Read Ashley's review of Aladdin.
A thrilling and vibrant live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1992 classic, “Aladdin” is the exciting tale of the charming street rat Aladdin, the courageous and self-determined Princess Jasmine and the Genie who may be the key to their future.
©2019 Disney
Aladdin is in theaters on May 24th, 2019.
Aladdin retells the 1992 Disney classic about a street rat by the same name as the movie title who encounters princess named Jasmine in the land of Agrabah. Through the evil plans of a sorcerer, Jafar, Aladdin is able to become a prince with the help of a genie. He tries to woo Princess Jasmine since she must marry a prince and embarks on a journey he never imagined. Can this remake live up to the original?
Since this movie is a live action based on a cartoon film, it has a difficult task to bring the same charismatic features with humans. It was able to reach that in some parts but by doing so it seems to lose its dark undertones. Instead in this version things were much brighter and vibrant which was not necessarily a bad thing. It would be hard to hit the same cartoon, outrageousness that the 1992 version had but visually for this one being live action it hit the bar.
The same thing goes for the characters with the darker tones of the original being switched for something brighter. Jafar lost his sultry tone of voice that he had in the original making him since like plain old bitter guy. To me he was one of the best Disney villains but did not hold the same in this version. The character that really stood out was the Genie played by Will Smith. He took on a Fresh Prince vibe and made it his own which worked well. He really brought the same unpredictable but fun nature of Genie to the live action and kept the momentum going.
A lot of this movie felt like they relied on the audience to know the original. As a result it felt like it jumped around a lot knowing that viewers could fill in the details that were skipped during the 2 hour runtime. It was still able to maintain its charm and humor throughout the pieced together storyline.
While Aladdin may show you a whole new world by being more vibrant, it does lose some of its dazzle. It is still a fun movie in the end and can definitely be watched multiple times if not to sing along to the classic songs with new visuals.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Ashley (Contributing Editor) is an Orlando native who loves watching movies. Her favorite genres include comedies, thrillers and sci-fi.Click Here to check out Ashley's Articles.