The Disney Animated Canon: From Small beginnings to House of Mouse: Hercules

Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

Hercules: G-rated classical mythology

Good lord…where do we even begin with this one? Well…after wowing audiences with three epics (maybe…semi-wowing with the second one), Disney decided they needed something…maybe a bit more on the funny side instead of the dramatic side. For some reason, they decided the best way to go was with Classical Greek mythology…riiiiiiight. After many different script changes, getting the artist from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” movie adaptation, and refining the villain to a fan favorite (you all know the one), Disney decided it was good to go.

The Plot: Long ago in Ancient Greece, the titans ruled over the world and spectacularly mismanaged things. Along came Zeus, who soundly defeated them, trapped them in a vault, and became king of the gods. Zeus and his sister/wife (it’s complicated), Hera, are throwing a party in honor of their new son, who they have named Hercules. All the Gods attend the ceremony…including the God of the Dead, Hades (voiced spectacularly by James Woods). He took a few minutes out of the schedule to meet his new nephew before returning to the Underworld…to plot to rule the world. He’d actually made some pretty intricate plans on how to kick his little brother out of Olympus with a hostile takeover…Hercules was a new variable, though…so he consulted the fates. They predicted that Hades could get the job done if he freed the titans in 18 years when the planets aligned…so long as Hercules didn’t fight back against him.

Deciding that this plan was the one he needed, he had his two  minions, Pain and Panic, kidnap Hercules and make him a mortal with a special kind of poison. They nearly succeeded…if not for two mortals almost finding them. As a result, Hercules was almost a mortal. He still had his immense strength…which they found out the hard way when Baby Herc throttled the pair as snakes. Embarrassed and scared of what just happened…they decided not to tell Hades he was still alive. After all…he was still technically mortal…right?

Hera and Zeus found out their son was mortal, and could do little about it but watch him grow up as a mortal who did not fit in because of his strength causing more problems than it did help. As a result of one bad day, Herc was told that he was adopted and his adopted parents showed him the medal he was found with. Resolving to find answers, Hercules journeyed to the Temple of Zeus…where he found the shocking truth that Zeus was actually his father. Zeus, overjoyed to find him alright decided to make him a deal. If he could become a true hero on Earth, Zeus would restore his godhood. Luckily, Zeus knew who to send him to…and how to send him there.

Pegasus was called to send him to an island where Philoctetes, the trainer of heroes (Voiced by Danny DeVito) refused to train him. Phil had seen enough of heroes being trained, it getting to their heads, and then them getting their just desserts (and was particularly upset about Achilles). Zeus convinced him to train him anyway. With the easy part out of the way, Hercules now had the hard part in front of him: Doing heroism. First step was saving a woman named Megaera from a centaur named Nessus…and Hades finding out Hercules was still alive.

Hades, despite being very upset about being lied to…took it fairly well. His first plan was to pit Hercules against a very CGI (pretty good for it’s time) Hydra…which Herc managed to defeat. Hades kept sending everything he had at Hercules (Medusa, the Nemean Lion…who looks a little familiar, the Erumanthian Boar, the Stymphian birds, Cetus) and he kept defeating them…and becoming more and more famous. This…was getting to be a problem.
Hades decided a new tactic was needed. He decided to send Meg to find his weaknesses. Meg had sold her soul to him to save her boyfriend’s life (word of god being that her original boyfriend was Adonis)…and right after she did that, her boyfriend dumped her for someone else. In exchange for finding Herc’s weaknesses…Hades would wipe her debt to him.
Meanwhile, as did happen to most heroes…the fame was getting to Hercules. After most of his childhood being quite miserable, he was enjoying being respected as he was…except that he wasn’t a true hero yet, and he didn’t know how to make good on the “true” part of being a hero. Meg decided to step in and gave Herc a break from hero work…and found herself falling for him…despite her past with men. Hades could see it too…and found a better way to get Herc out of the way…that Phil overheard.
Phil tried to warn him…but Hercules could not fathom Meg betraying him…and promptly sent him away. Following that…Phil was proven right when Hades decided to use meg as a hostage and swap his strength with her freedom. Hercules agreed…finding out the truth just as Hades freed the Titans and sent the Cyclops after Hercules.
The Titans soundly defeated the Gods, and the Cyclops was in the middle of soundly defeating Hercules when Phil returned after being told Hercules life was in danger. The cyclops was defeated…at the cost of Meg’s life and Herc got his strength back to defeat the titans. With that, Hercules burst through the underworld to take Meg’s soul back at the exchange of his own…and it was this act that earned him back his divinity. With that said and Hades punched into the River Styx, Hercules decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life on Earth with Meg…a decision that Zeus and Hera decided was fair before putting Hercules across the sky as a Constellation.

…I cannot even begin to describe just how many liberties they took with this story. As you might imagine…Everyone from Greece hated the many liberties they took with their mythology. It’s true, there are many figures in the myths that made it into the movie…but the way it was handled was sanitized because Greek mythology has many, maaaaaany stories that are most definitely not kid appropriate. To set the record straight, I will be showing what really happened in the myth as someone who deeply enjoys mythology. Buckle your seatbelts…this is gonna be a heck of a ride.

The Real Myth:

We can’t really begin the myth of Hercules without getting to how Zeus became king of the Gods. True, the Titans ruled things before the Gods…and yes, they did mismanage things heavily. Cronus, the king of the Titans, received a prophecy that his rule would be cut short by his own son. As a result, he grew paranoid enough that he devoured his children after they were born (you read that right). His wife, Rhea, was horrified, and saved Zeus by swapping him out with a rock. Upon growing of age, Zeus made Cronus throw up his siblings…who somehow had lived in Cronus’ stomach, and he declared war on the Titans.  The Titans lost after a long fight, and the three leaders (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades) drew straws to determine who got what in the world. Hades drew the short straw and got the Underworld, Poseidon got the Seas, and Zeus got the heavens…and let it go to his head.
Because Zeus was also the youngest…he was a phenomenally immature ruler who let his pants do  most of the thinking for him…and his wife/sister, Hera hated him for it. She was goddess of marriage, and she was wed to the most unfaithful of them all. Heracles was born from one of these unions, and Zeus even had the gall to name him after her (Herakles literally means “Hera’s glory”). As a result, Hera decided she would make Heracles’ life as miserable as she possibly could. When he was an adult, he married a woman named Megara (well…they kinda got that right), and they had some kids…until Hera drove Heracles mad enough that he murdered all of them.

Consumed by grief, he was purified by King Thespius and decided to go to the Oracle for any idea he could repent for killing his family. The Oracle directed him to go work for his cousin Eurystheus for ten years to get immortality. Heracles balked at serving a man inferior to him…but relented because he had to follow Zeus’s rules (he was his dad, after all).  Eurystheus sent him to complete 10 impossible tasks (eventually 12 because someone helped him on one, and he got payment for another.)

They are as follows:

1. Slay the Nemean Lion. Herc had to fight a lion with an impenetrable hide. He got around it by strangling him.
2. Slay the nine-headed Lernean Hydra. Hera raised this one to specifically kill Heracles. Much like the movie, destroying one head caused two more to appear…so he had to burn the stumps and bury the last immortal head under a rock to kill it. This was considered null because he had help finding out how to kill it.
3. Capture the Ceryneian Hind. This was a humiliating one. If he killed the Hind, he would outrage Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt, so he asked her to borrow it and she let him…under the condition that he didn’t hurt it. He obliged and humiliated Eurystheus instead.
4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar. After getting into a misunderstanding with some Centaurs,  Heracles asked for some advice on defeating this one. He heeded Chiron (teacher of many heroes) advice…and drove it into some thick snow).
5. Clean the Augean stables in a single day. The stables had not been washed in thirty years…and Herc had to do it in a day. Instead of getting his hands dirty…he redirected a river through the stables. Beforehand, he asked for one tenth of the cattle as payment…which the king agreed to before denying after it was done. Herc killed him, and his son honored the agreement. Eurystheus considered this nullifying the task, and thus added another one.
6. Slay the Stymphalian birds. Man eating birds with bronze beaks, metal feathers and poisonous poop. They were also sacred to Ares…and Herc had to drive them away. Athena found this out and gave him a rattle to drive them off where someone else could deal with them (that someone else being the Argonauts.)
7. Capture the Cretan Bull. Heracles throttled this one and brought it back. No muss, no fuss. Eurystheus wanted to sacrifice it to Hera…who refused because it would make Heracles look better.
8. Steal the Mares of Diomedes. Man eating, fire breathing horses. Herc had to steal them. There are a few ways this one is told, and each one is incredibly messy with Diomedes getting killed (usually fed to his own horses).
9. Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Hercules actually got along fairly well with the Amazons and would have gotten this one with no fuss…Had Hera not interfered and sowed chaos. As a result, they attacked him, and Herc had to kill a bunch of them…reluctantly.
10. Obtain the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon. Heracles overcame the two headed dog Orthrus before poisoning Geryon to steal his cattle.
11. Steal three of the golden apples of the Hesperides. Depending on the version, Herc enlisted the help of Atlas, or defeated Ladon to get these.
12. Capture and bring back Cerberus. The only one where Herc met Hades. Herc busted through the underworld, freeing Prometheus (being punished for giving mankind fire), and Theseus (for reluctantly trying to steal Persephone) to get an audience with Hades. Upon hearing Heracles plight, he allowed Hades to take Cerberus on the condition that he didn’t hurt him (Hades was really fond of his giant, 3 headed dog).

After all this, Heracles was allowed to be immortal, and lived the rest of his life. He sailed with the Argonauts for a bit before settling down again…this time with someone else and doing battle with a centaur named Nessus. Herc defeated him after he tried to steal his wife…so Nessus was fairly upset, and Herc had been away from his wife a while. Nessus laced a tunic with centaur blood and told her to give it to him if she thought he was being unfaithful. She did…turns out centaur blood is incredibly poisonous to immortals. Herc uprooted several trees to make his pyre and jumped on it while Philoctetes lit it…and received Heracles’ bow. Herc then ascended to Olympus.

…How’s THAT for a myth?

James Woods, the voice of Hades, absolutely loves voicing him and whenever anyone asks him to, he will be more than happy to. Hades was actually designed off of Jeffrey Katzenberg, as most villains are designed after former bosses or other people that are disliked by animators (just look at Friz Freling…he got turned to Yosemite Sam). The only problem is…Hades is one of the most fan loved villains out there.
Hercules’ singing voice was, believe it or not, Ricky Martin, going through his big break of being famous.
As mentioned, there were many script changes for Hercules, with Hera originally going to be the villain, the Titans the betrayers, and Hades an ally…and most of this happened in another film…Hercules and Xena (not Disney, but far more accurate, mythologically).

The Disney Animated Canon: From Small beginnings to House of Mouse: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: French Horror? In my Disney Film?

Believe it or not, the idea to turn Victor Hugo’s novel, the Hunchback of Notre Dame was started in 1993, and started gaining in traction until one of the development executives pitched the idea to Jeffrey Katzenburg about a year before he was kicked out of Disney. The directors, Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale had taken a break from the Lion King and had tried their hand at a short inspired by the tale of Orpheus before being given the message “Drop what you’re doing. We’re working on Hunchback of Notre Dame.” They thought they had a ton of potential with it…a notion they had no idea just how right they were.

The Plot: Morning in Paris…the City awakens to the Bells of Notre Dame~…Er…right. We meet up with a Romani (I know, the film uses Gypsy constantly. I’m not using it because it’s a pretty bad slur against those of Romani Descent. It was the 90s, we know better now.) named Clopin who tells us the beginnings of our hero.
A while ago, some Romani were making their way into Paris, only to be ambushed by the personal guard of Judge Claude Frollo (Voiced superbly by Tony Jay), who decided the mother of a child was hiding stolen goods…and chased her all the way to Notre Dame, killed her on the steps when she begged for sanctuary, and tried to drown the child when he found it ugly, and had to be guilted into looking after the child by the Archdeacon after pointing out that he could lie to his men, but he couldn’t lie to the eyes of God.
Fast forward many years later, the boy, now called Quasimodo (Voiced by Tom Hulce), is…still pretty ugly by standards, and he rings the bells every day. Nobody really knows what he looks like, because Frollo forbids him from leaving the towers. His reasoning? People would find him ugly, and the world is cruel to ugly people. Quasimodo listens to him, because he’s the only father figure he’s had…well…besides the Gargoyles who give him advice, and the jury’s still out as to whether they’re real or not. Hugo, Victor and Laverne give him advice to sneak out today because it’s the Festival of Fools, a day that only comes once a year. He does so, and forces beyond his control make him participate and end up being the king of fools.
A little earlier, Frollo hires Pheobus, a well known soldier, to help him purge the city of the Romani because he believes it needs to be done. After all, they all practice witchcraft and rob people blind, so they all deserve death (riiiiight). A particular Romani, gets away with Phoebus’ help, and takes part in the festival of fools.
Esmerelda (voiced by Demi Moore) captivates everyone with her dance (Frollo…ew), her willingness to call out the crowd for mistreating Quasimodo (Quasimodo), and for her ability to outrun and outthink the guards (Phoebus). Having been thoroughly shamed by Frollo, Quasimodo returns to the towers, with Esmerelda trying to find more about him. She has been saved from Frollo’s machinations by having Sanctuary declared for her by Pheobus, meaning she’s safe…as long as she stays in the building. Esmerelda eventually finds Quasimodo, and they bond over their status as outcasts, his dedication to craft and the bells, and eventually…his helping her to escape.
Frollo wrestles with his growing attraction to Esmerelda and decides if he can’t have her, nobody can before torching vast swaths of Notre dame to find her when he finds out she escaped. This becomes too much for Phoebus, who rebels..and gets an arrow in him for it. Esmerelda brings him up to the bell tower, and both fall in love with the other, leaving Quasimodo heartbroken. Frollo later visits and Quasimodo hides Phoebus from him before Frollo says he knows where the Romani are and is set to attack them at dawn.
Phoebus and Quasimodo set out, to find where the Romani are hiding, are mistaken for agents of Frollos…and right before everyone escapes…Frollo descends. Turns out he was bluffing, and he let both of them lead Frollo straight to them.
Quasimodo is chained up in the Bell Tower, Phoebus is set for a beheading, and Esmerelda set to burn as a witch. Frollo gives her one last chance to be his…or burn. She spits in his face and Quasimodo, outraged at Frollo’s burning of her, decides to act, along with the general crowd having enough of Frollo and his forces.

Frollo decides to chase down Quasimodo and Esmerelda, who is thought to have been killed, and Frollo almost makes good on his earlier killing of Quasimodo before he admits the truth about killing his mother, 20 years ago. It is all they can do to escape Frollo before he tries to “smite the wicked by plunging them into the fiery pit”…a fate that befalls him, courtesy of the gargoyle he is perched on.
Eventually, all three make it back down, and Quasimodo is accepted into the town. After all…they know who the real monster and the real man are now.

It should be said, that this is considered the darkest of the Disney animated canon. Frollo is considered one of the best Disney Villains for just how realistic he is in motivation…and performance by Tony Jay. For several years, it was considered not as good as the Lion King and Aladdin, but far better than Pocahontas, and even today, its’ values of opposing persecution of minorities, letting women choose who they want to love (and not burning them at the stake when they say no), and tolerance of those different, still hold up very well. Sure, the descendants of Victor Hugo denounced the film loudly…but the rest of France liked it.
Every main character in the film spoke and sang their lines, even Mary Wilkes…who was suffering from Cancer through this (she sadly passed away before the film was completed and Jane Withers replaced her for the last few scenes). Anyone who watches SpongeBob SquarePants should also recognize one of the guards being voiced by the same voice actor as Patrick Star as well.

The Disney Animated Canon: From Small beginnings to House of Mouse: Pocahontas

Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

Pocahontas: History that wasn’t

Around the same time that The Lion King was being made, Disney was working on a film centered around the legend of Pocahontas. Jeffrey Katzenberg was running a bit behind on this and was certain that this film would be a big hit with audiences…after all…Everyone liked Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Little Mermaid…this one needed to have the senior staff working on it to make it perfect. What could go wrong with having the junior staff working on that side project “The Lion King”?

Well…For starters…It was running up against a new frontier of animation film that Disney was also distributing. A small project called “Toy Story” by Pixar studios. On top of that, there were many tensions between Michael Eisner, Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg that kept building up until they could not be ignored any more. They got so bad, that eventually, in 1994, Katzenberg was forced to resign and as a result, would not face much of the blowback for this film that anyone else got due to the many, many liberties it took with history.

The Plot: In 1607, the Susan Constant sails from London to the New World bringing several English settlers from the Virginia company, lead by Governor Ratcliff (voiced by David Ogden Stiers). Everyone is thrilled at the chance to explore a new world…except for Ratcliff. He’s got his own agenda…namely, make a discovery like the Spanish did in Peru and Mexico so he can get more prestige and a better title. John Smith…wants to tame the wilderness.
Meanwhile, in the New World, the Powhatan tribe in Tsenacommacah (That’s modern day Virginia now), are celebrating a successful war campaign and their chief decides that one of their best warriors, Kokoum, would make an excellent match to his daughter, Pocahontas. Fearing that he is too serious for her, she seeks guidance from Grandmother Willow, and confides in her a dream she has had about a spinning arrow and an uncertainty of what her path is. This is cut short when the English arrive.

The English establish Jamestown and try mining for Gold that Ratcliff is sure to be there. John Smith explores the wilderness and eventually comes across Pocahontas. Both of them become intrigued by the other’s world…and begin to fall for each other despite the mistrust that both sides have for the other, and despite the Chief telling every one of the Powhatans to stay well away from the strangers (Pretty solid advice, considering one of them shot one of their best warriors…even if it was by mistake). Eventually, Pocahontas tells John that there’s no gold in the area, and introduces him to Grandmother Willow.

Nakoma finds out about this, as well as Ratcliff and things come to a very bad meeting. Ratcliff does not take the news that there’s no gold in the land well at all and threatens everyone there that any meetings with the natives will be considered treason…punishable by hanging. Nakoma warns Kokoum, who gets into a fight with John Smith, and one of the crew kills Kokoum. John is captured, and a furious Chief Powhatan declares war on the settlers, starting with John Smith’s execution. Ratcliff rallies the men to annihilate the tribe and try to find their nonexistent gold. Pocahontas visits Grandmother Willow, and tries to find her path, feeling deeply lost. Upon finding John Smith’s compass, the spinning arrow from her dream, she hurries to the site everyone gathers to, and stops the execution of John Smith, convincing everyone to stop the war and release John Smith. Ratcliff…thoroughly unmoved, tries to resume the war…that the other settlers refuse to take part in. He then shoots John, who defended the original target, Chief Powhatan, from the attack.

Deeply angered, the other settlers arrest Ratcliff, chain him up, and board the ship back to have him punished for his crimes. Despite treatment from the Powhatans, John Smith has to go back as well if he is to survive. Our last shot of the movie is Pocahontas gazing towards the ship pulling out into the sunset.

To say this film had very mixed reception is a bit of an understatement. On the one side, sure, the film has a far more positive representation of Native American People’s than most films of the time did, and Pocahontas never ended up a trophy for John Smith. On the other side, it is seen as very overly preachy and…well…most of what happened in the film sure didn’t happen in real life. Heck, Ratcliff didn’t even make it out of real history alive! He got flayed to a tree! Pocahontas was also nowhere near being an adult when she really met John Smith. Many of the First People’s tribes were downright appalled at how their history had been rewritten beyond recognition. Releasing such a film on Pocahontas’ 400th birthday was seen as another slap. While today, we are a bit more favorable to it (Pocahontas is whole despite not getting the guy, and many themes tackled in the movie are still being tackled now: Racism, othering, potential genocide, embracing different cultures. Pretty relevant today.) Unsurprisingly, this was one of the few Disney movies to get a sequel that tried telling the story further. Journey To a New World does not count in the canon, though…so we will not be covering it here.

The Disney Animated Canon: From Small beginnings to House of Mouse: The Lion King

Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

The Lion King: Bless the film down in Africa

Sing it with me, everyone…NAAAAANTS INGONYAAAAAAMA BAGITHI BABA
Sithi uhm ingonyama…Now that we’ve got that out of our system, fresh off of the success of Aladdin, the Lion King would become Disney’s most successful film…until Frozen and Zootopia came out. A ton of research was done on the wildlife of Africa to get the film just right, and it shows, for the most part. Another title for this that the fans have is “Hamlet in Africa”…and to be honest…it is pretty close to it…among one other thing that was pretty controversial for its’ time.

The Plot: We begin with our epic chorus pointing out that on this day, a new lion was born (they mean it literally in IsiZulu. ” Here comes a lion, Father. Oh yes, it’s a lion.”). Everyone turns out for the big ceremony of the birth of Mufasa and Serabi’s son, Simba…except for Mufasa’s brother, Scar. Scar is rather put off that now Mufasa has an heir, he’s being passed over for the throne that he believes is rightfully his. Mufasa knows that Scar is dissatisfied with this, but can’t bring himself to do anything to his own brother. Simba grows up, excited to be the future king, and Mufasa does his best to educate Simba on the delicate balance between everything in the Circle of Life…at least until Mufasa’s second, Zazu informs them of hyenas in the pride lands.

Simba is disappointed that he couldn’t take part in kicking them out of the pridelands and goes home, visiting Scar, completely unaware that Scar only barely tolerates Simba because he’s Mufasa’s son…and informs Simba of what is beyond the shadows of the pridelands: an Elephant Graveyard. Simba takes his childhood friend, Nala, over there after losing Zazu in a big musical number…only to run afoul of three hyena: Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. They barely escape with their lives thanks to Mufasa intervening and giving Simba a very stern talking to. Meanwhile, Scar is disappointed that the hyenas couldn’t kill two young lions he sent over to them, revealing his plans to dethrone Mufasa and Simba, taking their place and, despite the many subtle insults to them, letting the hyenas have their fill of the pridelands. Scar succeeds in killing Mufasa by having the hyenas cause a wildebeest stampede that nearly kills Simba…were it not for Mufasa saving his life with Scar pushing him off a cliff into the stampede, then laying the blame at an already grieving Simba…before exiling him…and sending the hyenas to kill him anyway.

The Hyenas don’t do a good job finishing him off, but it doesn’t matter much. Scar gives a tearful eulogy to Simba and Mufasa before taking the throne. Simba, meanwhile, is saved from vultures by Timon and Pumbaa, a merecat and warthog who live as outcasts. They teach Simba their way of Hakuna Matata, living life with no worries, and Simba grows up with it. Meanwhile, the pridelands become a desolate wasteland with no food, and Scar has no real desire to do anything to improve things…he’s just interested in doing what he pleases…with no mention of Mufasa ever.

Simba is content to do things with Timon and Pumbaa until Nala tries hunting them…faced with the link from his past, he turns going back down because of the guilt he feels for everything with his father, despite his falling for Nala. It takes a bit of a pep talk from Rafiki, the baboon who held him at the very beginning…and some words of wisdom from Mufasa from beyond to get him to reconsider. He confronts Scar at Pride Rock and nearly loses before Scar gloats that he actually killed his father. The furious Simba then kicks him off Pride Rock after Scar blames the hyenas and is offered exile (Scar, being the pragmatist, decided to attack Simba anyway). Scar is eaten by his former allies, Simba takes his rightful place, and the circle of life begins anew.

Believe it or not, Jeffrey Katzenberg thought this movie would do horribly and wanted to emphasize better work on Pocahontas. A giant part of the animation department disagreed, and Katzenberg attempted to campaign to have the production of this film shut down. As mentioned above, this film drew comparisons to another film that was released around the same time called “Kimba, the White Lion.” The similarities were so…well, similar, that you’d almost wondered whether Disney lifted it or the other way around. The studio that did Kimba didn’t sue though. After all…who’d want to get into a legal battle with the House of Mouse? It’d end with Disney squashing them rather easily.

Believe it or not (again), the scene with Mufasa’s death was a bit shorter at first. Katzenburg turned to the animators with his eyes dry and said “I’m not cryin’!” As a result, they worked on the scene to the point where it still has its’ emotional impact today.

The Disney Animated Canon: From Small Beginnings to House of Mouse: Aladdin

Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.

Aladdin: The costs and benefit of star power

10,000 yeeeeaaaars…(or what certainly feels like it), and it’s back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Howard Ashman pitched the idea to do a loose adaptation of “Aladdin and his wonderful Lamp”, and although it took a few drafts to get it right, Jeffrey Katzenberg signed off on it, thus putting Aladdin in production. Around the same time, Richard Williams (of Who Framed Roger Rabbit fame), was working on what would have been his magnus opus, the Thief and the Cobbler. Williams wanted it juuuuuust right…and wanted it just right enough that it took forever to make and he was eventually kicked off the creative team. The production of Aladdin took notes from Thief and the Cobbler…which also took notes from Aladdin…resulting in Aladdin being a huge hit and Thief and the Cobbler bombing pretty badly.

This was not only the last film that Howard Ashman would have any creative part in (he died midway through the production of Beauty and the Beast due to complications of HIV), but it was also the first real movie to have a big celebrity voice actor. Robin Williams was already pretty big in comedy at the time, but his getting asked to be Genie in Aladdin was something he was very willing to do for the art. He even agreed to take a large pay cut for the movie and required Disney to limit the use of his performance in the marketing and not to use it at all for merchandizing (this was because he was already in another movie called “toys”…which didn’t do too well anyway). Disney decided not to do that and as a result, Robin Williams refused to work for Disney for a while until much later.

The Plot: We start being introduced to Agrabah by an intrepid Peddler (played by Robin Williams) who tries selling the audience on things that break before taking out a lamp and beginning a story of the man whose life was changed by the lamp. At the outskirts of Agrabah much earlier, a dark man awaits a thief in the desert. The thief finally arrives with half of a scarab pendant before asking to be paid…which the man does not do until he fits the pendant together…which leads to the Cave of Wonders. The only issue is that the Cave of Wonders will only allow one person in: the Diamond in the Rough. The thief tries to go in…and is consequently eaten, requiring the dark man to find the Diamond in the rough.

We then cut to our title character escaping from the guards after stealing a loaf of bread to survive. He eventually escapes, and splits the bread with his monkey, Abu (voiced by the legendary Frank Welker). He ends up giving his part of the bread to some kids who need it more than he does. Later, a prince walks through town to wed the Princess of Agrabah…and those same kids get in his way. Aladdin stops him from whipping them by taking the whip himself and getting a very nice parting shot at him (about as nice as a kid friendly film can get it, by calling him an ass). The prince then calls him a street rat and lectures him about how he will be one forever, and that is what gets to Aladdin as he walks back to what he calls home: an abandoned building with a nice view of the Palace.

With that, we see the prince storm out of the palace after being humiliated by the Princess and her pet Tiger Rajah. Jasmine sees him as just another pompous, puffed up jerk and refuses to have anything to do with him. While her father acknowledges this, the current law states that she has to marry a prince before her 16th birthday to inherit the throne…which Jasmine also decides is a stupid law. Sultan is at his wit’s end and is in the middle of trying to figure out how to leave a future for Jasmine before he gets a visit from the dark man from earlier, Jafar, his royal vizier…and his parrot Iago (voiced by Jonathan Freeman and Gilbert Godfrey respectively). Jafar has a rather tight grip on the Sultan, whom he hypnotizes to get a ring to tell him who the Diamond in the Rough is. Turns out, it’s Aladdin…who is helping Jasmine in disguise after she runs away from her life in the palace. Aladdin is promptly captured by the guards and Jasmine is directed to Jafar.

Jafar has set up Aladdin to be executed for kidnapping the princess, at least until an old man breaks him out of prison to find the cave of wonders and find a very specific treasure: a magic lamp. The Cave of Wonders lets him in on the condition that he touches nothing but the lamp. Especially the giant hordes of treasure inside. Aladdin heeds this warning very well. Abu…not so much. It ends with them nearly making it out of the Cave of Wonders until they are betrayed at the last moment by the old man…who was revealed to be Jafar. Abu ended up stealing the lamp from Jafar though, and to their benefit, they end up unleashing the Genie of the Lamp (played by the one and only Robin Williams). The Genie reveals that Aladdin has three wishes he can wish for…with a few limitations. After tricking the Genie into getting him out of the cave of wonders, he asks what the genie would wish for…and finds out the Genie is a slave to the lamp. He can’t do anything unless it’s what his master wishes. Because of this, Aladdin promises to set aside one of his wishes to free the Genie.

With that, Aladdin can’t really think of what his heart desires until he remembers his time bonding with Jasmine over being trapped in circumstances beyond their control: Aladdin trapped in being a street rat and having to steal everything just to survive, and Jasmine having every aspect of her life planned out for her with no say in the matter. Genie reminds Aladdin that he can’t wish for anyone to fall in love…but Al mentions her being the princess and decides to wish he could be a prince so he could try to impress her. Genie obliges, and sets him up with a huge parade…only to fall flat when Jasmine catches Aladdin, Sultan and Jafar discussing her future without her. Aladdin tries to woo her again…falling flat until he mentions her being caught in a situation she doesn’t want…and she decides to hear him out…and go on a magic carpet ride with him.

Jafar decides to take matters into his own hands and marry Jasmine so he can be sultan and then kill the real sultan and Jasmine later. Just as Jasmine returns, he has Prince Ali (really Aladdin) knocked out and hurled off a cliff, and Sultan hypnotized to have her marry Jafar. Aladdin unconsciously wishes for Genie to save him, and he ends up exposing Jafar’s duplicity, getting Jasmine to fall in love with him for real, and Sultan to grant him Jasmine’s hand. This is all well and good…except it’s still in a lie, and Aladdin knows it. So much, that he feels he has no choice but to go back on his word to the Genie…which upsets him…a lot. Not helping matters is Jafar figuring out the identity of Prince Ali…really Aladdin with the Lamp, and he gets Iago to successfully steal the lamp and make him Sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world right in front of Agrabah.

Aladdin’s secret is exposed, and he is sent to the ends of the Earth before the magic carpet sends him back, and Jafar has everything he wants…except that Jasmine still can’t stand him for mistreating her father. Jafar then decides to wish to the Genie for her to fall in love with him…which can’t happen. At least until she supposedly falls for him (really her seeing Aladdin trying to get the lamp from Jafar). Unfortunately for them, Jafar sees through her act (and even her kiss! Yep, Jasmine’s the only Disney princess to kiss the bad guy. The rest of the cast was rather squicked out), and he shows his powers off, with fire, swords, and even becoming a huge snake. There’s really no hope for Aladdin until he reasons that Jafar will still only be second best because he owes his power to the Genie. Jafar realizes this as well…and remedies it by becoming a Genie himself…with all the power and limitations. Genie sends him to the Cave of Wonders, and puts everything back to where it belongs…and Al uses his last wish to free the Genie instead of becoming a prince again. With that, Genie is freed happily and the Sultan amends the law so that the princess could marry anyone she deems fit.

Believe it or not, Patrick Stewart was approached to be Jafar. He couldn’t because of scheduling conflicts with Star Trek and it remains the one part he really wished he would have taken up. As mentioned earlier, Robin Williams had very specific demands for his performance of the Genie made…that Jeffrey Katzenberg ignored. This caused Robin Williams to very publicly denounce Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg who had him give the best performance of his life for almost nothing and it took many years (and Jeffrey Katzenberg leaving Disney) before Williams decided to work with them again as the Genie and a few other rolls (Dan Castellenata of Simpsons fame did voice work as the Genie until Williams came back). Because of much of the ad libbing in the movie, Aladdin was denied any sort of award for best screenplay. Also, due to a clause in Robin Williams’ will, Disney can’t use the hours of voice work he had for anything else until 2039, thus rendering a project for what happened before the events of the film unworkable.