Customer Reviews

Aladdin: Special Edition Soundtrack

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The "Aladdin Special Edition Soundtrack" is a great volume restoring the classic Aladdin songs and including two bonus tracks as well. Although there is some unfortunate editing of "Arabian Nights," the CD is otherwise perfect. The songs sound just as good as you remember them if not better. This CD attractively mixes Academy Award winning vocal tracks with a stunning musical score. Included with the CD is a complete track listing and provided lyrics for all songs. Although there a couple errors in the provided lyrics, they are for the most-part spot-on.

This CD includes two excellent bonus tracks, "Proud of Your Boy" and "High Adventure," by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman. I actually find Menken's rendition of "Proud of Your Boy" quite enjoyable. "High Adventure" is spectacular and also gives great insights into characters that were planned for the original version of the movie and then deleted following sweeping changes.

The thing I don't understand about this special edition soundtrack is that it seems like they could have included so much more. My Windows Media Player gives the total length of the CD as 43:50. Now there are several deleted songs that are included on the DVD, including the superb "Humiliate the Boy" and "Why Me," as well as new music videos, so why could these not be included on the special edition soundtrack? I know they want to pedal the DVD, but if this is the special edition, let's get it all out there! Let's get Jafar's deleted songs, let's get the Clay Aiken version of "Proud of Your Boy" and lets get any other demo tracks that might be floating around, if there are any. Let's get the additional versions of Arabian Nights as well.

As for this CD's special edition CD-ROM features, I rather like it. I had no problems loading it and recommend to anyone that did that they upgrade their software. If you don't want to, then just don't use these features. If you do though, you'll get song lyrics for "High Adventure" as well as survey and registration options.

I bought this CD only to hear Clay sing "Proud Of Your Boy" on it. I heard it on AOL, and couldn't wait to have it on CD. It didn't list the singer for POYB, it just said DEMO TRACK. I assumed that Clay would be on it, since his song has been highly publicized.

I pulled up the track number and found only Menken's voice for the song. While Menken has an okay voice, I would have much rather prefered Clay's voice over anybody's!

I love ALADDIN, and am definitely buying the DVD on Tuesday. The soundtrack is great, including reprises and underscoring.

Not having Clay on there will pull Disney's expected income down for this CD, I know it!

The five stars are for the bulk of the CD, which is the same old outstanding "Aladdin" music that was on the original CD. This review is for people wondering if they should invest in this new edition for the two demos included as extra tracks.

The short answer: if you're a big Disney or Alan Menken fan, a definite yes, especially considering the relatively low price tag.

"Proud of You Boy" is a sweet, yearning ballad in the same vein as "Part of Your World" and "Out There." It's decent, but nothing to get wowed over.

"High Adventure," however, immediately became one of my favorite Menken/Ashman songs. It's a romp of a track, and it doesn't have any close analogues in the remainder of Menken's songbook, at least, not that I can think of. The performance itself is a duet between Menken and Ashman, and the two of them are obviously having a blast (and dig those ultra-cheesy synthesizers!). This track, in my opinion, makes the CD a must-buy.

This Special Edition Soundtrack is very good. All of the main hits (Friend Like Me, One Jump Ahead, Prince Ali, and Whole New World...movie and pop version) as well as the instrumentals are here. However, as much as the fact has been publicized, one would think that Clay Aiken's rendition of the previously unheard "Proud of Your Boy" would have been included. However, there is only a demo of Alan Menken doing it. This fact could have been pointed out on the case. The pop version of Whole New World lists Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle. Apparently, Disney thought they would lose money if they listed the performer of Proud of Your Boy. I find it questionable that a video of Clay performing the song is going to be on the DVD. Why not include it on the CD? Still very enjoyable though.

This soundtrack, a joy to the ear when watching the movie, is just as wonderful to hear on cd. It's fun revisit favorite songs from the film like "Prince Ali," "a Friend Like Me," or "A Whole New World." Then too it's grand to hear the instrumental score to the film on disc. My daughter and I play the cd in the car and it makes our drives so dramatic! I like that she enjoys the more classical music at age 3 in addition to the vocal/character parts she recognizes from the movie. For me as a parent, it's delightful that some of the Disney films like Aladdin have music and characters adults can truly enjoy. A gem - clevel lyrics, beautiful music, fun to listen to and sing along to!

This is truly an amazing soundtrack. The only reason I gave it a 4 is because it was missing some of the newer versions of the songs such as Clay Aiken's Proud of Your Boy. I love this soundtrack of course because of all of the familair songs such as the beautiful, A WHole New World and the catchy Prince Ali, Friend Like Me and One Jump Ahead. And lets not forget Jafar's Prince Ali (Reprise). Arabian Nights is also a great song and has always been one of my favorites. The background is especially good. And lets not forget the rest of the score! My favorites were To Be Free which is extrememly moving and beautiful and then there is the Marketplace music which is VERY catchy and captures the Arabian setting. ANYWAY this is a MUST HAVE soundtrack! Especially if you love Aladdin as much as I do!

It's surprising, very suprising. The score is excellent, it's suprisingly strong for this genre. The songs, although not brilliant in composition, at least have catchy lyrics and an infectious melody. Alan Menken is a Disney guy, and you'll hear reminices of 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'The Little Mermaid' throughout the CD. I haven't actually listened to the 'Special Edition' of the Aladdin soundtrack, so I can't rate the extra songs and features, but I trust the original score and songs have remained unchanged. In closing--don't judge a CD by its cover. Come to think of it, don't judge this movie by its cover. If you actually take the time to stop and look past the goofy stuff 'Aladdin' is a beautiful--and entertaining--movie. If this movie wasn't animated (marvellously animated, I might add) this score would probably be considered the ultimate paragon of 'Arabian Nights.'

ONE OF THE BEST CDs, BY FAR! I've been buying many of the major disney soundtracks, -the Lion King, Tarzan, Beauty and the Beast- and then I came across Aladdin. This is definantly one the top with them all! I never get tired of this soundtrack. Some very amusing dialogue and songs, Robbie Williams does a great job, especially in soundtrack 8, Prince Ali! You'll be singing it all day.

I have a friend in Bloomington with whom I go to films on a regular basis. We have several genres of films which we prefer, and others with which we will experiment, but animation, particularly Disney, was never among them. However, I've often enjoyed Robin Williams characterisations, and so persuaded my friend Jim (who informed me that I would then owe him the next three film selections) to go to Aladdin. He enjoyed the film, and I loved it. This was a children's film that had entertainment value for adults, too, and crafted the witticism and irony into the dialogue and songs that were incredible.

Alan Menken is the primary composer behind this soundtrack. Working with Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, Menken and company produced a Oscar-winning soundtrack with individual songs as winners and nominees ('A friend like me', Williams vocal character tour de force, received a nomination, and the themesong, 'A whole new world', won the award).

Tim Rice (Sir Tim Rice, actually), lyricist, is known for many spectacular productions, including various collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber (again, now titled...), such as Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. The crafting and care in the songs is evident; erudition is not sparing in this collection, but neither are the songs inaccessible to either children or adults. This, I feel, is the mark of a great talent.

Finally, working on the project was Howard Ashman. Ashman died of AIDS in 1991. He worked on many Disney projects, including Beauty and the Beast. According to the Disney corporation, 'In animation, we have two guardian angels. One is Walt Disney, who continues to touch every frame of our movies. The other is Howard Ashman, who continues to touch every note of our movies.' One of my reasons for originally wanting to see this film is that I had heard of Ashman's connexion with my university, Indiana University -- he received his MFA from that school in the early 1970s. Ashman is also known as the lyricist for 'Little Shop of Horrors', another collaboration with Menken, which, if one watches Aladdin with that in mind, gives a whole new world of impression on the film!

The music makes me laugh and feel good. I am much less prone to aggressive driving if I have this CD in the box in the car! Of course, this is a sappy love story with, in my opinion, a rather silly denouement, but it works for the kids. Of course, the lyrics are, as I indicated, educational: I've had the chance to explain what nom de plume, charge d'affaires, and coterie mean.

Some filmtracks have lifted portions of this music for use as background material, which is another sign of successful composition.

But, by far the high point has to be Robin Williams' vocal flexibility and ingenuity in the characterisation of the Genie. Alternating accents and impressions (at one point doing Edith and Archie Bunker, at another doing William Buckley, etc.) the rapid flow of the voices smoothly across causes me to wonder if the characterisations were improvisational, with the animation produced afterward to fit the flow of the changes.

I recommend this soundtrack most highly to children and to adults who love comedy. It is an interesting treat.

Songs:

Arabian Nights
One Jump Ahead
Friend Like Me
Prince Ali
A Whole New World

'A Whole New World' has two tracks -- the one of the actual movie scene, performed by Brad Kane and Lea Salonga, and the 'radio edit' performed by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle. There are some dozen additional tracks of background/mood/theme-setting music.

The music makes the CD worth getting; however, the so-called special features (i.e., worthless advertising) can ruin your ability to enjoy the music on a computer system. For example, on my computer's CD/DVD player, the buggy software part of the disc makes the music unplayable. On a different drive (a CD/RW), the music portion of the disc can be played; however, at times their annoying Macromedia advertising interface will pop up, sometimes multiple simultaneous copies, stopping the music. And if you kill the advertising "stubs," you can be left with the side effect of an annoying beep whenever you move the mouse pointer over a web link.

Please put more tracks of music on CDs -- complete score and songs -- but leave off the bogus "special" features!

(And for that matter, I don't appreciate the cutesy attempt on other CDs to "hide" extra music tracks by putting minutes of silence before final tracks. This is especially bad on multi-disc players where you don't want long periods of silence -- at least not until all discs have been played.)