Aladdin

Walt Disney Studios was always known for making great animated movies aimed towards the entire family. They have recently been remaking their classics into live action, giving that real life feel to them. This all really started with the success of Cinderella in 2015, which was received so well, both by audiences and critically, that Disney decided to open their vault even more to this trend. Disney had released a few live action adaptations prior to this, The Jungle Book (1994), 101 Dalmatians (1996), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Maleficent (2014), but Cinderella was the first of their iconic princess movies to get this treatment.

Everybody has their personal favorites amongst the Disney animated movies. The ironic part for me is that all four on my “Mount Rushmore” were released theatrically within a span of only five years. They are The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994). Beauty and the Beast was redone in 2017 and became a true commercial success, making $504M domestically (currently #13 all time) and a phenomenal worldwide gross of $1.263B (currently #15 all time). Aladdin and The Lion King are both releasing in 2019. The Little Mermaid is currently in production without an official release date, as of yet.

When you think of the animated Aladdin, the first thing you remember is Robin Williams as Genie. If you say that’s not what you first think of, you’re lying. No one can ever recreate the legendary Robin Williams in anything, especially this role. When it was first announced that the live action Aladdin had cast Will Smith as Genie, I was truly disappointed. I honestly thought the best actor to play Genie in a live action Aladdin would have been Jack Black, who could’ve played this part as close to Robin Williams as possible. Will Smith made this Genie his own, without trying to imitate Robin Williams at all, and it honestly worked much better than I had anticipated.

Mena Massoud was chosen to play the title role of Aladdin after a worldwide search and multiple auditions. Massoud has mostly been known for acting in short films and TV shows, most notably for his 6 episode run in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Massoud was probably the closest you could come to being the perfect visual personification of the animated Aladdin and was also very believable as this character. Aladdin is a street urchin that gets through life day by day, moment by moment, with his pet monkey, Abu. He depends on his street smarts to survive because you “gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat”. I’d like to see him use this role as a stepping stone to more opportunities in his career.

Naomi Scott was chosen to play the Disney princess Jasmine. Jasmine is one of those iconic female empowerment characters that Disney writes so well. She’s the daughter of the Sultan of Agrabah, a fictional city along the Jordan River. Agrabah law states that, as the Sultan’s daughter, she must marry a prince, and also that as a female, she cannot become Sultan, which is what she is absolutely determined to become. Scott has been an up-and-coming actress that is starting to land more big budget roles. Her first feature film was as Escarlette, Antonio Banderas’ daughter in The 33, a great film based on the real-life event from 2010 of the Chilean miners that were trapped in a cave in for 69 days. She has also played Kimberly, The Pink Ranger, in the 2017 Power Rangers movie and will star in the new Charlie’s Angels movie coming out later this year. Scott has also been showing off her singing ability lately. Her powerful voice was necessary to pull off the new song “Speechless”, a perfect addition to this version of the film.

I will say that I did have issues with two actors that were chosen for the supporting cast. One of those was the casting of Jafar, the antagonist of this story. Jafar, played by Marwan Kenzari, is the Grand Vizier to the Sultan, who will do anything that it takes to take over the role of the Sultan. The casting did not make sense to me, and to many others, because Jafar’s character is supposed to be roughly 20 years older than Kenzari. The other casting issue I had was with Nasim Pedrad as Dalia, handmaiden to Princess Jasmine. Don’t get me wrong, Pedrad was great in this role and actually stole some scenes. My issue is only due to her prominent role as Aly in the TV show New Girl. I just kept waiting for Winston Bishop to show up in any scene that she was in. If you’ve seen the show, you’ll understand what I mean. Pedrad is also mostly known for her work on Saturday Night Live and the short-lived TV show Mulaney.

All in all, I appreciated this Aladdin much more than I went in thinking that I would. Some good casting decisions, amazing scenery throughout the Middle East, and well choreographed musical numbers that give you that Bollywood feel all add up to an enjoyable movie for the whole family.