This coming week, Disney is releasing a time-honored classic through its Diamond Edition Blu-ray label. Aladdin, from 1992, is one of my husband’s and my favorite animated films and we were so excited to get to share the movie with our sons.
Yes. You heard right. Our 10- and 13-year-old sons hadn’t seen Aladdin till now. At least, not in its entirety. They’d seen several bits and pieces over the years as it was aired on Disney Channel and the Starz Network, but on Saturday night we all sat down to watch not just the movie itself, but also all of the extras featured on the Diamond Edition Blu-ray.
I owned Aladdin on VHS. At some point it disappeared, unfortunately…which is a bummer because I had in my head I could photograph my new Blu-ray next to my VHS tape for this post, but I digress…
It should go without saying that Aladdin on Blu-ray is far superior to VHS.
Now that we have that out of the way….
Some have argued that Aladdin is the true First Film of the Disney’s “Second Golden Age of Animation”, bumping The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast for that title. Why would one blow off The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast that way?
Robin Williams.
While The Little Mermaid has Samuel E. Wright and Rene Auberjonois as its star power, and Beauty and the Beast has Angela Lansbury, David Ogden Stiers, and Jerry Orbach, I’m afraid those five actors put together don’t hold Lumiere’s candle to Robin Williams as the Genie.
This is why my husband and I love Aladdin so much! We were in college when the film was released in the theaters in late 1992, and were probably among the younger of the adult-humor audience that Disney was targeting.
As I’d mentioned in our GeekMom memoriam post about Williams in 2014, my first memories of the comedian were from the ABC sitcom Mork and Mindy. Holy crow was Mork a twisted character! Adults seeing Aladdin for the first time in 1992 totally recognized the Mork-ish humor in Genie’s numerous monologues.
The Diamond Edition Blu-ray pays homage to Robin William’s Genie through two of the Bonus Features: “The Genie Outtakes” and “Genie 101”.
“The Genie Outtakes” features 9 minutes of dozens of Robin Williams’ outtakes in a touching tribute to his comic talent and versatility. There were dozens of additional impersonations, from a sergeant major to a surfer dude. Our family couldn’t stop laughing at all the cut scenes. The way the documentary was put together was also cool: They quickly went in order through the movie, stopping at the points where there might have been an outtake.
In “Genie 101”, Scott Weinger, the actor who voices Aladdin himself, takes viewers through the numerous impressions Robin Williams had pulled off throughout the movie: Ed Sullivan, Arsenio Hall, and Arnold Schwarzenegger all received their proper due. They also explained several of the other actors being imitated. While my husband and I were able to name most of Williams’ impressions, watching the bonus feature helped us fill in what we had yet to figure out after all these years.
Check out the quality of the digital video in Disney’s Diamond Edition Aladdin release:
Aladdin is available now through digital download at Disney Movies Anywhere, and will be available on Disney Blu-ray on October 13th. Pre-order through Disney’s website, or at other movie retailers such as Amazon.
GeekMom received a copy of this product for review purposes.
