Studio: Disney MovieToons, Walt Disney Television Animation
Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Produced by: Bob Hathcock
Short Synopsis
Scrooge McDuck, his great-nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, their friend Webby and the pilot Launchpad McQuack discover the lost treasure of the legendary thief Collie Baba in a buried pyramid in the desert, with the help of a small, shifty guide named Dijon. Dijon is secretly working for the sorcerer Merlock, who wants something in the treasure: an old oil lamp. Scrooge takes the treasure home but gives the lamp to the children as a souvenir. The children discover that it holds a genie, who grants them three wishes each. The children keep him a secret and have fun with their wishes, while Merlock and Dijon come to Duckburg to steal the lamp, because whoever owns it can make unlimited wishes. Dijon steals the lamp and wishes himself Scrooge's fortune, and Merlock takes it from him to use its unlimited power for himself. Scrooge and the children fight to get it back. In the final battle, Scrooge regains the lamp and makes his final wish: that the genie become a real boy. The genie, free, joins the family.
Why It Matters
- The film carries over the brisk, adventurous tone of the DuckTales television series, itself inspired by Carl Barks's comics, into a globe-trotting Indiana Jones-style adventure, and Christopher Lloyd's Merlock, a shape-shifting sorcerer, is a vivid villain.
- It was the first feature from Disney MovieToons, the label for theatrical films based on Disney's television animation, and the first animated film Disney distributed that was not made by its feature animation studio. Its modest box-office performance ended plans for further DuckTales films, but the label later produced A Goofy Movie (1995).
Notes and Trivia
- The genie is voiced by Rip Taylor.
- It was released two years before Disney's own Aladdin (1992), which also features a genie, a lamp and a desert setting.
- See also: Aladdin (1992), The Rescuers Down Under (1990).