Crying With Style

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The plot to Disney's Aladdin, like many films, went through drastic changes throughout its development. For one, the original story mirrored its source more accurately. It had two genies - the one we know and love, and a less powerful ring genie who was green.

The protagonist, Aladdin, was always meant to have his origins in the slums of the city, but his personal life went through many changes - one of the stranger ones being that he was supposed to have three friends - which probably had something to do with the original story. These three actually had a song to introduce them as well, but that's not what we're exploring here... What we see here, is a taste of an older, and in my opinion, much better version of Aladdin's intro early in the story which was meant to develop his character a little more and show us the source of his motivation before the adventure kicks in.

Instead of starting with a womanizing street rat in his 20s, we were supposed to see a bit of a flashback to an earlier point in his life, in which he lived with his mother in a small one-room hut made of sandstone. This, obviously, is only a small step up from his future position, but it's still something. Though his financial position is about the same, the real important factor here was his mother and how she ties into all of this.

You don't see his father, which makes me assume he's probably dead. What you do see however, is his wedding ring - the family's one real precious possession. In a short little scene before this, we start off with seeing Aladdin having an argument with his mother. The mother is desperate, but Aladdin is reluctant. Ultimately, she convinces him that the only way to feed themselves in these troubling times would be for him to go downtown to sell the ring. Discouraged, Aladdin complies, but vows to make himself worth something and find another way to provide for the family.

Aaaand that's where this song sets in. You can easily assume this would have been the film's first song as well, and honestly, it's just the most heartbreaking thing ever. The entire point of this song, is he's basically apologizing to his mother for being a loser, and making the promise to do something right for once.

Since I discovered this, it's quickly become one of my favorite Disney songs, and it never even made it to its film. The song however was cherished so much by the team, that it was later repurposed for the Broadway show.

So with that all out of the way, what are your favorite unreleased songs from animation? For me personally, I just can't get this one out of my head - I feel like the story it portrayed was much better than what we ultimately got. And honestly, I feel like they still could have made it work somehow.