Aladdin Central Messageboard

[Robo4900]

Like, I'm sure, many people here, I've read the original 1988 treatment of Aladdin and found it quite interesting. I actually even put together a YouTube playlist of the songs on it to enhance the experience of reading it.
But, I wonder if there's a more complete version of this original, pre-overhaul version of Aladdin? When his mother was still alive, possibly there were two Genies and Aladdin had his three buddies...

Workprints that circulate online sometimes serve this kind of purpose for various movies -- we do know a full story reel of the early version of Aladdin existed; we've seen clips (a few in here including the song itself, and there's also this), and the Disney high-ups not liking the reel was what lead to the overhaul in the first place, so if such a story reel had leaked, that would do what I'm looking for perfectly -- but the earliest workprint available was from seven months after Howard Ashman passed away, so while there are differences to the final film (no One Jump or Whole New World, no Jafar song, but Count On Me is present, and the final Arabian Nights reprise closes the feature), it's clear it's long since undergone the major overhaul, and is essentially the movie and plotline we know from the finished film, so that doesn't help much. (Though interestingly, it contains a really obscure alternate version of Arabian Nights, which I wish was available in higher quality)

The library of congress allegedly has some full scripts for Aladdin, dating back to July 1988, only six months after the original treatment, but while the Howard Ashman Papers collection does appear to be available to the public (as a Brit, I'm somewhat unfamiliar with how the library of congress works, so I may have the wrong end of the stick here, but it does appear this stuff is available to the public), none of it is available online, so only those physically present in Washington DC can read this material, it seems.

So... I wonder what you folks might have on hand? I know this kind of stuff does get out there somehow (not sure how the 1988 story treatment got online, but it's floating around, very easy to find; LostMediaWiki directly links to it), so I wonder if anyone here might happen to have one of the early scripts or something?
The lyrics page of the main AladdinCentral site seems to suggest at least some of the early drafts do make the rounds (see: Hold On, and The Wazir's Song), so this stuff's definitely out there, beyond just the hard copies at the library of congress, even if the July '91 script referenced by those pages may have been after the overhaul -- despite the title of "The Wazir's Song", Jafar does have his name, he isn't merely "The Wicked Wazir", the Genie grants unlimited wishes, Abu is present (meaning he and carpet likely already replaced Babkak, Omar, and Kassim, though that may have happened very early in the scripting phase), and the two songs appear to either fill a gap or provide an early version of a musical sequence from the earlier of the two available workprints (which appears to be from October 1991, three months after the given script date), with The Wazir's Song going over what was, in the workprint, merely a narrator describing what happens over the storyboards that were originally drawn for Humiliate The Boy (I guess they didn't have a Jafar song in place at the time. Presumably My Finest Hour would replace it once Tim Rice got on board, or maybe Menken wrote his own Jafar song based of Wazir's Song and we just never heard it), and "Hold On" appears to be an early, unfinished version of of Count On Me.

(EDIT: Fixed a glaring mistake I made when speculating about what "Hold On" is, and slightly expanded on my notes on Wazir's Song)

[Boggess]

Two genies? I want to see that version. The banter must have been hilarious. haha

[Robo4900]

I almost didn't post this because the price is completely and utterly ridiculous to a level I have trouble putting into words, but...

Some git on eBay is selling something they claim to be the very first draft... For $400. And that's discounted from the nearly $600 original list price.

I guess maybe one reason these scripts don't make the rounds is the collectors who can afford to own them don't want them to be available, since that would depreciate the value.
Can't say for sure if this is the case, but from what I've learned of some of the more selfish collector attitudes over these things, I'm fairly confident in this guess. And it's a real shame. Stops a lot of very interesting things from being available to the wider public; prototypes of video games, workprints of movies, and naturally, scripts.

Either way... The library of congress's information seems to contradict the listed date here (this claims to be the first draft, but its given date is the 18th of October 1989; the Library of Congress lists a script from 6th of July 1988, so surely THAT would be the first draft?), so I'm now wondering if this script is real. Though for this price, and with the seller listing a lot of other scripts that look quite genuine, it might be. It's hard to tell. I'm not very familiar with who wrote which scripts when, or what the actual contents would look like, so I'm having a hard time judging this.

[AladdinsGenie]

https://1st10pages.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/aladdin-1992.pdf

If anyone wants to read the draft from July 1991!

There's so much to talk about. The Cave of Wonders is psychopathic, for starters . Like what do you mean it created a portrait out of anyone who attempted to enter the cave, one of which was Carpet's previous owner and Gazeem, in the exact moment of terror before they realized they were going to die because they reached for the wrong lamp??

[Meesh]

- In general, the opening scene and Cave of Wonder scenes aren't changed super dramatically, but the version we got is better.

- "One Jump Ahead" (sans song) scene is impossible to read haha.

- "Count On Me" is a bit generic and loses the compare/contrast we got with OJA/OJA Reprise. And Aladdin wishing for material things for a whole minute kinda cheapens his character, compared to him wishing that people could see him as more than a thief for a minute.

- The fact that they have to look around for a safe place to sleep is heartbreaking. "two little guys in a huge, dark city"

- "Actually, it was because I told him... I could never marry a man who dresses better than I do." Princess Jasmine the homophobe? I actually like that we get a glimpse of what she says to him, but this aint it haha.

- Jasmine calls the Sultan "Papa" in this draft. I actually thought about this the other day, if it was a conscious choice to title renaissance dads differently. Ariel called hers "Daddy." Belle called hers "Papa." Jasmine ended up calling hers "Father."

- I actually think it's kind of sweet that Sultan's toys reflect his ideal life, and part of that is Jasmine finding love with a prince... Or is it him and his wife? Is it reminiscing?

- The last Dragon's Eye Ruby... I wanted to know what's up with the Mystic Blue Diamond, but I EXTRA want to know about this one.

- Today I learned with zwiebeck is

- and a feeb

That's it for now! Will post more when I read more
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[Robo4900]

Thanks for the link!

Very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

It seems to track very closely to the earlier of the two workprints that have made it out into the wild in the past.

[Meesh]

Read a little more.. Thoughts...

- Jasmine "moves Rajah to the wall. Climbs up..." kinda takes away the bittersweet moment when Rajah chooses to support her escape.

- Jafar: So... this ragged urchin is my diamond in the rough
Iago: I figured he'd be taller

- Al & Jas get interrupted way too soon! So glad they added more to the hovel scene. Adds to their relationship and the lasting effect that their meeting had on each other.

- Okay I actually like this script's added bit to the guards capturing Aladdin, how there's slightly more chase, and how he protects Jasmine.

- Razoul: What are you doing outside the palace?
Jasmine: That's my affair.
(Maybe not the best word in this sus-looking situation )

- The guard offering to escort Jasmine back to the palace. THIS ALWAYS BOTHERED ME why they just leave her to find her on way back. Honestly a little glad they addressed it, although I don't leave that Jasmine hits him.

- I also like how they show Abu following them back.

- SMELL NO EVIL <3

- This tiny chase between Abu and Raja opens up a possibility for Raja to recognize him later...

- Interesting change here that Aladdin enters without the cave's explicit permission.

- It's a little inconsistent though that the cave says only one can enter but then lets anyone enter. The problem isn't until they grab the wrong lamp.

- The figures of past non-DITR's is kinda metal haha

- Aw, Aladdin dusts off Carpet, and Carpet gets a backstory <3
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