Aladin (also known as Aladin und die Wunderlampe) is Dingo Pictures' longest movie, released in 1993 and their first movie to cash in with a popular animated film released around the same time.
Summary[]
The story of Aladin is one of the most beautiful and well known fairy tales from "the Arabian nights".
Aladin is the son of a poor tailor. But with the help of Genie, a friendly ghost, he achieves luck and wealth. And since this is a fairy tale, he marries the sultan’s beautiful daughter in the end.
Plot[]
The film opens with a storyteller about to tell a congregation of people the story of Aladin (Gläubige lasst euch nieder) before transitioning to a scene in a marketplace, where Aladin and his two friends discuss the newest arrivals on a wall. They are then alerted to the presence of a mysterious man who seems to have the power of teleportation. The man reveals that he is looking for Aladin, and claims that he is the boy's uncle who has returned from Africa to see his family one last time. He gives Aladin two gold coins so he can have dinner with him and his mother that night.
Aladin returns to his home and tells his mother about his apparent uncle, with her initially disbelieving him as her late husband had never mentioned having any brothers. She soon warms up to the idea, though, and heads to the market to buy some food. When the man arrives at the house for dinner that night, he offers Aladin the chance to become a merchant, with which both mother and son enthusiastically agree.
The next morning, the man informs Aladin that it's too early for the market to open, so they go and visit the Sultan's gardens. While there, the man tells Aladin to build a campfire, and, with a few magic words, they are teleported to the entrance of a cave. It is here that Aladin learns that only he can enter inside the cave and retrieve one of the world's most important treasures, with the old man giving him a magic ring to help protect him.
Aladin enters the cave and is informed that he can take as much treasure as he wants, as long as he retrieves a lamp that the old man wants for himself. It's only when he tries to exit that the man reveals himself to be a wizard, unrelated to Aladin or his father, who attempts to trap the boy inside the cave to die. All seems lost for Aladin, until he rubs the jewel located on the ring he had been given and the Ring Genie emerges, who claims that he can grant wishes. Aladin wishes to be out of the cave and is teleported back to the Sultan's gardens.
After running back home, Aladin's mother notices that he has brought the lamp the wizard wanted back with him and advises that he sell it. Aladin rubs it a bit to clean it up and discovers another Genie, whose power exceeds even that of the Ring Genie's. After wishing for some food, Aladin realises the power that he now has and promises his mother that he'll limit his use of the Genies.
While at the marketplace the next day, Aladin overhears that the Sultan's daughter, Soraya, is to head to the bathhouse. Although seeing the princess is punishable by death, he decides to test his luck and spy on her while she's in there, while she mopes about how she never gets to do what she wants (Ich bin des Sultans Tochter). It's love at first sight for Aladin, and he returns home very much infatuated. When his mother confronts him about this, Aladin tells her to go to the Sultan's palace so he can ask for Soraya's hand in marriage, giving her some of the treasures he'd picked up from the cave as potential payment.
Aladin's mother travels to the palace and informs the Sultan of her son's intentions. The Sultan is initially furious until he sees the treasures, while his advisor, the Grand Vizier, reminds him that Soraya is to be wed to his son Hussein. Upon realising that the Sultan is wavering, the Vizier proposes a deal: he'll give three months for his son to find treasures of an equivalent worth, and if he can't, Soraya can marry Aladin. Both parties accept the deal. Aladin's mother returns home and tells Aladin about the deal, which sends the boy into a deep depression over having to wait to be able to see his love (Ich schau auf einen Suppentopf).
Time passes, and, just before the three months are up, Aladin's mother hears from a town crier that Soraya is to be wed to Hussein that day. When she tells Aladin about this, the boy is outraged and summons the Genie of the Lamp to kidnap the couple and teleport them to his house. Soraya and Aladin get to know each other and fall in love (Reise um die Welt) while Hussein is left to sit in a goat pen. This gives him such an unpleasant stench that, when he's returned to the palace, the Sultan is offended by his uncleanliness and cancels the wedding.
Once the three months have passed, Aladin's mother returns to the palace. Having completely forgotten about the deal, the Sultan casts his doubts onto Aladin again, while the Vizier sets a seemingly impossible task: if the boy can bring forty trays of valuables to the palace by the next day, he can wed Soraya. Upon hearing about this, Aladin gets the Genie of the Lamp to fulfil the request instantly, and, once the Sultan sees the gargantuan amount of treasures, he orders the wedding to take place immediately. Aladin, however, requests one more day, so he can build a palace of his own next to the Sultan's.
Meanwhile, the wizard learns of Aladin's escape from the cave and plots the boy's demise. He tricks Soraya into handing over the lamp containing the Genie by offering her a new one in exchange, and commands the Genie to take her and the newly-built palace back to his home in Africa. The Sultan is furious upon learning of Soraya's kidnapping and almost has Aladin executed - but gives him one more week to find her when the boy proclaims how much Soraya means to him. Without the Genie of the Lamp, Aladin is forced to rely on the Ring Genie, who provides a magic carpet for him on which to fly to Africa (Teppich Fliegen).
Aladin finds Soraya, who tells him that the wizard is currently out but will return that evening. Quickly, Aladin uses the carpet to fly to the nearest bazaar, where he buys a special powder that induces sleepiness. He gives it to Soraya and hides just before the wizard arrives. Soraya starts buttering the wizard up, calling for a toast to his success and flattering him. As the wizard calls for some dancers, Soraya quickly slips some of the powder into his wine. The wizard takes one sip and is immediately knocked unconscious, while Aladin takes back control of the lamp and orders the Genie to take him somewhere he can't harm anyone - atop a goat, on a mountain's peak.
Aladin and Soraya reunite, and Genie returns the palace back next to the Sultan's while the couple fly back on the carpet. During the wedding celebrations, Aladin grants the Genie of the Lamp his freedom and allows him to take part in the festivities, ending the story by kissing Soraya. The film ends with the storyteller once again, having finished telling his tale.
Cast[]
See also: Aladin/Credits
- Christopher Fellehner as Aladin
- Mareile as Princess Soraya
- Bernt Moehrle as Storyteller
- Georg Feils as Genie of the Lamp
- Armin Drogat as Sultan, Rosisir, Parrot
- Dirk Regenbogen as Wizard
- Viola Seiffe as Aladin's Mom
- R.M. Erhardt as Narrator
- Klaus Mueller as Aladin's friend
Trivia[]
- The title card for this movie uses a font that strikingly resembles a sign that can be seen in Disney's adaptation, during the Genie's introduction.
Goofs[]
- On the 64-minute version, the Deluxe Paint loading cursor can be spotted for a single frame at 57:30.
- The Dutch dub retains a brief snippet of the German dub untranslated, specifically the line "Da ist er wieder!".
English dub[]
- The audio of this dub is out of sync with the visuals even more so than in other English-language versions of Dingo Pictures cartoons (more so than the English dubs of Wabuu der freche Waschbär, Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten and Das unglaubliche Fussballspiel der Tiere). All of the voice acting was done by what appears to be a child, a man, and a young boy (theorized to be the son of the man), possibly of Dutch descent, and very rarely do their lines correspond to the mouth movements of the characters.
- At one point, Aladin's voice actor appears to be reading a stage direction, "Exit scene".
Screenshots[]
Releases[]
See Aladin/Releases