Aladdin

Aladdin (SuperFantagenio) Directed By Bruno Corbucci, starring Bud Spencer (1986).

 When I first moved to Florida, my dad rented this Italian kiddie flick (I was 11 and my father looks like Bud Spencer, the Genie in this flick)! Before I revisited it, all the fuzzy memories I had of it were that the Genie seemed to play piano at a strip club during the finally and that jaunty sing-songy theme would resurface sometimes in my brain. 

   In the early 80's there were a lot of questionable kiddie flicks taking up space on the shelves for unsuspecting kids to have their minds warped by, like this and euro/anglicized beloved favorites like the Swedish Pippi Longstocking series and maybe some Mexican/overdubbed K. Gordon Murray tapes. I always saw a pattern between these and my fate with the Italian/Euro dubbed flicks that I hold so dear.

   This kind of connection between weird dubbed cult movies doesn't happen to kids now-a-days, it could only exist in the 80's where you'd have entire families renting Mondo movies along with the mainstream fair (I guess it's all done in secret on the internet now). 

It's half coincidence and something larger, why else would these films play such a role through-out my adolescence and follow me even now (I can't explain it), but I'm grateful. 

   When I saw Fulci's Zombie accidentally on video at my friend John's house, I wouldn't dare tell anyone what disturbing fictional atrocities I saw that day (but I was captivated). The cavalcade of Fulci crew members and actors are all present in Aladdin (or SuperFantagenio), we've got Fabio Frizzi, Dardano Sachetti, Two actors from Gates Of Hell; Janet Agren and the guy who plunges a drill through John Morghen's skull, Luca Venantini.

   It's a strange coincidence that all of the major dunderheads from Pastaland have consistently followed me around through-out my life and I can appreciate them, while others just shake their heads in shame and embarrassment. I had no idea that anyone from the Fulci lore was in this film at the time, until I revisited it, but it all makes sense now.

   So is Aladdin any good? Does it really matter? It's pretty terrible and can only be understood by TOG readers, who know what to expect from the marinara dumpster full of rancid meatballs and moldy lingini: top notch entertainment! 

   They used real Miami locations and even poke fun at how Florida is a gangster ridden, lawless, humid tourist trap that anyone with a shred of sanity must escape from! 

   A kid who's named Al Haddin (Luca Venantini), works at a shop called "Tony Buys It!" discovers the lamp and out pops a soggy, bloated Bud Spencer and some of the worst chroma-keyed in special effects this side of Macfatter Vocational School! 

dead mobsters are dropping like gambino flies

They make it seem like all the citizens in Miami are either drunks or in organized crime (one guy is thrown from a window for failing to pay mobsters and lands on the Genie's flying car)! Grampa Haddin (Julian Voloshin) is constantly drunk and resembles a real life Miami Golem, I warned you in that films review that they are lurking about in Florida delicatessens. 

Frodo's a fuckin bum!

According to this version of the Genie mythos, you have unlimited wishes and they get overly abused! Right from the get-go, the kid tells the genie to become invisible and visible like 50 times in a row! He's constantly getting arrested and there's all kinds of stupid police that are befuddled that he has no fingerprints! 

I taught Michael Winslow how to do sound effects

This was all directed by Bruno Corbucci, the man behind some of the grisliest westerns like Django and The Great Silence (later stolen for Tarantino's hack-job Django Unchained). Janet Agren plays Jane Haddin, little Al's mom and she looks pretty stunning in this role (I'm used to seeing her chasing cannibals or dodging maggots, with her sharp cheekbones jutting out)!

   If you didn't have a similar circumstance like I did, where it was your destiny to make sense out of every terrible or genius film involving Italian gore actors than skip it. I had to get this one out of my system, it had been hanging around my neck like a dead weight for years. I used to have all this respect for the screenwriter of Zombie and many of the best Fulci flicks, but after finding out he wrote this and Devil Fish, I'm not so sure. 
Recommended For Italian Horror Actor Completists Only

Official "I'm The Genie" hats on sale at Florida Salvation Army's

This grape soda is making my tummy erupt farts

Fats Geronimo's replacement for the new Rock-A-Fire Explosion

    

 The Story of Aladdin Theater of Gut's Style