Aladdin:
Diamond Edition
(1992/Disney Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B+/B- Sound: B+/C+ Extras: B- Film: B-
Though
it is running late to Blu-ray like Dumbo did, Disney finally
issued their huge 1992 hit Aladdin (1992) in the format. If
you were not as big a fan (or worse) and have heard ''A Whole New
World'' a few thousand times too many, then you might not have
noticed. However, big fans have and will; be happy to know the wait
was worth it for the impressive playback upgrades and a few new
extras as the title character (voiced by Scott Weinger) has nothing
much gong for him until it turns out only he can get into the locale
that holds a certain lamp that could change his life.
This
is great when he discovers the beautiful Jasmine (Linda Larkin), but
some forces outside of his control are more interested in stopping
his happiness and maximizing their greed (like Jafar, voiced by
Jonathan Freeman), but his hopes are in luck when the bottle holds a
very special genie (the late, great Robin Williams) who is such a
wild card that it propels this film above the many tellings of this
tale of the decades, et al.
There
are several controversies over the film, like 'Is Jasmine too
sexual?' or 'Is this politically incorrect?' (Casey Kasem argued that
one musical passage was racist, though now, we wonder if this would
have been as well received if it had been released post-9/11) or 'Is
this too much Robin Williams?' (which has now gone from early talk of
some kind of voice Oscar that never happened to simply missing him
after losing him under horrid health conditions) but this is as good
an animated feature film Disney (or anyone else) could have made of
the material and helped rebuild Disney's animation division.
Even
Gilbert Gottfried's work holds up here, but this was never my
favorite and sacrifices some classic opportunities to be what it
needed to be for Disney, modern and hip. Still, it is an ambitious
work that holds up and has not dated art-wise like Little Mermaid.
Now, a whole new generation can see for themselves, but those who
have seen it before are in for a few surprises.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition Blu-ray
image transfer in occasional moments shows the age of the film and
the limits of some of its animation, but superior remastering from
the original 35mm film elements, et al, has brought out, depth,
detail and amazing color range that easily makes this presentation
far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film almost
anywhere anyone has seen it. The mass-production film prints of the
time could not always capture this quality (save some special
archival prints we suspect Disney had struck and some may have been
screened) so this will be a revelation for just about everyone. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the DVD is soft and
absolutely no match, but passable.
Aladdin
has the distinction of being the first-ever all digital sound
theatrical feature release, exclusively in the Dolby Digital format,
the only digital sound format Disney supported for a while (they were
the last exclusive holdout before all the studios started issuing
their films in Dolby Digital and/or DTS (Digital Theater Systems)
and/or SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) when no one company won the
digital sound format war). For Blu-ray, Disney has upgraded the
sound to an impressive DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix that
takes total advantage of the multi-channel possibilities, brings out
new depth and detail for the original soundmasters and is actually
richer and warmer sounding than in its original theatrical release.
The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 DVD mix is again no match, but the
sound/image combination on Blu-ray has a few reference moments and
should be experienced on the best home theater set-up you can get to.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, the original DVD extras are repeated here in
regular/standard definition including A
Diamond in the Rough: The Making Of Aladdin
(70:52),
Alan
Menken: Musical Renaissance Man
(19:55), The
Art Of Aladdin: Art Review
with Filmmakers' Commentary (8:45), 4 deleted songs (Proud
Of Your Boy
(original demo, 3:58), You
Can Count On Me
(2:22), Humiliate
The Boy
(3:54) & Why
Me?
(3:42)), 2 Deleted/Alternate Scenes (Aladdin & Jasmine's First
Meeting (2:51) and Aladdin in the Lap of Luxury (2:52)), 3 Music
Videos (Proud
Of Your Boy
w/Clay Aiken (2:20), A
Whole New World
w/Jessica Simpson & Nick Lachey (4:14) and A
Whole New World
w/Regina Belle & Peabo Bryson (4:07)), Proud
Of Your Boy
Original Story Reel (2:18), Behind the Scenes of Proud
Of Your Boy
(3:20), Behind the Scenes of A
Whole New World
(3:46), Original Theatrical Trailers, Inside
The Genie's Lamp: Guided Tour
(6:13), The
Genie World Tour
(SD, 3:14) and an HD upgrade of Disney Song Selection with Optional
On-Screen Lyrics (11:28).
We
also get two feature
length audio commentary tracks (one with Producer/Directors
John Musker and Ron Clements, plus Co-Producer Amy Pell, the other
with Supervising Animators Andreas Deja, Will Finn, Eric Goldberg and
Glen Keane),
and new High Definition featurettes Aladdin:
Creating Broadway Magic,
the much-discussed The
Genie Outtakes
with Robin Williams recording session outtakes set to storyboards,
Unboxing
Aladdin,
Genie
101
and Ron
& Jon: You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me
where the directors talk about their beginnings.
All
of this is on the Blu-ray, while only the Deleted Songs and Deleted
Scenes appear on the DVD.
-
Nicholas
Sheffo
