Top 10 Facts About Disney's Aladdin
Aladdin is one of my favorite Disney movies so I decided to make a list regarding the facts about the movie!Yep! This was the first ever animated movie to gross over $200 million. It was also the highest grossing movie in 1992. Understandable since this is one of the best Disney movies ever! And then came movies like Lion King and Frozen that grossed even higher. Aladdin is better than Frozen but not as good as Lion King. But that's just my opinion.
Most of us know that Robin Williams was not just the voice of the Genie, but he was also the voice of the merchant at the beginning of the movie. However, there was a theory that the merchant actually was the Genie. It was actually proven to be true by one of the directors. Now that I think of it, it was kinda obvious.
Their original inspiration for Aladdin was Michael J. Fox, but they felt like they needed to make him eye candy for the ladies so instead they took inspiration from Tom Cruise. It's also interesting to point out that Aladdin's pants were inspired by MC Hammer's pants. Hammer time!
That's right! Robin Williams wasn't their only choice for Genie. Well, Genie was actually written specifically for Williams but if he were to decline the role, they had other choices in mind. The other choices were John Candy, Steve Martin, Martin Short, John Goodman, and Eddie Murphy. Wait! Eddie Murphy? Why!?
Williams said he would be the Genie for $75,000 as long as his voice wasn't used for merchandising or advertisement. This deal was broken since Genie became the most popular character in the movie. As a result, he refused to voice Genie in Return of Jafar and was replaced by Dan "Homer Simpson" Castellaneta. After Katzenberg was fired, Williams accepted a public apology and came back to voice Genie in King of Thieves.
Jennifer Connely was a star of the Disney movie, Rocketeer. She also happens to be the sister of Mark Henn who is the animator of Jasmine. Well we know who to thank for Jasmine being so hot.
As we all know, Robin Williams was one of the funniest comedians out there. What makes him so great in this movie is that most of the Genie's dialogue was ad-libbed. In fact, the movie was rejected for a best original screenplay nomination at the Oscars because of the amount of ad-libbing Robin Williams did in the movie. What the heck!?
Alan Menken has done songs for many Disney movies. For this movie, he won an Oscar for best original score and best original song, "A Whole New World". He definitely deserved those Oscars.
Patrick Stewart was originally considered for the voice of Jafar. Unfortunately, he was forced to turn down the role because he was too busy with Star Trek: The Next Generation. I think he would've killed it as Jafar. Also, Star Trek sucks!
While watching this movie, I noticed that Jafar was very similar to Maleficent. He has a staff, has a bird henchman, and he can transform into a scary animal. Definitely Maleficent!
In 1994, "A Whole New World" won for Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (Regina Belle and Peabo Bryson), and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. The only nomination the song was lost was for Record of the Year, which was lost to another famous song "I Will Always Love You", possibly making it the most competitive category of that year.
It only took eight weeks from the original release to reach to No. 1 in the United States. In the first week of its release, it was placed No. 2 domestically, behind Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The week for December 25-31 is the first week of the original movie to reach #1 domestically. Eight weeks from the official release (November 25, 1992) has the hugest domestic amount of theaters playing the movie; that week, the movie was playing in 2,331 domestic theaters. (Sorry about some of the inconsistency; sometimes, the information about it can be inconsistent. At least, it's a try.)
It was sold for over 10.6 million copies during its first week. In December 1993, it topped 21 million copies, and over 25,000,000 copies were sold in 1994, making it not only the best-selling videotape of 1993, but also the best-selling videotape at the time, beating Beauty and the Beast. It was later surpassed by The Lion King, which was sold for over four million copies on its first day.
It was demanded for the screenplay to be rewritten to avoid rescheduling the release date.
The clothes were from the clothes Robin Williams was wearing during the Disney-MGM Studios tour in the late '80s.