Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Aladdin was released theatrically in 1992, during a renaissance in Disney’s hand-drawn animation that also gave us Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. But its release on DVD didn’t happen until 2004, and this is its first time on Blu-ray. It’s been too long a wait.

You know the story. Street rat Aladdin finds a magic lamp, he rubs it, and a genie appears to grant his new master three wishes. It’s a tale of redemption, growth, love, treachery, and—oh, forget all that. Its Boy meets Genie, Boy loses Genie, Boy gets Genie.

Oh yeah, there’s also a bit about boy meets girl in there somewhere. But the Genie thoroughly upstages everyone. It’s voiced by Robin Williams as the big, blue softie—perhaps the most memorable role of his tragically shortened career.

It’s the perfect animated film for both kids and adults. And the video transfer is impeccable, loaded with bright, pristine, primary colors and crisp detail. The movie’s video is demo quality from start to finish, with so many memorable scenes, it’s hard to pick a favorite. But my vote for the standout goes to the Cave of Wonders.

The audio is clean and dynamic, with excellent dialogue intelligibility, solid bass, and a sweeping score. But the normally centered dialogue has also been mixed into both the left and right channels, with some- times smeared or bloated results. Ditto for the music that’s been bled into the prominent, aggressive surrounds. I warmed to these oddities eventually, but I prefer less enhanced mixes closer to the original theatrical versions. I don’t mind adjustments to account for the home environment (such as taming the brightness in a theater mix that has to force its way through a perforated screen), but I prefer subtler tweaking than what we get here.

The extras aren’t extensive but include deleted scenes and songs, choice outtakes from Robin Williams’ voice-over recording sessions, limited but interesting making-of featurettes, and more. While some of these features are new, others that are found on that DVD release don’t make the cut here. If you have that two-disc set, you might want to save it, if only for those extras.

While I have issues with the choices made in mixing this film’s audio for its Blu-ray release, it’s certainly no reason to avoid adding this release to your Blu-ray collection. Disney tends to throw around the word classic with reckless abandon, but here it’s deserved.

Blu-Ray
Studio: Disney, 1992
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Length: 91 mins.
MPAA Rating: G
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Starring: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman