Has it been 23 years? That’s a quarter of a century! Why we never..
During the “Disney Renaissance”, a time when Walt Disney Pictures was busy churning out animated musical classics, they made “Aladdin”. It was 1992 and it was under the musical direction of highly talented Disney music legends Alan Menken, Tim Rice, and the late Howard Ashman.
The Disney Renaissance began with “The Little Mermaid” in 1989 and some say peaked with “The Lion King” in 1994. “Aladdin” was also one of the crown jewels of this time period.
“Aladdin” is based on the Arab-style folktale of Aladdin and the magic lamp from the “One Thousand and One Nights” folk tales. The voice cast features Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, and Douglas Seale. The animated film is also remembered for not only Robin Williams’ memorable portrayal of the Genie, but also for its amazing musical score from Menken, Ashman, and Rice.
One of the most loved songs off the soundtrack is none other than the magic carpet ride ballad, “A Whole New World”, which was sung as a duet by Aladdin and Princess Jasmine. The original version was sung by Brad Kane and Lea Salonga in the film, and they also performed the song at the Academy Awards that year, where it won the Oscar for “Best Original Song”.
It also won the Grammy for “Song of the Year” at the time, and later went on to become a popular wedding song 🙂
Recently, Brad Kane and Lea Salonga reunited after 2 decades to sing “A Whole New World” together again on “Good Morning America” in an effort to help promote the new Blu-ray edition of “Aladdin”, which hits stores on 13th October. Also present was the “Aladdin” cast as well as 8-time Oscar winner composer Alan Menken, who plays the piano live as Brad and Lea whip out their beautiful rendition of the song.
There’s so much nostalgia in just a mere few minutes in the video below and you can’t deny them feels. Watch:
Source: Nerdist.
