Early concept art for Aladdin, Jasmine and Abu
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Aladdin
- Brad Kane was originally cast as Aladdin before Scott Weinger was cast. Kane would eventually go on to provide the singing voice for the titular character.
- Steve Martin, Martin Short, John Goodman, Eddie Murphy, Albert Brooks, Matt Frewer and John Candy were considered for the Genie before the casting of Robin Williams.
- Patrick Stewart was approached for the role of Jafar before Jonathan Freeman was cast, but turned down the offer due to scheduling conflicts with Star Trek: The Next Generation. To this day, Stewart considers turning down Jafar to be one of the biggest mistakes of his career.
- Tim Curry, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Ian McKellen and John Hurt were considered for the role of Jafar as well before the casting of Freeman.
- Danny DeVito and Joe Pesci auditioned for Iago before the casting of Gilbert Gottfried.
- Michael Bolton and Céline Dion, who was coming off the success of the title song of Beauty and the Beast, were given initial consideration to record the pop version of "A Whole New World." Instead, the song went to Dion's previous duet partner, Peabo Bryson, and Regina Belle, an R&B star without much recognition in the pop world at the time. Even without the star power of Bolton and Dion, the song not only went to number one, but had the distinction of knocking Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" off the top of the Billboard chart.
- Aladdin was originally supposed to have a mother, as mentioned on several documentaries, being a character that lyricist Howard Ashman reportedly wanted, since he had created the Aladdin solo song "Proud of Your Boy" around her. Her character, the song, and the original draft of the film got thrown out by studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg during production, and Katzenberg also reportedly wanted the mom "86ed", calling her "a zero". This led to Aladdin being an orphan in the original film instead. This also led to Elliott and Rossio joining the writing team and the rest of the story being reworked. Aladdin was the second Disney Animated Canon film in a row to get a Reset Button from Katzenberg; he also played this card on Beauty and the Beast, and Ashman could not argue for the original draft this time due to his death (the meeting where Katzenberg hit the Reset Button, known to Disney animators as "Black Friday", happened a month after Ashman had already passed away from AIDS). While "Proud of Your Boy" was later added back into the Broadway musical, the mother was not. note .
- An unused alternate ending features the peddler telling the story suddenly turning into the Genie before the credits roll. Not technically confirmed in the film itself, but both of them were still voiced by Robin Williams, and if you look closely, the peddler and the Genie both have four fingers, while all the other human characters have five. They also have similar clothing, facial hair and even faces. This was passed over because the reveal dragged the ending on for too long; people were applauding and standing up on the fireworks shot of Aladdin and Jasmine.note This idea would be recycled for the live-action remake, in which the Genie (as his liberated human form) introduces the story to his children, though he isn't explicitly revealed to actually be Genie until the end.
- Aladdin was originally gonna have a trio of friends (named Babkak, Omar, and Kassim) who would help him out. They were written out, and became the villains Minos, Fatima, and Aziz in the TV seriesnote , while Kassim's name was reused (spelled "Cassim") for Aladdin's father in Aladdin and the King of Thieves. They would eventually appear in the stage musical adaptation as Aladdin's sidekicks, subsequently replacing Abu.
- Indie animation legend Bill Plympton was offered a six figure deal to animate on the film, nearly halting production on his first feature, The Tune. He only turned it down when he learned that Disney held intellectual rights over any ideas he had while working for them.
- Originally Genie was able to grant unlimited wishes, but he was changed to the standard three-wish genie to raise the stakes.
- According to the "Pop-Up Fun Facts" on the DVD, Genie was originally going to be purple. They changed his color to blue to better fit the film's color scheme (Blue signifying "Good", Red signifying "Evil", and Yellow signifying "Neutral").
- Adding onto this, some concept art showed that the filmmakers at one point considered having Genie be green, but this was scrapped. After that, he constantly bounced back between purple and blue, with the latter color ultimately winning out.
- There was originally supposed to be a scene where Jafar quizzes the Genie on all the animals that appeared in the Prince Ali song, finding out that the Genie had turned Abu into an elephant in the process. In the final version of the movie Jafar doesn't find out that the Genie did this until right before he sends Aladdin, Abu & the Magic Carpet to the arctic.
- Originally, Jafar was the hot-headed one while Iago was the more quiet, subdued one, but it was quickly decided that Jafar losing his temper every few seconds would get old fast and also make him less menacing as a villain.
- Iago was originally named Sinbad, but around the same time the writers changed his personality, they also changed his name.
- The Genie of the Ring from the original story became The Speechless Carpet because two genies would have been too much.
- There was going to be a Genie-centric prequel to the live-action remake, but was cancelled due to reasons explained in the Screwed by the Lawyers section.
- Jasmine was supposed to have freed herself from the giant hourglass with the jewel from her headband but that was changed to a last-minute rescue.
- The Genie was intended to be voiced by an African-American actor, with Ashman and Menken's original Friend Like Me
taking heavy inspiration from the likes of Cab Calloway and Fats Waller. This idea was dropped to avoid the implications of a black actor playing a character who was essentially a slave. Funnily enough, the Genie would eventually be played by black actors in both the Broadway musical and the live action remake. - A remnant of the Cab Calloway style Genie can be seen in the final film- when the Genie dances in a white tuxedo during the song, he's doing a pastiche of Cab Calloway's dance motions he did onstage while performing.
- This video shows several of Robin Williams' ad-libs that didn't make the cut, including a few alternate versions of scenes that did make it in.
- An early draft of the script had a Secret Test of Character at the entrance to the Cave of Wonders, where on a pedestal stood a lamp more tempting than the "beat-up, worthless piece of junk" the Genie lives in. Trying to grab this lamp would deem the seeker unworthy and cause the Tiger-God to collapse the cave and "pictograph" them on the cave walls. Not much different from a certain "Holy Grail" test. This was to become Gazeem's fate instead of just being unworthy. Aladdin, on the other hand, would notice the pictograph and spot the trap. This would prove Aladdin worthy and open the real entrance to the cave.
- According to Disney's Aladdin: The Making of an Animated Film, The Sultan was originally going to tell Jasmine she was to be married by her 16th birthday, but Jeffrey Katzenberg nixed the idea for fear of sending negative messages. In the movie, it is changed to "next birthday." This early concept led to the widespread belief that Jasmine is only 15 in the movie, when in reality, her age is never stated in any Aladdin media."Our original plot line for Aladdin had the Sultan saying, 'Jasmine, the law says you must be married by your sixteenth birthday.' That was the original story concept and it stayed for quite a while. Then Jeffrey started to worry about what kind of a message we would be sending all the fifteen-year-olds in the world—that it's okay to get married before your sixteenth birthday? Of course, Aladdin is a fairy tale and presumably happened a long time ago, but he thought it would be better to change the line to, 'married to a prince by your next birthday.'"
- In an earlier draft, Jasmine was going to begin as a spoiled brat and have a character arc in which she became a kinder, humbler person after interacting with Aladdin and his friends. She even had a song reveling in it, “Call Me A Princess.” This was changed early on as the directors wanted a more likable heroine from the get-go.
Aladdin: The Return of Jafar
- This was originally made as the three-episode pilot for the Aladdin TV series, but after watching the opening, Disney CEO Michael Eisner ordered it recut as its final form. This is particularly evident if one sees the original opening from the TV series when it premiered on the Disney Channel before it moved to syndication, as the opening primarily consists of footage from the film.
- Jafar was going to transform into his giant cobra form from the first film for the climax, albeit red-colored now. This was changed so as not to repeat the same scene over again.
Aladdin and the King of Thieves
- Sean Connery was cast as Cassim, but had to drop out due to other commitments.
- The initiation fight between Aladdin and Sa'Luk, and the "Welcome To The Forty Thieves" sequence afterwards, was originally animated with visible blood on Aladdin's left arm where Sa'Luk slashes him. The bloodstain was mostly edited out of the finished film, though some darkly-lit shots still included it.
- The Triumphant Reprise of Arabian Nights at the end of this movie was originally meant for the end of the original film when the Peddler was slated to be the narrator, who would appear at certain points to give the audience the scoop on the story so far through various reprises of Arabian Nights. This reprise, in particular, would've been sung as the Peddler packed up all his stuff, hopped onto his camel and went riding into the night, saying goodbye to the audience to mark the end of the legend.
