Disney Animation has many classic films
under their belt that help shape Animation to be the expressive and meaningful
media it is today. One of their most popular films ever is hands down their
adaptation of the Arabian story, Aladdin.
Aladdin is a movie filled with so
much energy and fun along with having a tight story, exuberant animation, a
lovely soundtrack and one of the finest vocal performances ever heard in the
form of Robin Williams as the Genie. With such an iconic film under their belt,
it would seem somewhat disrespectful for the talent that worked on the film if
the studio decides to remake this particular version of Aladdin into a live action remake claiming it’s better than the
original. The bad news is, they have, as now we finally lay our eyes on another
Disney live action remake, the worse news, it is pretty terrible even
considering how bad the live action adaptations of Disney Animated films have
been. Aladdin 2019 is nothing more
than a boring soulless cash grab with very little of the heart that made the
original such a delight to watch and certainly is not a diamond in the rough
when compared to the other Mediocre at Best Disney remakes.
Retelling
with No Punch or Pizzazz
The 2019 version of Aladdin on the surface doesn’t have too
much different to it from a story perspective, being about a thief named
Aladdin who falls in love with the Princess of the Arabian city of Agrabah,
Jasmine. When trying to win his affection for Jasmine by doing deeds for an
Evil Sorcerer Jafar, he comes across a magic lamp with a Genie that could help
him on his path to have a happy life with Princess Jasmine. The story plays out
very similar to the original animated version, however much like the 2017
remake of Beauty and the Beast; it
almost feels too much like a carbon copy of the original animated film. Some
may say that is not a bad thing from the surface considering they’re going
through the same story beats as the original in a very similar manner in a “If
it ain’t broke don’t fix it” kind of way.
The issue is we have already seen this movie played out before in the
original animated version and considering the animated version was so lively
and expressive in very subtle ways, seeing a group of filmmakers try to
recreate that in a more limited way like live action does not work. Most of the
scenes are bland and not filled with style or flare of any sort, making the
film a rather dull watch. Not to mention, with this movie trying to be so much
like the original to a bit of a fault, it is so much more notable when it makes
a change that made the original flowed so well. Certain sequences are combined
into one moment instead of being their own scene. This is bad because you don’t
get a good sense of time as when certain moment in this movie end, there is no
impact in terms of emotion and we just go to the next sequence. What makes it
even worse however that is because this is the more “mature” version of the
original movie, it has to be longer and since it couldn’t simply leave the
great original moments intact, there is some very obvious filler thrown in
here. When it appears it is painful as the scenes don’t add any value to the
original story, they don’t improve on any flaws the original may have and most
of it is just comedic moments and painfully unfunny ones. The comedy goes on
for too long with some jokes lingering on and on with no point and very little
charm. There’s nothing clever or quick about it and when this is a remake of a
movie that had a comedic legend behind it with Robin Williams, it makes this
movie all the more pitiful. You would think with a longer runtime they would
make something more worthwhile with its story but unfortunately no, it’s just a
poor retelling of a great movie that couldn’t retell it in a way that makes it
feel like it has phenomenal cosmic powers.
Characters
Super Ordinary Incredibly Boring
Outside of its tightly
told story, Aladdin is
incredibly well known for its cast of amazing characters and this remake has a
cast that for the most part doesn’t come close to the charm of Disney’s
original film. Starting with the leads, Aladdin and Jasmine aren’t too terribly
interesting in this film compared to how they were in the original. To the
actors credit however, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott aren’t terribly cast in the
roles and nor do they themselves give a bad performance as the characters. They
do well with what they’re given as they try their best to retain the likability
that the original animated characters had to offer with some charisma and some
decent singing voices. What is holding them back however is the writing as the
characters are directed in a weird way with Guy Richie’s direction not letting
them go out and also a poor script that tries to attempt to add some depth to
their characters but just come across as needless padding to make the film
longer instead. Will Smith on the other hand, plays Will Smith and not the
Genie. Not to discredit Smith as an actor as he has proven to be likable in the
past but the film is mostly trying to have him do his typical shtick of being
Funny Will Smith. This does not work due to the terrible writing when it comes
to giving jokes to these characters that again linger on for too long and the
fact that Smith has the task of following comedic legend Robin Williams in this
iconic role he helped make. He does try to do his own thing at parts but it
just pales in comparison to all the hilarious energy Williams gave in every
single frame of Aladdin and the film
still tries to desperately recreate something in the vein of that performance.
Genie is a character that Williams mentioned in the film himself, “Is often imitated
but never duplicated” and the filmmakers here did not realize that fact when
recreating the Genie in this film. That is however nothing compared to the
worst element of this movie character wise which is the main antagonist of
Jafar. Jafar in this movie is horrible as once a menacing and memorable
antagonist is given a boring look and performance with barely little emotion
coming out of him. Kenzari could prove himself to be a good actor in other
films but he is not only horribly miscast as a weirdly younger version of the
character but the direction he was given just makes him out to be bored
throughout a good majority of the film. Whenever there is a moment where he has
to be over the top, it comes across as laughable as this version of Jafar just
is a lame mess of character Outside of
the main cast, the rest of the characters don’t hold up as Abu is just a
generic CGI monkey, The Sultan who was once charming and lovable turns into a
boring generic king, and Jasmine has an unnecessary sidekick that just helps
continues being a part of the terrible jokes in this movie. The only diamond in
the rough that appears in this movie from a character perspective is the magic
carpet. He is actually still the same old Magic Carpet, still being expressive
despite the lack of facial features and dialogue that still stays true to the
original film. Though considering Carpet is the only character that is 100% how
he should be, then it’s kind of unbelievable that this new cast of big name
actors are literally losing to a rug.
Visuals
and Music Neither Shinning or Shimmering
An animated movie is
nothing without some visually stunning animation and considering what this
movie is, it accomplished exactly that, nothing. Aladdin 2019 is not only
a downgrade in visual quality when looking at all the expressive and
beautifully crafted 2D Animated artwork on screen, but even on its own, it just
looks lackluster. The movie doesn’t look grand or theatrical like the animated
version and instead looks like a cheap Disney Channel movie. Namely because Guy
Richie’s direction doesn’t have any sort of flare or style to it as previously
mentioned, there are very few shots that look impressive as it just looks flat
and uninspired looking obviously like a set with some very poor CGI. The
effects for some of the major set pieces like the Cave of Wonders and other
moments are lackluster enough already, but nothing could compared to the appalling
effects that are Will Smith’s interpretation of the Genie. The original
animated was very cartoony and over the top and it looked perfect with the way
the character was designed and moved thanks to talented animator Eric Goldberg.
When trying to recreate that over the top cartoon style of animation with a
more realistic style of CGI does not work at all, in fact it looks downright
grotesque at points. There are other gross looking CGI effects, that are seen
throughout the movie but the Genie is the main one to be noticed in this film.
More often than not however, the movie just looks bland, this is especially
evident in the song sequences. Friend
Like Me suffers from the grotesque visuals while the other songs like Prince Ali, One Jump Ahead, and A Whole New World more so suffer from
being shot in a standard way with no much excitement. Guy Richie clearly shows
that he does know how to direct a musical sequence as each moment is edited
poorly with very little style and even lacking in color visually. The plus side
is that unlike the Beauty and the Beast remake
where there is a ton of auto tuned and poor singing, some of the songs are at
least sung well. Namely A Whole New World
is a nice version of the song to listen to and would be the highlight of the
film is what was on screen looked bright and colorful like the original. There
is one new song added into the film called Speechless
that is only being mentioned now because it one of the biggest examples of
filler added into this film. The song is completely forgettable and while it
tries to add character to Jasmine, it just ends up being needlessly added just
to pad out time. Naomi Scott’s talented singing voice could not make up for how
incredibly pointless and generic this new song is, and just shows that they
could have made it a good opportunity for them to add a deleted song that was
good like Proud Of Your Boy. While
the songs and visuals in the original movie are fantastic, the remake does not
do these amazing visuals and music justice and turns it into a film that barely
illuminates those possibilities of color and expression we see in film.
The Aladdin remake is every bit as atrocious
as a Disney remake can be. It may have some bright stuff here and there but the
film doesn’t understand the original movie so much to the point where it just
comes across as lifeless. There’s nothing of value here that is in this movie
that you can just easily find in the original film. Some films should again
never attempt to be duplicated and Disney’s Aladdin
is a prime example of it. If there is anything that is good about the remake it
is just another great reminder on how great the original Disney film is and
hopefully this will end the trend of Disney taking older animated films and
making them into generic live action tripe. A dream for many would be for them
to be free from these remakes but fortunately, the originals are still here to
stay and you’re better off watching that instead.
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