Aladdin was without a doubt my favorite Disney movie as a kid. It came out when I was like seven and I do not know how many times I watched it with my sister as kids. I don’t even think the VHS tape worked any more when we were finally done with it. I mean we had all the Disney movies or at least a whole hell of a lot of them and the one we’d always pick was this one. It had great music, great characters, lots of fun action, a memorable plot, and Robin Williams as the Genie. I have no idea what would end up being my favorite Disney movie now but didn’t I promise to watch like all Disney movies? I think I did. I should get on that.
Anyway I even liked Return of Jafar. I didn’t watch it as much as the original movie but it was still fun. I was over the moon when I found out that the movie was getting it’s own TV show and it was one of my favourites from the Disney Afternoon. It was done by Tad Stones (that guy again?!?!) from Darkwing Duck and Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers fame. He will come up several more times when we discuss even more Disney stuff. We are just clearing up The Disney Afternoon right now people! Disney still kept doing stuff! He also teamed up again with Mr. Alan Zaslove who as I said before worked in stuff from a teenager in the 1940s to like the early 2000s. That’s one hell of a career. He must have been in his late 60s when he was doing this show.
Aladdin was shown on the Disney Afternoon and also CBS. CBS started Saturday Morning TV Fare with Captain Kangaroo in 1955. They are actually no joke still at it. I didn’t even know Saturday Morning TV was a thing any more. They work with a corporation called the Litton Entertainment (who apparently does the same for ABC owned and operated stations. This fact is literally blowing my mind.) I’m amazed but I also feel really bad for the kids who have to watch this because they can’t get YouTube or streaming or hell any other option. I mean you get one dog show and like 3 shows about History. The kid of our generation that would willingly watch something called Henry Ford Innovation Nation would have been made fun of by everyone. Literally everyone. I don’t think children of today are any more keen to watch this stuff. My mind has literally been boggled by this information. It’s wild. I also wrote this entire paragraph just to tell you all about it.
I should talk about the voice cast. Mostly it’s the same from the movie honestly, It has Gilbert Gottfried, the guy from Full House, Linda Larkin (Princess Jasmine) Frank Welker (as Abu, he’s like the greatest animal voice guy ever). The only changes are Homer Simpson now voices the Genie (and honestly does a decent job) and the Sultan’s actor is new too. The Sultan was always such a nothing character that I don’t really care enough to see who played him in either version. This episode however has one hell of a guest cast. Jim Cummings another guy that if you were making a cartoon you were legally obligated to contact him to see if he wanted in. Tress MacNeil who has voiced literally every female character since the dawn of time despite only starting voice acting in 1979. Very impressive. Keith FUCKING David, the smoothest smooth black man voice ever. To round it all out Hamilton Camp, a man who started his career in movies, tv and animation in 1946 and literally worked so much that several of his voices came out after he passed away in 2005. He will always be best known as Fenton Crackshell (aka Gizmoduck) to me.
Anyway today’s Final Episode is called The Great Rift and was written by Mark Seidenberg, not the guy who writes about science and people not being able to read or something. That’s who came up first on google until I entered IMDB to the search too. If they are the same person then wow that’s a wild career change. Anyway he started in writing for the animations in 1984 with the Snorks, then came several Hanna Barbera shows like Galtar and the Golden Lance. Then Disney with Duck Tales, Goof Troop and Aladdin. He also worked on Jackie Chan Adventures and COW Boys of Moo Mesa. The weirdest thing was he worked on the Biker Mice from Mars reboot in like 2006. I always forget that is a thing. But it is. I don’t like it.
Anyway this episode starts up with Aladdin and his pals checking out the lost city of Mesmaira. It’s all destroyed and screwed up and covered in sand. They end up finding a chest of jewels and one of them is stolen by a hawk which they had noticed earlier. Iago chases the hawk because he’s s till money crazed even though he’s now friends with a Princess and can probably get whatever the hell he wants. Anyway they bring the jewels back to the Sultan’s palace while the hawk shows us that it’s no ordinary jewel it’s an EVVVVVVVVVVVVVVIL jewel. With a person inside it! She’s the hawk’s wife Queen Deluca. The hawk is voiced by Keith David. Just to let you know.
So Aladdin and the gang are back at the Sultan’s palace and Queen Deluca changes her husband hawk into a giant hawk and causes him to grow big as hell. Anyway Queen Deluca pretty much makes Aladdin and the gang run the fuck out of the palace, turning the Sultan and Jasmine into jewels on the way out. Thankfully Abu gets the jewels into his hat before they run off. They try to come back later, the Genie gets sent to the ends of the earth. The Hawk Husband gets sent back to Mesmaria in a desert. Oh, and the other jewels turned out to be her brothers who also have powers. They are all fighting each other which brings the Great Rift to Agraba. The Great Rift just happens to be a giant green monster that is just getting more powerful. Shit is getting real.
Aladdin rescues the Hawk who used to be a man, not to be confused with DC Comics Hawkman. They team up and this time actually get the jewel from Queen Deluca, after some trouble they finally destroy it. Which turns Queen Deluca back into a normal woman, takes all her brothers powers away, gets rid of the giant monster and brings Sultan and Jasmine back. Now that they are not being influenced by the evil jewels, Queen Deluca, her husband (who is now a man again!) and her brothers are welcomed to the city of Agraba.
FINAL VERDICT: A pretty fun, energetic, enjoyable way to end this series. I always liked how magical and mystical the Aladdin world was and this just helps me to enjoy this episode a lot. People being transformed into birds. Giant monsters. Evil Jewels that corrupt people. A great little episode.
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