Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The return of the technicolor adventure
Tags: Misc DVD 2009 Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 14th, 2009
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is one of the more famous tales in the literary classic 1001 Arabian Nights. There is, however, little resemblance between the original tale and this 1944 film. Instead of the tale of a merchant’s son and his brother we get a version of Robin Hood.
There are elements of the original story still here, such as the name of Ali Baba’s brother, Kassim, only here he is a betrayer to the Caliph of Bagdad. Toss in a love story and a little more political intrigue and we have a fun adventure set in a land and time that to this day is still exotic.
As a child I would sit down on Saturday mornings and watch cartoons. Naturally I would have a big bowl of cereal for breakfast, sitting in front of the television. I recently replicated that experience with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, as I was in a hotel room (the circumstances can be found here) watching the film and eating a large bowl of cereal. While the cereal may have changed to be a bit healthier, the feeling of being transported to another imaginary time and place had not changed. As I watched the film, I became a little kid again, letting the sense of wonder and excitement build as the story unfolded.
It may not be a perfect film, not only does it stray greatly from the source material but there is less action than one might expect, but Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is simply fun to watch. Really, that’s about all you can ask of a film. There are no special features, which is a shame, because this could have used … well, something. I’m sure a film historian would have loved to have contributed to an audio commentary. I bet Universal has some sort of “stock” special features sitting around their archives on the stars or the era. Oh well. At least we have the film once again to enjoy, finally on DVD.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Fun | 8.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - No special features to bring the film any relevance to modern viewers | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A great adventure that may deviate from the actual story, but it is still fun to watch. | |
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Tags: Misc DVD 2009
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jul 14th, 2009 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
