90's Aladdin series-- critical/fan responses?

[Lois_Lane_Kent]

Hi all,

I have recently been rewatching Disney's Aladdin series that aired during the 90's and wondering how well-received it generally was among animation fans or critics. I was a little girl when it aired and I loved the original movie, so I wasn't the most objective of fans at that time. I adored it without reservation and would even set an alarm to make sure I didn't miss it in the afternoon.

There were other Disney series such as The Little Mermaid that I watched as a child but have little desire to see again now. ( I am eternally grateful the creators chose not to make the episodes musical, as The Little Mermaid series did. I love the songs in the movies, but you don't find the same quality in the series.) However, Aladdin is one that I return to every now and then, and I find I still enjoy several episodes just as much as I ever did. For instance, I was both fascinated and quite concerned whenever Mozenrath made an appearance, and his episodes remain some of my favorites. I still find myself laughing at Iago's snark and Genie's anachronistic antics, and it's interesting to me that the series has a decent amount of continuity with its recurring characters and references even to the films. The series had the epic adventure feeling I craved then and now.

So how do other people generally view this series now? Is it fondly remembered or considered one of many cheap, lazy Disney series cashing in on a feature film's characters?

 

[SF4Ever]

Hi all,

I have recently been rewatching Disney's Aladdin series that aired during the 90's and wondering how well-received it generally was among animation fans or critics. I was a little girl when it aired and I loved the original movie, so I wasn't the most objective of fans at that time. I adored it without reservation and would even set an alarm to make sure I didn't miss it in the afternoon.

There were other Disney series such as The Little Mermaid that I watched as a child but have little desire to see again now. ( I am eternally grateful the creators chose not to make the episodes musical, as The Little Mermaid series did. I love the songs in the movies, but you don't find the same quality in the series.) However, Aladdin is one that I return to every now and then, and I find I still enjoy several episodes just as much as I ever did. For instance, I was both fascinated and quite concerned whenever Mozenrath made an appearance, and his episodes remain some of my favorites. I still find myself laughing at Iago's snark and Genie's anachronistic antics, and it's interesting to me that the series has a decent amount of continuity with its recurring characters and references even to the films. The series had the epic adventure feeling I craved then and now.

So how do other people generally view this series now? Is it fondly remembered or considered one of many cheap, lazy Disney series cashing in on a feature film's characters?

I remember Aladdin: The Series- CBS had it on their Saturday morning lineup in 1994, and it was scheduled against ABC's newest entry at the time, Warner Bros. Free Willy. Ironically, both were scheduled at midseason against Fox's newest entry, Spider-Man. Getting back to Aladdin: The Series, Disney had cast Dan Castellaneta in the title role, instead of Robin Williams. I'm not sure, but Aladdin: The Series might have been Disney's last original series for CBS, aside from The Lion King's Timon and Pumba, The Little Mermaid and Raw Toonage. The show was actually pretty good, and even played on Disney's Afternoon block. Disney had some pretty good shows, back in 1994. Ironically, the studio, for the first time, dove into animated action-adventure with the premiere of Gargoyles on the Disney Afternoon block. I respected Disney as an animation studio, for having both comedy and action-adventure animation on TV, back then. It's too bad those days are gone, now, but I definitely remember Aladdin: The Series, back when it ran on CBS. Disney will probably make more TV series, based on animated feature films in the future- count on that.

 

[AlgeaX]

As I recall, it lasted over 80 episodes. Which is pretty darn insane for a syndicated animated show, so I imagine it must have been raking in the greens.

As for actual quality, I couldn't tell ya. I haven't seen an episode since the '90s, so all I've got are memories of my general impressions. I don't think I was ever as into it as I was other Disney Afternoon shows like Gargoyles or DarkWing Duck, but I do remember enjoying it a lot more then Goof Troop or Rescue Rangers.

I think my only real problem with it (and this applies to the Aladdin movies as well), is that Aladdin himself always struck me as a smug jerk.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

I really like the show when I was younger. I remember my parents taping a bunch of the episodes for me and I watched them all the time. I remember watching it from time to time on Toon Disney before Jetix took over and finding it still enjoyable. I can't really say if they will hold up to me as an adult or not.

 

[Light Lucario]

I remember watching the repeats on Disney Channel and I think sometimes on Saturday mornings. I thought that it was really fun and I liked seeing the characters on adventures after the events of the first two movies. I wasn't into a lot of Disney cartoons back then, except for Timon and Pummba, but I would enjoy watching the show whenever I got a chance. I think I liked episodes focusing on Genie, like the one where his only other living former master tries to force him to grant him wishes again, and the ones where Mozenrath appears because of how threatening he was compared to the other villains in this series. I'm not sure if it holds up well since I haven't seen it in ages, but I could see it being more enjoyable to me now than the Timon and Pummba series was when I saw it again on Disney Channel a few years ago.

 

[Ioz]

I enjoyed it. It had 65 episodes for its syndication run on weekdays and two seasons on CBS Saturday mornings (Season 1 - 13 episodes, Seaon 2 - 8 episodes).

 

[SetTheControls]

Excellent post! This show's kind of been forgotten. If you didn't have a hang-up that ensured that would only consider it to be a cheap way of cashing in on the movie, it was a fine show (and the last) in the tradition of the earlier Disney Afternoon comedy adventure-series (DuckTales, Gummi Bears, Tale Spin). The creative team realized that the ancient Middle East setting was ripe for high adventure, and they really made good, incorporating mythology, some vague alluding to history ("Opposites Detract" entailed an Asian setting, while Oddiferous seemed to be partially based on Switzerland). In fact, there were some dark, "heavy" episodes ("Garden of Evil", almost all of the Fazir episodes, Mozenrath episodes) that (and no one's ever said this, so I meet seem like a quack...), in terms of stakes-raising and heightened, fantastic situations, were almost on par with Gargoyles', which Aladdin's run overlapped with. (Gargoyles short, 13-episode first season ran during the same year as Aladdin's long, 78-episode first season, and then Aladdin's short, 8-episode second season ran during the same year as Gargoyles' long, 52-episode second season.)

 

[RonDrakenfan17]

I used to love this show, the bird was always my favorite character, even in the films he was. Not only did this show have action in it but it also had great comedy, I often laughed a lot while watching the show. Had some really cool villains too, so as far as movies to series goes, Aladdin for me did it the best.

 

[DisneyBoy]

I remember watching quite a bit of the series growing up, and never entirely loving it. The animation was fine, but never great...the reliance on comedy often yielded few actual laughs, but I did enjoy the sense of adventure offered by the series overall. The Arabian Nights were a good base for a series of this nature, and the movie certainly left us all craving more. There was no way an animated series could have lived up to that film, however, so that being said, this was an okay enough half hour.

Mozenrath was interesting, but I never really understood who he was or why he was doing things. Abiz Mal was an annoyance and Mechnicles was alright. I don't think there were any really impressive villains...but as a "buddy"-type show, it worked well.

 

[Darklordavaitor]

I wrote about the show during my Disney Afternoon retrospective earlier in the year.

Overall, I think it's an entertaining show and a decently worthy successor to the movie, but Disney's Aladdin seemed to have a pretty big hit or miss ratio from what I've seen recently.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

I wrote about the show during my Disney Afternoon retrospective earlier in the year.

Overall, I think it's an entertaining show and a decently worthy successor to the movie, but Disney's Aladdin seemed to have a pretty big hit or miss ratio from what I've seen recently.

Comments from reading your review:

What is this, the resolution of a desktop wallpaper in 1994? That's nifty and I want it, but it'd be blurry as my background.

Rather than living on the streets like he did in the film, Aladdin lives in the palace with his beloved Princess Jasmine, who he is still engaged to.

He was only living there in Return of Jafar. For the series he still lived in his "hovel." This was out of concern he'd lose some of his street-ratness if he wasn't on the actual streets anymore. I don't know why the movie was different but my guess was it was too early to change.

It came out on March 20? That early? That's probably why I failed to find the ad for it when I was doing that Jafar article years ago. I was looking through my summer '94 tapes. D'oh, I bet I've had it elsewhere the whole time.

 

[Darklordavaitor]

Comments from reading your review:

What is this, the resolution of a desktop wallpaper in 1994? That's nifty and I want it, but it'd be blurry as my background.

This was the first promotional image I could find from the show. I agree that it looks pretty good. Maybe I can look for a higher resolution and send it to you?

He was only living there in Return of Jafar. For the series he still lived in his "hovel." This was out of concern he'd lose some of his street-ratness if he wasn't on the actual streets anymore. I don't know why the movie was different but my guess was it was too early to change.

Huh, okay. I only remember that being referenced in the movie after all, and can't think of when they mentioned Aladdin's living habits in the show. I'll take your word for it.

 

[DarthGonzo]

I liked the show when it was new, but I don't think it really holds up. The characterizations were off, the animation (even by the better studios) was awkward and drew far too many negative comparisons to the movie, they completely changed everything worthwhile about Genie and a lot of the villains were either completely ineffective or just downright aggravating. It was one of those shows that had at least five really painful, embarrassing bits of dialogue in every episode. My father (who loved the movie) never had anything good to say about the show when he'd catch a little of it.

 

[trance2009]

I watched it, mostly due to the comedy, as I wasn't really a massive fan of the movie back then in my high school days. I knew that Tad Stones, who had worked on Darkwing was on this one also, and it showed in many of the jokes and semi-fourth wall humor.

 

[DisneyBoy]

The characterizations were off, the animation (even by the better studios) was awkward and drew far too many negative comparisons to the movie, they completely changed everything worthwhile about Genie and a lot of the villains were either completely ineffective or just downright aggravating. It was one of those shows that had at least five really painful, embarrassing bits of dialogue in every episode.

I'm not sure I remember enough about the series to really disagree that the characterizations were off....but....were they? Wasn't Aladdin just as much himself as he was in the film? One could argue Iago suddenly became needy and wanted a family, but Return of Jafar paved the way for that.

And since RoJ was supposed to be the series pilot (and not a stand-alone film), then wouldn't it be true that Aladdin did live in the Palace with Jasmine, but maintained his bachelor's loft?

Hmm...now I'm trying to remember how the guards treated him during the show. They couldn't very well chase around the prince-to-be, could they?

But yes on the lame jokes and lame villains. I think folks remember Mozenrath because he was the only one with any air of mystery around him. The others were just...cartoony dorks.

 

[Tobias]

The only thing I didn't like about the t.v. show was they almost always fell back on the 'Aladdin ticks off Jasmine in some way and has to find a way to win her back' plot device. Of course it's been years since I've seen the series so I don't recall how often they went that route, but that's the main gripe I remember having with the show.

Well, that, and the fact that we never saw Jafar at any point after the first DTV until the Hercules crossover.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

The only thing I didn't like about the t.v. show was they almost always fell back on the 'Aladdin ticks off Jasmine in some way and has to find a way to win her back' plot device. Of course it's been years since I've seen the series so I don't recall how often they went that route, but that's the main gripe I remember having with the show.

Uh, they rarely did that. Name ten episodes out of 86 where this was the plot. And the characterization wasn't off.

Hmm...now I'm trying to remember how the guards treated him during the show. They couldn't very well chase around the prince-to-be, could they?

They didn't chase him anymore but Rasoul never warmed up to him.

 

[Antiyonder]

Overall a decent show. About the same as the early Disney Afternoon, and better than the ones at the end of the decade.

Uh, they rarely did that. Name ten episodes out of 86 where this was the plot. And the characterization wasn't off.

Agreed. And while it may be the exception, I always thought this show was proof that romance beyond the will they/won't they can work in a show targeted towards the male audience. After all, for a US Kids show, 86 episodes is not an easy feat.

They didn't chase him anymore but Rasoul never warmed up to him.

True, but he said that he'd consider calling him Sultan if he got rid of the bird. I'd have to say that's my bit of interaction between them.

 

[DarthGonzo]

After all, for a US Kids show, 86 episodes is not an easy feat.

But is it really? Darkwing did it. Goof Troop almost got there. Ducktales hit 100 episodes. Animaniacs hit 99 and Tiny Toons hit 98. The original TMNT series almost hit 200. There were 85 Timon and Pumbaa episodes and 78 episodes of Gargoyles. Large episode numbers of animated series during the '90s (when one syndicated season alone would last 65 episodes) wasn't unusual.

 

[Philmister978]

But is it really? Darkwing did it. Goof Troop almost got there. Ducktales hit 100 episodes. Animaniacs hit 99 and Tiny Toons hit 98. The original TMNT series almost hit 200. There were 85 Timon and Pumbaa episodes and 78 episodes of Gargoyles. Large episode numbers of animated series during the '90s (when one syndicated season alone would last 65 episodes) wasn't unusual.

Yeah, and if we were to include 80's shows, Transformers G1 would also be on that list at 98 episodes too.