Original Aladdin Stars Recall The Joys Of Going To Work In Sweatpants

"I'm freaking out, you guys. I'm freaking out," Scott Weinger says throughout a chat with Brad Kane, Linda Larkin, and MTV News. The trio — who voiced speaking Aladdin, singing Aladdin, and speaking Princess Jasmine in the 1992 animated feature, respectively — is back with each other at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, for an onstage celebration of the several years and several iterations of Aladdin that have graced screens and stages within the past 27 years. "I've never hosted a show before, live, thousands of people, and we didn't rehearse the entire thing. Let's just visualize what occurs! You could visualize some crazy stuff."


Depending on your level of fandom, the presentation did, case in point, issue some crazy stuff. The three leads recalled their months-long audition process for the movie that would go on to win two Oscars and become the highest-grossing animated film of all time (at the time). Old footage of Kane working with the film's composer Alan Menken to brilliant the syncopation of "One Jump Ahead" played, immediately followed by the vocalist proving his pipes are still in full working sort. There were appearances by Clinton Greenspan just a number of short weeks ahead of his Aladdin Broadway debut; Deedee Magno Hall, the opening Jasmine to grace Disneyland’s Hyperion Theater in Disney’s Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular; and Mena Massoud, the newest Aladdin to join the party, who showed up with blooper reel and also a deleted scene from 2019’s live-action film.


The hour-long retrospective was a stark reminder of just how prolific this story has become. "We grew up with it, and right now there's generations of people who have grown up with this movie," Weinger says. "There's adults that saw it any time whenever they were kids and right now they're seeing it with their kids."


And although, in some ways, the animated flick's premiere feels like it was just yesterday. "I remember it pretty vividly," Weinger says. "I was working on Full House at the time and soon after work I invited Candace Cameron to be my date to the premiere. And I didn't really explain it to her because it was pre-social media where you need stylists and 10 people to get you ready for a thing. It was just like, immediately after work you wanna go with me to be able to see this movie?' And we went for sushi and then we went to the premiere of the movie, and it also was really fun."


although this date sounds like exactly the context we'd desire to revive in 2019 to remind us of times that were simpler and more pure, any time two teen-dreamy co-stars and their perms could go out for a night of celebratory fun at a children's movie, we can’t. "The crazy thing is: there really are no photographs of it," he continues. "They can't find any photographs from the premiere of us."


"I know!" Larkin chimes in. "I do not even think I have any photos. I remember I was with my parents, I remember what I was wearing, although I don't ever remember seeing a photo."


"That's also bad," Kane laments right after his beginning surprise dissipates.


An try to verify this claim by means of the a fast Getty Images search) revealed it to be true: The only celebrities with readily accessible photos from the evening are people like Steven Spielberg, Goldie Hawn, and Sharon Stone — who are definitely all stars, nevertheless not the stars. Thus, sadly, all we have are the memories of that moment in time, so here’s what Weinger, Larkin, and Kane remember.


MTV News: Looking back on this movie, what do you feel? What comes to mind any time whenever you go back to that moment in time?


Linda Larkin: It's been such a back-to-back journey for us. We're here today with the animator who drew Jasmine, and with one of the creators and directors of the film, and together, and we just have been doing this for 27 years. It's just one long back-to-back journey going back to 1992. To pick out one thing that we remember from the film, I would mention certainly the workdays that we had, all of our work in the studio together.


Brad Kane: Absolutely, yeah. I think for me, looking back, anytime I visualize videotape of the recording sessions, wish I could go back and change my style choices. Knowing that those were going to be on tape for posterity, that they could be playing them at every D23, at every re-release of the thing. Wish I might go back and change a number of things. It's so early '90s. I love that. I guess that's a good thing.


Larkin: That's so funny. It was another occasion, also. You didn't wear makeup to work then once you were recording.


Scott Weinger: Well, that's one of the joys of doing an animated thing — you don't have to. You could show up in your sweatpants.


Larkin: Yeah, they certainly did not tell me the day they were filming in the studio. All of a sudden there was a camera crew there. I was like, "Oh wait, I think I have lipstick somewhere. Hold on!"


Kane: I habitually thought the camera was recording me to catch my mouth. Even once we were in the booth, I routinely thought they were doing that just to catch the rhythms of my mouth for animation.


Larkin: It was, right?


Kane: It was, except once we were actually in the rehearsal rooms and the cameras were there. That was for press, and I habitually thought, "Oh, they're just using that to study my mouth, also Change my clothes!


Larkin: Oh yes, and then also those surveillance cameras that they had trained on us...


Weinger: naturally, to prepare ensure we didn't divulge specifics of the plot!


MTV News: It was another occasion, and that's what’s interesting about an animated film, is that it doesn't have outfit choices and things like that.


Larkin: It's so interesting, our film also though, because Robin Williams did so much improvising as well as a lot of pop-culture references were in our movie, and I thought that that would really pin to 1992, and yes it doesn't.


Weinger: There's several that order kind of do, in a good way, that remind you.


Larkin: Like [gestures hand above her head] —


Weinger: Yeah! Arsenio.


Kane: Although then they have Ed Sullivan, which was a 30-year-old reference even then.


Weinger: Yeah they were all — exactly. William F. Buckley...


Kane: Yeah, Groucho Marx, William F. Buckley, [laughs] I didn't remember about one, that is correct. I don't mind all of these pop-culture references. I think the idea of anything being dated — something should be of its time, to some degree, you know?


Larkin: Right, it's of its time without being dated. That is exactly it.


Weinger: A lot of people mention any time while they watch it, it takes them back to that exact moment in their lives.


Kane: That's the thing, you want it to suck you right back to your childhood.


MTV News: Was there a standout moment any time while you realized how big this movie had become?


Larkin: Oh, I would mention immediately following the weekend. The initial weekend box office shattered every box office record in history, and I think we had a sense of it because we'd seen it with a number of crowds that flipped out for it.


Weinger: We went to these intricate screenings of it and stuff. Then the premiere, they shut off Hollywood Boulevard for this huge premiere. So, I mean we knew it was a big deal. And I remember then they mentioned it was the highest-grossing animated movie ever. And then they mentioned it was the highest-grossing movie of the year. I mean, it was just like a big, monster thing. It was crazy.


Kane: For me it wasn't up until really 20 years later that I realized what a big deal it was. I mean I knew it was special to be a piece of, because you know you had Beauty and the Beast that came before it, and all these animated classics. It was nice to be a piece of that legacy. However it's not up until several years go by that you actually visualize how several generations of people...


Weinger: You get perspective.


Kane: You get the perspective on it so you realize you are actually segment of a classic right now. It's a pretty fantastic thing to feel.


Larkin: And every year we meet increasingly people, like you. I'm meeting you for the opening time. You saw this as soon as you were a little bit kid. So, as time goes on, I collect increasingly people in my life who have seen this movie and yes it has had an impact on them.


Weinger: All three of us get, "You were my whole childhood!"


MTV News: And to end, how did it feel to be able to see your story being repurposed for the live-action movie?


Weinger: I loved it. Additionally to the fact that the movie was good and so they made it their own and Mena Massoud was good, and Naomi [Scott] was astonishing, and certainly, Will Smith and the full gang, I love that it categorize kind of brought Aladdin into the front row of pop culture again. It's pretty insane. Because it didn't just begin a conversation about that, it brought our movie back inside the conversation.


MTV News: I, personally, don't think it ever left!


Weinger: Yeah! It brought it in more, even more. Yeah, exactly!


Larkin: I loved seeing Jasmine's role expanded. That was, for me, so exhilarating in the live-action. It was really special.


This interview has been edited and condensed.