A-Mazing Aladdin

Disney's Aladdin #1

by Alex Simmons, Phil Ortiz (Illustrator)

Ben Baba Abad is back! After 100 years of peace, the sorceror has returned to Agrabah to spread his evil. There's chaos in the marketplace. The palace guards are acting strangely, and the Genie is imprisoned in Abad's underground temple of evil. To rescue the Genie and save Agrabah, Aladdin and Jasmine must master the terrible maze that surrounds the temple, and the dangers lurking within. And if they make it...they still have to face Ben Baba Abad!

Genres: Childrens

60 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Enrique Sánchez Pascual (1918-1996)

Reviews

[kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing to go through all my old kids books. This one is the first in a box set of six books. They're part of the "Disney Books By Mail" series. I'm an OLD. I remember getting these from my parents, apparently sending away for them was a big deal and a process.

Anyways, this story is fine. It could easily have been an episode of the animated series (maybe it was meant to be). There really isn't much to say about it. It's an Aladdin adventure. You know they'll win by the end, lol.

The bad guy being called Ben Baba Abad was a... choice but this was from 1993 so I guess not too surprising. Not entirely sure why it's called A-Mazing Aladdin when he's not particularly amazing in this one.

Not sure if It's just my copy but the printing of the full colour pictures isn't the greatest. They're kind of fuzzy in this book and washed out so Aladdin and Jasmine look... white. Yikes. I do appreciate them not having the genie in his mancales at least since it wasn't always consitant when they do that or not.

I also think it's funny the book explained who Jafar was and summarized what happened in the movie in a few sentences. Like... who was reading this if they had never seen the movie?!

[Illey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had several moments where you just had to know what was going to happen next. Although I feel the end was rushed, the overall plot was indeed amazing!

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a "new" Aladdin adventure. It came out in the 90's, after the hit animated film, but it tells a new story and adds a new villain. It takes place after the events of the first movie, after Jafar is banned and the Genie is free. Now Aladdin faces a new threat: an old sorcerer.

This is a short chapter book for kids, with 8 chapters and 60ish pages. The story is quick to read, but it is really fun to see familiar characters facing new foes. It adds a lot to the lore of Agrabah and I wish that there were more books like this coming out still.

[Stephanie A.]

Temporary review: with the new movie coming out, I was thinking back to my childhood obsession with the original version, and I remembered that I used to have a book based on the characters. One short Internet sleuth later, this cover rang a bell. I can't remember much about it, and I certainly got rid of it long ago, but I was definitely super-enamored of anything that got me extra Aladdin and/or Jasmine content. I just wanted to add it to my shelves before I forget it again.