Be warned, the animation in the film looks NOTHING like this one depicted on its front cover.
A 1999 direct-to-video Indonesian animated film adapted from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves directed by Hariyanto and produced by Rudy Chandra of Beauty and Warrior infamy. An English dub was made in 2002, and was directed by Godfrey Honote and produced by Joseph Lai of Space Thunder Kids and Beauty and Warrior fame. Need we say more?
This film provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Despite being a 2D work, all the backgrounds are in CGI, and stand out immensely by comparison.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: It's not explained how the gold raiders found Ali Baba's house. In the original story, the tailor who sewed Cassim's body back together for burial was the one who told them where Ali Baba lives. The movie just skips from the first search (with the wife painting crosses on all the doors) to the thieves somehow having found Ali Baba's house.
- Adapted Out: Ali and Cassim's children aren't in this adaptation, and neither is Ali's slave Morgiana.
- Anachronism Stew:
- One of the thieves is wearing a Batman shirt, for starters.
- The treasure shown consists of various modern-day awards (like an Emmy, a Grammy, the World Cup, the Grand Prix Champion trophy, the Wimbledon Champion trophy, the Thomas Cup and an Olympic medal), a cell phone and a gold credit card.
- Cassim muttering Osama bin Laden's name when trying to remember the magic words to escape the cave. This would be comparable to a French soldier in The Hundred Years War making an offhand mention of Jerry Lewis.
- And This Is for...: "... my man, of course."
- Bowdlerise: In the original story, after the Forty Thieves kill Cassim, they dismember his corpse and hang his body parts just inside the cave as a warning to other intruders. This doesn't happen in this version.
- Department of Redundancy Department: A lot of the dialogue in this movie is the characters repeating their lines, as though they had multiple takes of their line and decided to us all of them!?
- Dull Surprise: The voice actors all read their lines with no emotion, and the character models show little emotion as well.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- Likely an unintended one; a giant hammer can be seen for one frame well before it's brandished.
- When Cassim is in the cave of wonders throwing gold and treasure in the air, one of the items falling down is a cell phone.
- Holding the Floor: Ali Baba talks a lot about zaitoon when the gold raiders found his house.
- Informed Attribute: Cassim apparently has a "magic measure bowl", which Ali Baba and his wife use to count the gold they have. Nothing in the film suggests what this magic actually is, outside of being able to put things in the bowl?
- Leave the Camera Running: The film frequently depicts mundane tasks going on for way longer than they should. The biggest offender is the intro, with Ali Baba riding his donkey for a long time before anything meaningful happens.
- Limited Animation: Ali Baba & the Gold Raiders has laughably amateurish animation that changes from a bad style to a worse one every 20 seconds.
- Motor Mouth: When the camera isn't lingering on silent shots for too long, the characters are talking way too much, usually to nobody, and about nothing in particular.
- No Ending: After the leader of the gold raiders gets tied up and cries out for help, the title appears and the credits roll.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The "forty thieves" in the original story were reduced to a handful of "gold raiders" in this adaptation, presumably to make animation easier.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the original, the forty thieves are killed in their jars by the wife pouring boiling hot oil on them.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After the gold raiders find Cassim in their cave, he disappears from the story. In the original story, the thieves killed him. Interestingly, Ali Baba comes back from the cave bringing several sacks with him. In the original story these sacks contained what was left of Cassim's dismembered body.
