As briefly hinted during the ‘Be Our Guest’ number on the live action ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (2017) remake, Disney was also planning another live action remake of a beloved 90’s animated feature; 1992’s ‘Aladdin’ with director Guy Ritchie at the helm.
Scepticism amongst fans was inevitable; this had been announced just a few days after Robin Williams- who provided the iconic voice of the Genie on the original animated classic- had died. Even I thought that that was disrespectful of Disney diving into doing that right after Robin’s death. Of course, he and Disney had never gotten on well with one another anyway; Robin was missing as the Genie’s voice on ‘Return of Jafar’ after a dispute over pay with them but would return a couple of years later on ‘King of Thieves’.
After the success of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ live action remake in 2017, Disney was well on their way in doing a live action remake of ‘Aladdin’ which would be released in 2019. The results were mixed from both audiences and critics; especially concerning the cgi used for the Genie. More on that later.
The story starts of with a view of a boat where a man (Will Smith) is entertaining his children with a song (‘Arabian Nights’). He is telling them a story about Aladdin (Mena Massoud) and how Aladdin had found a lamp that changed his life forever.
As the scene shifts back to years earlier, we find Aladdin roaming the streets of Agrabah and stealing food. That is until he spots a woman (Naomi Scott) who is stealing from the wrong stall. He helps the woman- who later calls herself Dalia, Handmaiden to Princess Jasmine- escape from the guards (‘One Jump Ahead’) and takes her to his secret hideout.
The woman thanks Aladdin for his help in rescuing her from the guards but she has to go back to the palace in order to help Princess Jasmine get ready for yet another suitor that has just arrived.
Meanwhile at the palace, Prince Anders has arrived, seeking Jasmine’s (Naomi Scott) hand in marriage. Jasmine turns him down by setting her tiger on him. Back in his hideout, Aladdin decides to return “Dalia’s” bracelet back to her but gets caught by palace guards…and sent to Jafar (Marwan Kenzari).
As this is a Guy Ritchie film, ‘Aladdin’ relies very heavily on action scenes…all of which are very well done because of the real set pieces that were used on the film, unlike the horrible cgi mess that we got with the ‘Little Mermaid’ live action remake.
I was hesitant at first because I enjoy the original animated classic but I still found it entertaining enough to add to my collection.
I was also pleased with Will Smith’s performance as the Genie and he had made a good stand-in for the late (and great) Robin Williams. Even ‘Arabian Nights’ and ‘Prince Ali’- my least favourite numbers on the original ‘Aladdin’ film- were better on here than on the original. Please put down your pitch forks; I didn’t say Will was better than Robin! It was just those two scenes that I thought was better that was all. No-one can compare with Robin in that role, no matter what they do.
As for the negative side of it…I have to admit that I didn’t like what they did with Jafar on this. He wasn’t intimidating as he was on the original version. I also didn’t like the fact that Jafar didn’t turn into his signature animal towards the end of the film; a giant snake…namely a cobra.
Over all, a very enjoyable two hours and one of the better Disney live action remakes out there.
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