was released) are not on the
album. Additional pop versions of the songs are also missing. Despite
popular demand, two notable, more recent performances of two of
Aladdin's songs are not included on the expanded 2004 album. The Nick
Lachey and Jessica Simpson pop version of "A Whole New World" is absent, as
is Clay Aiken's performance of "Proud of Your Boy." All of this material is
included on the DVD, making its absence from the CD a bit puzzling. Some of
the album's advertising has indicated a karaoke version of "Proud of Your
Boy" instead of "High Adventure" as the 23rd track. A separate karaoke-only
album of Aladdin songs is a cheap rip-off for people hoping to hear the
orchestral backing of the songs without the dialogue (also hinted at on the
DVD menus), but Disney obviously decided not to pay the original musicians
any further royalties and substituted the orchestra with corny synthetic
variants. Due to all of these factors, there has been an understandable,
general backlash from fans during the first month of the 2004 album's
release. All things considered, the "special edition" soundtrack is simply
not all that it is hyped up to be, and it failed to rectify any of the
omissions from the original album. In the end, no truly satisfactory album
for
Aladdin exists, and Disney's inability to produce a proper album
treatment of this material is unacceptable. It's a work best left enjoyed in
the film itself.
Music as Heard in Original Film: ****
Music as Heard on 1992 Album: ***
Music as Heard on 2001 Album: **
Music as Heard on 2004 Album: **
Overall: ***
| Bias Check: | For Alan Menken reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.44 (in 9 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.57
(in 46,482 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The inserts for all of the pressings contain lyrics to the songs, but no extra information about the score or film.
