First, I emailed a question to Disney from their website.

My email to Disney (on November 19, 1999 at 05:45:31):

Dear Disney,

Could you please tell me the exact  release date of video version of the motion picture Aladdin.  Was it 3-24-93?  Your answer will help me make a purchase decision.

Thank you,

Bruce D. Weinberg

Disney's response (on November 19, 1999 at 08:28:13):

Dear Disney Guest,

Thank you for your recent inquiry.  Please contact Buena Vista Home Video at 800.723.4763 for this information.

Sincerely,

DisneyStore.com
sjm

I was impressed with how quickly they responded; I wish I could say the same about the content of their response.  Any way, I called Buena Vista and asked when Aladdin was released for video.  Guess what, they had no idea and suggested that I visit www.imdb.com.  Off I went to the Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB, get it?).  This was a very interesting website and I was able to obtain the movie theater release date (November 25, 1992), but not the video release date.

I decided to try a bot; I went to Botspot Categories Shopping Bots.  I used a few bots and found bottomdollar to be helpful.  I selected "Movies" and it listed several merchants (e.g., Amazon.com, Buy.com, BigStar, Borders, CD Universe, CDNow, CDWorld, Reel.com).  My visit to CDWorld was revealing.  This website listed an Aladdin video that was released on 3-24-93 and included the video description "A Young Man Journeys To Far-Away Lands To Claim A Magic Lamp And A Beautiful Princess;"  It's list price was $19.99.  This information matched up exactly with what was listed at Buy.com.  This is not the video with Robin Williams as the voice of the Genie.  Hey, Buy.com, maybe next time.

At least I knew that I would not be buying a video from Buy.com.  I was not sure, however, where I would purchase the video.  I went to Yahoo to see what they offered for shopping on videos.  They had a link to BigStar.  At BigStar, I found Aladdin available for sale at $17.49 (30% off of the list price of $24.99).  This was looking good as I recall the service assistant at Disney informing me that the list price was either $24.99 or $26.99.  Unfortunately, I could not pull the trigger yet.  This is crazy indeed.  Two items about the listing at BigStar gave me some doubt that this was the version of Aladdin that I wanted.  First, underneath the picture of the box was listed "NOTE: This may not be the exact cover for this release" (see below).  Second, the information on "Languages:" was unclear to me.  I was unsure whether this version for sale was dubbed in Spanish or it was indicating that this video was available with Spanish dubbing.  I sent an email to BigStar for clarification.  Over 24 hours have passed and I still have not heard from them.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this is the Spanish dubbed version.  As I tell people, "if it's too good to be true...."

Aladdin (1992) VHS 
Length: 90 minutes 
Rated: G (MPAA) RatedG
Studio: Walt Disney Home Video
Languages: Spanish Dubbed 
Full Credits   |    Related Categories

NOTE: This may
not be the exact
  cover for this
     release.

In my travels, I found that Aladdin is available at Reel.com for $19.99 (this website can take a while to load on occasion -- and remember I have a cable modem).  They list the graphic as above and they do not have any special notes or any other comments.  They do indicate that Robin Williams' voice is heard in the movie.  This looked good to me.  I'll search eBay a bit and then make a purchase decision.  Yowser.
 

Aladdin (1992)
Starring: Robin Williams, Linda Larkin
Director: John Musker, Ron Clements
Reel Snapshot: Disney's fast-paced, slickly conceived, animated Arabian Nights fable was a huge hit with both adults and kids. Its antic humor and thrill-packed adventure sequences make it a delight for families.
Runtime: 90 minutes
Rating: G
 
 

This evening, I placed an order with Hanna Andersson for some clothing for Benjamin.  The website design is clean and neat.  Finding items and other important features, however, is not necessarily easy.