Aladdin

Aladdin is a fictional character in Disney's animated film Aladdin based on "Aladdin", a folk tale of Middle Eastern origin. He is voiced by Scott Weinger, while his singing voice is provided by Brad Kane. He also stars in the two direct-to-video sequels The Return of Jafar (1994) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), as well as the animated television series based on the film. Mena Massoud played a live-action version of the character in a live action adaptation of the 1992 film. When Aladdin is initially introduced, he is an 18-year-old man. He never received a formal education, and has only learned by living on the streets of the city Agrabah. He has to steal food in the local market in order to survive. When Aladdin was only an infant, his father, Cassim, left him and his mother in order to find a better life for his family. Development One of the first issues that the animators faced during the production of Aladdin was the depiction of Aladdin himself. Director and producer John Musker explains: "In early screenings, we played with him being a little bit younger, and he had a mother in the story. [...] In design he became more athletic-looking, more filled out, more of a young leading man, more of a teen-hunk version than before." He was initially going to be as young as 13, but that eventually changed to 18. Supervising animator Glen Keane was inspired by various teen idols and movie actors in designing Aladdin's physique. The main inspiration for his appearance was originally Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, but later changed to Tom Cruise. Keane based the movement of Aladdin's loose pants on rapper MC Hammer. Some have said this conception of the character makes him too contemporary, given the film's setting.