Aladdin

The long, prolific collaboration between Terence Hill (aka Mario Girotti) and Bud Spencer (aka Carlo Pedersoli) came to an end in 1985 with “Miami Supercops” (but they would reunite one final time in 1994 with the lame “Troublemakers”). Meanwhile, the beloved Bud, once again directed by Bruno Corbucci, gets a kick out of taking on the role of the genie in the lamp in a film apparently aimed at an audience under the age of ten.

Looking at it that way, “Aladdin” (original title: “Superfantagenio”) has all the requisite ingredients for a movie aimed at that demographic: a black-and-white Manichaeism to the nth degree (the villains are inevitably complete idiots), substantial infusions of pacifism/humanitarianism (“Our magic is for the good of mankind. We feel that power in the hands of only one man […] is asking for trouble“), and the fact that justice and good intentions triumph in the end.

Nothing I can’t overcome, but the “gentle giant’s” aggressive congeniality and a certain nostalgia inspire me to treat this qualitatively less-than-rousing film with kid gloves. With a story by Dardano Sacchetti and music by Fabio Frizzi – both having made their name in Italian horror films, particularly those of director Lucio Fulci – “Aladdin” constitutes something of an oddity to fans of genre cinema since very little of the two men’s artistic greatness comes through – in fact, their work is practically unrecognizable.

On the subject of Bud Spencer, it’s a bit like seeing Ruggero Deodato, Michael Berryman, and David Hess associated with the forgettable 1997 TV miniseries “We Are Angels” (for those who may be unfamiliar with the short-lived Italian series originally entitled “Noi Siamo Angeli”, it never quite got off the ground. It was done in the style of a family comedy, even though director Ruggero Deodato was better known for his “Cannibal Holocaust”, and among the many actors who appear in the series are Berryman and Hess, two true legends of horror cinema).

Well, little kids certainly loved the film back then, and at the end of the day, that’s the important thing (Bud Spencer was an idol for several generations of European kids, especially in Italy, France, and Germany).