Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Aladdin
1992 · Ron Clements · Aladdin on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 4 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Count how many shapes the Genie takes in one number. (performance)
Eric Goldberg animated him directly onto Robin Williams's recorded improvisation, so the drawing turns on the rhythm of the voice. He is almost never one figure. He is the passage between figures.
Payoff: Voice and drawing are one performance here. Watch each shape change land exactly on the beat of a joke. In the reading: any-instant-whatever. The reading calls this the any-instant-whatever: a drawn figure always mid-formation, never caught at a settled moment.
Watch how fast Friend Like Me is cut. (cutting)
Peterson builds the number as an accelerating montage of impersonations and gags. It runs three minutes and moves the story nowhere at all. Each song in the film is its own escalating set piece.
Payoff: The number exists as a turn rather than a plot beat. Notice how little has changed once it finishes. In the reading: attraction-image. The reading calls this an attraction: a spectacle staged straight at the audience instead of an action that advances anything.
Notice the curved line in buildings, props and people. (staging)
The design follows Al Hirschfeld's flowing, rounded stroke. Minarets, turbans, noses, carpets and rooftops share the same swooping calligraphy. Very little in Agrabah is drawn with a straight edge.
Payoff: One line holds the whole world together. It also builds a city assembled from other pictures rather than any real place.
Watch the camera swoop and plunge through Agrabah. (camera)
The virtual camera dives off rooftops, races through the market and drops into the Cave of Wonders. In One Jump Ahead every awning and pole sits exactly where Aladdin needs it to be.
Payoff: In a drawn city the world is built to receive the action. The fit between body and street is guaranteed by the pencil.
Notice the color changing when Jafar is on screen. (light)
Agrabah runs warm ochre and sunlit sand. The cave burns saturated gold. Jafar and the night flight turn cool blue and purple. The palette is assigned by dramatic register rather than by daylight.
Payoff: Color sorts the film into moods. You can name the register of a scene from a single frame.
The 4 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch the Genie's shape. He is never one thing, and the only thing he wants is to hold a single form.