ALADDIN by Urizen

   Oh boy! Me trying to see Aladdin has been an adventure. I originally planned on waiting a while to see it. Didn’t want to deal with a bunch of children, plus was unsure how it would be. As it drew closer though, I decided to check out the soundtrack on YouTube. To my surprise, I was actually really liking the remakes of the songs, and the more I listened, the more I wanted to see the movie. I decided to give in and go opening night. Naturally I have plans and end up not going. A few days later, I’m out getting dinner and decide that this was the day. I go online and go to book my tickets, ends up being sold out. Godzilla happens so I wait a little more, then finally I decide that I have to go to the mall anyway, I could see either Aladdin or Brightburn. I go, and of course, Brightburn doesn’t play for another 2 hours and Aladdin isn’t showing at all. I get fed up and drive about 20 minutes to a different theater to go see this, which thankfully did work out.

   This story is all just to say the frustration I went through. I was not in the most positive mindset. In all honesty, as I sat down to watch this, I was so sure I wasn’t going to like it. Between the reviews I had seen and the hassle I went through, I saw no way for it to meet my expectations. Thankfully as I got there, I managed to get a good seat in a not at all crowded theater. Now it was time to see, was I right or would I be pleasantly surprised.

   Let’s start with the story, all should know it. It’s Aladdin. Arguably one of the greatest movies of all time. Just in case though, I’ll go over the basic premise. Mena Massoud plays the titular character. Aladdin was orphaned and grew up on the streets of Agrabah with his monkey Abu, becoming a thief to get by and survive. Being labeled a street rat, with most of the shop keepers and guards wanting him arrested or dead, one day while  out stealing some food, he meets a woman being harassed by a shop keeper for stealing bread to give to some homeless children. Aladdin helps her escape and the two instantly have a connection. Though she lies, saying she is the princess’s handmaiden, the woman is actually Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) herself. She isn’t allowed to leave the palace because the Sultan is very protective of her. So she sneaks out to see the people in disguise.

   Eventually Jafar (Marwan Kenzari), the Sultan's advisor who wishes to claim the title, kidnaps Aladdin. Jafar tells Aladdin that the princess just likes playing with the common folk, and they could never be together. Though, if Aladdin goes into this cave and retrieves a simple lamp from within, Jafar will make him richer than he could ever imagine. Aladdin accepts, saving a magic carpet on the way, but ultimately gets betrayed by Jafar who leaves Aladdin for dead. Abu though manages to sneak the lamp from Jafar, giving it to Aladdin. He ends up unleashing Genie (Will Smith), who will grant him 3 wishes.  Naturally Aladdin wishes to become a prince so he can be with the Princess and the story goes on from there with Aladdin having to live this lie and trying to learn to just be himself and also working on stopping Jafar from taking over as Sultan of Agrabah.

   Now after that way too long base summary,  the real question is, is the movie good? Honestly? Yeah. It is really good. As far as the Disney live action adaptations, Aladdin is leaps and bounds ahead of Beauty and the Beast. The story stays pretty faithful, with a few tweaks, and most of the characters are pretty much the same. Some even get a bit of improvement. One example of that I can think of is the Sultan. While he doesn’t have much in the movie, he is shown to not be the fool he was in the original.

   Aladdin and Jasmine mainly keep the same arc they had in the original with just a bit more being added to Jasmine’s. We find out why she is kept locked in the palace and we see her really wanting to become Sultan next.  We do get a bit of her being told that she can’t be Sultan because no woman has been one before and how women should be seen and not heard. This could’ve gone bad honestly depending on Jasmine’s reaction. They nailed it though. She says how she will not be kept silent and shows throughout the film that she should be the next Sultan. Not because she’s a woman, but because she truly cares deeply about her people and wants the best for them. It was a very good way to do feminism right in a movie.

   One character that is a bit different, and is one of my few complaints about this movie, is Jafar. I’m sure Marwan Kenzari did his best with the role, unfortunately he isn’t a very intimidating person. He just didn’t fit Jafar. I don’t know if they were trying to make him not seem so inherently evil by appearance alone, but Jafar while not physically intimidating has always been sinister. Even in some of the more sinister moments in this movie, Kenzari just couldn’t pull it off. Plus they changed things a bit in this where while Jafar still wants to be Sultan, he is set on being the strongest. He has an inferiority complex and anytime someone says that he is second best, he gets all angry. Like I said, it is one of my only complaints about the movie, but given that it is Jafar who is the villain, it is a pretty major thing.

   Now the elephant in the room. The thing people have talked about since the casting happened. We have Will Smith as Genie. I really feel bad for Will Smith, because in the end no matter how he did in the role, people would say he wasn’t as good as Robin Williams. It really isn’t fair to even compare the two. Robin Williams could never be copied and I appreciate the fact that Will Smith didn’t try. He kept the core of the character but made it his own. It really worked too. Being realistic, while Jafar not being great didn’t ruin the movie, if Genie was bad then this just wouldn’t have worked out. Instead though, he did great. I loved the musical numbers. His look was great and the humor was spot on for me. If people can go into this open minded and not try to compare the two (even though I totally did that with Jafar), I think they will really enjoy his performance.

   I want to talk about the music, but first I have to touch on something else. I absolutely loved the more authentic outfits and having this Bollywood feel at times. The dance numbers during the songs were also excellent. It all just had a really nice feel to it that I appreciated

  Ok, now music.  It is all great. There isn’t a song that I didn't enjoy the new take of. Some things in the songs are changed to be either more accurate or just for a new version of the song, but it all works. I heard people complaining about “Prince Ali" being  too slow,  but I didn't mind. Honestly, I'm listening to the soundtrack now because I can't get the songs out of my head. In my opinion they are all really good. We do have one new song added to the movie,  “Speechless.” It is performed by Naomi Scott and it is powerful. Naomi Scott did such a great job with it. The song is teased in two separate sections before giving us the full version in a scene that is so excellent and that really stands out to me. All of the singers in the movie do great really though.

   Despite having it’s minor flaws,  Disney’s live action adaptation of Aladdin truly succeeds. It hits the nostalgia factor perfectly, but doesn't rely on it, allowing it to stand on its own. This allows not only fans of the original, but children just getting introduced to it,  to enjoy it. I only hope Disney can keep this up and maybe do even better when Lion King and eventually Mulan roll around.  I hope people can get past things enough though to give this movie a chance, because I think it is really good and maybe the Aladdin that the new generation can look at the way that we look back at the animated classic.  Who knows,  it may just leave you speechless