Tag: whittertwitter

whittertwitter replied to your post “Still Alive?”

Welcome back! The funny thing is, I actually had a dream last night that Disney was releasing an Aladdin series box set, complete with lost episodes.

[Sigh] If only. If only. 

It’s after midnight now, and it’s been like – three years. Possibly more. But I want to try to do these every few days at least so I’m doing something for fun.

Current planned episodes: 

“Love At First Sprite”

“Genie Hunt”

“When Chaos Comes Calling”

For now, in that order. Let’s try and make this happen! 

I found someone who uploaded the Aladdin series on YouTube, so I’ve been watching all the Mozenrath episodes. I just got to “Black Sand” and UGH. I didn’t see this episode much as a kid, so I’d forgotten just how bad the writing is and how poor a job Jeff Bennett does as Mozenrath. I don’t know if it’s because Jonathan Brandis was nearly fifteen years younger than him and he just couldn’t stretch his voice or what, but it’s nearly unbearable. My sympathies when you get to this episode.

Aaag, I’m gonna have to hit that one before I get to Lost City, and this makes me so sad. I honestly don’t even know if Jeff Bennett even studied Brandis’ performance at all (but then I don’t know how far along in production any of his initial episodes were in comparison to this one). 

We may see this one soon if I find myself with some free time. 

whittertwitter replied to your post “How do you think the plot of the original movie (and, by extension, the series and KoT) would have been affected if Destane had never taken Mozenrath away, but Cassim still left and Mozenrath and Aladdin’s mother still died?”

You wrote that fic? I love that fic! I thought it’d been abandoned ages ago!

Yep, I totally wrote that fic. And I have a full outline. I’m actually just really struggling at introducing Carpet (because I don’t want to do the original scene word for word), so I haven’t been able to move forward.

How do you think the plot of the original movie (and, by extension, the series and KoT) would have been affected if Destane had never taken Mozenrath away, but Cassim still left and Mozenrath and Aladdin’s mother still died?

It likely would have more closely resembled how they originally wrote the movie, with Aladdin’s mother still alive and with him backed by an entourage of BFFs. Only cut out one of the friends (who was named Cassim) and replace him with his snarky older brother.

…On a slightly related note I’m going to admit that about once a year I still update an AU fanfiction that I’ve been writing for a long time, that is basically what the story would have been if Moze and Aladdin’s places were switched.

So Aladdin hasn’t come into the story but you’ve got a very different narrative. Mozenrath is a bitter before his time, never-trusts-his-luck sort of person who works as an Apothecary because some guy he tried to pickpocket as a kid basically felt sorry for him and apprenticed him, then he inherited the business.

Jafar buys illegal substances from him and can sense that he has some magical potential and wants to apprentice him. Mozenrath is not interested because Jafar is a creep. He is hassled by guards constantly, but Jafar keeps their raids pretty light because if Moze is ever caught he will TOTALLY tell them that the Grand Vizier buys illicit goods from him.

He saved Jasmine but it was in a much more snarky way. He didn’t fool Farouk; he argued him down and then dragged Jasmine off to yell at her for being ignorant.

Lots of changes. I have yet to introduce the Genie (nearly there) but their dynamic is totally different, with Mozenrath being a giant sourpuss and Genie trying to get him to lighten up (and more importantly, appreciate his good fortune.) There will be no confusion as to who he is when he returns to Agrabah as a “prince” – not for Jafar at any rate, but he can’t say anything without Moze getting him into trouble. So that whole “Where did you say you were from?” conversation while the Sultan is tooling around on Carpet becomes an exchange more like “You’re not going to get away with this. You may think you’re clever, but you had help. You’ll slip eventually.” and Mozenrath just kind of chuckling, smoothing the front of Jafar’s robes in a friendly fashion, then grabbing him by the collar and uttering “Blow me” before walking away to talk to the Sultan again. 

…Someday I will finish it.

Would you mind telling us your favorite and least favorite one-offs? (Let’s say five of each, since there aren’t that many.)

I could do that! Fairly warned though that this list is likely to change because some of these episodes are ones I haven’t seen in years or may not have given a proper chance when I was wee. This is the case with almost all of my least-faves. In fact almost all of my least-faves are listed for probably unfair reasons.

Favorite One-Off Episodes (1 being my most favorite):
5. The Animal Kingdom – This is one I haven’t seen in years but it holds a special place in my heart because I’m pretty sure it’s one of the very first episodes I saw on tv.
4. Bad Mood Rising – Another one I have yet to review but remember fondly because it was an early episode. More importantly, this was one of my first Jasmine-centric episodes, along with Do the Rat Thing.
3. Of Ice and Men – Because it still makes me laugh, and Aladdin is still such a lovably insufferable jerk.
2. The Ethereal – One of my all-time favorites, and I’ve been purposefully holding off on it because it feels like a finale episode to me. The stakes are so super high, and it’s one of the best Jasmine episodes out there. I’m looking forward to rewatching it, but it’s going to be a while.
1. Garden of Evil – When I covered this, I said that I loved it but I found many flaws (that Aladdin commits cold blooded murder and is only sad because Jasmine is sad being one of them, that it should have been the Sultan’s story being another), but it’s still my absolute favorite.

Least Favorite One-Off Episodes (1 being my least favorite):
5. Opposites Detract – This is one that just didn’t have enough familiar faces in it for me to be interested as a kid, but I do really want to do this one soon to see if it grows on me, because I think I didn’t give it much of a chance.
4. The Game – It’s weird for me to say “bit too cartoony” about a cartoon, but I remember feeling like it wasn’t serious enough. Again, this is me as a kid and I apparently had fickle tastes. Another one I want to watch again to see what I think of it. I remember thinking the ending was funny, though.
3. The Great Rift – I was going through a phase the first (and many times after) this episode came on. That phase was called “I’m trying to record all the Mozenrath episodes on video, so I turn the channel if it’s not Mozenrath,” and this episode reran a LOT in that time. To the point that I’d get angry if I saw the title. Pretty much all of my list items in this category are episodes I wasn’t patient enough for as a kid.
2. Moonlight Madness – A one-off I did sit all the way through one Saturday morning, and I think as an adult i would appreciate this episode more? But as a kid I found the story to be a bit underwhelming. I think it’s because I seem to remember “misunderstandings” between Aladdin and Jasmine being tied up in the conflict of this episode, and when they’re not done right in Aladdin episodes they’re frustrating as Hell.
1. Snowman is an Island – It’s a yeti who thinks Genie is funny. Didn’t care then. Still don’t care now. This is the only one I’m not looking forward to watching eventually.

whittertwitter replied to your post “Aladdin is REALLY intimidated by book smarts. Also, writers: Pick a time period.”

Fun fact: I’ve actually tried to determine when and where Aladdin is set, mainly for somebody who was actually writing a thesis on the subject. I eventually came up with the Safavid Empire, but your liveblogs have made me reevaluate my theory.

The Disney series itself has elements of several existing cities tied into it, and I’ll admit I’m not the most well-read on all of the possibilities, but I’m going to take a look around and see what I can learn about the Safavid Empire, just because some inspiration could have been taken from there as well.

whittertwitter replied to your post: Aladdin is REALLY intimidated by book …

There are so many contradictory elements in the Aladdin series that I might as well just throw up my hands, since the writers clearly hadn’t agreed on a setting.

When you write fanfic or RP within the setting you kind of have to make your own assumptions, which is kinda the direction I run in. I’ll concede that sometimes I think the writers just went “they’re kids and they won’t know the difference” and carried on, but sometimes it’s fun finding things like this.