I'm not always sure what compels a network to undertake one of these massive projects, and often the final product is terrible to watch. ARABIAN NIGHTS is an exception. While it is awfully long, it is a solid and fun adaptation of Sir Richard Burton's oft-told tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba and many others in a land and time lost in the mists of history. Each tale comes with a moral, and if this TV movie gets the kids to read the actual tales, more power to it. Jason Scott Lee stands out as Aladdin, as does John Leguizamo as the genie. A sumptuous-looking production, filmed in Turkey, apparently, with an international cast.

For a TV production, this rendition of "The Arabian Nights" is far above the average in almost every respect. The CGI is magnificent, the acting is superior - particularly by the versatile and underutilized John Leguizamo as a bad-tempered genie and his overweight, barely competent supernatural rival, and the Peter Barnes's narrative structure is unusually sophisticated for Hollywood.So the problems with this production are especially regrettable. The various threads of the story are confusingly presented, with needlessly abrupt and disorienting cuts from one to another. This certainly interefered with my enjoyment. The other problem, which may not bother others, is the very frequent use of modern allusions (like a comic monkey-wrench in the hands of a genie) and ironic attitudes. This sort of thing can be amusing in moderation, or in an animated cartoon like Disney's "Aladdin" where no level of realism is expected. But here it clashes with the gorgeous imagery and the generally "realistic" style of storytelling. As somebody else has mentioned, there's also a problem with pacing. Events, while never boring, often lose their momentum in magnificent visuals and trivial dialogue.Altogether, though, "The Arabian Nights" is well worth seeing, though some of the bizarre images may disturb very young children. Otherwise it really is a show "for the entire family."

I saw this on free to air tv tonight and thought it was excellent. It moves along quickly but manages to explore each story nicely. The costumes and set pieces are wonderful, and the mood is set well.If Disney has done nothing else it has butchered the stories of old cultures... Aladdin was not originally the story of a persian peasant with a pet monkey and an eccentric genie. Aladdin was a chinese fable, and was never as child friendly as it became. I like that they have told the original tellings (of most of the stories anyway) rather than regurtitate the disney versions

i bought this movie on dvd in a discount shelf, and it was worth every cent. i see ppl keep complaining about the story of aladdin, which _is_ originally a chinese story. and the book, is just a collection of fairytales from around the world, not only persian ones.