You’ll be exploring cities, castles and the like with the help of the movie’s main character, Aladdin. The action scrolls left to right, with lots of platforms and bad guys in Aladdin’s way. He’s joined by his monkey sidekick, Abu, who mirrors your moves and stays out of the way, fulfilling his destiny as window dressing most of the time. The environments share a style and theme with the movie, which means they’re colorful and animated in such a way as to carry the license well. The figures of Aladdin and his enemies move smoothly and naturally, too. Overall, the game looks very nice, with faux middle eastern music to go along with it.

Aladdin does his best to remain a pacifist, or at least resolve his conflicts in a way that’s more reminiscent of a snazzy dance number than it is a fight. His strongest ability is jumping, and he uses it to toss foes off screen after he gently bonks them on the head. He’s so focused, in fact, that he even jumps to perform ordinary tasks like opening a chest or upending a vase. If you want to interact with anything on screen, chances are you’re going to have to jump on it. He can also throw apples, but his distance is so short that it’s usually just easier to jump on whatever you’re trying to hit.

But the levels in the game make that jumping fairly challenging. Platforms and swing posts are scattered strategically about, and using them to reach all the goodies – and bad guys – of a particular level is an engaging exercise most of the time. Usually, levels amount to lots of easy areas with more complicated spots interspersed here and there. Just when you’re cruising along without a care, there will be an enemy and/or platform area where everything has to be done just so, or you’ll get knocked on your tuchas. There’s a nice ebb and flow to the difficulty, and that makes for a fun game.

There are a few levels unique to this new version of Aladdin, so there’s something new even for those who remember it the first time. This port of an old game arrived on the GBA in time for the release of Aladdin on DVD as part of a complementary marketing plan. But that doesn’t change the fact that it was a good game to begin with and that it’s perfect for the GBA. Most movie license ports can’t say the same. Disney’s Aladdin isn’t breaking any new video game ground, but it’s a fun, colorful experience, even though it’s several years old.