Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Teacher's Pet"

NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.

The day I wrote this review, I originally attempted to write a review of Mega Babies. After so many reviews of cartoons that were simply mediocre, I figured I needed to review something really bad to keep the blog from getting monotomous. Problem is, I really couldn't find anything funny to say about Mega Babies - it was horrible, but all I could think of to say was "This is disgusting!" over and over again. Plus, I didn't want to subject my readers to the gross imagery in the show, but the only way to do THAT would be to do a review with no screencaps, which wouldn't be very visually interesting. So instead...

Teacher's Pet is one of Disney's best 2000s cartoons, I'd honestly put it above their more popular stuff from that era like The Proud Family and American Dragon: Jake Long (not that I don't like the latter, I just think Teacher's Pet is more fun). What really helped it stand out was its distinctive art style: that of Gary Baseman, one of the show's three creators - the other two being Bill and Cheri Steinkellner. Even if you've never heard his name, you have to have seen his work SOMEWHERE. He's the guy who did the artwork for the Cranium games.

In my house, we had Cranium Cadoo.

Premiering on ABC as part of its One Saturday Morning block on September 9th, 2000, the show focused on a nine-year-old boy named Leonard Helperman, voiced by Shaun Fleming, and his pet dog Spot, voiced by Nathan Lane. Leonard already has an embarassing experience at school every day because his mother, Mary Lou Helperman (voiced by Debra Jo Rupp), is his class teacher. But things get even WEIRDER for him when Spot decides he wants to go to school too. Spot disguises himself as a boy named Scott Leadready II and joins the class. Even though he's just a dog wearing human clothes, everybody falls for it... presumably because everyone else in this world is already pretty bizarre-looking. Eventually, Leonard finds out that the new kid is his dog, but reluctantly allows Spot to continue the charade. Hilarity ensues.

In 2002, the show was moved from ABC to Toon Disney. Two seasons and a total of thirty-nine episodes were produced. It even got a movie that served as the finale. In theaters! Which was a box office bomb, but still, even Phineas and Ferb never got a theatrical movie!

For years, only one of the show's episodes - the pilot - was released on VHS or DVD, as a bonus feature on the DVD release of the movie. Aside from that, after reruns went off the air you'd have to look on YouTube or Dailymotion to watch the show, at least until Disney got them taken off YouTube for copyright infringement. Fortunately, the entire series is now on Disney Plus. Which means that I've been able to rewatch the show and rediscover how great it is.

So, what makes Teacher's Pet such a fun show? Let's watch the fourth episode, "A Lick is Still a Kiss", and I'll elaborate a little. This is Teacher's Pet.

It's another glorious morning in the Helperman household. In walks Mary Lou, who has a surprise for the Helpermans' pet cat, Mr. Jolly (David Ogden Stiers). He assumes that she's taking him to the vet and hides in his food bowl. Yes, he's actually able to fit in there. Cartoon physics, everybody.

"I hate Mondays."

The best way I can describe Mary Lou Helperman is that she's Linda from Bob's Burgers done right. I frequently see Linda praised for not being the stereotypical naggy cartoon mom who's much smarter than her husband. Well, Mary Lou ALSO isn't the stereotypical naggy cartoon mom who's much smarter than her husband (in fact, Leonard's father never even shows up). She's ditzy, she's cheery, she's a goof, but she still feels like a functioning member of society whereas Linda is a total moron. When Linda speaks, I often find myself wondering how she's even survived for this long. You don't get that with Mary Lou.

Anyhow, Mary Lou is NOT taking Mr. Jolly to the vet. The surprise is a collar with a bell on it. All the stylish cats are wearing them.

I like that dog clock hanging up on the wall. Where can I get one of those?

"Don't despise me because I'm beautiful!" Mr. Jolly tells the Helperman's surly pet bird, Pretty Boy (Jerry Stiller), after he insults his smell. Alas, the constant ringing of the bell soon gets on Mr. Jolly's nerves. Even the doorbell ringing sends him into a frenzy.

Leonard answers the door, and who should be there but his crush, Leslie (Mae Whitman). She asks if she can borrow a cup of milk. Before Leonard can get her one, he realizes that he's standing in front of her in his pajamas and, like Mr. Jolly, freaks out.

Hey, it could be worse. At least you're not in your underwear.

Spot covers for Leonard while he dashes into his room to put some clothes on. He returns, desperately trying to be cool but I'm sorry, it's really hard to be cool when you're wearing a shirt with pineapples on it. And when your hair is styled to look like a rooster's comb. Unless the "Chicken Run character at a luau" look is what you're going for.

I wonder why Mary Lou has a normal skin tone but her son is as white as a stick of
chalk. Maybe he's just really, REALLY pale?

After Leslie leaves, Spot comments that whatever she smeared on her lips today tasted like lemonade with just a hint of mint. Leonard is still too embarassed by the fact that Leslie saw him in his pajamas. By now, it should be pretty obvious that Leonard is basically the Disney equivalent of Charlie Brown. Complete with him not having a normal dog like everyone else.

Spot's being blue is probably the LEAST strange thing about him.

Later, Leonard and Spot... I'm sorry, Scott Leadready II... arrive at school and see the cool kids hanging out. Scott suggests that they ask them what kind of pajamas THEY wear (it makes sense in context), but Leonard is terrified of even speaking to them. "I just don't know how to hang with those guys, okay? I always feel like, they think I'm the teacher's kid so they don't want to say anything around me, then I don't know what to say, then they ignore me, and I end up feeling like a dork," he laments. Scott urges him to give it a try anyway, and guess what? They wind up talking about Leslie and how shiny her lips are. Leonard tells them that she's wearing pink lemonade lip gloss, which tastes exactly like actual pink lemonade with just a hint of mint. This makes the cool kids very impressed. I guess they really like pink lemonade...

"It's so much cooler than REGULAR lemonade! It's PINK, for Fonzie's sake!"

Now, most of this show's episodes can be summed up as thus: Leonard gets into trouble because of Spot's good intentions. Case in point, Leslie marches up to Leonard while they're in class and demands to know why he claimed that he kissed her on the lips. So now she's mad at him, even after he insists that he never said anything of the sort. Then the other kids in class start spreading a rumor that goes from "Leonard kissed Leslie on the lips" to "Leonard murdered Leslie's pet hippo with paper clips". Scott assures Leonard that it'll blow over by recess... just before Principal Strickler (Wallace Shawn) shows up and drags Leonard to his office.

Between this, A Goofy Movie, and Chicken Little, it seems that Disney really likes
casting Wallace Shawn as the voice of principals.

For the crime of spreading a rumor - the fact that the other kids in his class spread the rumor as well is completely ignored - Leonard is threatened with being expelled and sent to the School For Losers. Scott tries to defend him, but it doesn't seem to be doing any good. Leonard points out that he didn't say that he kissed her, just that her lip gloss tasted like pink lemonade, but Principal Strickler thinks there are only two ways he could know that: one, he kissed her, or two, he uses the same lip gloss. The only way Leonard can prove his innocence, he claims, is by showing up tomorrow with the lip gloss in hand.

Furthering Leonard's embarassment, now the class is talking about how Leonard wears his mom's lip gloss. Scott tells them to stop with the rumor-spreading and gives a big speech about how it hurts people. Back home, Leonard and Scott search for the lipstick in Mary Lou's makeup drawer while Pretty Boy mocks humans for not just secreteing like birds do.

"I was an angry bird before the app made it cool!"

Mary Lou doesn't have pink lemonade lip gloss, and a trip to the drugstore leaves Scott and Leonard empty-handed as well. So they go to the grocery store, where Scott buys a salmon ('cause it's pink), some lemons, vegetable oil (for the gloss), and minty bubble gum. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most supermarkets have lip gloss in stock? There's usually a whole aisle for body products. Heck, why doesn't Scott just ask Leslie if he can borrow her lip gloss? Seems a lot easier than making it from scratch.

So how does their homemade lip gloss turn out? Well, it does this to Scott's lips...

Disturbing, but still not as disturbing as Mega Babies.

"I guess I'll just have to go to the School For Losers," Leonard groans. But Scott isn't giving up yet. He remembers that Leslie has the very lip gloss they're looking for. So does he go to her house and ask if he can borrow it? No, no, that would be too obvious. Instead, he and Leonard carry a ladder over to her house, allowing Scott to sneak into her room via the window and steal the lip gloss. But Scott can't help taking his sweet time, and he hears the doorknob turning. Uh oh...

Thinking quick, Spot takes off his clothes and just acts like a dog. Leslie is very surprised to see Leonard's dog in her room, but at least he and Leonard aren't in even bigger hot water. As for Mr. Jolly, he's saved from having to hear that infernal ringing when Pretty Boy helps him remove the collar and dumps it in a trash can. But now he thinks it's too quiet, so Pretty Boy has to dig through the trash and find the collar. "Cats! Next time, leave 'em off the ark!" he shouts.

Leslie returns Spot to Leonard and makes it clear that she still hates his guts. On the bright side, Spot managed to grab the lip gloss on their way out, which means that Leonard can prove his innocence. Principal Strickler dubs him cleared, preventing Leonard from being sent to the School For Losers, and that night he tells Spot that he's learned a valuable lesson: NOT to never ever repeat what his dog says again, but to never answer the door again wearing cowboy pajamas. The next day, Leslie apologies to Leonard for everything... and sees Leonard in his firetruck pajama bottoms. But, aside from that, all's well that ends well... until Leslie realizes that her lip gloss is missing. Unless Spot somehow managed to return it to her house before she finds out, she might come to the conclusion that Leonard stole it.

Don't worry, Leonard. You're still not as much of a loser as the Leonard from The
Big Bang Theory.

What's the Verdict?

I wouldn't say this is the BEST episode of Teacher's Pet, but if you're just starting to watch the show, it's a good way to dip your toes in.

There's so much to love about this show. First of all, it's funny. Very, very funny. Most of that obviously stems from the delightfully hammy performances that Nathan Lane, Jerry Stiller, and David Ogden Stiers give, but the writing is incredibly sharp. The animation is well-done, with Gary Baseman's distinctive art style giving the show a unique look and allowing for some out there visuals without being too disgusting or disturbing.

...well, for the most part.

And the characters? Spot could've easily been another Newton, this annoying wacko who frequently causes problems for the kid and gets away with it. But two things help Spot avoid falling into that category. One, he has good intentions, and two, he usually fixes his mistakes. Leonard makes for a nice, sympathetic lead, and the other characters are fun as well (particularly Pretty Boy and Mr. Jolly).

So, yes, I recommend giving Teacher's Pet a watch if you haven't already. Now, whether or not you should watch the MOVIE as well, I don't know. I haven't watched it since 2004. Most of the internet seems to like it, though. Just start with the series, okay?

Rating: Five firetruck pajama bottoms out of five. After watching one episode, you'll sit up and beg for more.

Let's Watch This: An Episode of "The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show"

NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.

NOTE #2: No disrespect is meant towards anyone who worked on the show I am reviewing today. I'm sure they are all very nice and talented people.

NOTE #3: If you like this show, that is great. Go ahead and like it. I'm not judging you.

Well, here we go. This is another cartoon that is usually only talked about online when people want to complain about how bad it is. Mostly, they complain about how it's just a knockoff of Ren and Stimpy. I'm not even a huge fan of Ren and Stimpy, so I have my doubts that I'm going to like a cartoon that parrots it.

What on Earth happened to The Disney Afternoon? It gave us some of the most iconic cartoons of the 1980s and early 1990s... and then after 1994, it started spawning crap like this and Quack Pack. The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show was the creation of Bill Kopp, whose other claim to fame is the far more well-liked Eek! The Cat. Unlike the other Disney Afternoon shows, this one only aired once a week (on Mondays, specifically). It premiered on January 2nd, 1995 after five cartoons starring Snookums and Meat aired as part of a previous Disney show, Marsupilami (which itself was a spinoff of ANOTHER previous Disney show, Raw Toonage). Thirteen episodes of the show were made, each one consisting of three segments...

- Shnookums (voiced by Jason Marsden) and Meat (voiced by Frank Welker), a cat and dog owned by a couple simply known as Husband (Steve Mackall) and Wife (Tress MacNeille). They do stuff.

- Pith Possum (voiced by Jeff Bennett), a superhero possum who fights crime.

- Tex Tinstar (also Jeff Bennett), a cowboy whose segments are serialized sort of like Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Believe it or not, the idea for a show starring a cat and a dog was first pitched to Disney by Greg Weisman of Gargoyles fame. After Bill Kopp got involved and the shorts for Marsupilami were made, Disney decided to greenlit a whole Shnookums and Meat show to cash in on the success of Ren and Stimpy. Bill claimed in a couple interviews that the show wasn't inspired by Ren and Stimpy, but the similarities are pretty hard to ignore (a lot of the same artists worked on it, for what it's worth). Maybe those similarities could've been forgiven if the show was at least funny, but - spoiler alert - it wasn't.

Although the show got decent ratings, Disney eventually kept the crew in the dark for a while before giving the show the axe. They didn't even do much to promote the show before that - Gargoyles got tons of merchandise, whereas all Shnookums and Meat got was canned pasta from Franco-American.

But hey, at least it's SOMETHING. Wander Over Yonder never
got its own pasta.

Was Disney embarassed by the show? It would explain why it apparently never got a home video release (and it's not on Disney Plus either). But if they greenlit it solely to cash in on the success of Ren and Stimpy, why would they push it aside so quickly? That seems like a dumb idea. You make a show that's similar to another extremely popular show in the hopes of getting that same success, and then you don't promote it and are confused when it doesn't do as well as the show you're trying to cash in on?

Well, whatever the reason, The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show exists whether Disney wants it to or not. So, we're going to watch the first episode of the show. I was hesitant to do one of the early episodes because I feel like if I do there's a fifty-percent chance that somebody will tell me the show gets better as it goes on, but what are you gonna do?

The first segment, "Weight For Me", stars Shnookums and Meat.

We start off with Husband reading a magazine about incredibly buff cats and dogs. Apparently, in this world, it's common for cats and dogs to lift weights and have gigantic muscles. What, has Alpo been putting steroids in its pet food?

Shnookums and Meat aren't like most cats and dogs. They look like this:

The next time Jon is nagging Garfield about how fat he is, somebody should show him
a picture of these two. Then he'll know that there are cats much fatter than his.

"All these two do is lay around, sleep, and take from the food world!" Husband complains. He declares that if Shnookums and Meat don't go outside and "shed some poundage muy prontimo", he's going to replace them with physically fit pets. So Shnookums and Meat make it their mission to get in shape. I hope they do, I find their overly-flabby stomachs disgusting to look at...

Fortunately, it's slightly less disgusting in a still image. Slightly.

First, they do some push-ups... and fail at them. Then they try some sit-ups... and fail at them too. Shnookums' attempt at lifting weights is a massive failure too. Honestly, at this point it might be easier to get some liposuction.

Then a commercial appears on the TV for the "Loungerizer", what looks like a seat on an airplane but can apparently help you lose weight. It even works on elephant seals, apparently. Here's what the model in the commerical looked like before they used the chair:

And here's what she looked like after:

I call shenanigans. First of all, am I supposed to believe that what looks like an airplane seat caused this elephant seal to change species? Second, female elephant seals don't look like that. Ergo, that must be a MALE elephant seal in drag.

Despite my skepticism, Shnookums and Meat are convinced, and they order themselves a pair of "Loungerizer"s. They quickly learn that it's not a good idea to set them too high, unless you WANT them to come to life and start pummeling you.

In Shnookums and Meat, the chairs sit on YOU!

After setting it to "medium", we see just how the "Loungerizer" works: it has mechanical hands that move your body parts for you while you just sit there. Believe it or not, it actually works. Soon Shnookums and Meat are roughly the size of a barge. And they have chest hair too. Eugh...

Why do muscle-bound cartoon characters usually have really tiny heads?

There's just one problem: they're so muscle-bound they find it difficult to move. It takes Shnookums an extremely long time to pick up a protein drink - and even then, he can't even open it. "We'll take a sauna trim-down just to get some mobility back, and then we'll be perfect!" Shnookums exclaims. Conveniently enough, their owners just so happen to have a sauna in their house that they can use. But wouldn't you know it, they wind up getting locked in the sauna, and by the time their owners come home and let them out, they look like this:

Oof. I've seen pipe cleaners fatter than that.

Husband force-feeds them food until they're incredibly fat again. So basically nothing was accomplished. I do love cartoons where nothing is accomplished. Next segment...

I've heard that the Pith Possum and Tex Tinstar segments of the show were a lot better than the Shnookums and Meat segments. So I'm cautiously optimistic as I go into "Phantom Mask of the Dark Black Blackness of Black" (in spite of the stupid name).

Narrator Jim Cummings tells us that Pith Possum was originally an ordinary laboratory possum until an experiment turned him into a superhero. His secret identity - all superheroes have one - is Peter Possum, copy boy for a great metropolitan tabloid. He stands up for truth, justice and the forest critter way.

"I am the terror that crawls in the night! I am the something that affects your other
something in a negative way! I am PITH POSSUM!"

What challenges await Pith Possum today? Well, the Easter Bunny (Jess Harnell, if I'm not mistaken) is being released from a mental asylum... jeez, I guess Peter Cottontail went down a dark path after the events of his special. Maybe that's why it took so long for them to make a sequel.

This Easter Bunny isn't a cute, cuddly little lagomorph. He's a demented rabbit who's whipped up a serum that'll turn him into a huge, carnivorous beast. Why does he want to be a huge, carnivorous beast? If he hates his job delivering Easter eggs, why doesn't he just let another rabbit take on the Easter Bunny mantle and find a new line of work? Oh, right. Because he's EEEEEEEEE-VIL!

They told that rabbit "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!" one too many times. Now he's out for blood.

After the Easter Bunny drinks the serum, we cut to the tabloid where Peter Possum works. Forest animals are hard at work on typewriters. The only employee there that ISN'T an animal, despite her name, is Doris Deer (April Winchell), the apple of Peter's eye. I guess he's hoping she's into interspecies dating.

Doris is sent out to get the scoop on the giant mutant Easter Bunny running around the city. When Peter hears about this, he becomes Pith Possum and calls up his dimwitted raccoon sidekick, Obediah (Patric Zimmerman). Then he jumps out the window, completely forgetting that he can't fly. Something tells me this guy is going to make the superheroes from Sidekick look competent.

This reminds me: no, I am not going to do a review of Fanboy and Chum-Chum. So please
don't ask me to.

The now gigantic Easter Bunny and his army of Easter eggs with legs are robbing a bank. As he leaves the bank, Doris climbs into the bunny's Easter basket just before he walks into his giant Easter egg-shaped aircraft and takes off. Dang it, Doris, you're not supposed to LET yourself get captured. You have to wait until the villain decides to kidnap you himself.

Anyway, Pith Possum and Obediah arrive at the police station, where Commissioner Stress (Brad Garrett) tells them what they know: the Easter Bunny has already struck various places around the city, and they think his next robbery will be at the museum now containing the world's most precious collection of pinecones ever gathered in one place. What would a bunny want with pinecones? I dunno, just go with it...

And what's a gorilla doing in a presumably North American (judging from the other
animals we've seen) forest?

Sure enough, Pith Possum and Obediah arrive at the museum just as the Easter Bunny is about to squish Doris' head. Because the Easter Bunny is so much larger than Pith is, it's not much of a fight. But eventually Pith uses a carrot filled with some sort of exploding liquid to take out the rabbit. Doris repeatedly kisses Pith. Word of advice, girls: don't kiss a possum. It's probably a good way to get rabies.

Meh, still a better love story than Bee Movie.

The narrator then tells us that the rabbit seen in this cartoon isn't the actual Easter Bunny, he's an imposter, and that he's serving his time at a mental asylum and making "egg-cellent" progress. I believe he eventually learned his lesson, turned a new leaf, and became the spokesrabbit for Nesquik.

We are now in the Wild West, the frontier of promise and hope, the land of the singing cowboy. But this Tex Tinstar segment has nothing to do with singing cowboys because that would apparently be really boring.

No, no, our story is about the villainous Wrongo (Brad Garrett), leader of a group of outlaws known as the Wrong Riders. He's that charming fella featured in the previous screencap. He's got a score to settle with Tex Tinstar.

Okay, positive thing: this guy looks pretty cool.

In town, Tex Tinstar is telling everyone about the Wrong Riders' a-fixing to ride in and cause trouble... which prompts everyone except him to make a run for it in increasingly ludicrous ways (one of them gets on a PLANE). Sure enough, the Wrong Riders show up, and Tex and Wrongo have themselves a showdown... which Wrongo wins by pulling the "Look over there!" trick on Tex.

Soon, Tex is tied up and subjected to some sort of Rube Goldberg-ish trap. As Wrongo puts it, the rope that holds Tex up will be burned through by a candle. When he falls, he'll land on a trampoline, which will send him flying onto a ramp that will send him into a pen full of rabid badgers. And then a torch will fall over, igniting a trail of gunpowder, which will light a cannon. The barrel that Tex is in will roll to the cannon, and his head will be stuck in it, and then the cannon will fire, the blast igniting the waterproof fuses of the dynamite surrounding Tex's head. The cannon will then shoot him through the roof of the barn and down into a giant tank full of sharks. The sharks will eat Tex, the dynamite will go off, and his remains will fall into an envelope, which Wrongo will place on a boat bound for Indonesia. Needlessly complicated? Maybe, but that's what makes it funny.

Even Tex looks confused by all this.

And I have to admit, I was starting to get into this. Like I said, this whole plan of Wrongo's is actually pretty funny. How would Tex get out of such a strange situation?

Guess what? They don't show us! The narrator (also Jim Cummings) tells us to tune into the next episode, and that's it! The episode just ends! WHAT? You're gonna throw a CLIFFHANGER at us? The segment just started and it's over already? Figures. The one segment in this show I actually kind of like, and it doesn't even have an ending.

Side note, I know this is a minor thing, but why was this segment called "A Fistful of Food Stamps" when it had nothing to do with food stamps?

What's the Verdict?

The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show is mediocre at best. The only thing I kind of liked about it was Tex Tinstar, that segment was at least sort of funny in spite of its incredibly abrupt ending. But the Shnookums and Meat and Pith Possum segments sucked. None of the jokes in those segments were funny, and in a show where the main goal is to make you laugh, that's the biggest problem. The characters are dull as dirt, I couldn't tell you anything about Shnookums or Meat other than "they're idiots". The animation is fine and the voice actors are doing their best, but that's not enough to make the show watchable. Honestly, why couldn't the whole show have just been about Tex Tinstar? I think that would've been a lot better than just one short Tex Tinstar segment and two long unfunny segments before it.

The same year that this show came out, Disney also released the Timon and Pumbaa show - which was very similar in tone and style, but had much funnier jokes and felt less like a Ren and Stimpy wannabe than this. My advice? Watch that instead. Heck, watch 2 Stupid Dogs instead. I haven't watched an episode of Cow and Chicken in years, but I'm guessing that show is a better use of your time than this too. Was the pasta even very good?

This review is brought to you by...

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One of our many dining establishments.

Pizza Planet - it's out of this world!

Back to the Drawing Board: "Gigantic"

You might recall that in my previous edition of Back to the Drawing Board about the scrapped Disney film My Peoples, I mentioned that I would do posts about other scrapped Disney films called Gigantic and King of the Elves another time. Well, you'll still have to wait a while for King of the Elves - I'm not one hundred percent sure how much information about it there is online - but I'm going to talk about Gigantic today. Huzzah!

In the 2010s, Disney figured out the secret to making financially-successful, critically-acclaimed animated movies. Tangled was a huge success, so all they had to do was make films very, very similar to Tangled and keep repeating the formula over and over again: have a female main character, preferably a princess, who's optimistic, quirky, and at least a bit awkward. Maybe they're sheltered, maybe they've been stuck in one place all their lives and desperately want to go somewhere else. Eventually, she meets a snarky, morally-ambigous male and makes some sort of deal with him. They go on their little adventure, butting heads all the way, but eventually warm up to each other and fall in love, or at least become best buddies. Rapunzel was the optimistic quirky female and Flynn was the snarky morally-ambigious male. In Frozen, Anna was the optimistic quirky female and Kristoff was the snarky morally-ambigious male. In Zootopia, Judy was the optimistic quirky female and Nick was the snarky morally-ambigious male. In Moana, Moana was the optimistic quirky female (although less blatant in this case than Anna and Judy were) and Maui was the snarky morally-ambigious male. And it worked - the money was pouring in, the critics were applauding, nobody cared that they were basically just recycling the same character types over and over again. It wasn't until they ditched the snarky moral-ambigious male and just had the optimistic quirky female (Mirabel in Encanto and more recently Asha in Wish) that people figured out the formula and became bored of it. But that wasn't until the 2020s. In the 2010s, Disney was once again the king of the theatrical animation game.

The year was 2015. Disney was still milking the heck out of Frozen, and they had also recently released Big Hero 6, which was also pretty successful (but wound up getting ignored by Disney for a while because it was released after Frozen and followed by the also much more popular Zootopia). PIXAR had also released Inside Out, which was a huge hit and briefly got people to start liking PIXAR again. And it was this year, at the 2015 D23 Expo, that John Lasseter announced Gigantic.

Actually, Gigantic was kinda sorta revealed to the world in July 2013, before Frozen was released. One of Tangled's directors, Nathan Greno, said, "Trust me, we are hard at work on the new film! I wish I could say more - I'm REALLY excited to tell everyone what it is! If you enjoyed Tangled, I believe you'll love the new project." Then on July 10th, a blog by the name of Blue Sky Disney revealed that Nathan Greno's film would be called "Giants" and be released near the end of 2016. Considering how successful Tangled was and how obsessed Disney was with repeating its success, it makes sense that they'd want to get a new film from the same director out there ASAP (the other co-director of Tangled, Bryon Howard, was working on Zootopia at the time for those unaware).

Before this, however, I'd like to bring something up. At some point in the 2000s (before 2009, I'm pretty sure), I found a list online of Disney films that were in production - both theatrical and direct-to-video. I have no idea what site I found it on, or if it was even accurate, but among the multiple sequels that I know were indeed in production beofre John Lasseter ordered them to stop with the sequels (The Jungle Book 3, Chicken Little 2, Meet the Robinsons 2: First Date), I distinctively remember seeing a film called You Don't Know Jack and the Beanstalk being listed. I couldn't find anything about a Disney film called this online right now. Judging from the title, I'm guessing it was going to be another one of those "fractured fairy tale" type of movies greenlit to cash in on the success of Shrek. Y'know, sorta like Disney's Rapunzel Unbraided movie that eventually evolved into Tangled... but we'll talk about that one some other time.

The film's logo, after they decided to call it Gigantic instead, was going to look
like this.

In August, bleedingcool.com posted some information about "Giants" - this post has since been removed, but posts on various discussion forums have repeated the information, preventing all of this neat behind the scenes stuff from being lost and this post you're reading right now from being very short. Among the things they said...

- "Animated films have very long development times, and sometimes they go a long way into that process before going no further. Perhaps the most famous example of this would be PIXAR's Newt, and it happened with Disney, most recently, with King of the Elves. It's possible that a similar fate might befall Giants. The film hasn't been official announced, and it could disappear from the schedule even after it is. But for now, work on the film continues, and I understand that director Nathan Greno has had a couple of table reads and is getting the basic shape of the film into good order. I think this one's going to go all the way." Oh, the irony.

- "The look of this film - at least for now - is very much in the Tangled and Frozen vein, and the plan is to realize the film with the same sort of CG processes and styling - though I'm sure it will be pushed even further to allow for better textures, more expressive animation, advances in the tech all around. That's what happens at Disney, film by film."

- "A few years from now, we'll be some distance away from Bryan Singer's Jack the Giant Slayer, a film with which Giants shares more than a few specifics. For one thing, they both have a hero named Jack, and Giants named for the Fee Fi Fo Fum rhymes. In this story, these names are abbreviations of Feebus, Fifen, Fogel and Fobert, a family of giants at the heart of the tale. There's another brother too, Faustus, their leader. Like all good villains, he's got a relatable point of view, he's just not quite joining the dots correctly."

- "Also like Singer's film, we see the introduction of a love interest from a class above Jack. In this case, Angelica isn't royalty, but just from a merchant family, though her parents do see him as being 'below' her."

- "The real money is manifest in Marco, born to nobility and the third corner of a love triangle between Jack and Angelina. He's a good guy, though, and the only reason he and Jack can't be fast friends from the off is that they're both drawn to Angelina. And, yes, he's called Marco because, like Polo, he wants to travel - and to open up trade routes."

- "The fourth human lead is Inma, a scrappy tomboy type - and something of a class warrior, I understand. She's the one I'm rooting for in this story, the tireless fighter against injustice, taken less seriously because she happens to be a pre-teen girl. Of course, there is that story about David and Goliath..."

- "But, okay, it's not the humans that get the title billing here. It's the giants. The Storm Giants. Huge, thunderous figures. In this story, the Storm Giants have made a pact with the humans. If the humans work for them and give them a percentage of their harvest and livestock, hey'll return the favour by keeping danger and threats at bay. At first, it must have been appealing to have a Giant agree to fight your corner, but the people are't getting enough for themselves now. Faustus' name is seeming a touch ironic."

- "And this is where we find ourselves at the beginning. As you might expect, there's then a journey up to where the Giants live and some terrible conflict between the humans and the Storm Giants. There's a lot of sneaking about and gruesome recipes and all that good stuff you're used to from fairy tales about ogres and their ilk. But what you may not expect is how Jack ends up befriending one of the Storm Giants - and this is what sews the beans, if you will, for the adventure."

Now, I'm sure you're wondering "How do you know the guy who posted this to bleedingcool.com didn't just make it all up?". Well, Blue Sky Disney posted again and confirmed that most of what they claimed is true - and that apparently, Nathan Greno pitched the idea to John Lasseter around the same time he was working on Zootopia, which he was going to co-direct with Byron Howard again. However, a comment from somebody simply called "Anonymous" on the post said that they knew Nathan and Byron personally and that what they said was false.

Visual development by Michael Giaimo.

Rumors started flying around in 2014 that Robert and Kristin Anderson-Lopez would be writing songs for the film and that Daisy Ridley was brought in to audition for a character. There were also claims that the film was going to be pushed back to 2018, with others insisting that it was still going to be released in 2016. In August 2015, Bobby Pontillas was revealed to be working on the film as a character designer. Then came the D23 Expo, when - as mentioned earlier - the film was finally announced, now called Gigantic as opposed to "Giants", and it was confirmed that the Lopezes were writing the songs.

The film was described as being set in Spain during the Age of Exploration. Inma was now a sixty-foot-tall eleven-year-old girl with a "super-sized personality" and the secondary protagonist. Apparently, she was based on an actual kid the filmmakers met in Spain. She had a song in which she plays with Jack as though he were a doll, with lyrics like "You can toss him in the air / you can comb his tiny hair" and "You can make him do this, you can make him do that, and he even makes a pretty good bookmark!".

The film's presentation at the D23 Expo.

Apparently, Angelina and Marco had both been removed, or maybe Angelina had been turned into Jack's pregnant wife? From what I've read on the DVDizzy forums, Inma's father was the evil king of the Storm Giants and the film's Maximus equivalent - the hoofed animal that doesn't talk but acts like a dog - was to be a cow. There was also going to be at least one goose - Nathan Greno and Paul Briggs both posted (on Instagram and Tumblr respectively) about studying real geese for the film. Most versions of Jack in the Beanstalk have a goose that lays golden eggs, so presumably this goose character was going to fill the same role.

Now, I suppose there's an elephant in the room that I should address: Disney already did an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk back in the 1940s. That was the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of Fun and Fancy Free (it was originally going to be a full movie, but then the war started up and, combined with some other reasons, led to it winding up as a segment of a "package film"). Despite the film's general lack of popularity, it did spawn one thing that's kept it more or less out of obscurity online - the character of Willie the Giant, who's since popped up in other Mickey Mouse productions like Mickey's Christmas Carol and House of Mouse. Would that have made things complicated for Gigantic? Probably not. Disney also made two adaptations of Chicken Little after all.

It seems that even the folks working on Gigantic knew about "Mickey and the Beanstalk". I have a copy of the book They Drew as They Pleased: The Hidden Art of Disney's New Golden Age, which features four pieces of concept art for Gigantic. One of them features a giant who looks very much like Willie. I doubt it's just a coincidence.

This fella, right here.

In 2016, it was announced that Inside Out writer Meg LeFauve was going to be the film's co-director. As far as the voice cast goes, we know that Ava Della Pietra, then only ten and a half years old, auditioned for Inma. No idea who was considered to voice Jack.

The film wound up getting delayed AGAIN in 2017, this time to November 2020. Nothing about Gigantic was talked about at the 2017 D23 Expo, not a particularly good sign. However, animator Malcon Pierce did say on Instagram that he was working on the film. That was in October. A few days later, it was announced that Gigantic had been shelved.

Concept art by Dan Cooper.

Ed Catmull explained that it was just one of those projects where, even though they loved the idea and a lot of heart went into it, it just wasn't working (and yet nobody said that at any point during production of Wreck-It Ralph 2. Go figure). Instead, they'd be focusing their energies on another project in the works, also set for release in November 2020. Disney didn't release any animated films, be it in theaters or for streaming, in November 2020, so I have no idea what that project was (maybe it became Encanto or Raya and the Last Dragon or something?). As for Nathan Greno, he wound up leaving Disney in 2018 - he's now working at Skydance Animation.

Animator Andrew Chesworth stated in 2019 that, when he was working at Disney, he got to see some early screenings of Gigantic. "I loved this version," he said. "Fantastic mix of modern Tangled and 1940s Sleepy Hollow-era Disney influencing the artistic conversations."

What went wrong with Gigantic? A few folks on the aforementioned DVDizzy forums suggested that an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk should be a "huge and epic adventure" a la Aladdin - sneaking around the castle, facing off against giants, climbing a beanstalk. Disney was basically turning the story into, as somebody put it, "Tangled meets Wreck-It Ralph"... basically just recycling the "optimistic quirky female and exasperated morally-ambigious male team up" formula, except in this case instead of another pretty princess the female was a little girl. They were playing it safe once again.

Even Inma's character model, as seen here, just looks like they
gave Rapunzel a haircut.

And I think that's more or less why Disney's output as a whole is in a rut. They're still playing it safe by attempting to recapture previous successes. Every time a live action remake is super-successful, they greenlight five more, and they generally suck. Frozen was successful, make four sequels to it. Even with PIXAR, they're basically sabotaging their original films like Elemental and Elio (though the internet's turning on PIXAR after 2010 is definitely not helping with that) and demanding they make more sequels. Did we need a Toy Story 5? I know, I know. Disney is a business, it's all about making money, but they became such a huge deal because they used to give people things we didn't know we wanted, not just what we knew we already liked.

So is that it for Gigantic? Maybe not. Remember how I said that Nathan Greno is now working at Skydance Animation? Well, in 2023, it was announced that Skydance was working on an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk, to be directed by... Rich Moore, not Nathan Greno. Did Nathan, Rich, and John Lasseter take the ideas for Gigantic with them when they left Disney?

Oh, one more fun fact for you guys - Robert Lopez revealed in a podcast that one of the songs he and his wife wrote for Gigantic was reused for an episode of WandaVision. Another song was reused for a Netflix show called We the People. I've never seen either of those shows, but somehow I doubt the songs still had lyrics about using somebody as a bookmark.

Did You Know? - Fun Facts About "Aladdin"

Welcome to another edition of a series that I like to call Did You Know?. Inspired a little by the Nostalgia Critic's "What You Never Knew" series, this series will allow me to share with you some interesting tidbits, behind-the-scenes information, and fun facts about an animated movie or TV series. Because I like sharing new information with people.

It's been too long since I've done one of these posts. Since I've already done editions talking about The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, I think it's time I did one about the FOURTH film in Disney's animation renaissance (I'm guessing there aren't a lot of fun facts about The Rescuers Down Under online, so don't expect a Did You Know? about THAT film) - Aladdin.

Aladdin was the highest-grossing animated film of 1992, and for good reason. It's fun, it's energetic, it's colorful, it's one of those animated films that you can't help but love. And a lot of that is owed to the talented cast and crew that brought it to life. John Musker, Ron Clements, Howard Ashman, Scott Weigner, Alan Menken, and Robin Williams, just to name a few, all contributed to the movie's greatness. Like the Genie of the lamp, it's often-imitated, but never duplicated...

My apologies to Will Smith, but he's no Robin Williams.

...and is still one of the most beloved Disney animated films to this day. And it has a lot of history behind it, too.

You probably already know about the falling-out between Disney and Robin Williams. You probably also know that Pinocchio, Sebastian the Crab, and the Beast all make cameos. You likely don't need to be told about deleted songs like "Proud of Your Boy" and "High Adventure". And if you read my previous post about an early draft of the film's script, you probably know all about scrapped characters like Abbi, Aladdin's mother, and his three idiot friends. But did you know any of THESE things?

1) Technically, this wasn't Disney's first adaptation of the Aladdin story. That honor goes to their 1970-released LP, Disneyland Records' Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.

It's not even Disney's SECOND adaptation of the Aladdin story. That would be a 1971 LP from Disneyland Records called The Story of Aladdin and His Lamp. Why they released two LPs adapting the same story so close together, I don't know.

2) While Robin Williams was always the filmmakers' choice for the Genie, they did have some backup options in case he turned it down, or if they couldn't convince Jeffrey Katzenberg it was a good idea - Steve Martin, John Goodman, Martin Short, Eddie Murphy, Albert Brooks, Matt Frewer, and John Candy were all considered. What convinced Robin to accept the role was a bit of pencil animation Eric Goldberg did of the Genie set to a routine from one of Robin's comedy albums.

In addition, Danny DeVito and Joe Pesci were considered for the role of Iago. Patrick Stewart was offered the role of Jafar, but he turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with Star Trek: The Next Generation. Tim Curry, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Ian McKellen, and John Hurt were also considered to voice Jafar.

3) Y'know all those animals and servants that appear during the "Prince Ali" sequence? Where the heck did they all come from? Well, according to a deleted scene, the Genie created them by transforming bugs, rodents, stuff like that.

Concept art of a devious-looking Aladdin and Jasmine.

4) Initially, Aladdin was modeled after Michael J. Fox. Jeffrey Katzenberg urged the filmmakers to make him look like Tom Cruise. "In all his poses, I noticed there was a confidence, a look in the eyebrows, that gives him intensity and at the same time a smile that has kind of an impish look, like he’s got something up his sleeve," said Glen Keane, Aladdin's supervising animator. He also found inspiration for Aladdin while observing and sketching volleyball players at the beach. Meanwhile, Will Finn, the supervising animator for Iago, designed Iago by drawing a caricature of Gilbert Gottfried and adding feathers (Iago shares Gilbert's squinty eyes and toothy grin). For Jasmine, her supervising animator Mark Henn had two inspirations - his sister Beth and actress Jennifer Connelly. And Aaron Blaise, the supervising animator for Rajah, had difficulty with "the fluidity in the design" until he looked at a Jaguar hood ornament.

5) The film's art style as a whole was inspired by Al Hirschfeld. According to Eric Goldberg, "I look on Hirschfeld’s work as a pinnacle of boiling a subject down to its essence, so that you get a clear, defined statement of a personality. There’s also an organic quality in the way one line will flow into another: It may go along the back of a neck, down the spine, across the behind and the down the leg--all in one single line that is very, very elegant. I wanted the Genie to have that kind of elegance."

Al Hirschfield himself said, "I’m very flattered that the animators say they were influenced by my use of line, but art isn’t a 50-yard dash - it’s more like a relay: You keep handing it on to somebody else, and there’s no beginning or end to it. I didn’t invent the line: That simplification that communicates to a viewer goes back to the cave drawings at Altamira."

Concept art for the Genie - the one on the left is the same design Eric used
in the aforementioned pencil test.

6) It's hard to imagine anyone BUT Eric Goldberg - one of my favorite animators - animating the Genie, but before him, the job was offered to independent animator Bill Plympton. "You know, the Robin Williams Genie that does all this crazy stuff. Because I was so good at transforming the head, like in Your Face. They wanted me to do some of that with the Genie," he explained. "But, I had the studio in New York. I had people that I'd have to fire and I'd have to shut down the whole operation." And he was already working on a film called The Tune at the time as well, so he turned Disney down.

"And I say if you want to work for Disney, go ahead," he added. "It's a great opportunity. I'm always the first in line to see a Disney or PIXAR film, because they're really wonderful. But every morning when I get up and I go to my drawing board and I start drawing and there's no one looking over my shoulder saying, 'We don't like that, change it, please,' I say I can draw whatever I want, and to me that's worth more than a million bucks."

Concept art of the film's main characters, including Aladdin's mother, who wound
up getting cut.

7) Here's another interesting anectdote about Katzenberg - remember that scene where Abu, after being turned into an elephant, climbs up a tree? In a test screening, Katzenberg complained the accompanying sound effect was "much too cartoony". He later complained that there weren't enough pounding noises during the scene where Elephant Abu climbs up the palace stairs.

8) Caricatures of the film's directors, John Musker and Ron Clements, can be seen in the crowd watching Prince Achmed. Originally, this scene was going to have an appearance from caricatures of film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, but the filmmakers thought they would need to get permission to do that.

More concept art for the Genie.

9) John and Ron aren't the only caricatures in the film. There are actually quite a few, all of them were designed by animator T. Daniel Hofstedt. A few appear during the "One Jump Ahead" song - the jewelry vendor is clean-up artist Marshall Toomey, the fire walker is a CalArts teacher named T. Hee, and Crazy Hakim the fertilizer dealer is animator Tom Sito. Going back to the crowd watching Prince Achmed, there are also caricatures of Eric Goldberg, Glen Keane, and T. Daniel himself with his three-year-old son Daniel.

Another caricature appears at the beginning of the "Friend Like Me" song. One of the Forty Thieves that the Genie summons is a caricature of effects animator Dorse Lampher (he's the tall, pear-shaped one with bare feet and a small sword).

10) Are you familiar with Disney's 1959 live action film Darby O'Gill and the Little People? Well, that film actually had a bit of influence on Aladdin.

Let's be honest, most of Disney's 1950s live action films
would be at least slightly more well-known if they were animated.

You see, screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were in a meeting with Ron and John. Ron and John asked if the Genie should be able to grant an unlimited amount of wishes like in the original story, or if it should just be three. According to Terry, "Going down the path of unlimited wishes (which they had done) created what we deemed an 'addiction story' paradigm. Aladdin wishes for more and more stuff, which starts out fine, but eventually gets out of control, and he can't stop - essentially an addiction tale. But limiting the wishes to only three would make each wish crucial, have story purpose, and enhance the opportunity for drama."

What does this have to do with Darby O'Gill and the Little People? Easy - that film was exactly what Terry was thinking of when he was explaining this to Ron and John. I haven't actually seen the film, but Terry filled us in on what happens in it. Darby O'Gill captures the King of the Leprechauns, Brian Connors. And that means Brian has to grant him three wishes. He says, "Three wishes I grant you, great wishes and small, but if you wish for a fourth, you lose them all!" So eventually, Darby's daughter is injured and going to die, and Darby wishes that he could take her place and die instead. And as he's being carried away to the land of the dead in a spectral coach, Brain appears and tricks Darby into making a fourth wish - wishing that he could see the aforementioned daughter get married. And remember that "if you wish for a fourth, you lose them all" thing Brian said earlier? Well, by making that wish, Darby forfeits the other three, and he doesn't have to die.

Terry pitched that they could create a similar crisis for Aladdin if they limited the number of wishes. And wouldn't you know it, Ron loves Darby O'Gill and the Little People, so...

Concept art of Aladdin and Abu. Somebody make Abu stop staring at me.

11) Here's another thing that Terry informed us - why can Iago talk? According to him, the idea was that Jafar took all of his emotions and transferred them into his parrot, leaving him free of distractions and thus more able to conjure magic... but Iago is too small for so many emotions to be bottled up inside, so Jafar wound up with a loud, hot-tempered Angry Bird.

12) As you might recall, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's original treatment for the film took place in Baghdad. The reason why the final movie doesn't take place in Baghdad? The first Gulf War. Roy Disney told the crew that they couldn't have the film in Baghdad, so John Musker did a "jumbled anagram" and came up with Agrabah.

Concept art for Jafar.

13) So, back to that "three wishes makes for better drama" thing... the story requires Aladdin to use his second wish before the third act starts up so he'd have to decide whether to use his third wish to sort out his own problems or free the Genie like he promised. So somebody came up with the idea of having Aladdin use his second wish to get through some sort of obstacle course designed to test Jasmine's suitors so they could prove they were worthy of being her husband. Alas, the idea didn't work out, and they decided to just have Jafar somehow convince the palace guards to help him throw Aladdin off a cliff and as a result Aladdin has to use his second wish for the Genie to save his life.

14) An early version of the climax was to have Jafar wish not just that he was the sultan, but that he'd ALWAYS BEEN sultan and would always be the sultan, resulting in some sort of magic wave that changed everyone's memories. The magic carpet would wrap itself around Aladdin and Abu and protected them from the wave, so they'd be the only ones whose memories were unaltered. Aladdin would, as in the finished movie, put everything back to normal by tricking Jafar into the lamp. They decided it was "too science fiction-y".

15) Before Aladdin, Robin Williams starred in the Back to Neverland attraction at Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios), a theatrical show about animation. The Genie's outfit at the end, with the hawaiian shirt and the Goofy hat, is a reference to that attraction - Robin wore the same getup at the beginning.

Here's a screencap from Back to Neverland with Robin in his tourist getup.

16) The "Friend Like Me" sequence was the first scene to be animated. In fact, the animation had already been done before they decided to make Aladdin look more like Tom Cruise, so he looks a bit more Michael J. Fox-ish during the scene.

17) The filmmakers went through a couple different songs for Jafar to sing before deciding on his reprise of "Prince Ali". The first was called "Humiliate the Boy", and you can find an animatic for the song on YouTube where Jonathan Freeman voices both Jafar AND Iago (who was originally going to be British, apparently). Then they came up with a song called "My Time Has Come", in which Jafar lamented how much his life stunk and how he was going to make everyone miserable in revenge. Also written for Jafar were "Why Me?" and "My Finest Hour".

Concept art for Iago.

18) As you likely already know, Robin Williams also voiced the Peddler at the beginning of the film. For the scene where the Peddler offers us some of his wares (would YOU buy that combination hookah and coffee maker that also makes "Julienne fries"?), Robin was brought into the soundstage, positioned in front of a table where there were a bunch of random things covered by a sheet, and told to just ad-lib everything.

19) Gilbert Gottfried was allowed to improvise a lot, too. Remember Iago's line as he's packing his bags after Aladdin reveals to the Sultan that Jafar has been hypnotizing him? "I'll bring the guns, the weapons, the knives... and how about this picture? I don't know, I think I'm making a weird face in it." That was an ad-lib, and it got a laugh out of Robin when he heard it.

20) You know that kid from the marketplace who Jasmine gives an apple to? He's got a name. It's Tony:

Credit for this goes to havesomedisney.tumblr.com.

21) You probably recall that the Genie briefly dons a tux and acts like a game show host before turning Abu into a camel. For the movie's release in India, Disney swapped this out for the Genie becoming a "cricket commentator" (don't know if that means a cricket who does commentary or a commentator at a cricket GAME).

22) "A Whole New World" was originally called "The World at My Feet". Tim Rice suggested to Alan Menken that having the word "feet" in a Disney love song wasn't such a good idea.

23) Y'know how the Beast makes a cameo in the film as one of the animal figurines that the Sultan is stacking just before the "Prince Ali" song? Well, he's not the only cameo in there. Somebody on Reddit revealed that, if you look very closely, you can also see the back of Donald Duck's head (it's under the deer and to the left of the pink rhinoceros):

I've also heard claims that Simba from The Lion King is hidden among the animal figurines as well, but I don't see him.

24) While animating the Magic Carpet, Randy Cartwright kept folding a piece of cloth to see how to position it.

25) The movie actually has a color scheme inspired by its desert setting: blue (the color of water) represents good, red (the color of heat) represents evil, and yellow (the color of sand) represents neutral. Notice that Jafar is clad in red and blacks and is entirely red when he becomes a genie, whereas Jasmine wears blue and the Genie IS blue.

Concept art for Jasmine.

26) Aladdin was the first Disney film to be dubbed in Icelandic.

27) Yes, the Peddler at the beginning is indeed the Genie in disguise. The original plan was to have the Peddler show up again at the end and reveal himself to be the Genie, but they replaced it with the "Genie's face on the moon" ending. The Broadway musical removes the Peddler and simply has the Genie introduce the story as himself.

28) During "Friend Like Me", Genie writes Aladdin's order from right to left - which is how Arabic would actually be written. However, what Genie wrote is actually Persian, not Arabic. Specifically, he wrote "Turkey Pilaf" in Persian to match the Middle Eastern setting. However, the list that Genie pulls out of Aladdin's ear IS written in Arabic.

Here's a very strange piece of concept art for either the Genie or
Jafar. Whoever it's supposed to be, it looks more like Jim Carrey's Grinch.

29) It's often mentioned that Genie is the only character in the movie with four fingers. This is false. You can see some merchants during the "Prince Ali" song that ALSO have four fingers.

30) The Cave of Wonders scene was originally going to be even longer - there was a scene where Aladdin walked up to the lamp and was about to grab it, but then noticed his shadow on the wall... and many more shadows that once belonged to other fools who stumbled upon the cave and tried to grab the lamp (including the thief from the beginning of the film). He would've stepped away from it, and it would've turned out that the lamp was a fake. And because Aladdin didn't take it, he was allowed access to the real one.

31) During preview screenings, there was a distinct lack of applause after the musical numbers. So they gave the Genie an applause sign on his back after "Friend Like Me". It worked!

Concept art of Aladdin discovering the magic lamp.

32) To promote the film, a parade called Aladdin's Royal Caravan marched down the streets of Disneyland and Disney-MGM Studios in Walt Disney World. The first parade at a Disney park based on a single movie, it featured live actors, inflatable costumes, and puppets. Genie was all over the place, Aladdin and Jasmine rode on the back of elephant Abu, and Jafar was at the end - as a street sweeper. For more information about the parade, I recommend checking out Yesterland and Walt Dated World (they're great sites for Disney Parks afficianados like me!).

After its run, the golden camels featured in the parade were placed outside a restaurant in the park called the Soundstage Restaurant, which (at least in 1992) was themed to the movie as well and featured animation cells and concept art hanging up on the walls, marquettes, and I believe meet-and-greets with the characters while you ate. The restaurant eventually closed (it was where the Playhouse Disney live show was during the 2000s), and the camels now stand nearby the Magic Carpets of Aladdin attraction at the Magic Kingdom, continuing to spit on guests. There was also an Aladdin's Oasis dinner show at Disneyland from 1993 to 1994.

33) Jonathan Freeman went on to play Jafar in the Broadway adaptation of Aladdin. He also played Grimsby in the Broadway adaptation of The Little Mermaid.

34) According to Andreas Deja, Marc Davis didn't like that Robin Williams was allowed to ad-lib dialogue for the Genie. He felt that the ad-libbing would date the film (he did, however, tell Andreas that he enjoyed Jafar). On the flip side, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson had "a few quibbles with the story" but were otherwise okay with the film. Chuck Jones loved it, calling it "the funniest animated film of all time".

SOURCES:
- http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp53.The.Rules.html
- https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/celebrating-the-25th-anniversary-of-disneys-aladdin/
- https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2552347/that-time-aladdin-songwriter-alan-menken-had-to-cut-feet-lyrics-out-of-a-whole-new-world
- https://www.thewrap.com/aladdin-25th-anniversary-facts-robin-williams-disney-photos/
- https://www.orartswatch.org/bill-plymptons-animated-imagination/