Granting a Wish

“I, I wish I was in the sultan’s palace,” says Aladdin to the genie of the lamp. And it happens, thanks to the effects animation department of the Ub Iwerks studio. In Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (released August 10, 1934), the hero turns in the centre of the scene and a whirlwind envelopes him. Animated swirls appear and, subtly, the background changes from the lamp-sellers dungeon to the palace.



Aladdin appears to be a little too small in the shot above.

The cartoon boasts excellent colour, which I imagine looked better in its original release. The Film Daily proclaimed the cartoon “very good” and called the colour “vivid and appealing.”

There’s not a lot of drama in the story, but we’re treated to silhouette animation of the lamp bouncing around inside the sultan.

Grim Natwick and Berny Wolf receive screen credit for animation and Art Turkisher supplied the score.

The cartoon has some history. Motion Picture Daily, on its front page of August 16, 1934, reported:

First certificate of compliance with Production Code Administration standards issued to a producer not a member of the Hays association goes to P. A. Powers, as producer, and “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp,” an animated cartoon, as the picture.
The Hays office, at the same time, stressed the point that the approval, Certificate No. 154, was in conformity with the “association’s purpose to to afford all producers, whether or not members, the opportunity to use the facilities which the association has developed to help assure the highest standards of picture production.”

Evidently the Hays people felt the scene where Aladdin lands in a tub with the bathing princess was chaste enough to be okayed.