A very Disney retelling of Arabian Nights in every instance. ther's the customised script, pro-American values and gorgeous teens in the lead, even if they are animated.

Just one thing makes it stand out - Robin Williams as the Genie. He steals the film every time the Genie is in frame, firing off puns, one liners, movie in-jokes and anachronisms like a middy gun, and the animation is tailor-made to his comic shtick.

Almost as funny in the same vein is Gilbert Gottfried as Jaffar's nasty and neurotic parrot Iago. Without the presence of both voices, it would just be a run of the mill Disney cartoon in most respects. Having said that, there are several scenes that - while they won't stand up to the CGI of today - are technically accomplished for hand drawn cel animation.

Just one is the lion-head cave entrance collapsing. The shifting sand of the collapsing structure has a stark behavioural realism you rarely saw in animated films. We saw the same thing a few years later in The Lion King when the wildebeest stampede spills over the canyon edge, and if the Pixar business model hadn't taken over, who knows what heights artisan animators might have reached by now?