I wanted to make sure that the man who found the genie would not take terrible advantage of her so he needed to be a person of integrity and honor - which is why I made the male lead an astronaut. The rest as they say is history.

'Aladdin' was probably my favorite Disney animation when I was a kid. The animation was great and Robin Williams was unbelievable as the Genie. 'Aladdin' was an amazing adventure and the lead character was a hero for guys which I loved. It wasn't a princess or a girl beating the odds it was a street rat. That seemed really cool to me.