Aladdin (2019) · 2:30am May 24th, 2019
Among the many Disney films my family had on VHS while I was in Elementary School at most, the original movie is nowadays one of the many films people imagine when they hear the word "Disney." We had "The Return of Jafar" as well, and I often had a ball with the TV series and "The King of Thieves".
With Robin Williams sadly passing, we were kinda shaken on just how this would play out when the trailers came out. People jeered at Will Smith's Genie. We feared that this, and Lion King, would be a bust.
Now that I've seen the movie myself... What do I think?
To be honest, I'm split in the middle. Here's what I can summarize
Pros: Will Smith's Genie is actually a lot better than you think, and there are quite a few clever jokes they use. Three of the songs in the film are my choice favorites, and hearing "A Whole New World" in the theater almost got a tear.
Mixed: Jasmine's handmaiden Dalia, though her scenes with Will Smith is quite cute. The pacing may feel a little rushed.
Cons: Jafar is not the calm, patient villain you think. Iago quite toned down, sadly not voiced by Gottfried. One instance in the editing of the film is rather sloppy (it's not hard to catch). One song stops the film entirely.
My verdict? I put this much higher on the list than "Beauty and the Beast," higher than "Dumbo," but still doesn't replace "The Jungle Book" remake as my favorite of the Disney remakes.
A side note. If we were to do a sequel to this once more, seeing as Maleficent (a film I didn't see, but heard it was just bad) is getting a second movie. How would I like to play this out?
Well, for a sequel to this, I'd rather stray away from Aladdin to somewhere else. Here's how'd I imagine an intro to it,
We get a brief recap of the old film, with the Arabian Nights lyrics, whether sung by Will Smith or someone else, goes more like the version from "The King of Thieves"
After that phrase, we go over to another city at night, a seaport, where things are bleaker than in Agrabah and the residents are just as cantankerous to prove it. We then have this version
During which we are presented with the title of speculative sequel
SINBAD
That's my two cents, breathe deep, seek peace.
