AL Review: "That Stinking Feeling"

[Juan F. Lara]

When Sadira started pursuing Al, I wondered if they'd have a new character
trying to woo Jasmine. And they did. :-)

SPOILER WARNING



Prince Uncouthma - Smell or not, he was very likeable. :-) A well-meaning
and unpretentious guy who's niceness contrasted with the scheming Al and
Jasmine were doing in this episode. Maybe Jasmine might've wound up with him
if Al never showed up, as he definitely wasn't an overstuffed peocock ( though
he might have one in one of his pouches. :-) I liked all of his scenes,
particularly the dinner banquet scene.
I wonder why Jasmine was feeling so petulant at the beginning. If going
to the marketplace was something Al and Jaz regularly do, then I'd understand
why Al would assume he didn't mean to ask. So Jasmine seemed to be overreact-
ing at first. Of course, this is a moot point once Al himself starts acting
pig-headed.
I'd rather not see any more Iago-Abu teamups like this one. Iago/Abu
were a good team in "Scare Necessities", where Iago got some character deve-
lopment. But they're not very interesting when they're just hunting for
treasure. Iago and Abu could wind up like Pete and Goofy if the writers
aren't careful.
Is anyone keeping track of how many giant monsters the gang has fought?
:-) I liked the character design for the plant creature, though, and what
the ring turned out to be. They also came up with a funny way of defeating
the monster.

Overall, I'd call this episode good, and I'm looking forward to
Uncouthma's return.

Juan F. Lara, #1 Gadget Hackwrench fan

"C'mon. You got an opposible thumb. Use it."

[Ron Bauerle]

In article p...@dewey.cc.utexas.edu, j...@dewey.cc.utexas.edu (Juan F. Lara) writes:

>SPOILER WARNING

>

> I wonder why Jasmine was feeling so petulant at the beginning. If going
>to the marketplace was something Al and Jaz regularly do, then I'd understand
>why Al would assume he didn't mean to ask. So Jasmine seemed to be overreact-
>ing at first.

I'll let people who've had experience with real women comment on that :^)

> Is anyone keeping track of how many giant monsters the gang has fought?

No, but everytime I see one I'm reminded of that article that (mumble)
posted quoting Tad Stones, I believe, as saying they didn't want the show to
be like all the other Sat. AM ones with monsters, dinosaurs, etc....

>:-) I liked the character design for the plant creature, though, and what
>the ring turned out to be.

I wasn't surprised by the ring at all - it was fairly obvious the
second or so time I saw it. But I didn't expect a plant monster...

>They also came up with a funny way of defeating the monster.

I'm tempted to comment on the general trend that "all the monsters are
evil and must die" - Arbutus and maybe the giant rhino being the major
exceptions...

RDB

[Ron Bauerle]

In article D...@netcom.com, duc...@netcom.com (Tad Stones) writes:

>Take all you read/hear/see in the media with a grain of salt. Sometimes
>you're misquoted, often you're just misunderstood.

I can relate to the former - I was misquoted in Internet World (I wrote
"hang out on Usenet", not "have it out"), and Usenet itself proves the
latter :^)

>I believe the point I
>was making was that Aladdin got into new story areas and in addition,
>it's locale is unique when set against the typical SF based show. We
>tried to put a spin on any of the usual cliches of SatAM animation -
>robots, dinosaurs, etc.

And actually, you pretty much have; I guess I "misunderstood" the
article to say that you weren't intending to include those elements at
all...

>Actually, I would have preferred doing fewer of these but the production
>machinery had to be fed.

I'm still waiting for somebody to post that list of the 5 basic story
ideas that every story is just a variation on :^)

>Hindsight is a painful commodity. I am amazed at how well some of our
>more ambitious scripts have turned out. I wish we had had time to try a
>few more.

So what about Gargoyles? :^) (I forget whether or not you were
involved with that one...)

Thanks for the clarification!

RDB

[Tad Stones]

Take all you read/hear/see in the media with a grain of salt. Sometimes

you're misquoted, often you're just misunderstood. I believe the point I

was making was that Aladdin got into new story areas and in addition,
it's locale is unique when set against the typical SF based show. We
tried to put a spin on any of the usual cliches of SatAM animation -
robots, dinosaurs, etc.

Actually, I would have preferred doing fewer of these but the production
machinery had to be fed. Too many people would be sitting idle while we
tried to find something new under the sun. Take Mekanicles for
instance. I wanted to keep the technology non-sentient but the stories
became cluttered with details about controlling the machinery - with
little attached entertainment value. We went for the humor of the
character and the jeopardy caused by his creations. For the bulk of our
audience, that was more important.

It's like the opening sequence of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Where'd that
ancient civilization learn about light activated booby traps and
pressurized air for firing poison darts?

Sometimes a monster was added for third act jeopardy. Sometimes it
worked, sometimes not. We were self conscious enough to give the villain
Mozenrath a monster called the Thirdak.

Hindsight is a painful commodity. I am amazed at how well some of our
more ambitious scripts have turned out. I wish we had had time to try a
few more.

--
"Does this mean we can get a dog?" --Iago
Please send e-mail replies to : tad_s...@studio.disney.com