Moar Nostalgia: Dudes Who Don't Like Aladdin

katiuska · 06-12-2009, 02:58 PM

(This goes all over the place, but I'm putting it in TM&A because it's mainly about Disney movies, again.)

Yes, you heard me.

My brain fires off a lot of random electricity and every so often it triggers something I forgot I even had in there, and a day or two ago it pulled up the line "What is a fire, and why does it - what's the word - burn?" which I finally identified as being from The Little Mermaid. This lead to me wanting to hear some old Disney songs, including that one that they sing in the bar to cheer up Gaston, and lead me to digging through the collection. I made the mistake of mentioning this to a particular friend of mine.

The thing to understand is that he didn't grow up in the same world we did. He grew up parallel to us, but it was some kind of alternate reality that is almost totally different from ours. He didn't watch The Simpsons, he doesn't recognize the names of a lot of famous bands, and he never reenacted the Bohemian Rhapsody scene from Wayne's World (or maybe that was just my brother and me, but I still want to throw that in there just to acknowledge that Wayne's World was pretty excellent). And he denounces Disney animated movies from about the 1980s onward, which, yes, includes the Little Mermaid - Lion King period. If he ever says that to my face, I will cut him.

"Predictable"? I remember when I saw Aladdin in the theater, and it came to a shot of outside the palace after Jafar had started his reign of terror and Aladdin escaped death... and it hit me with such clarity that Jafar was about to wish from one of Genie's excluded categories that I said it out loud and Mom shushed me. Then again, it did occur to me that if you're going to dismiss movies based on fairy tales as formulaic, you might as well dismiss Star Wars for following a classic fantasy plot (which is the one area where he's normal and I'm not, I don't have any Star Wars-related nostalgia). I don't know. I hadn't seen these movies in at least a decade, closer to two in some cases, but it's still difficult to be impartial. When I was a kid, Disney films were an event. I'd get stoked to go see them in theaters, then wait for them to be released on video so I could watch them over and over again, often surrounded with related merchandise. (Man, I was such a sucker.) It's kinda like that with other things, like snap bracelets, which were exactly what the name says they are--bracelets that you slapped on your wrist to cause it to curl into place. They were embraced because snapping things is always fun, and like all rad things our school banned them. But maybe I only remember them fondly because they were what I had? I reminded a different friend of pacifier jewelry, who's several years older, old enough to have been in MS/HS, where people were wearing them. It seemed retarded then and hasn't become any less so in hindsight, but it was another age's fad. Then there's stuff you know is trash and view it fondly anyway, like the guy who sometimes likes to watch the Legend of Zelda show.

(Though it's also a weird nostalgia. It's not like I'm personally transported back to a different time--I'm pretty far removed from there--it's more like I'm accessing it through proxy.)

ANYWAY. So. Disney. I was particularly interested in The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast since it's been the longest and they kind of got eclipsed by Aladdin. Partly because I liked Aladdin and also because it had a couple of decent follow-ups and a TV series I watched regularly. (Though all I can remember right now is that one of the recurring villians was some psycho who was obsessed with Aladdin and had it in for Jasmine... and there was one episode where Aladdin was captive, and Jasmine had a series of foibles getting there, interspersed with Al hanging around being like, "Man, when she gets here my girlfriend is totally kicking your butt just you wait.")

Quick first reactions:
-Wow everyone has young voices.
-The Little Mermaid had totally fantastic songs and I'd completely forgotten.
-Did anyone else ever wonder why Ariel didn't just try to write down what she needed to say? This used to bother me. I'd buy that the mermaid was illiterate in the original fairy tale, but Ariel can sign a contract, so I assume she's not. Even if she couldn't find her way through human tools someone could have figured out that she was trying to write something.
-Holy shit Ursula is terrifying.
-On the other hand, my mind had glossed over the fact that Gaston was the main villian of Beauty and the Beast. I don't think I ever found him as menacing, he was just a really massive douche.
-Though he is better looking than I remember, probably because I was like 6 and didn't care. Still incredibly douchetastic, though.
-"When I was a lad, I ate 4 dozen eggs / every morning to help me get large / And now that I'm grown I eat 5 dozen eggs / so I'm roughly the size of a barge" is still as funny to me as it was in 1991.
-The sweeping panoramas, while a bit extravagant, are admittedly pretty impressive.
-The Beast is pretty clearly a decent guy early on, not quite from the beginning, but before Belle seems to catch on. Which, well, I guess is the point, "looking past appearances" being a theme.
-I vaguely recall some controversy over the way Arabs were depicted in Aladdin, which spoils my enjoyment a little because I can't figure out whether or not I'm supposed to feel uncomfortable.
-I can't be the only kid who ever tried learning the apple trick. (It never took, but I did master the Two-Face coin flip.)
-Genie is still awesome.

I haven't gotten to The Lion King, but I did thrown in The Emperor's New Groove, which I hadn't seen, on recommendation. Specifically, I was told that it was "like a Disney movie for people who hate Disney movies. Actually, it's more like the writers sat down to write a Disney movie, starting trying to write a Disney movie, went 'Aw, fuck it,' and then smoked a whole bowl of crack. Each." And I was like, Well shit, I'm sold. It was... wow, I don't even know. I'm not sure what I saw, but I think it was hilarious, and I know it was bizarre.

CelesJessa · 06-12-2009, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by katiuska

-I can't be the only kid who ever tried learning the apple trick. (It never took, but I did master the Two-Face coin flip.)

You weren't trust me. XD I got pretty good at the apple trick.

Quote:

I haven't gotten to The Lion King, but I did thrown in The Emperor's New Groove, which I hadn't seen, on recommendation. Specifically, I was told that it was "like a Disney movie for people who hate Disney movies. Actually, it's more like the writers sat down to write a Disney movie, starting trying to write a Disney movie, went 'Aw, fuck it,' and then smoked a whole bowl of crack. Each." And I was like, Well shit, I'm sold. It was... wow, I don't even know. I'm not sure what I saw, but I think it was hilarious, and I know it was bizarre.

That's pretty much what happened, as far as sitting down to write a Disney movies, and then completely changed it. It was originally directed by the guy who did the story of some of the older good disney movies, but then they hired the guy who did the non-Disney movie "cats don't dance", and the two guys lead it in two different directions(the Disney-guy(Allers) trying to make it a sweeping epic like Lion King, and the other guy(Dindal) going a more comedic route), eventually causing Allers to quit, and so it went a dramatic reconstruction to what it is today. It was originally "Kingdom of the Sun", based on the Prince and the Pauper story, and Yzma originally was going to summon a dark lord to blot out the sun. She also had an awesome villain song.

I've looked up way too much on that movie. XD I'm a Disney nut. I got a huge collection of Disney music for my last birthday. I'm totally an adult.

Kaneda · 06-12-2009, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by katiuska

it's more like the writers sat down to write a Disney movie, starting trying to write a Disney movie, went 'Aw, fuck it'

That is pretty much exactly what happened.

Also I have to say I'm not fond of The Little Mermaid, there's simply very little good about it outside of the musical numbers. That's the general problem with some Disney Renaissance movies, the point of a musical is that you get an awesome movie/play, and awesome songs to go with it and help tell the story, but sometimes you just get the latter.

Lion King and Beauty and the Beast are terrific though. Also Aladdin.

Nique · 06-12-2009, 04:41 PM

Yeah I miss looking forward to Disney Movies. I think that last one I was really thrilled about was Pocahontas.

Quote:

-Holy shit Ursula is terrifying.

Yes. Yes yes yes.

Fifthfiend · 06-12-2009, 04:45 PM

Ursula is totally in a three-way contest for scariest fucking thing ever put in a Disney movie next to Malificent and that fucking volcano bastard demon guy from Fantasia.

PCD · 06-12-2009, 04:47 PM

Now, this may be because I haven't actually watched Little Mermaid in a while, but the knowledge that Ursula's character design was taken from a drag queen sort of lowers her scare factor for me a bit.

Nique · 06-12-2009, 04:52 PM

Quote:

fucking volcano bastard demon guy from Fantasia.

Chernabog? He's supposed to be the Devil essentially I think but I mean, yeah. I'm gonna say Ursula is slightly worse for me becuase I have an issue with non-mammalian sea life to begin with, and then with the tentecles there's a sort of cthulu thing going on.

Bells · 06-12-2009, 05:12 PM

There is one thing i ever felt about Disney movies was that it was also very wll animated (which i always loved) and that the women were gorgeous but in a non sexual way , which i kinda liked (as a kid) but was also, somehow, embarassed about it (as a kid again) for some reason i never understood.

well... until El Dorado

...El Dorado changed that... yeah........

EDIT:

Also... sadly / ironic enough... any Disney female character is a major NSFW search term for google!

Nique · 06-12-2009, 05:24 PM

I get unreasonably angry when people assume any high quality animated film is Disney.

El Dorado was a Dreamworks joint. And you know what? That Aztec chick was hot I don't care what anyone says.

Tev · 06-12-2009, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nique

El Dorado was a Dreamworks joint. And you know what? That Aztec chick was hot I don't care what anyone says.

Dreamworks did Sinbad too. And you know what, the chick in there was hot too!

EDIT: The villainess was sufficiently awesome as well.

06-12-2009, 02:58 PM	#1
katiuska Unlicensed Practitioner Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 801	Moar Nostalgia: Dudes Who Don't Like Aladdin (This goes all over the place, but I'm putting it in TM&A because it's mainly about Disney movies, again.) Yes, you heard me. My brain fires off a lot of random electricity and every so often it triggers something I forgot I even had in there, and a day or two ago it pulled up the line "What is a fire, and why does it - what's the word - burn?" which I finally identified as being from The Little Mermaid. This lead to me wanting to hear some old Disney songs, including that one that they sing in the bar to cheer up Gaston, and lead me to digging through the collection. I made the mistake of mentioning this to a particular friend of mine. The thing to understand is that he didn't grow up in the same world we did. He grew up parallel to us, but it was some kind of alternate reality that is almost totally different from ours. He didn't watch The Simpsons, he doesn't recognize the names of a lot of famous bands, and he never reenacted the Bohemian Rhapsody scene from Wayne's World (or maybe that was just my brother and me, but I still want to throw that in there just to acknowledge that Wayne's World was pretty excellent). And he denounces Disney animated movies from about the 1980s onward, which, yes, includes the Little Mermaid - Lion King period. If he ever says that to my face, I will cut him. "Predictable"? I remember when I saw Aladdin in the theater, and it came to a shot of outside the palace after Jafar had started his reign of terror and Aladdin escaped death... and it hit me with such clarity that Jafar was about to wish from one of Genie's excluded categories that I said it out loud and Mom shushed me. Then again, it did occur to me that if you're going to dismiss movies based on fairy tales as formulaic, you might as well dismiss Star Wars for following a classic fantasy plot (which is the one area where he's normal and I'm not, I don't have any Star Wars-related nostalgia). I don't know. I hadn't seen these movies in at least a decade, closer to two in some cases, but it's still difficult to be impartial. When I was a kid, Disney films were an event. I'd get stoked to go see them in theaters, then wait for them to be released on video so I could watch them over and over again, often surrounded with related merchandise. (Man, I was such a sucker.) It's kinda like that with other things, like snap bracelets, which were exactly what the name says they are--bracelets that you slapped on your wrist to cause it to curl into place. They were embraced because snapping things is always fun, and like all rad things our school banned them. But maybe I only remember them fondly because they were what I had? I reminded a different friend of pacifier jewelry, who's several years older, old enough to have been in MS/HS, where people were wearing them. It seemed retarded then and hasn't become any less so in hindsight, but it was another age's fad. Then there's stuff you know is trash and view it fondly anyway, like the guy who sometimes likes to watch the Legend of Zelda show. (Though it's also a weird nostalgia. It's not like I'm personally transported back to a different time--I'm pretty far removed from there--it's more like I'm accessing it through proxy.) ANYWAY. So. Disney. I was particularly interested in The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast since it's been the longest and they kind of got eclipsed by Aladdin. Partly because I liked Aladdin and also because it had a couple of decent follow-ups and a TV series I watched regularly. (Though all I can remember right now is that one of the recurring villians was some psycho who was obsessed with Aladdin and had it in for Jasmine... and there was one episode where Aladdin was captive, and Jasmine had a series of foibles getting there, interspersed with Al hanging around being like, "Man, when she gets here my girlfriend is totally kicking your butt just you wait.") Quick first reactions: -Wow everyone has young voices. -The Little Mermaid had totally fantastic songs and I'd completely forgotten. -Did anyone else ever wonder why Ariel didn't just try to write down what she needed to say? This used to bother me. I'd buy that the mermaid was illiterate in the original fairy tale, but Ariel can sign a contract, so I assume she's not. Even if she couldn't find her way through human tools someone could have figured out that she was trying to write something. -Holy shit Ursula is terrifying. -On the other hand, my mind had glossed over the fact that Gaston was the main villian of Beauty and the Beast. I don't think I ever found him as menacing, he was just a really massive douche. -Though he is better looking than I remember, probably because I was like 6 and didn't care. Still incredibly douchetastic, though. -"When I was a lad, I ate 4 dozen eggs / every morning to help me get large / And now that I'm grown I eat 5 dozen eggs / so I'm roughly the size of a barge" is still as funny to me as it was in 1991. -The sweeping panoramas, while a bit extravagant, are admittedly pretty impressive. -The Beast is pretty clearly a decent guy early on, not quite from the beginning, but before Belle seems to catch on. Which, well, I guess is the point, "looking past appearances" being a theme. -I vaguely recall some controversy over the way Arabs were depicted in Aladdin, which spoils my enjoyment a little because I can't figure out whether or not I'm supposed to feel uncomfortable. -I can't be the only kid who ever tried learning the apple trick. (It never took, but I did master the Two-Face coin flip.) -Genie is still awesome. I haven't gotten to The Lion King, but I did thrown in The Emperor's New Groove, which I hadn't seen, on recommendation. Specifically, I was told that it was "like a Disney movie for people who hate Disney movies. Actually, it's more like the writers sat down to write a Disney movie, starting trying to write a Disney movie, went 'Aw, fuck it,' and then smoked a whole bowl of crack. Each." And I was like, Well shit, I'm sold. It was... wow, I don't even know. I'm not sure what I saw, but I think it was hilarious, and I know it was bizarre. __________________ If I try too hard my brain explodes, so don't expect me to be witty on purpose. Last edited by katiuska; 06-12-2009 at 03:15 PM.

06-12-2009, 04:45 PM	#5
Fifthfiend for all seasons Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 19,409	Ursula is totally in a three-way contest for scariest fucking thing ever put in a Disney movie next to Malificent and that fucking volcano bastard demon guy from Fantasia. __________________ check out my buttspresso

06-12-2009, 05:12 PM	#8
Bells That's so PC of you Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: In a Server-sided Dimension where time is meaningless Posts: 10,490	There is one thing i ever felt about Disney movies was that it was also very wll animated (which i always loved) and that the women were gorgeous but in a non sexual way , which i kinda liked (as a kid) but was also, somehow, embarassed about it (as a kid again) for some reason i never understood. well... until El Dorado ...El Dorado changed that... yeah........ EDIT: Also... sadly / ironic enough... any Disney female character is a major NSFW search term for google! __________________ *BELLS STORE : Clothes! You wear* them! Free US Shipping Subscription System? WTF?! Zazzle Black!** Last edited by Bells; 06-12-2009 at 05:15 PM.