For the First Time In Forever Disney Watcher Bonus Review: Aladdin (2019)

Reader, you may be slightly surprised to see a review of this movie for two reasons. First of all, I completely forgot to put it in my May wrap-up so you probably weren’t aware I saw it. Second of all, while I enjoyed the animated movie well enough, I didn’t love it either. I was fairly meh about the whole Aladdin experience, and though I was vaguely curious about the remake, I wasn’t completely desperate to see it either.

But I had an opportunity to go see it, and since I so rarely go to the movie theater, I figured it was probably worth it, even if I didn’t love the animated movie. And I am so incredibly glad I went, this movie totally blew me away! It was so much better than Beauty and the Beast, the only other live action remake I’ve seen, and it was just so awesome. It was way better than the animated movie, for a few reasons, which I’ll get into right now.

The first reason was the slightly more politically correct version of Aladdin that was presented. This was pretty much entirely centered on Jasmine. She’s no longer about to get her hand cut off in the market, her desire is to be the Sultan (which is what happens in the end), she’s no longer under sixteen being lusted after by men far older than her, she no longer seduces Jafar to distract him while Aladdin steals the lamp, she just straight-up steals the lamp herself. Oh, and she also has a human friend as opposed to only fraternizing with a tiger prior to the arrival of Aladdin. These are all really good changes, making the new movie far less uncomfortable to watch and a lot more engaging.

And those are just the most obvious changes. There are some more subtle ones too: Aladdin comes off as less of a creep in this version (although that could be in part to Mena Massoud’s performance, which was so gosh-darn charismatic he basically made it impossible to dislike Aladdin), there are more comedy scenes, more interactions between Aladdin and Jasmine that support their relationship, there’s a dance number (which is always a good thing), and there’s less blatant rewriting to erase every single plot hole (which is part of what eventually sunk Beauty and the Beast). 

Speaking of Beauty and the Beast, this movie was a lot more visually interesting, as clearly the filmmakers felt that since they had an opportunity to do stuff outside, the sky was the limit. Everything was elaborate and expansive and bright and vivid, and realistic enough to not draw you out of the movie. Visually, it was a very beautiful movie, which shouldn’t be surprising it being Disney and all, but still feels worth talking about.

Moving onto the characters, we need to talk about Will Smith’s Genie, which was something that had really concerned me when I first heard about this movie. I mean, following after Robin Williams is something no actor should have to do, but Will Smith? Being pretty much unfamiliar with him beyond the fact that he was in Suicide Squad, it seemed like an odd piece of casting to me. So imagine my surprise when he acquitted himself so incredibly well. His major strength was to play the Genie entirely using his brand of comedy; he made no attempt to be Robin Williams, he didn’t do impressions, even lines that were the same he delivered completely differently. This really helped, because he didn’t pretend to be Robin Williams, which would have resulted in inevitable failure. Nobody can be Robin Williams but Robin Williams, and Will Smith avoided this trap completely, and still managed to be really funny. So kudos to him.

As I said before, Mena Massoud was amazing as Aladdin, lighting up the screen whenever he appeared, and making a kind of obnoxious character inherently sympathetic. Naomi Scott is a treasure; her Jasmine was strong but sweet, graceful but determined, and a lot more believable in her cries of rebellion than her more whiny animated counterpart. Jafar and the Sultan were basically the same as the animated movie; they were a little more grounded in realism, which was fine, if not inherently better. The absolute best character though, was Jasmine’s handmaiden Dahlia, who was absolutely hilarious bouncing off of both Naomi Scott and Will Smith. She was quirky enough to balance both of those different comedic tones, and is the absolute best addition to the movie.

The music of Aladdin is still not my favourite in the Disney catalogue but I think I enjoyed it more this go around, partially because everything was bigger and more grandiose in live action. I loved the sweeping pan-in during Arabian Nights, it was suitable epic and set the tone perfectly right off the bat. Jasmine’s new song Speechless, while slightly disconnected, was so awesome I couldn’t bring myself to care. Prince Ali was a highlight; it was so bright and stuffed with activity and energetic, it actually drew applause at the showing I was at. A Whole New World still feels like a pretty generic Disney duet to me, but there was something about seeing it in live action that made it a little more special to me. One Jump Ahead is my absolute favourite number, as the flips and the tricks and the escapes and the new beat and Mena Massoud all combined to make a pretty excellent little character introduction (also love that they worked Jasmine in there, and the little meet-cute thing when she jumps across the roof to land in his lap. That was cute). Friend Like Me was probably the lowest point for me, which isn’t really their fault. The shadow of Robin Williams just loomed so large over that particular song, Will Smith couldn’t quite overcome it (no matter how well he did the rest of the time).

And there you have it, those are all my thoughts on Disney’s live-action Aladdin. I was shocked by how much I loved it, and I’m probably going to be watching it again when it comes out on DVD. You guys should let me know in the comments what you think of it, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Until the next time.