Aladdin
and the Magic Lamp

(aka Aladin et la lampe merveilleuse)
(1969, France) color 60/71 minutes
Les Films Jean Image
Screenplay: France Image, Jean Image
Additional Dialogue: France Image
Cinematography: Olaf Csongovai
Backgrounds: Denis Wuarnier, Enrique Gonzales
Editor: Olaf Csongovai
Music: Fred Freed
Animation: Denis Boutin, Marcel Breuil, Guy Lehiduex, Jose Xavier
Produced by Jean Image
Directed by Jean Image

Voices (original production): Gaston Guez (Aladdin), Henri Virlojeux (African Magician), Claire Guibert (Aladdin's Mother), René Hiéronimus (Hou-Hou), Lucie Dolène (The Princess), Fred Pasquali (The Demon), Georges Atlas (The Genie), Richard Francoeur (The Sultan), Michel Gudin (Narrator), Paul Guez (Aladdin as an infant), Jean-Pierre Leroux (Aladdin as an adolescent), Lita Recio (Can-Can)

English-Language Version:
(1975) Paramount Pictures 60 minutes

***

SYNOPSIS (by Bruno Edera): A magician whose vast fortune was not enough to satisfy his ambitions, dreamed of absolute power, which he would enjoy if he could become the owner of a certain wonderful lamp which was in the possession of some fabulous genies. The magician lived in Africa and his only companions were the owl Hou-Hou and a magic ball through which he was able to question the genies. He eventually found out that the wonderful lamp was hidden in Asia, deep in the earth, and could only be taken by an innocent hand, the hand of a child. The magician set out. After many adventures he reached the borders of China and a town with three hills about which the genie of the Dark had told him. There, among the minarets and gardens, he discovered the boy Aladdin, who lived in poverty with his mother and who seemed likely to be able to serve his purpose. The magician introduced himself as a long lost uncle, brought him fine clothes and set off with him in search of the lamp. The genie of a ring which the magician possessed guided them successfully to the Palace of Scheharezade, where they found the secret passage which was to lead Aladdin to the wonderful lamp for from this moment on, the boy must act alone. So the magician gave him the ring which had the power to open all doors. And so Aladdin was able to lay hands on the lamp, and its power began working at once. Overcoming every obstacle, passing like a whirlwind under the very nose of the magician, Aladdin returned home to his mother and was given untold wealth and everything he could want. Yet Aladdin was not happy. He had fallen in love with the Sultan's daughter, Badroulboudeur, and he persuaded his mother to go and ask for her hand. The Sultan agreed, on condition that the suitor should present himself at the Palace within three days with a procession of forty white elephants led by forty black servants and bearing forty crocks of gold. The wonderful lamp performed the miracle, and the magnificent procession was seen heading towards the Palace. But the magician had sworn to have his revenge. By disguising himself as a beggar he tricked Aladdin's mother into offering him hospitality, stole the lamp and hurried to the Princess's home, which he spirited off to Africa with the girl and all her servants. The furious Sultan accused Aladdin of having the Princess carried off, but the young man managed to obtain five days grace in which to find the magician's hiding place and snatch the girl and the lamp from the kidnapper's hands. The magician was shut up in his own magic ball with his owl. Aladdin and the Princess were married and lived happily ever after, protected by the wonderful lamp.

***

We recently came across this most engaging French animation in a most unlikely place. We recently purchased a group of “Magical Memories” DVDs from Cascadia Labs in Canada. Purporting to be a series of vintage Russian cartoons, the series is actually a very mixed bag of Russian, Czech and Japanese cartoons, with some very obscure titles which we could not place nationality. Although many of the fairy tale cartoons are of marginal interest, and the overall quality of the transfer to DVD is terrible, there are some suprises in the series for the patient animation buff, and we will be reporting on the series in a future article for the website.

At any rate, volume 2 of this series, entitled ALADDIN, is a heavily edited 30-minute condensation of Jean Image’s 1969 cartoon feature, ALADDIN AND HIS MARVELOUS LAMP (aka Aladin et la lampe merveilleuse). Although the transfer is marginal and the editing choppy, it was still fun to catch up with another of Jean Image’s fine productions, as we are a big fan of his first feature, JOHNNY IN THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS, reviewed elsewhere on this website.

This later feature by Image and his wife and small crew is in some ways a disappointment, although one should take care not to judge a film by an edited condensation. However, ALADDIN seems quite talky and pedestrian, especially in comparison to the wildly visual and largely non-verbal JOHNNY. Still, this product of the 1960’s was surely influenced by the glut of animated situation comedies produced by Hanna-Barbera, Filmation and others, all of which were talky by definition, so Image was presumably just catering to the changed international animation market.

Still, ALADDIN has some delights for us, including impressive set design and a vivid, kaleidoscopic color palette, easily the equal of JOHNNY’s brilliant color scheme. The main character, who changes from a small child to a handsome young adult through the course of the film, has a silly, fey countenance, and a ridiculous hat, which likely made him less than heroic to US tots when Paramount Family Matinees released the film stateside in 1975. As well, the Princess who falls for Aladdin is almost too sexy for a children’s fairy tale. The stylized drawings of the characters, including the fearsome magician Afrique, are in some ways reminiscent of the terrific work done by UPA studios in the 1950s and early 1960s.

The film contains several songs, which were all crudely excised from the print we saw, so we will have to obtain the Westlake DVD of the full feature to report back on this aspect of a most unusual and interesting take on the fairy tale legend. While anything would be better than Disney’s bastardization of the tale, which turned our hero into a teenage American s**head, and the evil magician into a wise-cracking, second-rate comic, we think the definitive animated version of the story of Aladdin has yet to appear. Still, since you couldn’t do worse than the dreaded “Disney version,” you certainly could do worse than this lovely French fable.

Video/DVD availability: VHS: Various, DVD: Westlake, Magical Memories (edited)

Links of related interest:

the original tale (Burton translation)

Arabian Nights Resource (includes film list)