(Open on a desert. The wind blows sand across the screen. Camera pans to right and zooms to show a caravan of camels travelling across the desert.
Somber Arabian music plays in the background; the camera cuts and zooms to show the two camels at the front- we see a family of four, two members seated on a camel each. There is a dad, a mom, a son and a daughter. The dad and son sit on the camel in front; the mom and daughter sit on the camel right behind the first. The daughter is older than the son by two years.)
Son: Baba, how long until we reach the city?
Dad: Hmmm... (to his wife, the mom)How long have we been travelling?
Mom: I believe we have been going on for at least three days.
Daughter: Three days? More like three weeks...
(The son reaches into his side pocket and takes out the magic lamp.)
Son: Baba, I was wondering- you asked me to take this lamp with us for our trip. What's so great about this?
Dad: Oh, that's no ordinary lamp. Why, it's said to have once contained an all-powerful genie.
Son: (scoffs)No way.
Daughter: A genie? (Fascinated)Whoa...
Dad: Don't be fooled by its commonplace appearance, my boy. Sometimes, it's not what's on the outside, but what's inside that counts.
Daughter: What happened to the genie?
Dad: Well, a young man once found this lamp, and after some mishaps, he set the Genie free.
Daughter: Oh... What's his name?
Dad: Aladdin.
Son: Sounds interesting... Baba, can you tell us the story?
Dad: Hmmm... Well...
(Intro to "Arabian Nights" starts playing and the dad starts to sing.)
Dad: Oh, imagine a land, it's a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it's flat and immense, and the heat is intense-
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home
(The son and daughter listen very excitedly as the dad continues to sing.)
Dad: When the wind's from the east
And the sun's from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down, stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night
(The camera pans from the dad singing on the camel to the desert sands ahead, and then it slowly zooms in on the city as the title card - "Aladdin"- shows up on the screen in golden letters. During the instrumental break and opening credits, the sky turns from the golden blue of early morning to the purple of late evening as the camera pans up to reveal a bustling marketplace, thronged by people of various kinds- shopkeepers, hawkers, families, old men sitting and chatting, women working in the public kitchens.)
Dad: (voiceover)As you wind through the streets at the fabled bazaars
With the cardamom-cluttered stalls
You can smell every spice
While you haggle the price
Of the silks and the satin shawls
(The camera moves to left to show a young bearded man with what looks like a vintage, 90s hairdo that reaches to his shoulders- he is Aladdin. We see Abu also, leaping off his shoulder. Aladdin quickly follows Abu.)
Dad: (voiceover)Oh, the music that plays as you move through a maze
In the haze of your pure delight
You are caught in a dance, you are lost in the trance
Of another Arabian night
(The camera pans up from where Aladdin and Abu were to an impressive shot of the royal palace. The palace doors open to reveal a beautifully arched passageway, after which the camera moves into the throne room to show the Sultana reading through some document, then the Sultan consulting with his council- among whom we see the sinister-looking grand vizier Jafar and his parrot Iago. The camera follows Iago as he flies out of the throne room and into the palace courtyard, which has a fountain in the middle.)
Dad: (voiceover)Arabian nights
Like Arabian days
More often than not are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways
Arabian nights
Like Arabian dreams
This mystical land of magic and sand
Is more than it seems
