Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp
series = Popeye Color Features


caption = A scene from "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp".
director = Dave Fleischer
animator = David Tendlar
Nicholas Tafuri
William Sturm
Reuben Grossman
voice_actor = Jack Mercer
Margie Hines
Carl Meyer
musician = Sammy Timberg
producer = Max Fleischer/Fleischer Studios
distributor = Paramount Pictures
release_date = April 7 1939
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 22 min (two reels)
preceded_by = "Never Sock a Baby"
followed_by = "Shakespearean Spinach"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0031025

"Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp" is a two-reel animated cartoon short subject in the "Popeye Color Specials" series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on April 7 1939 by Paramount Pictures. It was produced by Max & Dave Fleischer for Fleischer Studios, Inc. and directed by David Tendlar, with musical supervision by Sammy Timberg. The voice of Popeye is performed by Jack Mercer, with Margie Hines as Olive Oyl and Carl Meyer as the evil vizier.

Plot

This short features Olive as a screenwriter for Surprise Pictures ("if it's a good picture, it's a Surprise"), working on a treatment of the story of "Aladdin" that will feature herself as the beautiful princess and Popeye as Aladdin, all the while speaking in rhyme. As she types, her adaptation of "Aladdin" comes to life on the screen, with Popeye having to use his wits against an evil vizier who seeks to control a magic lamp inhabited by a powerful genie. After completing the script, Olive gets a termination of employment notice from the front office, which reads "Your story of Aladdin is being thrown out...and so are you! [signed] Surprise."

As in many "Popeye" cartoons, many of the gags are conveyed using dialogue. As Princess Olive awaits Popeye/Aladdin's declaration of his love, he turns to the camera and remarks "I don't know what to say...I've never made love in Technicolor before!" During the climatic battle between Aladdin and the vizier, Olive screams out "Help! Popeye—I mean Aladdin—save me!!"

Release and reception

This short was the last of the three "Popeye" Color Specials, which were, at over sixteen minutes each, three times as long as a regular "Popeye" cartoon, and were often billed in theatres alongside or above the main feature. Unlike the first two films, "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp" is more Disney-esque in plot and pacing, and does not make use of the Fleischer Tabletop 3D background process. This Popeye Color Special is also the only one produced at the relocated Fleischer Studios location in Miami, Florida.

"Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp" takes some liberties with the source material. The 1992 Disney version of "Aladdin" took many of those same liberties, including simplifying the numbers of genies and removing Aladdin's family from the plot.

Today, this short and the other two "Popeye Color Specials", "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor" and "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves", are in the public domain, and are widely available on home video and DVD. Warner Bros. has fully restored this cartoon with the original Paramount mountain logo opening and closing titles and is included in "" which was released on June 17, 2008. It also includes a documentary on the making of this cartoon as a bonus feature in this collection.

External links

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