Allison and Phelan team up to look at one of the most abysmally animated nightmares ever created by someone who isn't Dingo Pictures. But they're gonna need a little help from Harry Partridge! phelous.com / phelous
I actually might’ve appreciated the movie more if the animators had more quality animation like Harry’s. Of course the satirical comedy of the Harry animation would be lost unfortunately.
So this inspired me to re-read the original Arabian Nights story (no, not one of the sanitized children's versions) because I remembered the original tale being similar, but it turns out this is a "broad strokes" adaptation. All the differences I can recall: 1. Kasim is only in the story for like, a page. 2. Ali's wife doesn't borrow a "magic bowl," she borrows a plain ol' weight-measuring scale, which Kasim's wife coats with wax just to see what Ali would be measuring, purely out of nosiness. 3. Unlike in this version, Ali Baba didn't share the gold around--he and his household tried their darndest to keep everything under wraps, in part because they knew the thieves would look for anyone who had suddenly become very rich, but also because they didn't want to risk possible legal issues. 4. Kasim not only gets killed, he's actually cut into four pieces and his body parts hung just beyond the door as a warning. Ali Baba finds these and takes these home, but doesn't have a funeral for a few days so that his household can pretend Kasim is sick and died of disease, going with the whole "keeping everything under wraps" thing. 5. The text only says the one bandit marked Ali Baba's house with chalk, not that he drew an X. 6. Pretty much, the rest of the story is Ali Baba being oblivious to danger which an awesome slave girl he employs named Morgiana constantly saves him from--the chalk thing happens TWICE (once with white then with red chalk) before the robber captain comes and simply memorizes the location, and then when he pretends to be an oil salesman she happens upon the dudes in the jars and POURS BURNING OIL ON THEM, which kills them all (apparently without them crying out or being heard since again, Ali Baba is later able to keep this under wraps, and she got to all of them before anyone found out what she did). By the way, the term "Zaitoon" or however its spelled is NEVER MENTIONED ONCE, at least not in the edition I have (which is by Jack Zipes, but based on the Richard F. Burton translation). 7. The captain escapes after the oil merchant plan, and comes back with another plan where he befriend's Ali's nephew to get into Ali Baba's house, hoping to just stab him. Once again Morgiana gets wise and straight-up murders the guy. She's rewarded by being married to Ali Baba's nephew, who its emplied treated her well and gave her everything she ever wanted. So basically, "Ali Baba and the Gold Raiders" took a fun little fairy tale and made it stupid, in part just by telling it badly.
For those who are curious, I counted how many times they say Zaitoon in this movie. You want to know how many? *54!* I'm DEAD serious. They say Zaitoon *54 FUCKING TIMES IN THIS MOVIE.*
Zaitoon apparently is the name of an Arabic restaurant. I guess given the movie it makes sense. But were they trying to advertise the restaurant!?! Because this is the worst possible way and worst possible movie to do so in!
Yeah, something tells me that's not true, you would definitely have gotten into trouble if caught. Also, for anyone reading who works in that industry too, please don't throw away movies like this, they're already hard enough to find
Wait... WHAT? Harry, Harry? Harry the "I take a long-ass time to animate but it's completely understandable because it takes lots of money and time" Harry? Woah, Best Reviewers and one of the best animators! I'll Cherish this video forever.
Funny enough this is more faithful to the actual tale than most adaptations. In it, Ali Baba's brother gets killed, and his donkeys are sent back each carrying a piece of him, and Ali's wife kills all the raiders while they're hiding in the jars by pouring boiling oil into them. And people think the Grimm Brothers were too graphic...
No, the infamous Zelda CD-I and Hotel Mario cutscenes were animated by some Russian studio by the name of Animation Magic. This was animated by Bening Studio in Indonesia. From what I can gather, I think all of their stuff was released direct-to-VCD (Video CD) in their native country. But I can certainly see the resemblance when it comes to their 2-D animation. However, from what I can recall of the Zelda CD-I and Hotel Mario cutscenes, Animation Magic never used 3-D backgrounds though.
In the original tale Ali Baba borrows a completely mundane scale from his greedy brother under tha pretense that he wants to measure grain. Kassim finds out he's measuring gold by sticking a piece of wax to the scales which one of the gold coins gets stuck on. Why did they have to make the whole ordeal and the two brothers so much dumber? Were they afraid little kids wouldn't get scales and believed you could only measure stuff with magic? Also, the Forty Thieves mutilate Kassim and prop the pieces up inside the cave. Ali Baba retrieves them and that's why the Forty Thieves get on his tail. The moviemakers kind of forgot that the Forty Thieves must have a reason to suspect a second intruder (in other sanitized versions Kassim rats his brother out), but eh, saying Zaitoone a thousand times was way more important.
As an Indonesian IDF brought shame to us all for being an animation company using local talents (if they can be considered "talent") to made shit like this. The owner of IDF is an opportunistic guy who knew that he can create cheap shit to sell in shit market. Also Yogyakarta is a province/district/state in Indonesia in Java island. They made animation there because living cost in that area is pretty cheap. Oh and the word "zaitun" is actually Arabic for "olive" so Ali wife's is named Olive, and the cooking is made with olive oil.... and I just realized that it means Ali Baba is Popeye......
I know he was aiming to make it look bad but Dammit Harry your stuff is too good in comparison to the dreck....also just out of curiosity was the guy you guys sealed away the Irate gamer ?
GruntGamerProductions Copied AVGN for years. Not only did he review NES games, not only did he review the exact same games as James, he made the EXACT SAME JOKES AND CONCLUSIONS!
Mr. Partridge's animations are still too good, despite his attempt to parody this. I love how he can distort his creations while still giving a care about them. That was a wonderful addition to this review. I'm just used to seeing him pop a big one over Elder Scrolls. Haha!
Hundred of pieces of paper were dedicated to drawing and animating the backend of a donkey and his rider walking through the desert. Somebody had to hand paint each cell...think about that.
23:03- Is Kasim holding an Oscar? If that anachronism is in there because they mistakenly believed they'd one day get one, than that is the funniest joke in the film.
Isnt he the guy who makes cooking videos with ZAITOON OIL? He sure does love to use ZAITOON OIL in his cooking, its healthy to use ZAITOON OIL he even has a nickname for Alice, he calls her ZAITOON- even Brad likes to called her ZAITOON. They call her ZAITOON because she loves to help Phelous cook with ZAITOON OIL- shes the one to get him started on ZAITOON OIL
I don't know which is worse, the "animation", the "voice acting" or the studio placing its banner on the side like one of those make a video for free programs. I love when Brad helps Phelous with a review!
That was the best Zaitoon movie I've ever had to Zaitoon see in my Zaitoon life accompanied by awesome Zaitoon animation! Don't mind my Zaitoon comment I'm just a normal everyday Zaitoon viewer.
ladydiskette I think it's a wee bit small on her but I love that combo. Tripp makes them but if you have a Pac Sun, it'll probably carry them during the fall.
CWDTrixie I have three responses to this: 1. "I'm Wabuu, shooby-dooby-doo. I love Zaituns, dooby-dooby-doo." 2. *Wabuu eats an olive" Bird: "Zaitun murder, Zaitun murderererer...er. "3. Black Panther: "BE ZAITUUUUUUUN!!!"
As others have pointed out, zaitun or zaytoon (زيتون) is Arabic for olive. So, when he says his wife, Zaitun, uses zaitun in her cooking, what he really means is that his wife, Zaitun (Olive), uses olive oil in her food preparation. But technically, this is zait zaitun (زيت زيتون), which his wife, Zaitun uses.
Thank you so much! I was completely lost by that whole bit. Funny how it's not even grammatically correct! And would someone really name their kid Zaitun?
I've watched that ending about 300 times now. It's clear that a lot of love and effort was put into making y'all look as fantastic, stupid, and terrible as possible.
Crap, this comes from my country. I suppose an apology is in order? Also Allison, Yogyakarta is actually a city, located in the island of Java (However, you did get a gold star for pronouncing the name right).
It was host to a conference of Human Rights experts where they convene to create a set of principles/guidelines based on existing international law norms. That conference then created Yogyakarta Principles. It's sort of called "soft law" by international law scholars cos it's not a convention or treaty but most of what's written in the principles are pretty much accepted interpretation of landmark conventions like ICCPR and ICESCR(ie. criminalisation of sexuality is a violation of privacy, rights like freedom of speech, expression etc should also extend to LGBT individuals, stuff like that) so it's kinda moot cos what's written there is norm already, just kinda scattered in decisions and not compiled
Is it just me? Or Kasim's death scene feels like something out of a nightmare? At least sound wise? First there's the weird electronic music that feels out of a fever dream and there's him begging over COMPLETE silence. Then, fade out and end scene. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it feels surreal and unsettling.
Especially when you realize that when Ali Baba goes looking for him, it just quietly goes from him searching, to walking back with something wrapped up on his donkey's back while he looks sad (which ends up being Kasim's body) they dont even do a 'im sorry, Kasim is dead. The raiders. They killed him. Here is his body' They just leave the scene to imply what happened (him walking up to the women, and Kasim's wife making her way to the body before falling down in grief)
What is even more typical of this movie is that they didn't even need to add a confusing magic measuring bowl into it. The original tale had them ask for a scale to measure the coins, but Cassim's wife puts wax on it to see what they really needed it for and found the coin.
MH Gomes But the coin wasn't hidden, was it? I would expect it to be on tob of the scale if they're gonna weigh the treasure. Or were they weighing something else?
Cassim's wife was kind of a nosy bitch. She knew Ali Baba and his wife were poor, and she wanted to know what they possibly could have wanted with their scale since she thought they didn't have doodly squat. She first thought that they came across some rice and she wanted to she what kind of rice. So before she lent them the scale she put wax on it to see what stuck to it. She was surprised to find out it was actually a gold coin.
Just now, I was watching this review while my one-and-a-half-year-old son was sitting in my lap. Now he won't stop saying "zeitoun." So... thank you for that.
Oh hey, I remember Marzgurl reviewing this way back when she first started. I don't know how I remember that since it was nearly a decade ago, but there ya go. Anyway, that's super cool that ya got Harry Partridge to make those hilarious animations. Certainly better than the actual movie itself. Animated Brad is my favorite thing now!
I accidentally watched a Phelous video in my sleep the other night. I woke up on Motorcycle the Pooh but I didn't remember clicking on it. It reminded me that I hadn't watched a Phelous video in months so I have to bing this channel now. I haven't laughed this much in AGES.
I can't believe it. Someone actually reviewed this thing. I have the full movie uploaded on my channel if anyone's even more curious about this wonderful masterpiece.
Every now and again, I have to revisit this review not only for how absurd the movie is but for Harry’s attempt at the movie’s ‘look’😂 also the fact that Phelous turns into Santa with the laughter 🤣 Also the odd repetition 😂 and opening door gag
I always thought that first scene of the wife talking to the camera was like those old computer games where clicking on a character made them say a sentence or two at a time. And once they’re clicked on enough, they start looping their dialogue.
Theory: They made this for the CD-i or some other CD console and this has been sitting as a demo tape (hence the studio watermark on the left) which wound up unused because by the time they got the rejection letter, the console was already out of production.
Well TOBE FAIR, it tends to be hard for good animators to draw something so shitty when they're used to. y'know, put actual effort into what they're making.
I actually recognize the voice actress who plays Ali Baba's wife from some English dubs of Godzilla movies. Nice to know that the "best" voice actor in this movie went on to do more work.
Oh boy, I remember when Marzgurl covered this horseshit. Goddamn was she pissed. I was hoping the day would come when Phelous would cover it. That day has arrived!
Yes, it's still online alongside her review of Beauty and Warrior, another awful Indonesian animated film dubbed into English by IFD. I have seen that movie in both English and its original Indonesian (Dewi Mayang Sari from 2000) and man, what a messy roller-coaster that movie is..... It tries so hard to be anime but fails miserably. Bolivar el Heroe (from Colombia) may be the worst anime wannabe I have ever seen in my entire life but Beauty and Warrior is honestly a very close runner-up though!
Ah.. that blooper at the end shows that they really enjoyed making this crossover.. oh well.. ._. I rewatch those crossovers from time to time, they always funny as they was first time.
"Starbarians"? Sounds like a bootleg that Phelous would review. You know -- a line of Jem & the Holograms action figures based on the Galaxy Warriors models.
It's great, believe me! There are only 2 episodes (since Harry needs his sweet time (dayjob and he animates frame per frame)) but THEY ARE AMAZING! All of Harry's animations are.
When you've seen as much porn as Brad has it starts to take a lot to get you off. Hopefully we don't find him dead one day dressed as batman in a boiling pot of comics and lesbian nazi paraphernalia while an endless loop of the fisting scene from Caligula plays to the song inky dinky do da morning.
