A local appeal to 'Aladdin'

THE blue genie asks Aladdin in Cantonese: ''Did you call me?'' The question generated instant giggles among the young audience in the cinema. Even a seven-year-old would not miss the pun: in Hongkong, to 'call' someone means to page that person.

This is Walt Disney's made local. Aladdin , the company's latest animation blockbuster and the world's highest-grossing cartoon, has just hit town with a Cantonese version that translates this mythical Middle Eastern fairytale into a culture much closer to home.

In South East Asia, Aladdin has been rendered into Cantonese, Korean and Indonesian, and voices in Mandarin, Thai and Japanese are on the way.

But Aladdin had posed more challenges than its predecessors, said John Woo, creative dubbing manager at Walt Disney (HK).

For one thing, the voice-acting genius of Robin Williams has made the genie of the lamp a hard one to match in Cantonese.

The lovable blue giant takes on a full array of personalities as he dazzlingly changes his shapes in bullet pace. From cabaret performer, he transforms into a waiter, juggler, air-hostess on the magic rug, a lamb ... to name a few.

The job fell on Bunns Ng Kam-yuen, a producer at Asia Television (ATV).