Before we begin, do not get me wrong. I am a huge fan of the works of Marvel Comics and anything related to Marvel Entertainment. I love the comics, I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and my favorite superhero is from Marvel (that would be Spider-Man). What I do not like is how the comics are being changed to accommodate the cinematic universe. For example, the significant reduction of mutants in favor of the increase of Inhumans, the latter of which were relatively unknown in the comic universe until being introduced as a replacement to mutants in the cinematic universe. The reason Inhumans are being used instead of Mutants is because Marvel Studios does not have film rights to Mutants, even the term "mutant" is unable to be used in the MCU. Now I know what many of you are thinking, "why can't Marvel Studios use mutants when Marvel created Mutant characters such as the X-Men, Franklin Richards, and Wolverine"? As mentioned before, Marvel may own the characters, but as for movie rights, that designation goes to Twentieth Century Fox, and the same can be said for the Fantastic Four. As a result, Marvel has been slowly phasing these characters out in the universe of the comics, going so far as to split up and essentially erase The Four from the new continuity known as All New, All Different Marvel, and significantly reducing the amount of mutant characters through the use of an event known as House of M, which also marked the deaths of Professor Charles Xavier and Cyclops. Also due to Fox owning film rights, Wolverine, a member of both X-Men and Avengers teams has also been offed. I am not a fan of Inhumans, and I believe mutants should still remain strong despite Marvel not owning the film rights to their own characters. I understand the MCU is popular and Marvel is changing its comic universe to reflect the MCU's popularity. However, the movies should be adapting the comics, not the other way around. As of now, Marvel's comics feel more like forty page advertisements for the MCU, giving the poor mutants and Marvel's first family "the shaft".
Sunday, September 18, 2016
The History of Aladdin Part 5: So it goes short and sweet... (Finale Ultimo)
The passing of Howard Ashman had struck a heavy blow to the production teams of both Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. However, production on the latter had to continue. It is a known fact at the Disney Animation Studio that animators and storyboard artists produce early versions of films on story reels to present to executives for critiques. Aladdin was no exception. The retrospective's finale begins with an event in the film's production history that proved to be a major turning point; Black Friday (and no I do not mean the day after Thanksgiving). John Musker and Ron Clements presented an early version of the film to Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of Walt Disney Animation. After the presentation, his only response was "hey guys, that's a lotta movie! Gotta go!" and left the screening room. Taking the response as a sign of approval, the two went out for celebratory margaritas at El Toritos. However, upon returning to the studio, they were called by producer Don Ernst to his office. Ernst had some troubling news for the directors. Jeffrey's reaction to the story reel was not pleasant at all.
Ernst stated, "Jeffrey hated it! He hated everything!" The reaction was like a missile, causing a heavy blow and a major setback to the team.
They asked Katzenberg later on why if he had hated the film so much, that he did not stop the projector like he did during an early screening of The Great Mouse Detective. He replied. "I have too much respect for you guys to do that" and then followed up with "Guys, I gotta tell you, I was so disengaged that through all the movie, I was working on the guest list for my wife's surprise party!"
Clements and Musker asked Jeffrey what he did not like about the movie. Katzenberg revealed he did not like the mother character, which lead to her being cut from the story along with Proud of Your Boy later on, as they still considered having Aladdin sing the song to a deceased mother rather than one still living. Also, at the suggestion of writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, the wishes were changed from unlimited to simply three, to increase the importance of each wish. Unfortunately, this lead to Humiliate the Boy being cut as well, another song Ashman had created. The project was quickly imploding and straying farther and farther away from Howard's intended vision. The mother was gone, two more songs he had written were cut, unlimited wishes became three wishes, and the score was incomplete. Iago and Jafar's personalities were also switched, with Jafar becoming the calm and collected character, and Iago becoming the short-fused, loud-mouthed parrot after seeing Gilbert Gottfried in Beverly Hills Cop II.
To complete the incomplete score, Tim Rice was brought in to work alongside Alan Menken. The first of the songs they wrote was a successor to Proud of Your Boy known as You Can Count on Me, which would later evolve into the reprise of One Jump Ahead once the song was written. Another early song idea they had written was another song for Jafar, known as Why Me. Why Me would later evolve into a reprise of the now truncated version of Prince Ali. The opening song, Arabian Nights, would also be truncated from its initial version. Friend Like Me surprisingly stayed consistent, aside from a few lyrical changes.Among the new songs written was one for the magic carpet ride sequence, which was an idea Clements and Musker suggested to Ashman during the earlier days of production. This idea would eventually evolve into what is A Whole New World in the final film. The song would also cause the film's final number to change from a reprise of Arabian Nights to a reprise of A Whole New World. Luckily, the Arabian Nights reprise would not go to waste, as it would be used to conclude not only Aladdin and the King of Thieves, but also the Aladdin franchise as well, which is fitting.
On November 8th, 1992, Aladdin finally premiered at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood California to an overwhelmingly positive critical reception, with a general release occurring three days later on November 11th. The film was a critical and financial success, grossing over 500 million worldwide and even more in home video releases. The film was also nominated for several award nominations and won the Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for A Whole New World.
On home video, the lyrics were changed even further in the opening number to avoid further controversy caused by the lyric "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" during its theatrical release. The lyric was changed to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense" due to responses from the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC).However, the lyric change was not applied to the audio cassette release of the film's soundtrack, but it was later changed to the edited lyric in the Compact Disc and digital versions of the soundtrack.
Another controversy occurred between Katzenberg and Robin Williams. Williams agreed to voice the peddler and Genie in the film, on the condition of being paid SAG scale payment and his name and his character would not take up more than 25% of advertising space, along with his name not being advertised. For allegedly financial reasons, Katzenberg did not follow through with this agreement, and as such, Genie took up more space than the other main characters and was advertised as being played by Robin Williams. This dispute is why Williams did not return for the direct to video sequel The Return of Jafar and the Aladdin Television Series, and was replaced by Dan Castellaneta, best known for being the voice actor of Springfield's "village idiot" Homer Simpson from The Simpsons.
He eventually reprised his role for the aforementioned finale, Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
To conclude, Aladdin's production history was not a simple "magic carpet ride". Everyone involved went through intense trials and tribulations, such as harsh critiques from Katzenberg, song omissions and cuts, story changes, and even the loss of a valued team member. However, despite the tribulations and controversy, Aladdin went on to become a success, spanning a franchise of two sequels, a television series, and a stage adaptation that restored a majority of Howard Ashman's cut concepts and score. Speaking of Howard, I feel it would be best if he closed the book on this retrospective, since it was his film to begin with:
Ernst stated, "Jeffrey hated it! He hated everything!" The reaction was like a missile, causing a heavy blow and a major setback to the team.
They asked Katzenberg later on why if he had hated the film so much, that he did not stop the projector like he did during an early screening of The Great Mouse Detective. He replied. "I have too much respect for you guys to do that" and then followed up with "Guys, I gotta tell you, I was so disengaged that through all the movie, I was working on the guest list for my wife's surprise party!"
Clements and Musker asked Jeffrey what he did not like about the movie. Katzenberg revealed he did not like the mother character, which lead to her being cut from the story along with Proud of Your Boy later on, as they still considered having Aladdin sing the song to a deceased mother rather than one still living. Also, at the suggestion of writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, the wishes were changed from unlimited to simply three, to increase the importance of each wish. Unfortunately, this lead to Humiliate the Boy being cut as well, another song Ashman had created. The project was quickly imploding and straying farther and farther away from Howard's intended vision. The mother was gone, two more songs he had written were cut, unlimited wishes became three wishes, and the score was incomplete. Iago and Jafar's personalities were also switched, with Jafar becoming the calm and collected character, and Iago becoming the short-fused, loud-mouthed parrot after seeing Gilbert Gottfried in Beverly Hills Cop II.
To complete the incomplete score, Tim Rice was brought in to work alongside Alan Menken. The first of the songs they wrote was a successor to Proud of Your Boy known as You Can Count on Me, which would later evolve into the reprise of One Jump Ahead once the song was written. Another early song idea they had written was another song for Jafar, known as Why Me. Why Me would later evolve into a reprise of the now truncated version of Prince Ali. The opening song, Arabian Nights, would also be truncated from its initial version. Friend Like Me surprisingly stayed consistent, aside from a few lyrical changes.Among the new songs written was one for the magic carpet ride sequence, which was an idea Clements and Musker suggested to Ashman during the earlier days of production. This idea would eventually evolve into what is A Whole New World in the final film. The song would also cause the film's final number to change from a reprise of Arabian Nights to a reprise of A Whole New World. Luckily, the Arabian Nights reprise would not go to waste, as it would be used to conclude not only Aladdin and the King of Thieves, but also the Aladdin franchise as well, which is fitting.
On November 8th, 1992, Aladdin finally premiered at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood California to an overwhelmingly positive critical reception, with a general release occurring three days later on November 11th. The film was a critical and financial success, grossing over 500 million worldwide and even more in home video releases. The film was also nominated for several award nominations and won the Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for A Whole New World.
On home video, the lyrics were changed even further in the opening number to avoid further controversy caused by the lyric "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" during its theatrical release. The lyric was changed to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense" due to responses from the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC).However, the lyric change was not applied to the audio cassette release of the film's soundtrack, but it was later changed to the edited lyric in the Compact Disc and digital versions of the soundtrack.
Another controversy occurred between Katzenberg and Robin Williams. Williams agreed to voice the peddler and Genie in the film, on the condition of being paid SAG scale payment and his name and his character would not take up more than 25% of advertising space, along with his name not being advertised. For allegedly financial reasons, Katzenberg did not follow through with this agreement, and as such, Genie took up more space than the other main characters and was advertised as being played by Robin Williams. This dispute is why Williams did not return for the direct to video sequel The Return of Jafar and the Aladdin Television Series, and was replaced by Dan Castellaneta, best known for being the voice actor of Springfield's "village idiot" Homer Simpson from The Simpsons.
He eventually reprised his role for the aforementioned finale, Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
To conclude, Aladdin's production history was not a simple "magic carpet ride". Everyone involved went through intense trials and tribulations, such as harsh critiques from Katzenberg, song omissions and cuts, story changes, and even the loss of a valued team member. However, despite the tribulations and controversy, Aladdin went on to become a success, spanning a franchise of two sequels, a television series, and a stage adaptation that restored a majority of Howard Ashman's cut concepts and score. Speaking of Howard, I feel it would be best if he closed the book on this retrospective, since it was his film to begin with:
Upcoming Reviews after History of Aladdin
(Blogger's Note: Reviews are subject to change. The list is tentative)
Tentative Reviews for 2016 (Release Dates TBD)
-Batman: The Killing Joke (1989 Graphic Novel by Alan Moore)
-Little Shop of Horrors (1986 film by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, and Frank Oz)
-The Last: Naruto the Movie (2014 animated film by Studio Pierrot and Masashi Kishimoto)
-Pokemon: Origins (2013 Miniseries based on Pokemon Red and Blue by OLM and The Pokemon Company)
Tentative Reviews for 2017 (Again, release dates are TBD)
-Uncharted (2009-2016 Video Game Series by Naughty Dog)
-Pokemon Sun and Moon (2016 Video Game by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company)
-Ace Attorney anime adaptation (2016 Anime series by Capcom and A-1 Pictures)
-Beauty and the Beast (2017 Remake of 1991 Animated film by Walt Disney Studios)
-Power Rangers (2017 Reboot film of 1993 Television Series)
-Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017 Film by Marvel Studios)
-The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017 Video Game by Nintendo)*
Tentative Reviews for 2016 (Release Dates TBD)
-Batman: The Killing Joke (1989 Graphic Novel by Alan Moore)
-Little Shop of Horrors (1986 film by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, and Frank Oz)
-The Last: Naruto the Movie (2014 animated film by Studio Pierrot and Masashi Kishimoto)
-Pokemon: Origins (2013 Miniseries based on Pokemon Red and Blue by OLM and The Pokemon Company)
Tentative Reviews for 2017 (Again, release dates are TBD)
-Uncharted (2009-2016 Video Game Series by Naughty Dog)
-Pokemon Sun and Moon (2016 Video Game by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company)
-Ace Attorney anime adaptation (2016 Anime series by Capcom and A-1 Pictures)
-Beauty and the Beast (2017 Remake of 1991 Animated film by Walt Disney Studios)
-Power Rangers (2017 Reboot film of 1993 Television Series)
-Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017 Film by Marvel Studios)
-The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017 Video Game by Nintendo)*
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