Not as good as the movie
I'll start off by mentioning what I liked. I tried hard to see what people saw in this series, and I found a few good things about it. Some of the best episodes are the ones that prominently feature my favorite characters: Genie, Iago, and Mechanicles. Genie's "Genie Hunt" was a good spooky episode; Iago's "The Day the Bird Stood Still" had an interesting concept and interesting character analysis (of Iago). Mechanicles was funny in "Getting the Bugs Out." There's also the silly "That Stinking Feeling" - one of the few episodes that made me laugh.The best way for me to explain the series is to compare it to the movie and to my favorite Darkwing Duck. In the movie, I liked: the gorgeous animation; Robin Williams' energetic performance; two strong, interesting, attractive leads, Aladdin and Jasmine, who have chemistry; catchy, showy musical numbers; and a convincing, menacing villain.
In the Aladdin TV series, the animation isn't as beautiful as it is in the movie but it's still nice for a cartoon show. Second, although Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson, Megavolt from Darkwing Duck) isn't as good as Robin Williams, he's the next best thing and one of the best things about the series. As he does with all his characters - even the villains - Castellaneta brings a charming likability to Genie. Also, there is much more time in the series for me to see that Aladdin and Jasmine aren't as interesting as I thought. They have hardly any quirks at all. I'm glad there aren't any musical numbers, because they don't usually work well for TV episodes. Finally, I dislike most of the villains. Darkwing Duck had a lot of interesting villains with amusing voices like Negaduck, Megavolt, and the Liquidator. It's a tough standard to live up to, and Aladdin doesn't even come close. Fans seem to have found Mozenrath sexy, but I found him to be a whiny, ineffectual tantrum-thrower. As for Saleen and Sadira, Saleen was uninteresting and Sadira was interesting but annoying. I disliked Mirage (see Batman's Catwoman for an example of a good cat-based villain). The only villain that really entertained me was Mechanicles, with an honorable mention to the disgusting but scary Muktars.
So, even though it made sense to leave some of these things out, they're still great parts of the movie that have either been left out or toned down, leaving the series with much less to interest me. There's not a lot of the smart dialog or frequent jokes that Darkwing Duck has. Genie, Iago, Abu, and Carpet make great sidekicks, but they're not enough to make up for Aladdin and Jasmine's lacklustre personalities. I think the series can be summed up in the same way Aladdin and Jasmine can: adventurous, attractive, and dull.
score 6/10
cosmo7 26 February 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1028520/14640
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