Aladdin Central Messageboard

Spartan Girl · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:12 pm Post subject: The first version of Aladdin

Okay, can anyone tell me where and if I can find the script to the first version of Aladdin? You know, the one with all the cut songs and the cut characters like Babkak, Omar, Kassim, and Aladdin's mom? Because I've been reading the postings around this forum, and some people seem to know the original dialogue...

I would really like to see how the film would have turned out had it not been for Black Friday... So does anyone know where to find it?
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Calluna · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:57 pm Post subject:

There were actually several older versions...

The one it sounds like you're talking about is the first treatment that Howard Ashman finished in 1988, but that wasn't an entire script, it was basically just the songs (Arabian Nights and its reprises, Babkak Omar Aladdin Kassim, Friend Like Me, How Quick They Forget, High Adventure) and an overview of the story.

Katzenburg and the other execs thought that it was a good idea but that Howard's treatment was too much like a stage musical, so they gave it to Linda Woolverton (who'd just written BatB's script) to rewrite. I believe this is when Babkak, Omar, and Kassim got replaced with Abu, and she also added a lot of other stuff inspired by Thief of Baghdad.

Then when Ron and John got done directing TLM for their next film they got to choose between three stories Disney was already working on: Swan Lake, King of the Jungle (now know as TLK), and Aladdin. They went with Aladdin, but they still weren't crazy about the script so they decided to rewrite it themselves. They were the ones that came up with the idea of Robin Williams as Genie.

Then "black friday" happened (not two weeks after Howard's death; I don't believe in coincidences...) and they had to go back to the drawing board, so they hired Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio to rewrite the script with them, and that's the one that actually made it into the film.

And of course keep in mind that there were probably several versions of each of these as they went through revisions.

I *did* see one script, Evi from the AML put it online a few years back, but the site no longer exists and my copy got destroyed. (Anyone else here have one? Shiera? DP? Merkal?) I believe it was one of the Ron and John scripts, but it could have been an earlier Ted and Terry (it had Alan and Howard songs and Alan only songs, but no Alan and Tim Rice ones).

Actually, I have a partially finished timeline of all this stuff on the other computer; I need to dig that out...
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Merkal · Sultan Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 466 Location: NL

Calluna · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:42 pm Post subject:

Yeah, that's the one I mean. I should probably just email her and ask myself. Laughing

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"If only I could believe you. Perhaps I can! After all... you do bear the name of a flower." -- Arbutus

Merkal · Sultan Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 466 Location: NL

Evi marked the main differences in this post

Calluna · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:45 pm Post subject:

Ah, thanks, I'd forgotten about that post! That must have been the final script, then, or close to it. Very Happy

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"If only I could believe you. Perhaps I can! After all... you do bear the name of a flower." -- Arbutus