Disappointing Aladdin Sales: A Theory

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Lightyear
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Post by Lightyear »

DisneyFan 2000 wrote:Seems like The Lion King overshadows everything else, as usual: Pocahontas and every other classic from that point, Aladdin's DVD, even Disney's other sequels are shameful compared to Lion King 1.5/II...
LK was promoted out the waahoo.. Movies, Plays, Soundtracks, Merchandise.. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing that Lion on everything.. I'm surprised McDonalds didn't change teh shape of the logo to a lion.

I agree tho, LK overshadows all other Disney movies right now.
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Post by Mr. Toad »

America is a large place and hard to pidgeontale into either racist or non-racist.

I am a non-American. I have been to places in Arizona and Idaho that were by and large racist. I have been to places in Hawaii, California and Oregon where I saw no traces of racism whatsoever. Even in the places where there was racism everybody was not a racist. So you cant paint them all with the same brush, but racism would certainly be a huge problem in the states. They just cant seem to let go of the past as a population.

Thats about all for my off topic rant.
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Post by Lightyear »

Mr. Toad wrote:They just cant seem to let go of the past as a population.
Um.. What? You have to go into more detail than that!
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Post by chaychay102royal »

I don't think it was about racism at all. I haven't seen Aladdin in years, but I don't recall any mention of Allah.

I haven't bought the PE and I probably won't. It's not because I'm against the Muslims, their religion or the idol they worship--I just don't like the movie that much. I find it a tad bit overrated.
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Post by Mr. Toad »

Lightyear wrote:
Mr. Toad wrote:They just cant seem to let go of the past as a population.
Um.. What? You have to go into more detail than that!
How long have you got? Do we need to do an American history course starting with the importation of slaves up into present day? An entire analysis could take months.
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Post by Lightyear »

Mr. Toad wrote:How long have you got? Do we need to do an American history course starting with the importation of slaves up into present day?
When you get time, explain how slavery is still happening in present day.
Last edited by Lightyear on Mon Jun 13, 2005 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by chaychay102royal »

Lightyear wrote:
Mr. Toad wrote:How long have you got? Do we need to do an American history course starting with the importation of slaves up into present day?
:lol:
I know I'm getting a wee bit off topic, but I want to warn you Lightyear that I was told by a moderator once that I should never post a message with just an emoticon.
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Post by Lightyear »

chaychay102royal wrote:I know I'm getting a wee bit off topic, but I want to warn you Lightyear that I was told by a moderator once that I should never post a message with just an emoticon.
Thanks for the forwarning chay.
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Post by chaychay102royal »

Lightyear wrote: Thanks for the forwarning chay.
No problem! :thumb:
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Post by lolopimp »

It's just like Aaron said, Disney made the huge mistake of realeasing Aladdin as a movie that everyone is supposed to love and that we'll probable remember it after so long. Sure, Aladdin was a big hit when it came out, but I don't think it would stay on people's minds forever.
Just like the incident that happened to me in music class when I brought Aladdin. Some people were like "Yay, Aladdin!", "Haven't seen it in a while!", "Is this the part of Aladdin and Jasmines' wedding?"

I was like :shock:. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and from that day on, I knew people didn't remember it. And oh yea, let's not forget what my friend said. "It came out on DVD, when?"

I think it's all due to bad promoting and time. There's a whole new generation of children out there who are more interested in 3-D animation. Stuff like "The Incredibles" and "Finding Nemo". They rather watch handrawn animation like Spongebob or Fairly Oddparents and tend to ignore classics. TLK has been able to survive the test of time and it's because is still in people's minds since there's no one in this world who haven't seen it. Yes, it's everywhere/

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Post by Little Red Henski »

Lightyear wrote:
Mr. Toad wrote:How long have you got? Do we need to do an American history course starting with the importation of slaves up into present day?
When you get time, explain how slavery is still happening in present day.
I think Mr. Toad is talking about the scars that were left on the nation from the Civil War. The US has yet to fully heal from that war.
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Post by Disney's Divinity »

chaychay102royal wrote:I don't think it was about racism at all. I haven't seen Aladdin in years, but I don't recall any mention of Allah.
Actually, the Sultan says it a couple of times, but I really never noticed it. For one instance, when he has a fight with Jasmine at the very beginning, he turns to Rajah and says "Allah forbid you should have any daughters!" or something like that. Still, it's much more vague than the stuff shown in Mulan or even Pocahontas.
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Post by MickeyMousePal »

When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King came out people were buying 2 or 3 but now with Bambi and Aladdin hardly nobody bought them.
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Post by Timon/Pumbaa fan »

I don't think that's it! In Colorado Springs there is are millions of republicans in the military but yet all of I know love Aladdin. I agree with MMP that people just don't feel the need to replace VHS with DVDs. In fact I think Aladdin did better than Snow White and Beauty and the Beast. But Lion King and Bambi did the best! :D
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Re: Dissapointing Aladdin Sales: A Theory

Post by Son Of Flubber »

Prince Eric wrote:I hope I'm not opening up a can of worms here, but I think I've waited long enough from the Aladdin: Platinum Edition release to suggest this.

About two years ago, I wrote a journalism piece that won a national award about Disney and their marketing strategies. A good chunk of it was concentrating on Aladdin, especially the delays in its DVD release. As everyone may know, it was moved back a year and switched with The Lion King. The reason was supposedly to cross-promote the animal friendly Brother Bear. In my opinion, this raises the first big question mark. :? Besides the fact that they're animal movies, they have no connection, and one was being released on DVD and the other touted for the big screen. I did a little research, and found an obscure chat transcript with someone who had been involved in the Aladdin production and said things were coming full circle. Aladdin had been postponed for production/theatrical release because of the Gulf War, and he said now, the events of 9/11 were preventing the DVD release. In other words, Disney wanted to give the public an additional full-year before releasing the DVD release of Aladdin, a film based on Arab folklore and a movie that made mention of Allah.

In my piece, I mentioned (half-sarcastically) that perhaps Disney has realized that there once properous franchise has been ruined - I mean, would families who had loved ones in Iraq by a movie with Arab characters, no matter how "Americanized" or "Disneyfied" they were? I didn't really take my rant seriously, but when 2004 ended, and it was reported that Aladdin was a dissapointment on DVD, I couldn't help but wonder if what I had written was really true. Now, I'm not saying America is racist and anti-Arab (and I KNOW no one on here is, because we all bought like, two copies of the Aladdin: Platinum Edition DVD), but what I DO think is that maybe American as a whole has decided to push Aladdin out of the popular zeitgeist. American is just conflicted, uncertain, and uncomfortable in this regard. While people will never say it directly, I do feel that the situation in Iraq may have had something to do with poor sales. Say what you must, but the point is, it IS a possibility.
I simply didnt' buy the DVD because it didn't include the original theatrical version.
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Post by MinnieMe »

I just read this thread (already two pages, wow). Prince Eric: I thought your post was very well-written and interesting. I had never thought of such an idea but it does seem to make sense.


I agree with lolopimp's point about kids today- they are more interested in CGI action movies than the "old" animated features. TLK had very memorable (and lovable) characters due to the fact that they were animals! Animal animated features tend to have more memorable and marketable characters.

I also agree that promotions for Aladdin were lacking compared to other DVD releases (it's one of my favorite movies and I don't remember any promotions that caught my eye). This very well may have been due to fears about Arabic influences. I guess we'll never really know but it is a very good point. One that I don't think is worthy of a racial/political argument.
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Re: Dissapointing Aladdin Sales: A Theory

Post by Timon/Pumbaa fan »

Son Of Flubber wrote: I simply didnt' buy the DVD because it didn't include the original theatrical version.
What why didn't you? It's not like they added a crappy song or anything, the changes were great IMO. Now people don't have to hear, "Good Teenages, take off your clothes!" :lol:
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Re: Dissapointing Aladdin Sales: A Theory

Post by Son Of Flubber »

Timon/Pumba fan wrote:
Son Of Flubber wrote: I simply didnt' buy the DVD because it didn't include the original theatrical version.
What why didn't you? It's not like they added a crappy song or anything, the changes were great IMO. Now people don't have to hear, "Good Teenages, take off your clothes!" :lol:
I believe it's more important to preserve these films rather than alter them.

BTW: The line was 'take in your claws' not 'take off your clothes'.
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Post by Mr. Toad »

I thought it was good kitty, take off now.
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Post by AwallaceUNC »

MinnieMe wrote:I also agree that promotions for Aladdin were lacking compared to other DVD releases (it's one of my favorite movies and I don't remember any promotions that caught my eye). This very well may have been due to fears about Arabic influences.
I know that we had near-life-size cut-outs of Jafar, who looks very ethnic (and I think bares resemblance to Osama bin Laden, actually) to place throughout stores, so I don't think Disney wanted to shy away from reminding people that there were Arabs in the movie. But then Jafar's the bad guy so I guess you could argue that they didn't mind that as much :p.

I think the smaller promotional budget was probably a bad budgeting call more than anything else.

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