Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Aladdin (2019)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

Aladdin (2019)

This is a tough one to write about.  I saw the live action remake when it was first released on Disney+.  I was only going to watch a little bit before bed but ended up staying up till 1 am watching the whole thing, mostly because it felt like a train wreck you couldn’t turn away from.  On this viewing it didn’t seem as bad.  Also I feel the reviews of the remakes are getting kind of repetitive.  Mostly it doesn't live up to the animated, it's too long, and why the unnecessary backstory. I still haven’t seen The Lion King or Mulan remakes but guessing they will have similar issues.

The good thing about Aladdin 2019 is that it’s not a shot for shot remake.  While it follows the story pretty closely it adds a few aspects.  First thing it does is give Jasmine even bigger aspirations.  In the animated film she just wanted to be able to marry whoever she wanted, in the live action version she wants to be Sultan.  She is fighting for her right to be heard and respected as an intelligent human. I think this is a reflection of the times and a good addition to the story.    Another aspect added to the remake that doesn’t quite work as well is a Genie side story.  For some reason in this one we get a secondary love story between the Genie and Jasmine’s handmaiden.  Feels like it was put in there so Will Smith had more scenes to act charming, but it doesn’t really add much to the story.  

The biggest problems for this movie are the lack of chemistry between the characters and that the songs sounded bad.  The movie was controversial right from the start of production when it came to casting.  Disney said they wanted to cast actors and actresses that represent the region, but then said it was taking so long to cast someone because they couldn’t find anyone that could sing, dance, and act.  Eventually we got a cast that included mostly unknowns and Will Smith.  The standout performance  is Naomi Scott as Jasmine, but she had very little chemistry with Mena Massoud who played Aladdin.  You never really felt that had any kind of connection.  The same goes for Genie and Aladdin.  They are supposed to be best friends but they just never really click.  

The songs are so iconic maybe it’s just hearing someone else singing them that throws me off.  But I really feel that they don’t sound as good.  It’s weird that Robin Williams would sound better than a singer like Will Smith.  My theory is that the songs were written in a Broadway style and that is not a style Will Smith is comfortable singing in.  There is a very bizarre remake of the song “Friend Like Me” in the end credits which sounds much more his style and you can tell Smith is having fun.  Maybe they should have tried to tweak the songs a bit to make it work for him.  But as it is it just hurts my brain.  Massoud just doesn’t seem to have the singing chops to make the songs work.  On the other hand Naomi Scott belts the songs out like she was born to play the role.  There is a new song that Jasmine sings and Scott does a great job at singing it.  The biggest problem with the new song is it sound more modern than the other songs and kind of stands out.  It feels like they really wanted to write a song that sounded like "Let it Go" from Frozen.

A few positives before I wrap up.  I loved the score.  They brought Alan Menken back from the original film and I feel he really improved on it.  Also the action was good, although I expected it to be better with Guy Ritchie directing. I really wanted more Aladdin doing Parkour, but that may just be me. 

Overall: Maybe for those that never seen the original this would work.  I like that it isn’t a shot for shot remake but feel they made some questionable decisions on what they did change.  And not sure why the remakes need to be over 2 hours.  Could have been better if just kept it shorter.