Today's episode of the Dan cave is brought to you
by Movement watches.
(rock music)
Wanna feel old?
Disney's Aladdin turns 25 this week.
The 1992 animated classic
has been showing us a whole new world
for a quarter century now.
Oh my God.
Now it's on the fast track to becoming a live action movie
directed by Guy Ritchie and featuring Will Smith
as the genie.
And no, that's not a bit, that is real life.
(cash register ding)
But like many of you,
I prefer to take a walk down memory lane,
and relive my childhood.
So on today's episode of the Dan cave,
we're going to run down a whole bunch of things
about Aladdin you might not know.
Ooh!
Aladdin was originally modeled after Michael J. Fox.
Whoa, this is heavy.
That's right, Teen Wolf teen heartthrob Michael J. Fox,
was the original character model inspiration for Aladdin.
But, these early designs proved to be
a little too boyish for what Disney wanted to achieve.
So, to give Aladdin the sex appeal that teens crave,
Disney decided to make the would-be prince go shirtless,
and modeled him after another 80's heartthrob, Tom Cruise.
Now, if you're having trouble picturing it,
just imagine Aladdin jumping on a couch
and freaking out Agrabah's number one talk show host.
You see it?
It's pretty good.
(audience cheers)
The role of genie was written specifically,
for Robin Williams.
Okay, you probably knew that much
if you've seen Aladdin before, but,
did you know that in order to get Robin Williams
to accept the role, the film's directors
Ron Clements and John Musker had their animators
mock up test animations that were synced with
Williams' old stand-up routines?
Once again, if there are any little children
here tonight, we've used these words in a sentence.
(audience laughter)
Now, according to animator Ed Goldberg,
what sold Williams was seeing his routine
about schizophrenia brought to life,
in the form of seeing the genie
grow a second head to argue with himself.
The results, thankfully, spoke for themselves,
no second head required.
Robin Williams improvised.
A lot, like, a lot.
Because the filmmakers specifically wanted,
his brand of manic energy and natural hilarity
in order to bring the genie to life.
So, they let the actor go kind of hog wild in the studio.
As a gifted impressionist, Williams would cycle through
certain lines, performing them as Groucho Marx,
or Peter Lorre, or W.C. Fields in a rapid succession,
allowing the directors to pick and choose
their favorite takes.
In fact, Williams wound up recording sixteen additional
hours of improvised material during his recording sessions.
The horror. (beep)
Look at those fangs! (beep)
I coulda been a contender!
And, as for the urban legend that Williams' epic improv
cost Aladdin it's chances at being nominated
for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar?
(buzzer) Wrong!
Williams put his improv skills to even better use
as the peddler.
That's right, in addition to the genie,
Williams plays the role of the merchant narrator
at the beginning of the movie,
pushing his wares on an unsuspecting audience.
In order to film this scene,
Jeffrey Katzenberg had the idea
to fill a box with weird stuff,
cover it with a cloth, then make Williams
take the objects out one at a time,
and just improvise what he found inside.
And that's exactly what wound up on the big screen.
(burps) Ah, still good.
One object that didn't make the final cut
was when Williams pulled a bra out of the box.
He joked that it was a double slingshot,
a double yarmulke, and then slightly joked,
"Hmm, I should have called her".
Disney, all I'm saying is it's been 25 years,
so release the damn tapes and tell us,
What's in the box?
What's in the (beep) box?
Disney had a Robin Williams contingency plan.
If, for some horrible reason,
Robin Williams had declined the role of the genie,
Disney realized they needed a hilarious A-List actor
to fill Williams' considerable shoes.
To do so, they assembled a B-Team, including actors like
Martin Short, John Goodman, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy,
John Candy, and Albert Brooks.
Thankfully, it all worked out,
because I don't think I could handle,
hearing Jiminy Glick's horrible voice
coming out of the genie's mouth.
It just makes me feel slimy all over.
Thank you!
But, maybe they could've cast one of these backup guys,
because originally, there were going to be two genies.
That's right, in an early version of Aladdin,
there were gonna be two genies!
A genie of the lamp, and a genie of the ring.
In this early draft, Aladdin still manages to get
his grubby mitts on the lamp and summons
the big blue genie we know and love.
However, Jafar was gonna get his even grubbier mitts
on a ring, and use it to summon another genie,
and use it against Aladdin
in this genie versus genie showdown.
Now thankfully that didn't come to pass, because honestly,
no one movie can sustain that many bits.
It'd be like MuskWatch, the movie.
Now, speaking of huge mistakes
that thankfully didn't come to pass,
Gilbert Gottfried nearly was not the voice of Iago.
How in the he- uh, (squawk)
Everyone's favorite abrasive voiced Aflac duck
Is synonymous with Jafar's sassy parrot pal.
But he wasn't the studio's first choice for Iago.
Before the went out to Gottfried,
Disney offered the role to
two other famous loud little guys,
Joe Pesci, and Danny DeVito.
Now, I'll be honest.
I'm a little sad those versions didn't pan out,
because I would love to hear Iago's lines,
replaced with Frank Reynolds quotes from It's Always Sunny.
Just picture it.
Rum-ham!
Wait a minute, wait a minute!
Where's the rum-ham?
Disney killed Aladdin's mom.
Now, dead moms are par for the course in Disney movies.
I mean, just look at Bambi,
or Beauty and the Beast, or Pinocchio, or Cinderella,
or The Little Mermaid, or
look, you get it, you get it, they kill moms.
But in Aladdin's case, she was killed
by the production process.
In early drafts of the movie,
Aladdin sings his mom a sweet song entitled
"Proud of Your Boy".
And unfortunately, it's hard to be proud,
when you've been written out of existence.
But thankfully the song made it's way into the
Broadway version of Aladdin,
because honestly, an Alan Menken song
is a horrible thing to waste.
As for Jafar, Johnathan Freeman did a fantastic job
bringing the sinister sorcerer to life
with a voice that's equal parts
Boris Karloff and Vincent Price,
But, he also wasn't the studio's first pick, no.
I must advise against this.
The house of mouse had their sites set
on another iconic set of vocal cords.
Sir Patrick Stewart's.
Everyone's favorite Starfleet captain
turned down loads of Disney roles over the years,
Like King Triton in Little Mermaid,
Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast,
Zazu in The Lion King, Zeus in Hercules,
and Governor Ratcliffe in Pocahontas.
But the one that he legitimately regrets turning down,
Not being in Aladdin.
He was so close,
yet so Jafar.
(spits)
And those are some facts you might not know
about Disney's Aladdin.
But tell me, what's your favorite memory of Aladdin?
What would you add to this list?
Let us know in the comments below,
and give me a whole new thumbs up while you're there.
Now, be sure to like and subscribe,
or else you might miss next week's show
about the story of a young woman who disguises herself
as a male soldier, and winds up trying to find
a mythical promised land with a bunch of dinosaurs,
in Muland Before Time.
Until next time, keep on digging.
Thanks again to Movement Watches
for sponsoring today's episode.
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