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In a self-aware moment from the new live-action “Aladdin,” a character holds up a sketch of three other characters. The sketch is a line drawing done in the style of the hit 1992 animated “Aladdin,” the basis of the movie you’re watching. It’s simple, fun, and direct, more concerned with being delightful than with looking “real.” The remake—directed by Guy Ritchie , with Will Smith taking over for the late Robin Williams in the role of The Genie—flips those priorities. That’s not to say that it’s never fun, because it sometimes is—just that it’s more often lumbering, patchy, meandering, and generally bereft of inspiration. It’s a dancing elephant of a movie. It has a few decent moves, but you’d never call it light on its feet.

Written by John August (“ Big Fish ”) and rewritten by Ritchie, with music and songs by Alan Menken (and the late Howard Ashman ) plus a couple of original tunes intended to qualify the film for Best Original Song Oscars, the film is unfortunately a perfect illustration of an observation by  Josh Raby , summing up this era of both Disney features and computer animation: “Using CGI to turn expressive animated films into photoreal reboots feels like using a magic wand to make a toaster.” 

This “Aladdin” is still the funny-sentimental-inspirational story of a poor “street rat” who comes into possession of a magic lamp and a magic carpet, summons a big blue genie, and embarks on a scheme to win the heart of a princess and stop an evil vizier from stealing the kingdom away from the heroine’s dad. There are at least two potentially good and somewhat original takes struggling get out of this remake and assert themselves. One is the story of how the genie bonds with Aladdin ( Mena Massoud ) and tries to secure his own freedom without breaking any genie/master rules. The other is about the princess, Jasmine ( Naomi Scott ), who’s not merely a spirited feminist who enjoys disguising herself as a peasant and hanging with the commoners, but seems ready to agitate for representative democracy if nudged in the right direction. Neither of these is permitted to seize the spotlight for very long, though. And that’s a shame, because some of the most compelling (though not top-grossing) “live action” remakes of animated films to come out of the Disney studios recently have been ones that jumped off from slightly less beloved titles (like “ The Jungle Book ,” “Pete’s Dragon,” and “ Maleficent ,” which retells “Sleeping Beauty” from the witch’s point of view) and created works that felt more like companion pieces, even subversions, than remakes. 

This sticks to the beaten path so slavishly that when it departs from it, it’s as if the entire movie had momentarily escaped from bondage, like the genie from his lamp. Will Smith is the only big star in the cast, so it was probably inevitable that he’d be awarded the framing device (he’s a mariner telling the story of Aladdin to his two young children). When he isn’t being asked to re-enact most of the really good lines, jokes and situations from the 1992 version—which is probably 70% of his screentime—he puts his own stamp on the role. 

But the opportunities are scarce, so when Smith does depart from the sacred text—mainly during emotional moments, and dialogue-dependent comedy scenes where Ritchie gets to show off his knack for smart-alecky banter—the moments don’t accumulate into a distinctive performance. They just sort of hang there, feeling disconnected from the movie’s reason for existing, which is to draw people into theaters with the promise of seeing the same thing they already knew they loved, but slightly different.

Smith’s co-stars run into the same problem. Massoud has a deadpan comic energy that shines whenever he’s not required to simply re-enact his animated counterpart’s iconic moments. Ditto Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine, who has a fierce dignity and can’t help it that her big original number—“ Speechless ,” a song about the silencing of women by the patriarchy, written by two men, “ La La Land ” and “Dear Evan Hansen” composers Pasek & Paul—feels wedged into the movie like a doorstop. (The motivation for the song, though, is much more organic, and might’ve felt sincere and powerful rather than opportunistic had the movie built to it, or better yet, centered the story on her.) Marwan Kenzari ’s performance as the treacherous vizier Jafar departs most strikingly from the original film. Kenzari tries to create something closer to an antihero than a traditional bad guy, and although it’s ultimately more of a riff or a vibe than a strong characterization (the writing lets him down, as it does every character), he’s genuinely scary in the second half. Little kids will be terrified of him. 

From the opening “Arabian Nights” number to “Friend Like Me,” “A Whole New World” and beyond, most of the major sequences are the same, although there are a few fresh twists scattered throughout, particularly during the last half-hour. This “Aladdin” is two hours and eight minutes long, 37 minutes longer than the original. This is also part of a trend in theatrical films: perhaps the increasingly long average runtimes of special-effects driven blockbusters are a response to complaints that tickets are too expensive, which is actually a way of saying that real wages haven’t risen substantially since the early 1970s: a longer movie = “getting more for your money” and thus justifies taking the kids, maybe even buying something at the concession stand.

The filmmaking is disappointingly pedestrian: some long tracking shots stitched together with CGI, some “dangerous” chase scenes augmented by CGI, some musical numbers with ostriches and elephants and monkeys and camels, etc, all CGI, and Smith’s genie whooshing around the frame, his broad and CGI-augmented torso and shoulders swiveling and bobbing and weaving while trailing a curiously cheap-looking trail of sparkles. There were early reports that the film was going to address charges of xenophobia and racism leveled against the original, but there’s not too much evidence that the filmmakers were really troubling themselves with it. 

It’s quite possible that nobody seeing this film will feel that anything has gone missing. The audience I saw it with at a sneak preview seemed to mildly enjoy it, though it’s impossible to know in such circumstances if it was really the movie winning them over or the fact that the tickets were free. Aside from a few jokey buddy-comedy exchanges between Aladdin and the Genie, most of the bits that seem to work best are imported from the original. 

As is often the case with the recent Disney remakes, this one seems to adhere to the same misconception that affects the rest of the film industry, particularly where science fiction adventures, superhero narratives, and fairy tales are concerned: that if it’s animated, i.e. a “cartoon,” it’s somehow not a “real movie,” and thus not worthy of the automatic respect bestowed upon the most expensive and heavily promoted motion pictures, and not as validating to the people who’ve paid to see it. All of which is also strange, considering how CGI-dependent these sorts of movies are, even when they’re trying to make the mountains and buildings and tigers and parakeets made of ones and zeroes look as “real” as possible. “Aladdin” is no more realistic, ultimately, than “ Star Wars -- Episode I: The Phantom Menace ,” which came out 20 years earlier and has comparably sketchy computer imagery. 

This, apparently, is where both audiences and the filmmakers who serve them want the movie industry to go. Toasters, as far as the eye can see.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film credits.

Aladdin (2019)

Rated PG for some action/peril.

128 minutes

Mena Massoud as Aladdin

Naomi Scott as Jasmine

Will Smith as Genie

Marwan Kenzari as Jafar

Navid Negahban as The Sultan

Nasim Pedrad as Dalia

Billy Magnussen as Prince Anders

Alan Tudyk as Iago

Frank Welker as Abu (voice) / The Cave of Wonders (voice)

• Guy Ritchie
• John August

Cinematographer

• Alan Stewart
• James Herbert
• Alan Menken

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‘Aladdin’ Movie Review: Disney’s Magical Film Will Make You Laugh, Cheer

A princess, a street rat, and a genie walk into a bar……okay, not really but they are currently appearing in a theater near you! Disney’s live-action remake of Aladdin hit theaters on May 24, 2019. If you have not seen the new Aladdin movie yet, get to a theater now! It is absolutely amazing. From stunning cinematography to superb acting, Aladdin is everything I hoped for and more!

Related Post | Beauty and the Beast (2017) – A Magical and Romantic Adaptation of the Disney Classic

Street-wise Aladdin meets Princess Jasmine on the streets of Agrabah. Only, he does not know she is a Princess until the duplicitous Jafar reveals her identity. Trapped by Jafar in a cave, Aladdin discovers a magic lamp that unleashes a genie.

Using one of his three wishes, Aladdin transforms into a Prince to win Jasmine’s affections, only to discover that his new persona is a huge turn off for the intellectual Princess. However, danger lurks close to the palace. Unbeknownst to them, the Sultan’s most trusted advisor, Jafar, secretly searches for the lamp in order to steal Jasmine’s birthright and become Sultan of Agrabah.

Starring Naomi Scott as Jasmine, Mena Massoud as Aladdin, and Will Smith as the Genie, Aladdin is a fun and heartwarming film with an important message of empowerment for young girls and women.

Aladdin Movie Review

I absolutely adored this version of Aladdin! While the original will always have a special place in my heart, there’s plenty of room for Guy Ritchie’s vision. The cinematography and special effects were spot on! Each scene was beautifully framed. You could almost hear the hustle and bustle of the market or feel the dry sand and hot wind across your face during Aladdin’s ride to the cave. The costumes were exquisite, complementing the characters in an explosion of color.

Naomi Scott as Jasmine is a pure joy to watch. She was expressive in every way. This version of Aladdin is as much Jasmine’s story as it is about Aladdin. Perhaps more so. Jasmine is not your typical Disney Princess. Instead, she is fiercely independent. Determined to take charge of her own destiny, Jasmine pushes against tradition. She refuses to be seen as a commodity to be given away in marriage.

Even better, Jasmine spoke up for herself. She refused to let anyone drown out her voice. I cannot tell you how much I adored the changes made to Jasmine.

Of course, this is a Disney movie so romance is very much a part of the film. Scott’s chemistry with Mena Massoud is wonderful! They play off each other beautifully. Massoud’s Aladdin is charming and confident without being overly cocky. Yes, there are moments where he’s arrogant. But, it’s not obnoxious. Rather, it fits with the humor of the moment in an endearing way. Together, Scott and Massoud are incredible. They effortlessly draw you into this magical world.

Aladdin’s “New” Genie and the Villainous Jafar

Confession: I was not over the moon with Will Smith’s casting as the Genie. I adored Robin Williams’ Genie. While I am a fan of Will Smith, I did not think he was the best fit.

Boy, was I wrong.

Will Smith was utterly magnificent. He honored this character yet made the Genie his own. There were nods to Robin Williams everywhere in his portrayal. Despite that, Smith’s Genie was unique. He was sly and unexpectedly deep. I fell under his spell completely. Smith will make you think of Robin Williams without wishing he was Robin Williams. Plus, he will have you in stitches over….well, everything!

No Disney film is complete without its villain. Jafar is one of the more nefarious villains. I was torn about Marwan Kenzari’s version of Jafar. On the one hand, he was cunning and dark. On the other, he sometimes came off in an over-the-top manner. There was a whining quality to some of his scenes. More like a child throwing a tantrum rather than a villain executing his evil plan.

Still, it worked. It kept the Aladdin movie from going too dark. In fact, I thought Kenzari’s Jafar was less evil than the animated Jafar. At the end of the day, this new Jafar didn’t detract from the film. But, neither did he add much to it.

Final Thoughts on Aladdin

You will recognize the music of Aladdin, plus one new addition. “Speechless” is an anthem for girls and women everywhere. It’s a reminder that we have a voice, a point of view. And Naomi Scott fills the song with conviction and power. It’s a song that will stay with you long after the movie is over.

Aladdin is such a fun, family film. You will laugh throughout and find yourself cheering Jasmine and Aladdin on. It’s the perfect balance of adventure and humor with a lovely romance between two well-cast and written characters. Plus, there is a bonus romance between the Genie and Dalia! These two have the most adorable, quirky exchanges that will make you grin.

Hit the theaters this weekend and catch Aladdin before it leaves the big screen!

Content Note: Rated PG

Where to Watch:   Aladdin  is still in a theater near you!

Have you seen Disney’s new Aladdin movie? What did you think? Drop me a line in the comments below!

Photo Credit: Disney

OVERALL RATING

ROMANCE RATING

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Catherine is an avid reader and a self-declared professional binge watcher. It's not uncommon to find her re-watching a series or movie for the umpteenth time and still be crying into a box of tissues. When she's not hiding in her closet to read or watch a show or movie, Catherine is a wife, mother, and, in her spare time, a lawyer.

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Film Review: Will Smith in ‘Aladdin’

Will Smith steps into Robin Williams’ shoes, bringing fresh attitude to the role of the Genie in Guy Ritchie's high-risk, mostly rewarding live-action remake.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Of all the characters in Walt Disney Studios’ canon, is there any more animated than the Genie from “ Aladdin ”? In 1992, old-school cartooning seemed the only way to keep up with comedian Robin Williams’ rapid-fire sense of humor and free-associative gift for improvisation. Much of the appeal of the original “Aladdin” came thanks to the ingenuity of its animators, led by Eric Goldberg, who used the medium to transform the mile-a-minute wish-meister before our eyes — as in one memorable moment when he cycles through caricatures, from William F. Buckley Jr. to a Marine Corps drill sergeant, kissy-lipped Yiddish bubbe, and back-from-the-dead Peter Lorre. The beloved charater’s elastic quality makes “Aladdin” perhaps Disney’s most daunting live-action adaptation yet, to say nothing of how Hollywood’s growing awareness of representation issues renders the original highly “problematic.”

Without Williams, or the near-infinite flexibility of hand-drawn animation, the challenge becomes how to translate such an elastic character to the world of flesh-and-blood actors. Instead of casting another white actor to play a character in an Arabian-set story, hyper-kinetic “Sherlock Holmes” director Guy Ritchie goes a different route, inviting Will Smith to bring the cocky hip-hop swagger of his early career to the role, while CG-swelling the actor’s muscles to match. Call it “Aladdin and the Fresh Prince of Ababwa” — which could well have been Ritchie’s pitch for a still largely stereotype-driven project that seems to work best when it’s not directly emulating the cartoon that came before.

It took Walt Disney Studios the better part of a century to build a library filled with what the world thinks of as animated classics, and less than a decade to pillage that catalog in service of all these entertaining but clearly unnecessary live-action remakes — movies that, from the looks of things, will not stand the test of time, but have proven awfully profitable in the short term. The fact that in 20 years, fewer people will be watching his “Aladdin” than the 1992 cartoon seems to motivate Ritchie (who shares screenplay credit with John August) to make the film reflect the moment.

That’s evident from the opening scene, as Smith sings a fresh version of “Arabian Nights” in which the word “chaotic” updates the original song’s culturally insensitive “It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home” lyrics. (This framing device also pays off an idea intended for, but never implemented by, the 1992 cartoon, in which it makes sense why the Genie is singing this particular number in human form.)

More importantly, the 1992 movie’s wide-eyed but underwritten Princess Jasmine now has ambitions of her own: As embodied by Naomi Scott, she’s no longer just a beauty to be won by “diamond in the rough” street urchin Aladdin (here played by Mena Massoud), but a restless and frustrated young woman who sees herself as a potential successor to her father the sultan (Navid Negahban). If Will Smith’s Genie seems bigger and potentially more powerful than Williams’ did, then the opposite goes for the power-hungry Jafar: Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari may be a handsome alternative to the animated version’s effete vizier, with his pencil moustache and Sophia Loren eyes, but he no longer looms large enough to feel like much of a threat.

In the 27 years since the cartoon was first released, Disney’s “Aladdin” has been reinvented once before as a live-action Broadway musical (a natural, considering the cartoon’s show-tunes-powered format). Ritchie’s approach benefits from that adaptation. Reteaming with composer Alan Menken, who’s assisted here by “La La Land” lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the director borrows many of the ideas from the stage version and ports them back over into the iconic visual world of the animated film — adding an over-the-top Bollywood-style spin to the film’s biggest production numbers.

It’s great to see Smith in comedic mode again, and smart of the team to base the Genie’s personality on the star’s brand, rather than imitating what Williams did with the role. Even in cases where Smith is quoting directly from the original, his persona comes through loud and clear as this blue-hued, CG-enhanced master of ceremonies. If anything, it’s the stage Genie whose influence comes through, for it was on Broadway that the Genie was first played so flamboyantly (James Monroe Iglehart earned a Tony for that fresh interpretation). Smith builds on that approach, affecting the diva-like attitude of a demanding fashion designer.

The character isn’t gay per se; in fact, the Genie gets a romantic subplot of his own, involving Jasmine’s handmaiden, Dalia (Nasim Pedrad). Watching Smith’s performance, however, one could certainly make the case that the closet can be even more confining than a magic lamp — although kids will see the character’s prancing as a kind of silly clowning, which it certainly is.

Frankly, “Aladdin” could have used one of those “queer eye” makeovers, as the production design, costumes and choreography all look garish compared with the relatively classy and consistently elegant aesthetic that an openly gay musical director such as Bill Condon brought to his “Beauty and the Beast” adaptation. But when it comes to reinventing Disney cartoons, it’s still kitsch as kitsch can. Here, the outfits are lovely — especially Jasmine’s teal-toned wardrobe, though it’s a shame to cover up Aladdin’s trademark bare chest (and the character’s hairpiece doesn’t do the dimple-cheeked Massoud any favors). Hollywood has been using Arabian stories as an excuse to show skin since Rudolph Valentino made “The Sheik” and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. played “Sinbad the Sailor.” One can imagine Ritchie’s version pretty much earning the fundamentalist seal of approval.

Where the director really shines is in melding practical elements with virtual ones. Whether making Smith’s computer-enhanced and cerulean-skinned Genie look natural sharing the screen with Aladdin or swooping the camera along magic carpet rides through virtual sets, Ritchie’s style embraces the kind of expressionism needed to pull off such a fanciful tale. The sequence featuring “A Whole New World” actually feels more timeless here by virtue of its extreme stylization, whereas Smith’s “Prince Ali” number has the more dated feel of an elaborately staged 1950s showstopper.

Audiences know these Disney classics so well that any live-action adaptation succeeds or fails by how closely the filmmakers choose to adhere to the original. From the start, “Aladdin” demanded at least one major change: As a story inspired by “One Thousand and One Nights,” the cartoon was an Arabic folktale as reinvented by white guys, which means that any contemporary version would need to cast people of color in the roles. Smith will get the majority of the attention, bringing so much of his own brand to the Genie (he even calls out his own name in the end-credits song). Yet Scott commands her share of respect as Jasmine, reinventing the character via the movie’s contemporary-sounding “Speechless” — the closest thing to a female empowerment anthem Disney has given us since Queen Elsa let it go in “Frozen.”

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Reviewed at Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, May 9, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 127 MIN.

• Production: A Disney release and presentation of a Rideback production. Producers: Dan Lin, Jonathan Eirich. Executive producers: Marc Platt, Kevin De La Noy.
• Crew: Director: Guy Ritchie. Screenplay: John August, Ritchie. Camera (color): Alan Stewart. Editor: James Herbert. Music: Alan Menken. Lyrics: Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, with new lyrics by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul.
• With: Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari , Navid Negahban, Nasim Pedrad, Billy Magnussen.

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Review by Brian Eggert May 25, 2019

The image of a poverty-stricken “street rat” navigating the crowded, and fictional, thoroughfare of Agrabah, outwitting vendors and outmaneuvering palace guards, who chase after the clever sleight-of-hand artist and his pet monkey Abu, links the previous work of director Guy Ritchie with the 1992 animated classic, Aladdin . Ritchie has made a career out of forging new molds from recycled material. He revitalized the British gangster genre, turned Sherlock Holmes into a streetwise rascal, and made King Arthur a pickpocket and street fighter—all with a smattering of Dickensian setting and characterization. It’s no wonder Disney tapped Ritchie to helm the equally Dickensian  Aladdin , the latest product in their recent outpouring of not-quite-live-action fare designed to hook younger generations with their valuable intellectual property. But given Ritchie’s track record, the screenplay he co-wrote with John August is disappointingly straightforward and not at all another of his gritty revisions. Instead, the director repeats every obligatory song from the original and hits every story beat as if following a mandatory checklist passed down by Disney overlords.

The familiar story of a “diamond in the ruff” who discovers a magic lamp, befriends a blue genie, stops an evil sorcerer, and wins the heart of a princess, Aladdin features Mena Massoud in the title role. But just like Disney’s original version, the Genie, immortalized by the late Robin Williams, remains the livelier centerpiece. Will Smith has the thankless task of trying to fill Williams’ shoes, but he and the rest of the cast are saddled with the limits of this so-called photoreal production—where garish CGI dominates over actual set-pieces, leaving every performance to feel wooden. In fact, most of Smith’s performance as the Genie appears to be rendered with motion-capture technology that strands the character in the Uncanny Valley. It sort of looks like Smith, but not exactly like him; his eyes are flat, and his mouth doesn’t move enough. The effect is alternately creepy and perplexing. Moreover, Smith doesn’t have the vocal range of Williams, making his performance muted by comparison. More convincing is Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine, an impassioned feminist not so interested in marriage because she wants to replace her father, the Sultan (Navid Negahban).

Just as Disney’s recent remake of Dumbo featured Michael Keaton as a Trumpian capitalist with shady finances and crooked schemes, Aladdin ’s villain, Jafar (Marwan Kenzari), bears uncanny similarities to the current U.S. president. The unsubtle parallels find Jafar and Trump agreeing on their border policies, their objectification of women (Jafar says Jasmine should be “seen and not heard”), and their desperate need for power. “Either you’re the most powerful man in the room or you’re nothing,” says the baddie, which might be a quote from The Art of the Deal. Sadly, Kenzari underplays the role, making Jafar far less cartoonish than a folktale villain should be. The film contrasts Jafar by building on Jasmine, whose character, as in the original, demonstrates her independent streak when she sneaks out of the palace to explore the city’s vibrant markets. Jasmine also has a new song, “Speechless,” about female empowerment, but it’s not a song that is rewarded with an equal sense of action by the character. Aladdin and the Genie still save the day.

Where Ritchie’s talents should be apparent are scenes of Aladdin using parkour to evade pursuers in Agrabah (a setting steeped in a mild Orientalist perspective that would make Jean-Léon Gérôme proud). But the few chase scenes around the markets are hampered by the predominant CGI backdrops, creating a distinct separation between the foreground’s tangibility and the background’s artificiality. Frankly, the addictive Aladdin video game for Sega Genesis from 1993 was more entertaining. To be sure, everything about Aladdin feels dampened and uninspired, from Smith’s performance to the subdued musical scenes. Consider also how Iago, Jafar’s parrot, formerly voiced by Gilbert Gottfried as a sarcastic sidekick, has been turned into a personality-less bird with a few lines squawked by Alan Tudyk. It’s as though Ritchie has dialed the original’s energy meter down to a four, and yet the production runs more than a half-hour longer, and it cost nearly $200 million to make. So why does it play like a bad multi-million-dollar high school musical?

Audiences aren’t likely to share my dismissive feelings about Aladdin , as most of today’s viewers consume Disney’s money-motivated remakes with the same urgency as the studio’s Star Wars spinoffs or MCU products—only Pete’s Dragon (2016) has outdone its source. But at least Jedi Knights and Marvel superheroes (sometimes) have personality, whereas the characters of Ritchie’s film feel like they’re trying to replicate better performances than they could ever hope to achieve. Nevertheless, Disney’s photoreal reboots have a built-in audience of parents who grew up with the animated films, and who are now saddled with children that want to see the latest Disney spectacle. And while the kids might enjoy the bright color palette and special FX, the recognizable situations cannot distract from the lifelessness of everything onscreen, making the material suitable only for those unfamiliar with the original. If nothing else, it should inspire an older generation to introduce a younger generation to the animated version so they can discover what made the film a classic in the first place.

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‘aladdin’: what the critics are saying.

Is Guy Ritchie's 'Aladdin' a hit with critics? Here's what the reviews are saying.

By Graeme McMillan

Graeme McMillan

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Does Disney’s live-action Aladdin honor the beloved 1992 animated film (while also improving some of that title’s more regressive bits)? Is Will Smith’s genie destined to remain an internet meme? How was the latest version of “A Whole New World”?

On Wednesday morning, critics answered some of these questions and more as they weighed in on the latest in Disney’s live-action adaptations of animated classics. The verdict? It’s Will Smith’s movie, and whether audiences will enjoy it beyond what he brings may depend on how familiar they are with the 1992 version.

In The Hollywood Reporter , critic Frank Scheck was ambivalent about the story, as directed by Guy Ritchie. The casting proved successful, he wrote, with Mena Massoud (who plays the film’s namesake) and Naomi Scott (Jasmine) demonstrating successful chemistry as the film’s central couple and Will Smith’s Genie “easily makes the role his own.” Scheck adds, “His infectious personality shines throughout, and he even manages to infuse his martini-swilling Genie with moving emotional moments.”

Overall, however, the film’s lackluster musical numbers and semi-edited versions of classic Aladdin songs, retrofitted for 2019, didn’t impress Scheck. “The combination of diverse casting and female empowerment themes results in a perfectly politically correct Aladdin for these times,” Scheck says. “The only thing that seems to have been left out is the magic, which is a bit of a problem considering that one of the main characters is a genie.”

The lack of magic is also bemoaned by The Atlantic ’s David Sims, who called the movie “a garish, special-effects-laden extravaganza that still manages to feel tossed-off and half-hearted,” adding, “The film is entirely devoted to the property it’s adapting, but its mimicry underlines just how pale an imitation it is.”

Similarly unimpressed is The New York Times critic, A.O. Scott, who writes, “The visuals are tired and perfunctory green-screen placeholders. Similarly, the genie’s showstopper, ‘Friend Like Me’ undermines its own premise. We’ve had an awful lot of shape-shifting, motor-mouthed ‘friends’ like this one.”

Perhaps the problem is the format, argues Aja Romano of Vox . “Turning a blue cartoon into a flesh-and-blood human being imposes a sense of realism that the glib, fantastical storyline of [the animated] Aladdin  was never really meant to reckon with,” she explains. “The original ‘Aladdin’ tale, after all, was most likely written by an 18th-century French writer, a fantasy story made up whole cloth and drenched in exoticism. The 1992 film, in turn, succeeded on the basis of its sheer disconnect from reality, which kept it fun and magical. The cartoon was divorced from its story’s real-life connections, something the live-action take can’t evade.”

Not everyone was left unmoved, however. After listing some of the movie’s drawbacks, RogerEbert.com ‘s Matt Zoller Seitz adds the caveat, “That’s not to say that it’s never fun, because it sometimes is — just that it’s more often lumbering, patchy, meandering and generally bereft of inspiration. It’s a dancing elephant of a movie. It has a few decent moves, but you’d never call it light on its feet.”

USA Today ’ s Brian Truitt knows where some of those decent moves come from. “While there’s a certain charm missing from the revamp, Smith goes way over the top to make up for it. For those who’ve ever wondered what the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air would be like as a middle-aged guy plopped into a bevy of belly dancers and hoofing swordsmen, here you go.”

Kate Erbland of IndieWire feels the same. “The most surprising part of Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin isn’t that it’s far better (more fun, more frisky, more coherent) than a string of maligned trailers have let on, it’s that no one ever got the bright idea to rename the whole thing ‘Genie’ and turn all of the film’s attention on Will Smith,” she writes.

“ Aladdin is at its best when it ventures out to form its own interpretation and while not all of the choices necessarily work, it is refreshing to see Ritchie and the ensemble attempt a genuine reimagining,” suggests The Playlist ’s Griffin Schiller. “Arguably more so than the previous live-action remakes, Aladdin feels fresh, distinct and modern as it aspires to be more than a simple shot for shot retelling — something that shouldn’t go unnoticed despite its shortcomings. Sure, the execution can be a bit cartoony at times, some of the musical numbers feel a bit too ‘Broadway,’ and they certainly could’ve used more dynamic and creative camera work, but this reimagining is ultimately a magic carpet ride you won’t mind experiencing.”

Maybe the most representative commentary comes from Anne Cohen of Refinery 29 , who writes, “It’s not that the film is good, exactly, but rather it’s not as bad as I’d spent months worrying it would be. (Ritchie impressively limits his trademark slow-motion sequences to a number that can be counted on one hand. None of them are essential, but he just can’t help himself.) Kids who are unfamiliar with the animated classic will most likely find it magical, and even adults will surely be charmed. It is a version of Aladdin, after all.”

Aladdin opens in theaters Friday.

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Aladdin review: disney's remake finds the diamond in the rough, aladdin is a jubilant and energetic disney retelling that mostly succeeds in updating the animated version, even if it never feels quite as magical..

Disney's live-action remakes of its animated features are practically their own subgenre by this point, complete with narrative tropes and recurring visual techniques. And while the trend kicked off with Alice in Wonderland in 2010, it wasn't until Cinderella that these productions started to follow a recognizable formula. Indeed, the latest addition to the pile, Aladdin , tries to reimagine and "fix" the 1992 animated version in most of the same ways that Dumbo , Beauty and the Beast , and so forth attempted to "correct" their predecessors before it. However, in this case, that formula works a lot better than some people have been expecting. Aladdin is a jubilant and energetic Disney retelling that mostly succeeds in updating the animated version, even if it never feels quite as magical.

Storywise, the live-action Aladdin mostly follows a similar path to Disney's animated movie. However, director Guy Ritchie and his cowriter John August (who frequently collaborates with Tim Burton) make some changes that allow the first act to flow faster and more efficiently in this new version. Specifically, following the "Arabian Nights" musical prologue, the film moves right ahead to Aladdin (Mena Massoud) meeting a disguised Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) on the streets of Agrabah, then incorporates her into the "One Jump Ahead" number. This allows the remake to playfully introduce Aladdin's life as a thief in the same way the animated feature does, but at the same time dive head-first into Aladdin and Jasmine's romance and establish the connection between the pair. It makes for unexpectedly economic storytelling, all in all.

As a result, the remake wastes little time getting to its best part: the scenes with Aladdin, Jasmine, the Genie (Will Smith), Jasmine's handmaiden Dalia (Nasim Pedrad, playing an original character), or all four at once. This is also where the film really finds its groove, thanks to a combination of sturdy writing and great casting. Massoud hits all the right notes playing the quick witted, yet sensitive, street urchin here, and his chemistry with Scott gives their courtship that needed spark (even when they're not singing and/or dancing their hearts out). Scott is equally good as Jasmine, and the film's efforts to modernize the character by making her more politically active and informed works better than other recent attempts to update beloved Disney heroines (see also: making Belle an "inventor"). And while Dalia is very much a supporting character, she serves as a nice foil to Jasmine, and their friendship helps to further flesh out the latter's personality.

But of course, much like the animated film, the live-action Aladdin belongs to the Genie as much as its namesake or anyone else. Smith, as one would expect, brings his usual mix of swagger, charm, and emotion to the role, but this serves to set his take on the character apart from Robin Williams' iconic performance in the animated movie. In fact, his interpretation only really falters when he stops doing his own thing (rapping "Friend Like Me", dispensing romantic advice like he's starring in Hitch 2: Arabian Boogaloo ) and tries to emulate Williams' shtick as the gigantic, blue, cosmically-powered being. Speaking of which: the finished CGI effects used to transform Smith into his genie form are far better than early marketing material suggested, and the film's visuals in general are pretty lavishing, thanks to Gemma Jackson's effervescent production design and the plesant colors of Michael Wilkinson's costumes. Aesthetically, there are times when Ritchie's bad habit of uneven framing and rough editing rears its head here, but his trademark slow-fast-mo style largely benefits the film's chase sequences and gives them some extra flair.

This brings us to Aladdin 's biggest problem - namely, its villain Jafar (Marwan Kenzari). While the remake aspires to give its antagonist greater depth by fleshing out his motivation for going after the Genie's lamp and revealing his backstory, it ends up making him less interesting than his overtly wicked and flamboyant, yet also more memorable animated counterpart. The goes double for Iago (voiced by Alan Tudyk), who's portrayed in a grounded fashion that robs the fowl sidekick of much of his personality. At the end of the day, these flaws reflect the main issue with the remake: even with all the flashy spectacle and Bollywood-style numbers one could ask for (including "Speechless", a fine little addition that Greatest Showman 's Pasek & Paul wrote with Alan Menken), the film's attempts to make this classic fairy tale feel more realistic ultimately hinder it and prevent it from soaring to greater heights.

Altogether, though, Aladdin makes for one of the more enjoyable live-action Disney remakes so far, and its updates to the animated version (especially, its removal of the ethnic stereotyping and more brazenly racist elements) largely work in its favor. Yes, this is still the filtering of Middle-Eastern folklore and culture through the lens of a big, shiny American blockbuster, but so was the animated movie, and the representation provided by the new version is sorely needed as ever in the current Hollywood landscape. Filmgoers who've grown tired of the Mouse House's remake formula might have a harder time getting onboard for this one than others, but those who love the animated feature may be pleasantly surprised by how much they like the retelling too. It might not be a whole new world, but it's far from a lifeless rehash.

Aladdin  is now playing in U.S. theaters nationwide. It is 128 minutes long and is rated PG for some action/peril.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

Key Release Dates

Aladdin Review

01 Jan 1992

At the beginning of the '90s, Disney's animation division was fully enjoying its time at the top, contentedly tanning itself in the glow of a new golden age. The Little Mermaid had dragged it back from the tedium of The Black Cauldron and Oliver & Company, while Beauty And The Beast had heralded Disney's most adoring reviews since a pasty princess shacked up with seven midgets - not to mention the only ever Best Picture Academy Award nomination for an animated film, a feat which will likely never be repeated due to the new Best Animated Film category.

Yes, the Mouse House was justifiably brimming with confidence. So something was bound to go wrong. Right? Enter Ron Clements and John Musker - the animation directors responsible for starting the Disney revolution with The Little Mermaid - who came in and screwed up Aladdin with astonishing panache. Suggested as a project by composers Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, the directors' take on the story about a street boy who finds a magic lamp was an undeniable mess. The title character's pubescent naivety sat uncomfortably with the determined sensuality of the princess, his exasperated mother sapped the film's energy and the villain was upstaged by his parrot. It was as clumsy and aimless as all the '80s trash the studio had been trying to sweep under the carpet...

Fortunately, Disney animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg was no longer prepared to accept such shoddy workmanship, and that particular version never limped past storyboard stage. Katzenberg had been brought to Disney in 1984 and told by Michael Eisner as they passed an unprepossessing building: "That's the animation department. It's your headache now." After the analgesia of recent success, he wasn't going to let it start thumping again. On what came to be known among the Aladdin animators as Black Friday, Katzenberg told the team to scrap virtually everything they'd been working on for months and start again. And to further add to their Arabian nightmare, he refused to move the movie's release date. Musker and Clements were faced with blank storyboards and the imminent arrival of the animation A-team from Beauty And The Beast, who'd have nothing to do but sharpen their pencils.

With the only other possible option to shut the production down, the directors bit the bullet and with the help of their crack team completely reinvented the feature in eight days. Writers Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott (who would go on to pen Shrek and Pirates Of The Caribbean) were brought in to work on the script and iron out the many plot flaws. Aladdin was aged a few years, in line with Katzenbergís request to make him "more Tom Cruise, less Michael J. Fox", his mother was bumped off and the assembled team were sharply reminded to "bring the funny".

One element, however, remained constant: Robin Williams. Celebrity voices were nothing new to animation - Phil Harris and George Sanders were stars of their day when they voiced The Jungle Book - but the trend had died off as the material declined in quality. The directors had the former stand-up in mind as the only person who could inhabit the Genie from the early stages of development, and lured Williams in by presenting a test animation of the Al Hirschfield-inspired blue spirit lip-synching part of his "Reality - What A Concept" album. Through tears of laughter, the actor happily signed up for what would become animation's single greatest vocal performance. Williams' inability to stick to a script carried his scenes off on tangents of vaudevillian bizarreness that inspired supervising animator Eric Goldberg and upturned the Disney ethos of some 55 years.

Up until Williams let rip with a dizzying repertoire of pop-culture gags and celebrity impressions, Disney's fairy tales had refused to acknowledge a world outside the land surveyed by Sleeping Beauty's castle. Each took place in a parallel universe where men wore tights, women had eyes that made Bambi look beady and animals chatted away like furry little housewives. That was all well and good for selling dreams and duvet covers to little girls, but in a film industry where superheroes were becoming the big draws and computer effects were starting to provide animated dazzle in live-action films, Disney needed to bring itself up to date to secure a larger audience - which, crucially, would include more boys.

Of course, Musker and Clements didn't want to alienate their core female audience, and they were very clever in hiding from males the fact that this was the greatest musical that Disney had yet made.

In the past, the song-and-dance numbers that were the studio's touchstone had often become small productions in their own right, not necessarily serving the story. Even Beauty And The Beast, certainly a more ambitious and technically superior film, put the plot on hold for showstoppers like Gaston and Be Our Guest - wonderful, witty creations both, but not key to the plot.

Aladdin, however, uses every song - bar the Genie's Friend Like Me - to move the plot along. They serve as bridges between scenes and locations: the thunderous Prince Ali marching Aladdin from his isolated street life to the opulent bombast of the palace, or the soaring A Whole New World carrying the romantic leads away from their troubled lives to a place alone above the clouds. The numbers don't just dance, they run.

Boys, however, didn't come for the hummable tunes. Some perhaps came for the slightly unsettling sexuality of Princess Jasmine, a royal dressed like a theme hooker, but primarily they came for the action - best exemplified by the knuckle-bleaching cave escape scene - and for a comedy of unpredictable wit. It had De Niro, Nicholson and Rodney Dangerfield impressions thrown in with confident casualness and maintained a tone that poked fun at itself, referencing past Disney films (and even a couple of future projects, with nods to Mulan and Hercules during A Whole New World).

Yes, Aladdin was the big-screen family animation that boys introduced to the world of "mature" cartooning by The Simpsons would happily admit to liking, and that adults could go and see without feeling the need to have a five-year-old in tow.

It's not going too far to say that Aladdin is the progenitor of the current big-screen 'toon boom, being enjoyed everywhere but Disney's traditional animation department, which took a downturn thanks to a neglect of story rather than any failings in the medium. Pixar's sparkling output may not have come along as soon had Aladdin not primed an adult audience to look at animation as a genre as exciting as any other, and shown that Simpsonian sophistication could work when stretched to feature length. If you need to test its influence, just try to think of five live-action films of the last ten years as consistently funny as the Toy Story or Shrek movies. Post Aladdin, animation has become the breeding ground for great comedy writing talent and lays claim to the highest hit-rate of any genre. It's just a shame more of the magic didn't rub off on Disney.

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Movie Review: Aladdin (2019)

• Aaron Leggo
• Movie Reviews
• --> August 7, 2019

Depending on your tolerance for redundancy, there’s a surprising amount of fun to be had in Disney’s Guy Ritchie-helmed Aladdin remake. That’s a far cry from the disaster this could have been and seemed destined to be at one point, considering a laundry list of potential issues ranging from the source material that casually mixes cultures to the looming specter of original scene-stealing star Robin Williams to the fact that Ritchie has a history of turning in violently macho duds (“ King Arthur: Legend of the Sword ” being the latest).

But Disney, the insatiable studio currently gobbling up its Hollywood competition, especially excels at asset management, so the pieces have been assembled here with a particular and inoffensive amount of care. Having already laid the groundwork for a boisterous, colorful musical fantasia with their famed 1992 “Aladdin” adaptation, Ritchie and his Disney overlords find themselves in the position of having to merely update some of the bricks built atop an already sturdy foundation.

It’s not an easy task, considering the gaping hole Williams’ death has left behind and the need to breathe flesh-and-blood life into previously celluloid animated characters, but it’s an easier task than starting from scratch or working from a deeply flawed original. Despite its issues, the 1992 “Aladdin” is an extremely entertaining romp kept buoyant by Williams’ astonishing hyperactivity and the wonderfully catchy songs that Alan Menken and Howard Ashman wrote.

This Aladdin is predictably familiar, with much of the same music, jokes, images, and conflicts, but with just enough tweaks in various nooks and crannies of the tale that there remains room to have fun with the task at hand. Known for his overly frenetic style, Ritchie brings a cartoonish energy to the adventure here and that helps bridge the gap between animation and live-action that previous Disney remake “ Beauty and the Beast ” awkwardly struggled with.

Musical sequences like the early “One Jump Ahead” effectively blur the lines between what is achievable with actual actors on sets and what can be accomplished with the elasticity of animation. This sequence, acting as an introduction to both Aladdin (Mena Massoud, “Ordinary Days”) and Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott, “ Power Rangers ”), is an effortful homage complete with slow-motion, sped-up action, slick stunts, and splashes of color.

Ritchie is aided by having such a solid template to work from, but considering how awful a match of filmmaker and material this once appeared to be, the sequence operates as an immediate dispelling of any doubts. Peppy panache goes a long way to capturing the Disney spirit and Ritchie has pep in spades here.

He’s more than matched in that department by Will Smith (“ Suicide Squad ”), whose charm factor is cranked up to maximum levels and at its most potent when the actor is not saddled with dicey CGI to turn him into a humanoid poof of blue smoke. Smith wisely avoids aping Williams’ signature style while maintaining the Genie’s inherently enthusiastic and well-rounded entertainer vibe.

Having someone that is equally charming and likable to bounce his madcap energy off is an effective way of accentuating Smith’s performance and so he receives great support from Massoud, who captures both the wily spirit and wounded heart of the titular hero. Attempting to shine in the shadow of Smith’s mega star wattage should be a tall order for someone with only a few credits to their name, but Massoud makes it look easy by exuding a wealth of warm confidence.

Rounding out the trio of well-cast leads is Naomi Scott, who stuns as Jasmine with her exquisite poise and soaring voice. She expertly embodies the iconic Disney Princess, but adds additional weight by belting out a solo tune in which she sings of refusing to be silenced. This Jasmine also has higher aspirations than her cartoon counterpart. Instead of merely craving some fresh air outside the walls of her father’s palace, Scott’s version wishes to be sultan, a position she should be owed by birthright, but is denied due to her gender.

The move to expand Jasmine’s motivation heightens her arc by giving the character a more meaningful goal to aim for and further personalizing her journey even after Aladdin shows up ready to woo her. It’s that part of the story where Massoud and Scott especially shine. They share genuine chemistry that lends their romance a gentle air of authenticity.

Massoud and Scott are (so far and by far) the best romantic pair found in Disney’s growing live-action remake lineup and that goes a long way to conjuring some of that vital and vibrant fairytale magic. Strong casting in a familiar movie can really smooth the edges and make for a pleasant experience that avoids the otherwise perilous pitfalls of an unnecessary remake, so having Aladdin and Jasmine played by such lithe, likable performers solves a lot of the movie’s potential problems before the issues can take hold.

Ritchie has logged enough hours on blockbuster productions that the overly computer-assisted set pieces are acceptably executed and a dash of Bollywood influence during some song-and-dance numbers is appreciated for its visual verve. Musicality is such an important aspect of Disney’s animated classics that seeing the screen-to-screen adaptation achieved without losing that elegant element is sweetly satisfying.

In the end, once the trail of blue smoke has dissipated, the charming effect of this new Aladdin mainly goes with it. Redundancy doesn’t exactly inspire longevity and Disney doesn’t build these remakes to last. They’re merely grand refreshers in the company’s long line of iconic properties. But despite the studio’s transparent motives, Aladdin remains a showcase for three very talented performers who reinvent their characters with such charm that the callousness of Disney’s remake enterprise feels momentarily outmatched.

Tagged: desert , genie , prince , princess , remake , wish

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Movie review: ‘Aladdin’

(Rated: PG [Canada], G [Quebec] and PG [MPAA] for some action/peril; directed by Guy Ritchie; stars Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari, Navid Negahban, Billy Magnussen, Nasim Pedrad, Alan Tudyk; run time: 128 min.)

Rubbing the remake lamp for big returns

By Ted Giese

“Aladdin” (2019), the latest in the recent line of live-action remakes of classic animated Disney  films, retells the story from the 1992 animated feature of the same name of a “diamond-in-the-rough” thief and street urchin.

Living in the fictional Arabian port city of Agrabah, Aladdin (Mena Massoud) goes up against Jafar (Marwan Kenzari), the Sultan’s Grand Vizier, for control of a magic lamp and its powerful Genie (Will Smith). Meanwhile, he falls in love and uses his wishes to win the heart of the Sultan’s (Navid Negahban) daughter, Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott). However, the princess, the only child of the Sultan, is more interested in finding her voice and succeeding her father on her own merits than she is in finding a prince to marry.

Throw in wisecracking handmaiden Dalia (Nasim Pedrad) and old favorites like Abu the kleptomaniac monkey, the Magic Carpet, Jasmine’s tiger Rajah and Jafar’s talking parrot Iago (Alan Tudyk), and “Aladdin” checks all the nostalgia boxes for a Disney remake.

This “Aladdin” retains the memorable musical set pieces from the original: “Friend Like Me,” “Prince Ali” and the Oscar-winning “A Whole New World,” albeit with a couple of Bollywood and old-school Will Smith hip-hop flourishes.

The film also includes a new song, “Speechless,” sung by Princess Jasmine and composed in the same vein as “Let It Go” from “Frozen,” with lyrics like “I won’t be silenced / You can’t keep me quiet / Won’t tremble when you try it / All I know is I won’t go speechless.”

Both the 1992 original and the remake are loosely based on “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp,” an 18 th -century French-language addition to The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights) , a much older 14 th -century Arabic-language collection of Middle Eastern folk tales. The tale has a dubious history and may actually be the product of 18 th -century Orientalism.

The first translator of the tales, archeologist Antoine Galland, appears to have been the first person to transcribe the story, which he claimed was based on a story he heard from a Maronite monk in Aleppo, Syria. While other works included in Arabian Nights are authentically translated from original sources, “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp” may likely be a creation of Galland, drawing on his knowledge of the Middle East.

Adaptational changes and cultural concessions

In this latest adaptation of the Aladdin story, Disney is about as faithful to the source material as it has been to the European folk tales that have inspired other Disney films. As in those other films, Disney softens the depiction of the historical setting in which the story takes place to make the film appropriate for children. The result is an idealized Arabic culture with whatever modern, Western aspects suit the story.

For example, a brief scene early in the film shows girls in school being taught by a woman; such opportunities were likely not available to girls in the film’s 9 th -century setting. Through the story of Princess Jasmine, the film also features Western feminist ideals alien to the culture and time period of the story.

In addition, the thief Aladdin never worries about having his hand cut off, the punishment recommended by the Qur’an in 5:38, “[As for] the thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands in recompense for what they committed as a deterrent [punishment] from Allah.”

Despite these changes and modern Western concessions, however, Disney took a great deal of care to be culturally sensitive in the production of the film, hiring cultural consultants and ensuring that the main actors’ ethnicity lined up with that of the characters.

This is not the first time Disney has had to deal with the issue of cultural sensitivity regarding this property. The first film’s opening song, “Arabian Nights,” had its lyrics changed in releases of the film on VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray and streaming services after being deemed offensive.

It’s important to note that while the new “Aladdin” is a family film geared predominantly towards children, it is produced and made by adults and, as such, is open to cultural criticism. The question, then, is how much that matters to Disney. As a company, Disney must balance its creative efforts with its fiduciary responsibilities, maximizing profits and avoiding controversy.

Achieving this goal becomes increasingly complicated as Disney’s share of the global entertainment market continues to expand, and cultural expectations domestically and abroad continue to polarize. As a result, it is hard to know if additions and changes to the story are artistic, ideological or financial choices.

This ambiguity highlights the precarious cultural minefield a remake of Aladdin presents to filmmakers like Guy Ritchie, who presumably want to continue making films. Apart from the original’s financial success, the question arises: why risk controversy by remaking “Aladdin” when it would be just as easy to leave it in the Disney “vault” with other controversial properties like “Song of the South”?

Capitalizing on nostalgia

It could be that Disney is simply methodically going through all their most successful animated films and remaking them as live-action features. While these remakes are generally not as good as the original films, they have proven lucrative for Disney, prompting Disney to ramp up the pace of production.

Starting with “Maleficent” in 2014, Disney has released one of these live-action remakes every year: Kenneth Branagh’s “Cinderella” in 2015; Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book” in 2016; Bill Condon’s “Beauty and the Beast” in 2017; and “Christopher Robin,” Marc Forster’s re-imagining of “Winnie the Pooh,” in 2018.

This year, however, releases have hit even more breakneck pace, with “Aladdin” joining Tim Burton’s “Dumbo” in March, Jeff Nathanson’s highly-anticipated “The Lion King” coming out in July, and a remake of “Lady and the Tramp” following in November.

With this development, a question emerges: will audiences still have an appetite for this glut of nostalgia, or is this hard sprint a sign that Disney knows the finish line is right around the corner — a kind of “make hay while the sun is shining” attitude as dusk approaches on the current nostalgia fever? That might be the best possible construction to put on it.

Another possibility is that Disney is simply seeking to dominate the film industry by acquiring and capitalizing on its competitors’ products. Notable examples include Disney’s purchases of Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in 2009 and Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion in 2012, as well as their recent 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion. 2019 will also see the launch of Disney’s own Netflix-style premium streaming service, Disney+.

Positive examples and Seventh-Commandment issues

After watching “Aladdin,” Christian families, especially families with small children, will want to review and talk about the Seventh Commandment: “You shall not steal.” In the film, theft is both glamorized with flash and dazzle and downplayed with a lack of consequences. In the end, Aladdin comes out on top, and his initial life of crime is excused because of his poverty.

It is worth noting that in the Large Catechism, Martin Luther is just as critical of the rich and powerful thief who steals in a way that only appears right as he is of the small-time crook. An example of such a rich and powerful criminal in the movie is the villainous Grand Vizier Jafar, who schemes to gain power through unprovoked warfare against the neighboring kingdom of Princess Jasmine’s grandfather.

At one point in the movie, Jafar, who once was a street urchin like Aladdin, says to Aladdin, “Steal an apple, you’re a thief. Steal a kingdom, you’re a statesman.” By adding a backstory for Jafar, this adaptation makes him into a cautionary character, warning Aladdin of what might happen if he becomes drunk on the power of the magic lamp.

In the end, Aladdin provides a positive example of following the Fifth and Seventh Commandments when he uses his last wish to free the Genie from his imprisonment in the lamp, showing he truly wants to help and support the Genie in every physical need and allow him to have a life of his own. Aladdin is also supportive of Princess Jasmine becoming the Sultan.

An entertaining but lackluster remake    

While “Aladdin” is one of the better recent Disney live-action remakes, it is still silver next to gold when compared to the 1992 animated film.

Known for his quirky-yet-gritty films focused on street hustlers and petty criminals, Guy Ritchie might seem a logical fit for director of a live-action “Aladdin” remake. But apart from a couple of visual flourishes here and there, his personal style and creative approach are hardly noticeable.

Playing it safe, Ritchie delivers a rather predictable film. The world he presents is too clean and shiny to feel truly inhabited by the characters. Forgiving fans will find much to enjoy, but the sticklers in the crowd will be less accepting. 

Despite its weaknesses, the movie is not without its charm and fun moments. While fans of the original may find the remake haunted by the ghost of Robin Williams, Will Smith does an admirable job filling the role of the Genie and may even be the best part of the film.

In short, “Aladdin” is the latest true-to-form installment in the live-action Disney trend, delivering an experience that may pleasantly surprise audiences going in with low expectations while leaving others in the desert.

Rev. Ted Giese is lead pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church , Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; a contributor to The  Canadian Lutheran and   Reporter ; and movie reviewer for the   “Issues, Etc.” radio program . Follow Pastor Giese on Twitter   @RevTedGiese .

Posted June 4, 2019

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‘Aladdin’ Review: This Is Not What You Wished For

A threadbare magic-carpet ride to nowhere special, with Will Smith as a blue genie.

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By A.O. Scott

“Aladdin,” the 1992 cartoon feature with Robin Williams as a garrulous blue genie , may not be the best movie from Disney’s second golden age of animation, but like the others it has durable charms and memorable songs. “ Aladdin ,” the new live-action re-whatever with a blue Will Smith popping out of the lamp, may not be the worst product of the current era of legacy intellectual property exploitation (it’s likely that the worst is yet to come), but like most of the others it invites a simple question: Why?

The answer — spoiler alert: “money” — may not surprise you. I know it’s pointless to complain about Disney’s drive to wring every last dollar from its various brands. You might as well complain about the animal sidekicks (and I will). But the movie itself, while not entirely terrible — a lot of craft has been purchased, and even a little art — is pointless in a particularly aggressive way.

[Read an interview with Mena Massoud , who plays Aladdin.]

The studio’s earlier cash-grab strategy was to protect the classic status of its “A” material through managed scarcity and lavish reissuing. Each new micro-generation of viewers could be initiated into fandom with a bit of ceremony: Here was an old thing that was being passed on to you in a shiny new package, a polished heirloom in the form of a special VHS or DVD edition or a limited run in theaters. What had belonged to your parents and grandparents could also be yours, whether it was “Snow White” or “The Little Mermaid.” (Not anymore with “Song of the South,” though.)

There were problems with this approach, including the preservation of tropes and images that came to seem old-fashioned, and not necessarily in a good way. The patriarchal princess stories. The cultural and racial stereotypes. That kind of thing. But Disney, long committed to doing well by meaning well, has synergized evolving social attitudes with advancing digital technology to concoct a series of updates.

None of these have surpassed the original, but that might be too much to ask. I can’t think of one — not “The Jungle Book”; not “Mary Poppins Returns”; not the recent, somber “Dumbo”; certainly not this “Aladdin” — that seems able to stand alone in the popular imagination. They are weird and grotesque hybrids, belonging to no particular era, style or creative sensibility, like dishes at a chain restaurant that fuse disparate food trends to produce flavors alien to every known earthly cuisine.

“Aladdin” is not a cartoon, but it takes place in cartoonlike spaces that trade the grace and flow of animation for the cold literalism of computer-generated imagery. The animal sidekicks — a mischievous monkey, a loyal tiger and a malignant parrot — are neither cute nor especially realistic. The human beings occupying the frame alongside them look, with the partial exception of the genie, like people dressed up as Disney characters. They run and jump and dance and sing and wear excruciatingly bright costumes, almost never memorably.

Aladdin (Mena Massoud) is a thief plying his trade in the marketplaces of the vaguely, vividly Middle Eastern fantasyland of Agrabah, where he meets and falls for Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott). Her father, the kindly old Sultan (Navid Negahban), is being undermined by his diabolical vizier, Jafar (Marwan Kenzari). Aladdin and his monkey, Abu, are joined by a magic carpet and a blue genie who grants wishes and also develops a crush on Jasmine’s handmaiden, Dalia (Nasim Pedrad).

The casting is admirable. There’s a brisk, enjoyable early chase through the casbah — the kind of springy action that the director, Guy Ritchie, does pretty well — and a couple of Bollywood-inflected numbers that remind you, pleasantly enough, of the proud history of the musical as a film genre. Some of the voices may make you regret the reminder. (Scott’s is by far the strongest; Smith is not a great singer). You’ll hear a few favorites from the old “Aladdin,” with new lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Alan Menken is still a wonderful composer, by the way.

But somehow the most familiar songs, rather than lending luster to this version of the story (written by Ritchie and John August), only highlight its incoherence. “A Whole New World,” sung as Aladdin and Jasmine take a moonlit carpet ride above Agrabah and other picturesque locales, conveys neither the novelty of flight nor the wonder of discovery. The visuals are tired and perfunctory green-screen placeholders. Similarly, the genie’s showstopper, “Friend Like Me” undermines its own premise. We’ve had an awful lot of shape-shifting, motor-mouthed “friends” like this one.

One of the new songs, belted out with great conviction by Scott, is called “Speechless,” a ham-fisted attempt to paste some power-princess feminism into the film that feels almost as condescending as the women-in-battle sequence in “Avengers: Endgame.”

And as for the film’s supposed lessons — that you should just be yourself and not be seduced by wealth and power — I mean, come on. What makes the Disney classics, old and new, so durable is their ability to fuse commercialism with magic in a way that overwhelms cynicism. When that fails, what we’re left with is thievery.

Rated PG. Theft and mayhem. Running time: 2 hours 8 minutes.

A.O. Scott is a critic at large and the co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Aladdin review – can’t put the genie back in the bottle

Guy Ritchie’s live-action remake of the 90s Disney animation fails to capture the magic

I understand why in 2019, Aladdin would seem ripe for a revival – in Disney’s 1992 animated musical, its heroine, Princess Jasmine, was a smart, selfless woman of the people, shackled and suppressed by her overbearing father. Guy Ritchie’s live-action remake capitalises on the story’s potential for female empowerment, giving Jasmine a brand new solo called Speechless . It helps that Naomi Scott, who plays the princess, has a lovely singing voice and, in a dance-off, moves with the confidence of a pop star.

The plot, of a street urchin who acquires a magic lamp, remains faithful to the original, but the scale feels off. The CGI looks cheap and the sets are panto‑production small. The Sultan’s evil adviser Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) lacks both the camp and the cunning of his cartoon counterpart, while a likable Will Smith can’t replicate the zippy, madcap energy Robin Williams brought to the role of Genie (an impossible ask, in his defence). As for Aladdin himself, Mena Massoud’s boyband haircut brings a certain charm, but like the rest of the film, he’s blandly competent.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Movie Review — A Critical Look at Aladdin the Movie

A Critical Look at Aladdin The Movie

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Published: Mar 19, 2020

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Aladdin Movie Critique by National Public Radio Essay (Article)

Aladdin is one of the recently released Disney movies that millions of people worldwide were able to observe in their local theatres. Therefore, it is not a surprise that many magazines, journals, and newspapers find it necessary and beneficial to discuss its positive and negative aspects. National Public Radio (NPR.org) is a media organization that investigates the film and public reaction. One of its articles reports that the work of Guy Ritchie, the director of Aladdin, “to replicate it as closely as possible” resulted in a “stilted facsimile” (Tobias 1). However, along with certain negative critics to compare Aladdin with an original animated movie or analyze the cast, the author mentioned a list of benefits, which makes people increase their desire to watch the movie.

There are many reasons to love or hate Ritchie’s Aladdin. According to the article, “Smith is the only member of the cast who’s bothered to rethink the original character” (Tobias 2). His performance of Genie was not the attempt to imitate the legendary Robin Williams but the desire to create a character with old friendly habits and new hip-hop preferences. In the article, special attention was paid to the cast and its music and camera work.

In the end, the author states that “from Disney’s perspective, an acceptable Aladdin probably meets the standards for franchise revivification, because it echoes the pleasures of the original film enough to get by” (Tobias 3). It is wrong to neglect the fact that it is normal for the audience to expect more. Aladdin is not a bad adaptation for this moment and, probably, the best chance for many people to return in time and remember the joy and happiness of childhood.

Tobias, Scott. “‘Aladdin’: A CGI World, Neither Whole Nor New.” NPR.org. 2019. Web.

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"Aladdin Movie Critique by National Public Radio." IvyPanda , 1 June 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/aladdin-movie-critique-by-national-public-radio/.

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1. IvyPanda . "Aladdin Movie Critique by National Public Radio." June 1, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/aladdin-movie-critique-by-national-public-radio/.

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Review: Glitzy and high-flying ‘Aladdin’ tour soars in return visit to San Diego

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San Diego ticket-buyers get a lot of bang for their buck in the touring production of the Broadway musical “Aladdin,” now playing through Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

Directed and choreographed by native San Diegan Casey Nicholaw, the tour boasts 31 singer-dancers, an incredible collection of sparkling Middle Eastern-inspired costumes by Gregg Barnes, also a local native, a brass-enhanced 10-piece orchestra and some dazzling special effects. There’s also a head-spinning number of high-flying and extremely athletic dance scenes — some with drums and veils, some with tap shoes, some with scimitars and some with dinner trays that hide pop-up surprises.

In some ways, things move at such a dizzying pace in the two-hour, 30-minute show, the central love story gets a little lost, particularly in the action-packed second act. But fortunately, lead actors Adi Roy as Aladdin and Senzel Ahmady as Princess Jasmine, have warmth, charisma and strong singing voices. They also have great chemistry, which shines in their magic carpet ride scene (which really is magic — even from the fifth row I couldn’t figure out how they made the soaring rug move and spin).

For those not familiar with “Aladdin,” it’s based on the ancient Arabic story about a poor boy who discovers a genie in a magic lamp and uses his wishes to win the heart of a princess. Disney turned the story into a 1992 animated film that became a 2014 Broadway musical that’s still running today. The musical features seven new songs that weren’t in the film, and only one — “Proud of Your Boy” — is as memorable as the original songs.

Trying to recapture the zany, ad-lib riffing of Robin Williams, who was the voice actor for the genie in the film, musical bookwriter Chad Beguelin gives the stage genie wacky, wide-ranging, motor-mouth monologues that tap into topical references including multiple Disney film songs, Tik-Tok, “Dancing with the Stars,” curly fries, Wakanda and even Grogu (the baby Yoda-like character in “The Mandalorian”).

The tour first visited San Diego in 2019. In its return this week, Marcus R. Martin stars as the Genie. His energetic, hilarious and high note-filled performance reaches its zenith in the nearly 10-minute-long “Friend Like Me” production number that builds and builds.

Sorab Wadia is warm and endearing as Jasmine’s father, the Sultan of Agrabah. Anand Nagraj is wickedly campy as Jafar, the kingdom’s power-hungry vizier and Aaron Choi is intentionally cartoonish as Jafar’s henchmen Iago (transformed from a talking parrot character in the film). Also fun are Colt Prattes, Jake Letts and Nathan Levy as Aladdin’s three buddies.

A nice change from the film, which my own children watched hundreds of times on VHS in the early 1990s, is that there’s no longer the creepy scene where the leering Jafar turns Jasmine into a slave girl he plans to marry himself. There’s also less of Aladdin’s mansplaining. It’s a more enlightened story for a more enlightened time.

When: 2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 4; 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 5; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6; 1 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 7

Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 110 Third Ave., Downtown

Tickets: $34 and up

Online: broadwaysd.com

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Review: DISNEY'S ALADDIN at Broadway San Diego

Playing through April 7th at Broadway San Diego

 “Aladdin” now playing through April 7th at the Civic Theatre through Broadway San Diego invites you to enjoy their Arabian night of magic, music, and magic carpets.

“Welcome to the fabled city of Agrabah. City of flying carpets, soaring heroes, famous love ballads, and more glitz and glamour than any other fictional city in the world.”

At the top, the Genie (Marcus M. Martin) welcomes and invites the audience on an adventure and before you know it the stage is filled with color, swirling dancers, flowing fabrics, and Aladdin (Adi Roy), along with his friends Babkak ( Jake Letts ), Omar ( Nathan Levy ), and Kassim ( Colt Prattes ).  

The three of them are looking for food, or maybe some money, but Aladdin instead finds the headstrong Princess Jasmine ( Senzel Ahmady ) who has run away from the palace to experience life.  Her father the Dultan ( Sorab Wadia ) is trying to get her married, and the royal vizier Jafar ( Anand Nagraj ) and his sidekick Iago ( Aaron Choi ) are looking to take over Agrabah itself. It’s the classic movie, with a few additions (created for the movie originally) added in.

Martin as the Genie brings energy and charm to the role, with one-liners, Disney puns and references, and talking directly to the audience. It’s a difficult role without trying to compare to the iconic Robin Williams in the movie, but Martin capably makes the role his own.   His “Friend Like Me”  is not to be beaten and has people standing at the end, while his second act “Prince Ali” number is equally elaborate with props and costume changes.

Roy as Aladdin is charming and sweetly dreams of a better life to make his parents proud "Proud of Your Boy”.  His friends Babkak ( Jake Letts ), Omar ( Nathan Levy ), and Kassim ( Colt Prattes ) add a nice comedic touch, especially in their second act number “High Adventure” which has a wonderful feel for classic adventure movies.

Ahmandy is fiercely independent as Jasmine, and has a lovely voice though at times it was hard to hear her. 

Nagraj as Jafar is wonderfully cartoonish and sinister as the villain Jafar.  His voice is rich and deep, and he accents it with dramatic use of his cape.  Choi as Iago is a bright complement to Jafar’s darkness as the colorfully attired and cheerfully supportive evil henchman.

The score by Alan Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman , Tim Rice , and Chad Beguelin includes classics like “A Whole New World” along with new numbers like ‘These Palace Walls.”  The orchestra led by James Dodgson brings the music to life with lots of energy and the big band influences of the music as especially enjoyable in this production.

The show is full of spectacle, glitz, glamour, and spectacle - it’s a Disney show after all and they know the audience wants this to be full of Disney and Genie magic. 

The costumes by Gregg Barnes are gorgeous, full of color and movement - especially for the dancers in the marketplace.  I love the “A Chorus Line” nod in the gold costumes in the Cave of Wonders as well. The swirling mix of colors and textures, along with the glitter of the jewels and the makeup by Milagros Medina-Cerdeira are set perfectly within the beautiful lighting design by Natasha Katz .  They deliver the setting expected from the animated classic. 

The choreography by Casey Nicholaw (who is also the director) is high energy, fun, and feels like a theme park come to life - which is perfectly appropriate for this show.

The scenic design by Bob Crowley is also lovely, especially the palace which provides a wonderful lace-like texture for the opulent palace walls.  The Cave of Wonders is full of gold and glitter, though the rest of the sets felt a little less built out than the tour came through before.

The Genie’s magic and that flying carpet are all still there (thanks to help from illusionists Jim Steinmeyer and Rob Lake, and special effects by Jeremy Chernick ).  Though like the sets this feels like a bit of a step down in some cases, with so much fog it obscures the carpet in a way that it’s hard to make out that it’s flying without any aid.  The carpet also didn’t come out at the end in full lighting like the last tour, which makes it feel slightly less magical than before.

Those slight quibbles aside “Aladdin” delivers a magical evening that the entire family will enjoy.

How To Get Tickets

“Aladdin” is playing at the Civic Theatre through Broadway San Diego through April 7th.  For ticket and show time information go to www.broadwaysd.com  

Photo credit:   Disney's Aladdin - Photos by Deen Van Meer . © Disney

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