Last Monday I watched “About A Boy.” Alphabetically, this week should have been “Airplane,” but that’s a movie I really need to be in a mood to see. But after “Airplane” is “Aladdin,” and I never need to be in any particular mood to watch a Disney film. So in it went.
I teach a mini-unit about Disney and its impact on childhood and have been accused of not liking Disney movies. But the dirty little secret is that I actually like them quite a bit, in large part due to the memories I have of seeing them for the first time. And Aladdin is no different.
My roommates at BYU and I saw Aladdin at the Scera theatre, which is a gorgeous theatre in Orem. Giant screen, plush seats, and if I recall, only one or two screens–so different from the functional multiplexes of today. By the time Preference (a semi-formal dance in which the girls ask the boys) rolled around, we were so enthralled with the film that we had the soundtrack and decided to decorate our entire apartment like the palaces in Agraba. I wish I had pictures. It was a work of art. Oh, BYU…
Anyway, we quoted the movie incessantly, and even as I watched it tonight, I wished Nikki and Aimee, two dear roommates, were sitting in my living room with me.
I’m surprised how critical I am now of the animation, and it’s not a consequence of modern times–go watch “The Sword in the Stone” and that movie is visually stunning. Aladdin just looks ordinary, especially in the computer animated age I’m so used to now.
But it was a lovely way to end my day.
Except Jafar is way creepier now than he was 20 years ago. Why is that?
Julie Rowse 