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| Menken |
Aladdin: (Alan Menken) If you thought the
controversy involving the phallic artwork for the poster of
The
Little Mermaid was juicy, then the subsequent battle between Walt
Disney Studios and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee over
Aladdin was full blown entertainment all by itself. Disney had
been working on adapting the Arabian folktale of "One Thousand and One
Nights" for several years, a timeless story of identity issues and
lessons about the value of wealth and attempting to be someone you
aren't, and by the time they were done with the acclaimed and popular
animated musical, it was slammed as being racist and containing a
subliminal message urging teenagers to take off their clothes. The
stereotypical portrayal of a primitive Muslim culture, as well as the
Tom Cruise lookalike as the primary character (opposite a big, angry
Arab with a huge nose personifying the villain), became a central issue.
To make matters worse, Disney broke an agreement the studio made with
lead voice actor Robin Williams involving the reduced salary he accepted
for the project in return for only minimal use of his name and character
in promotional materials. The studio eventually issued a formal public
apology to Williams and only then did he return to reprise his
performances in the movie's endless series of substandard
straight-to-video, knock-off sequels and other spin-offs. Flying on its
own magic carpet ride in the early 1990's, however, was the
collaboration between Disney and composer Alan Menken that had soared
from
The Little Mermaid and
Beauty and the Beast to
Aladdin in 1992 without even the slightest hiccup. Despite the
failing health of Menken's lyricist, Howard Ashman (who passed away
before the final cut of the film but is credited with pushing the
concept through to Disney in its earliest phases),
Aladdin
maintained the outrageously profitable Disney musical craze with viewers
and listeners of all ages. Following the immense quality of
Beauty
and the Beast was no small task, however, with the
Aladdin
predecessor rivaling live action films at both the box office and awards
ceremonies, the latter of which even more rare today than ever. Still,
audiences were ready to soak up nearly anything from Disney in 1992, and
Aladdin was yet another enormous box office and music chart
success story.
None of Menken's songs for this final entry in "The Great
Disney Musical Trilogy" would achieve the same lasting greatness as
those in the prior two, though, with
Aladdin suffering the most
significant neglect of the three from listeners and viewers in future
generations. The television cartoon spin-off of the film in particular
failed miserably with its musical adaptations, and the original
soundtrack album representing the movie fell badly out of print until a
moderately remastered reprint was issued with a different cover in 2001.
Finally, in 2004,
Aladdin was released on DVD, and in similar
fashion to the special edition of
Beauty and the Beast, an
expanded album of the
Aladdin soundtrack was released
concurrently. The original
Aladdin soundtrack pressing was among
the most common used bin finds ever in the history of CDs, which is
further evidence of the film and score's arguably poorer long-term
performance. But the songs in
Aladdin are top-notch, anchored by
all-around fantastic vocal performances highlighted by Robin Williams,
of course, whose talents in this project are extraordinary to say the
very least. Williams' infectious personality steals two of
Aladdin's songs, as well as its narrated opening, "Legend of the
Lamp." The soft inflection of Brad Kane's singing voice in the title
role has always been an attractive aspect of "One Jump Ahead" and "A
Whole New World," his tone strikingly different from the exotic voice of
Bruce Adler for the prelude sequence, "Arabian Nights," a sentimental
favorite. The interlude sequence of "One Jump Ahead" reflects a slower,
more contemplative phrase of the song that is as appealing as the
equivalent of "Belle" from
Beauty and the Beast. This interlude
sequence likewise receives a dedicated, longing performance in the short
but definite highlight, "One Jump Ahead (Reprise)." The second most
famous song from
Aladdin remains "Friend Like Me," the jazzy Fats
Waller/Cab Calloway tour de force led by an enthusiastic five-note brass
phrase and Williams' manic performance. Also nominated for a Golden
Globe was "Prince Ali," among Menken's most ambitious career
achievements that once again utilizes Williams' services. Its
Broadway-style constructs, most obviously defined by the sequence that
accelerates the tempo in grand posture, make it an over the top
extravaganza. The reprise of the song allows Jonathan Freeman to gloat
menacingly in a performance as Jafar that rivals Tony Jay's contribution
to
The Hunchback of Notre Dame as one of Disney's more memorable
villains.
The end title song in
Aladdin, "A Whole New World,"
is tainted nowadays by the famous reinterpretation called "A Whole Nude
World" that features filthy lyrics, but the integrity of the original
song remains intact for those who haven't been exposed to the
adult-oriented parody. As usual, the version of the song actually heard
in the context of the film, as performed by the characters, is vastly
superior to the pop adaptation for the credits. Altogether, the songs in
Aladdin are a solid lot, and, once again, Menken's reprises
provide arguably more compelling moments on both the album and in the
film than their extended versions. This includes the single bar from "A
Whole New World" heard in the score's finale as the music builds to the
standard choral conclusion. Unlike many of the Disney musicals from the
1990's, which often featured comparably popular songs and score,
Aladdin is a curious case in which the songs heavily overshadowed
the score, despite some quality moments in the latter. Menken's
pseudo-Arabian structures shine through in many creative ways in the
songs, whereas the score seems to return to cliched, non-ethnic cartoon
methodology more often than not. That said, the composer does quite a
masterful job of interpreting the melodies from the songs into the score
and even writing a few themes specifically for that background material.
A descending low brass theme for Jafar's villainy is heard in full force
throughout "Jafar's Hour" and in true victory formation directly before
the "Prince Ali" reprise, in faint references in "The Ends of the
Earth," and again in massive form in "The Battle." A mysterious theme
representing the magic of the story grows out of the "Arabian Nights"
melody, both in "Legend of the Lamp" and "The Cave of Wonders." The
location in general is provided an Arabian-inspired theme in "Legend of
the Lamp" and "Marketplace." As for the melodies originating in the
songs, Menken makes frequent use of the descending pairs of notes from
the interlude in "One Jump Ahead," most notably in duets with the "A
Whole New World" melody in "The Kiss," "Marketplace," and "Aladdin's
World." Those descending pairs are elevated to noble tones in at the
outset of "Happy End in Agrabah," appropriately replacing the "Prince
Ali" melody (which is only really referenced in the score at the end of
"Marketplace") in that role. As usual, some of the stronger score cues
are sprinkled amongst the songs in the album presentation, including the
extensions of "One Jump Ahead" in "Street Urchins" and "To Be Free," the
latter introducing an idea that is a wholesome representation of the
film's overall message and matures in the finale cue.
On the whole, the score material in
Aladdin
foreshadows
The Hunchback of Notre Dame in that it resides
further over on the "scary" scale than its predecessors, emphasizing
wonderment over the slapstick comedy inherent in these works. The
players' performances are adequate but the soundscape, as usual for
these Menken musicals, is somewhat shallow. That is one of a few nagging
issues regarding
Aladdin that should be addressed. While the
vocals are afforded a decently wet ambient sound, mimicking a live
performance quite well, the instrumental support could have badly
utilized some reverb. Outside of this issue, there is also lingering
dissatisfaction over Disney's bothersome alterations to "Arabian Nights"
in response to the accusations by Arab interest groups' claims of
racism. The original film and album featured the lyrics "...where they
cut off your ear if they don't like your face" just before "it's
barbaric, but hey, it's home" in this song. Those lyrics were changed in
1993 for the VHS release of the film to a comment about the weather in
the desert, and the resulting flow of the song's introduction of the
location doesn't make sense. What does the heat have to do with
barbarism? Additionally, the voice of the replacement dubbing on the
altered recording (as heard on all subsequent DVD and CD releases as
well) simply does not match that of the Adler's original performance,
causing an awkward transition for just that one stanza. The insert is so
blatantly obnoxious that it makes one think that Arabs must have cut off
the ears of the executives at Disney regardless of their faces. There
comes a time when a piece of art should stand separate from nonsensical,
politically-correct protests, and while the Arab interest groups have
all the right in the world to complain, Disney should not have caved in
to their demands. (Nor should they have altered the line in the movie
that some people mistakenly heard as a call to teenagers in the audience
to take off their clothes, but that's simply a matter for the sound
mixers.) The original lyrics and performance of "Arabian Nights" remain
superior and this is reason alone to hold on to the original 1992 CD
album. Another overarching problem with
Aladdin is congruency
problems between the speaking and singing voices of Aladdin and Jasmine.
The best performances in Disney musical history have come when the
speaking and singing voices are performed by the same actors, and it is
no wonder, therefore, that Williams' and Freeman's songs are highlights
here. On the soundtrack albums, this discrepancy in tone makes no
difference because of the lack of spoken dialogue, but in the movie it's
quite an obvious flaw.
The various album releases present the final nagging
issue with the
Aladdin soundtrack, as no truly satisfactory
product has ever existed. In 1994, the Disney assembled a 4-CD set of
material from
The Little Mermaid,
Beauty and the Beast,
and
Aladdin to illuminate the creation process behind the three
soundtracks. Accompanied by an oversized book in a thick, LP-sized box
with the CDs and pushed at the Disney theme parks, "The Music Behind the
Magic" contains two CDs dedicated to
Aladdin. The presentation is
a recreation of the narrative of the film but with a mixture of work
tape, demo, and final versions of songs and score cues in mostly the
story's chronological order. Fans were treated to a few unreleased final
recordings sprinkled amongst these CDs, and in the case of
Aladdin, this material consisted of a pair of unused songs that
were fully recorded but dropped from the film. This set dedicated a
short, second CD to the original demos of all the songs for a previous
iteration of the film, included here by Menken as a tribute to Howard
Ashman's final work. The iterative process shows that the film had long
toiled with how to involve the "Arabian Nights" song as a constant
connective presence and, just as importantly, a more prominent song
presence for Freeman as Jafar. Menken wrote two separate songs for
Jafar, the latter, "Why Me," fully recorded with orchestral
accompaniment. The first version of the song, "Humiliate the Boy," was a
duet for Jafar and his parrot, Iago (also performed by Freeman), and the
actor's performance of the demo is amusing but exposes weaknesses in the
melody of the song. By comparison, "Why Me" is a smart extension of
Jafar's theme from the score, and it's a long character origin song; it
was deemed too beefy, however, for its placement late in the picture,
and there wasn't an opportunity to squeeze in a Jafar-specific song
earlier into the narrative. Thus, in the end, the filmmakers decided to
replace "Why Me" with a straight reprise of "Prince Ali" that became
Jafar's only song performance. Likewise, it's always seemed odd that
Adler's performance opening the film is his only one, and although he
didn't record the full four reprises as original planned, he did provide
a final recording with orchestra for the fourth reprise that was set to
close out the film. It's a brief and fantastic way to bookend the
soundtrack with the song, and Adler's performance here is exemplary. The
accelerated pacing of the reprise and its dynamic percussion presence
make it a necessary inclusion, though one could understand why the
studio and filmmakers didn't wish to append anything after the typical
choral crescendo to end the picture.
The 1994 "The Music Behind the Magic" set sounds great
and is appealing for its demos and rejected songs, but it contains no
additional score tracks. A 2001 re-issue of the 1992 product removed
Williams' character from the cover as originally demanded by his
contract, but the musical contents were the same. The 2004 "Special
Edition" album is a tremendous missed opportunity. Two of the more
notable demos from the 1994 set appear at the end of the album, "Proud
of Your Boy" a strong enough ballad that it should have made the final
picture or, at the least, the 2019 live-action remake film. (None of the
original rejected songs ended up in that 2019 version.) Frustratingly,
however, there still exists unreleased orchestral score material that
needed to be included on the 2004 album instead. The most obvious
omission is the enjoyable orchestral outburst of the melody of "Friend
Like Me" heard at the start of the end credits (in theatres, on VHS, and
then on DVD), and its absence is shameful due to the fact that the
song's melody couldn't really be interpolated for any extent of time in
the rest of the score. Fortunately, the recording could be transferred
by fans directly off of the DVD onto custom presentations. The same can
be said of the snippets of score material heard in menus on the DVD that
remain missing from the albums. Additional pop versions originally made
of the songs are also missing from the 2004 Special Edition; despite
popular demand, two notable, more recent performances of two of
Aladdin's songs are not included on that expanded album. The Nick
Lachey and Jessica Simpson pop version of "A Whole New World" is not
provided, nor is Clay Aiken's performance of "Proud of Your Boy." All of
this material is included as bonus content on the DVD, making its
absence from the 57-minute CD a bit puzzling. Some of the 2004 album's
advertising indicated a karaoke version of "Proud of Your Boy" instead
of "High Adventure" as the 23rd track. A separate karaoke-only album of
Aladdin songs is a cheap rip-off for people hoping to hear the
orchestral backing of the songs without the dialogue (also heard on the
DVD menus), but Disney obviously decided not to pay the original
musicians any further royalties and replaced the orchestra with corny
synthetic variants. Due to all of these factors, the 2004 album suffered
an understandable backlash from fans. The product is not what it was
hyped up to be, failing to rectify any of the issues plaguing the
previous offerings. With no comprehensive "Legacy Collection" album
released for
Aladdin as had been provided by Disney for its
sibling soundtracks, listeners are forced to return to the film itself
as the only satisfying alternative for this fun and rousing soundtrack.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: *****
- Music as Heard on the 1992 and 2001 Albums: ***
- Music as Heard on the 1994 Album: ****
- Music as Heard on the 2004 Album: **
- Overall: ****
| Bias Check: |
For Alan Menken reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.67
(in 15 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.44
(in 58,530 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The inserts of the 1992, 2001, and 2004 albums contain lyrics to
the songs but they offer no extra information about the score or film.
The 1994 "The Music Behind the Magic" set came in two variations; the
regular edition came with a 52-page book in large box while the red,
linen-bound special edition features a 60-page hardcover book (with
similar contents as the 52-page version, including lyrics) signed by
Alan Menken and Tim Rice and four beautifully illustrated picture CD's
in a custom collector's case.
