An Interview With The Voice Of Disney’s Aladdin Scott Weinger!

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Hey All!

I recently attended a special event at Disney Studios for the release of Disney’s Aladdin Diamond Edition on Blu-ray. It was a special screening/family carnival hosted by the voice of Aladdin Scott Weinger! It was truly spectacular to experience such an event on the lot. You’re surrounded by Disney history and it’s the actual place where they brought Aladdin to life all those years ago. I feel so old saying all those years ago! Aladdin is my all time favorite Disney musical. I can quote every line from the film as I used to put on full on Aladdin productions in my grandmother’s living room.

In front of the famed original Disney Animation building was a small little Aladdin themed festival, where all the media invited could bring their kids to enjoy.

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There were belly dancers…

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Donuts and tasty treats…

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Aladdin toys as far as the eye could see…

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And fun games like Abu’s coin toss game for the kids to play and win prizes.

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That was all fun, but I was on a mission to interview the voice of Aladdin himself Scott Weinger. Not to be confused with the gentleman who is the singing voice of Aladdin. Scott Weinger is the man who has voiced Aladdin for years. He did everything but sing the songs. I found Scott sitting on a bench chatting with the Co-Director of Aladdin Ron Clements. Ron is a Disney LEGEND. He’s one half of the talented duo that has brought us everything from The Little Mermaid to The Princess and The Frog. He’s also working on the highly anticipated Moana!

It was so incredible to see them sitting on a bench at Disney studios in front of the screening room that they first saw rough cuts of Aladdin in as they were making it.

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As soon as I got my chance to chat with Scott, I had to ask what it was like to be revisiting Aladdin once again after all these years. I of course had to tell him I used to put on productions of Aladdin in my grandmother’s living room.

Scott:

It’s surreal on so many levels. It’s great. Isn’t it crazy that people are still putting on Aladdin productions in their living rooms. The big difference now is I’m a dad. I saw it in this theater when I was 17 years old and I won’t tell you how old I am now, But the big change for me is being here now with my wife and my son. He’s never seen it before!

I was incredibly shocked to hear his son has never seen Aladdin. How could this be!

Scott:

I feel like I’ve tried and he’s just never shown any interest. I think that he knows something, because God knows he’s an animation fan and a Disney fan. Today even by accident he is wearing Star Wars shoes, A Nightmare Before Christmas Shirt and a Perry the Platypus. He knows that Aladdin is a big deal to us as we have a lot of Aladdin memorabilia in our house. He’s almost 6 now so he knows something. When he was a little bit younger he thought Aladdin was me as a kid. Some how I was animated and there was this whole other dimension that I came out of somehow. Now he’s a little older and he understands what Animation is. My wife and I are still in entertainment, so he understands how these things get made. Now he gets it and he thinks it’s a big deal. It really hit home for him when we didn’t have to wait in lines at Disneyland recently. That’s when he started to appreciate that Daddy’s pretty cool.

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I of course had to ask him what his favorite memory was when he was making Aladdin. I wanted to desperately hear every detail of what it was like to make this movie.

Scott:

There were so many incredible experience and memories, but I have to say working with Robin Williams was an amazing mind blowing experience. We got to record together for the movie! He was such a big improviser, and we would have the script, but he would change his dialog. They loved it and welcomed it of course.

We were interrupted by one of the writers of ABC TV show Galavant (WHICH I’M OBSESSED WITH) and I had no idea Scott currently works on the show as a writer and producer on it well. He shared they are shooting now in England and will be back in early 2016! Woot! The voice of Aladdin is also bringing to life one of the best new shows on TV! What an experience.

Scott:

To get to work with Alan Menken on this show is a dream come true. We didn’t get to work together on Aladdin since I didn’t do the singing voice. It’s amazing to finally get to work with him on this show. We’re doing ten new episodes with is music.

It’s always been a mystery to my why Scott never sang his own songs in Aladdin and the mystery was finally solved.

Scott:

I tried! Alan rejected me! (We both shared a laugh as he was joking around!) I tried very hard to sing the songs. I worked with a voice coach and Alan and I just couldn’t get there to where I needed to be for the songs. I guess they liked my speaking voice well enough to keep me on as the voice and just got someone to do the singing. I’m so thankful they let me stay on. And the result is Aladdin is so me. The eyebrows, the hand gestures, his mannerisms are all me. I can see myself in Aladdin. The animators would come into the recording sessions and draw me and record me so they could animate the expressions I was doing for Aladdin.

I lastly had two questions for Scott…

One being what is his favorite scene from Aladdin and the answer being anything with the Genie! And two what could he tell me about the new Full House show Fuller House! In case you didn’t know he was on that show and he played D.J’s boyfriend Steve Hale. He’ll be making some appearances on the new show.

Scott:

They will take me out back and shoot me if I tell you too much about the show, but I will tell you this…

You’re going to be seeing some Steve. Let’s just say Steve is single and DJ is single. That’s all I’m going to say!

I can not wait to see him on this show. We snapped a picture together so I could cherish my dream come true moment of meeting Steve and the voice of Aladdin. It was truly a full circle moment for me.

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Ron introduced Scott and said a few amazing words about Aladdin…

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Scott thanked his family and his son and his son’s friends (who were all in attendance to see Aladdin for the first time with his dad) in the same theater his dad saw it in when he was a 17 year old kid!

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Talk about a full circle moment for us all!

The Diamond Edition Aladdin on out on Digital HD now and the Blu-ray is in stores October 13th! Run out and get your copy when it’s released!

 

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