Rating: PG
Runtime: 2 hours, 8 minutes
Director: Guy Ritchie
Quick Impressions:
Robin Williams casts a very long shadow. I’ve said that so often this weekend that I’m starting to feel like a professional raconteur. I mean, doesn’t that sentence sound rehearsed (especially after I say it six hundred times)? It doesn’t help that when I say it to myself inside my head, I hear it in the voice of Peter Graves. The instant I became aware of that, I switched to Morgan Freeman just for kicks. But no matter who says it, the fact remains that Williams is an exceptionally beloved actor whose performance as the genie immensely elevated, probably even defined the 1992 animated classic Aladdin.
You can’t top that. It’s better not to try.
And Will Smith doesn’t try. He plays the role in a completely different way and acquits himself so well that my daughter enthusiastically proclaimed the genie her favorite character by a mile. This stunned me because the Jasmine in this version has an entire song and plotline ripped straight from a women’s march, and usually the character whose dialogue sounds most like a feminist manifesto is the one my daughter singles out for adoration. (Jasmine’s song is amazing, by the way. It’s about time Jasmine gets to sing by herself.)
So this Aladdin works out better than one might expect.
I must admit that though my life is happier when I vacation at a Disney park every summer, I am secretly an adult. (It’s a well kept secret. Sometimes, even I forget.) But as an adult, I have a hard time silencing that cynical voice whispering in my ear, “These are all just blatant cash grabs.” I mean, I don’t blame Disney. The risk is so low, and the profit is practically guaranteed. Everybody loves their (self-proclaimed) animated “classics.” Make a live-action version of every single one (which appears to be the plan) and the audience will come. Why wouldn’t you do it? You can’t lose. I mean, theoretically, remaking everything into the ground could cheapen the originals in some people’s eyes, but Disney knows that won’t happen. Their audience is brainwashed from youth (myself included) and eternally devoted.
And as cash grabs go, I think more highly of these live-action remakes than of all those second-rate, direct-to-video animated sequels of the late 90s/early 2000s. (Apparently, though, even some of those were kind of good. I was the wrong age to watch any of them, so I may be judging them unfairly.)
I’ve been vaguely interested in this production for quite a while. It’s not that I was dying to see this new version of Aladdin because I’m such a huge Aladdin fan. Of course, I like the animated Aladdin (who doesn’t?), but not as much as The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast. In fact, when Aladdin came out in 1992, I was thirteen, in eighth grade, and of the opinion that while Robin Williams’s various improvised riffs were screamingly hilarious, they would not age as well as non-topical humor. (I’m so opinionated.) (As a matter of fact, I think Aladdin has aged better than I expected since kids still find the genie’s manic energy delightful whether they get his cultural references or not.) But my point is, for me, 1992’s Aladdin is not something sacred in danger of desecration. (In fact, I first learned the story from this really cool flip book my mother read me, so I don’t have the same reverence for the 1992 version usually found in fans who are just a touch younger.)
I also didn’t see the trailers and think, “Ooh! This looks like the most amazing time I will have at the movies all year! What a masterpiece! I can’t resist!”
My curiosity was more intellectual. To me, Guy Ritchie actually sounded like a good fit to direct the story of this quick-thinking, nimble “street rat.” And Will Smith was an inspired choice to play Genie. Audiences eager to be swept away in a wave of 90s nostalgia surely have fond feelings for Will Smith, too. And he’s funny in a totally different way from Robin Williams. (I did keep thinking to myself, “But isn’t he a terrible singer, though?” I’m positive I remember hearing Smith himself say in an interview that he was the only member of his family who couldn’t sing, and now ironically, he was also the only one with a Grammy.)
I had basically just heard enough of a steady trickle of gossip throughout the production to want to see the finished product. Plus, my mother wanted to see the movie, and we needed something fun to do with the kids.
The Good:
Mena Massoud impressed me beyond belief. He can sing. He can dance. (This is Agrabah, not France!) He’s extremely charismatic. He’s a perfect fit for Aladdin (even better than Scott Weigner. I told my daughter after the movie, “You remember Steve from Fuller House?” I don’t think Weigner provided Aladdin’s singing voice, but when you looked at the animated Aladdin, it was easy to remember DJ’s cute, non-threatening, just-masculine-enough boyfriend and swoon.)
I have to admit that before seeing the movie, I was skeptical of Massoud. Well, more than skeptical. First we heard that Aladdin‘s cast would be made up mostly of Arabic actors (which is not strictly true, but they’re non-white actors, which I guess is good enough). I thought, “Great, good idea. They’ll get a bunch of unknowns who seem ethnically appropriate for the story, and then Will Smith.” Seemed like a solid plan. All was well…until I saw stills from the production. Then I started to wonder, “Why is the guy playing Jafar so much more attractive than the guy playing Aladdin?”
At first, I thought I was just being weird. Sometimes I’m not great at identifying which people I’m supposed to be finding attractive. But then I started seeing all kinds of memes about “Hot Jafar,” and I felt better (about myself…marginally worse about the production, though). Jafar should not be more attractive and compelling than Aladdin! The idea of marrying Jafar should make a girl willing to leap to her death, not prompt her to say, “Well, he’s evil, but when he looked at me, I did feel like we had a connection.”
Maybe it seems stupid, but I was really worried about this. (I mean, it wasn’t keeping me awake at night, but I thought it was going to be the Achilles heel of the production. Obviously Robin Williams cannot reprise his role as Genie, and surely Will Smith has the sense not to impersonate him, so that was a non-issue. But Jafar being much more handsome and charismatic than Aladdin is a big problem.)
In the movie, however, Massoud is simply fantastic, dripping charisma. (I guess adding motion to the pictures makes all the difference.) His Aladdin was so compelling that I could have fallen in love with him. In fact, Massoud makes it easy to understand why Genie gets so attached to him. He’s confident and vulnerable, flawed and charming, a real diamond in the rough, as they say.
Massoud also has a conspicuously good and strong singing voice. I assume he’s also dancing for himself. (I can’t think why you’d hire a relative unknown and then hire other people to sing and dance.) To be honest, I always found the “One Jump Ahead” sequence a bit weak in the 1992 Aladdin. I compared the song to “Part of Your World” and “Belle” (for obvious reasons), and it seemed far less inspired to me, just kind of weak. Surprisingly, it’s much better here, full of life and energy. I was also impressed with the choreography, more compelling when done by humans in real world settings where you must consider things like human capability and the laws of physics. Watching this sequence, I thought, “Yeah, Guy Ritchie was a good choice for this, and so was Mena Massoud.”
He’s amazing in this role, and I now look forward to his future work.
Also good is Naomi Scott as Jasmine. In the beginning, I was distracted by how much she looks like a young Sarah Michelle Gellar. I couldn’t decide initially if I liked her performance or not, but the longer the movie went on, the more and more I liked her. And she has a fantastic singing voice.
One of the best decisions the movie makes is to give Jasmine a song, “Speechless.” Delightfully, Alan Menken composed the music. (Picking him up as a frequent collaborator is one of the best creative decisions Disney ever made.) The lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and the song is fantastic. “I’m guessing they did that to have an Oscar eligible song,” my husband speculated after the theater. “Oh maybe,” I agreed. “I was just thinking, it’s about time Jasmine gets a song!” I mean, giving Jasmine a song seems like an obvious way to improve the story. I can’t tell you how many little girls I’ve known who have gushed, “I’m Princess Jasmine! This is my tiger!” (She inspired my little sister to want a dovecote.) Jasmine is a popular princess. I’m glad she finally gets a power ballad of her own.
I didn’t even realize beforehand that Nasim Pedrad is in the movie. I always liked her on Saturday Night Live, and she has a surprisingly big part here. Her character is a good addition, and she brings her to life is a way that is both funny and touching.
I’m glad they chose to leave in all the songs. Though Will Smith is not perhaps the best singer, his enthusiasm and stage presence still makes his performances of “Friend Like Me” and especially “Prince Ali” delightful. He’s not Robin Williams, but he is Will Smith, and that works.
One of my great delights was listening for all the changes to the original song lyrics. I remember vividly how the opening song once contained the highly offensive (and frankly uncharacteristically lazy) line, “Where they cut off your ears if they don’t like your face.” In fact, I think it was like that on our cassette of the film’s soundtrack, though the lyrics had been changed by the VHS release. I never liked the original fix because it’s weird to describe a place as “barbaric” just because it’s sunny and windy. Now they’ve changed these lyrics yet again, and the new, new lyrics make Agrabah sound like a place somebody might actually like to visit. There are some conspicuous lyric changes throughout the film. (Prince Ali, for example, no longer has slaves, just servants and flunkies, and the joke, “Brush up your Sunday salaam,” has been removed and changed to a more logical “Friday salaam.”) If you know the songs and listen, you’ll hear a few other changes as well. Most of them are good (or at least not bad) changes.
Best Scene Visually:
This entire film is so visually rich, a throwback costume drama that seems like it belongs to a much earlier era of Hollywood. I’m sure Disney poured a ton of money into this movie, and it shows. I know they partnered with Zales to create the jewelry the characters wear and some of the treasures in the cave of wonders. This new Agrabah looks opulent and fantastical. It’s very easy on the eyes. Occasionally, I found myself thinking, “This pacing is not exactly urgent, but I think I could comfortably watch this drag on and on for up to three hours. It’s a very pleasant diversion.”
Somehow, this live-action remake manages to look more like a fantasy than the animated version. (You know the fairy tale aspect is really played up when a cartoon is more realistic.)
As in the animated version, the Cave of Wonders is pretty impressive. (It never fails to impress. I remember when we saw Aladdin on stage at Disney’s California Adventure. For weeks afterward, my then two-year-old daughter raved about how she wanted to see “that kitty mouth” again. (Since she gave no context, it took me quite a while to figure out what she was talking about. Even when we narrowed it down to Aladdin, at first I thought she meant Rajah which provoked a furious response.))
The streets of Agrabah also look great, as does the interior of the palace, and of course, Prince Ali’s big entrance is impressive.
The only scene I found less impressive was “A Whole New World” since they no longer fly all over the entire world. Still, the idea of a magic carpet is always delightful, and as I mentioned before, both Massoud and Scott are great singers.
Best Joke:
Some of the humor in the “jams” scene is a bit forced. You get the feeling it’s meant to be funnier. (And maybe it would have been funnier if my son hadn’t been complaining about a frustratingly elusive piece of popcorn stuck in his teeth.) Still, Aladdin’s answer when Jasmine asks him what he’s hoping to buy actually made me laugh out loud (like just one burst of laughter, but it was very audible). He just does it so well.
Best Action Sequence:
The performance of Aladdin’s “One Jump” is unusually invigorating in this version. I feel like Mena Massoud’s Aladdin is equal parts parkour expert and Kevin from Home Alone. This song that so underwhelmed me in the original genuinely wowed me in this version. Any time Massoud is doing something physical, the action on screen is eye-catching and full of energy. He’s great in the dance scene, too. Another welcome interlude comes when he sneaks into the palace, hoping for another stolen moment with the disguised Jasmine.
Best Scene:
One of the best aspects of this version of the story is a slight tweaking of Jafar’s background. I love the way he regains possession of the lamp. I think this is an improvement on the original. (By “the original,” I mean the version of Aladdin first seen in Disney’s ’92 film. Although this version changes and elaborates on that material, it is clearly a retelling of that specific vision of Aladdin.)
Also pretty great is Jasmine’s enhanced role. (Her character is getting gradually more intelligent and capable since the original tale.) The reprise of her new song is a conspicuously strong moment in the film. She’s also given a very specific and realistic reason to reject Jafar as a suitor. In the animated version, her knee-jerk reaction to Jafar is, “He’s creepy,” which is true. But why she will not ally with him politically in this version is more substantial and could happen in a real-world scenario.
The new frame story is extremely likable, too.
Honestly, all of the new material stands out for obvious reasons, but fortunately for this production, most of it seems like an improvement.
One of the best moments in the film took me by complete surprise. I learned after the movie that my husband had the same reaction. The way Will Smith plays the genie’s final interaction with Aladdin is genuinely touching. We were surprised to feel actual emotion here (especially since we already knew the ending)!
The Negatives:
I remember thinking during the animated original, “Why is Jafar so creepy? His only motivation seems to be to do evil.” Now Jafar’s character seems far more developed and enhanced, but, bafflingly, I could not help thinking, “Jafar needs to be creepier.” I feel odd complaining about this, but I’m not sure Marwan Kenzari’s Jafar worked for me. I like the changes this new story makes to his character. I like what we learn about his background. I like that we understand more about his desire for power. That’s cool. But I think it’s Kenzari’s performance specifically that doesn’t always work for me. In all those production stills, he really does look like Hot Jafar. But when he’s actually acting, I feel like he’s lacking some charisma, some presence. Granted, the other Jafar was over-the-top. (You might even call him cartoonish!) (And no one would have found him hot without ulterior motives, even though his beard was “sooo twisted.”) But he just had more presence. When he walked into a scene, you felt him.
I don’t like this new boring parrot, either, although I was not the biggest fan of Iago in ’92. The animal sidekicks in this version feel a little weird. (The carpet is great, though!) Abu is okay, but the parrot is boring, and it’s weird the way Rajah is sometimes treated. At the end, Jasmine is threatened to control her cat or else he’ll be harmed, and I found myself thinking, “Um. That’s a tiger. He will eat you.” But maybe that’s the point. Maybe that’s why the word “cat” is used. Maybe Jafar is also underestimating Jasmine, not realizing how much power she already has.
The movie adds a lot of material (which I liked, actually), but it sometimes feels a bit slow. Like Prince Ali, it is never boring. Never. Yet the pacing is…stately…measured. Of course, part of the issue here may be that Robin Williams dominated the original, and his pacing is “speed of light” at all times. His frenzied, frenetic humor is definitely missed, but overall I like what Smith does with the genie. The blue CGI is weird, admittedly. But fortunately, we see Genie in his human disguise a lot. Now Smith didn’t lie in that interview I read years ago when he said he can’t sing. He’s not a great singer. (I mean, he sings better than I do, but I’m not in the movie.) His “Friend Like Me” is definitely weaker than the Robin Williams version. “Prince Ali,” however, genuinely works. And I genuinely like the rap in the credits. (I half wish they had used that in the film instead of the not great “Friend Like Me,” but you know everybody would have complained.)
The sultan is still kind of weak, but he always was. He gets a bit more character here than in the ’92 version.
I’m a bit confused about where Agrabah is. The movie spends a long time talking about how Ababwa is not a real kingdom, which almost seems like a meta joke since they’re in Agrabah, itself a completely made up place created by the “genie magic” of Disney for our viewing pleasure. I thought in the 1992 version Agrabah was a city, just part of the kingdom. Isn’t it “city of mystery, of enchantment”? I don’t know enough about the culture of the Middle East to say where it is. I do know that the actors are from all over the place, and their fashion looks like it came out of a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby Road movie (which is not to say it isn’t realistic. It just looks very Hollywood). The actors are from all over the place, too. I’m not sure this is a negative. This production just really emphasizes the fact that we’re being told a fairy tale. Maybe that’s a good thing. It makes what happens with Jasmine seem more likely and also allows for the existence of genies and evil, hypnotic snake staffs.
Overall:
There will never be another Robin Williams, and this new Aladdin is nowhere near as funny as the 1992 version, but Will Smith makes a good genie, too, and this is definitely fun, family friendly entertainment. The talented Mena Massoud is perfect as Aladdin, and Naomi Scott’s Jasmine gets an enhanced role and a new song that everybody should love. If you’re looking for something fun to do with your kids, you could do worse than taking them to Aladdin. And if you’d prefer to shower them with jewels instead, I hear there’s a new Aladdin inspired collection at Zales.