Aladdin Image

Aladdin

By Alan Ng | May 24, 2019

Aladdin soon proved that it was going to go down with the ship, like the Disney re-creations of the past, until suddenly out of nowhere, the film’s course is corrected, and once we get to the song, Prince Ali, Aladdin becomes this wonderfully, inspiring movie. Something changed starting with the Prince Ali processional accompanied with some fantastic Bollywood-style dancing and a marked improvement in Will Smith’s singing.

“…suddenly out of nowhere, the film’s course is corrected, and…becomes this wonderfully, inspiring movie…”

As Aladdin, Massoud comes alive as the insecure fake prince. Naomi Scott brings gravitas to Jasmine as the strong, authoritative Princess qualified to take over as Sultan, while at the same time gets her own ballad. Nasim Pedrad fleshes out her character and gives a much-needed comedic performance alongside Will Smith. More life and personality is also given to animated characters like Rajah, Abu, and Carpet. The best compliment goes to Will Smith, who did not even attempt to channel Robin Williams, he made the Genie his own. It just felt like once the second act started everyone got comfortable with their roles, and as an audience, we just stopped making comparisons.

There are two significant differences with the new Aladdin. First, they removed every instance of cultural insensitivity from the first, especially in the opening songs. Although, I’m sure the internet trolls will find something pretty scathing any day now. That aside, in the end, it becomes a celebration of Persian and East Asian Culture.

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  1. Pete says:

    Not sure why you think that this is above Beauty and the Beast, but it isn’t.

    I’m not saying this is bad, but Beauty and the Beast remains one of the few live action Disney movies that are true to their cartoon counterpart.

  2. teehee says:

    probably one of the best movies i’ve seen in awhile. whoever says it sucks is wrong lmao.
    if you haven’t seen the movie yet and not sure its worth it- go and see it. it was beautiful

  3. ADOLFO says:

    No me lo puedo creer, usted critica lo de la canción de JAZMÍN como antes d dl 2016 la cosa sería diferente, pero luego dice que le gusto,como si de un lobby tuviera miedo por no poner lo que ellos quieren…… creo que os equivocáis con esa forma de pensar , la Jazmín original no era una damisela en peligro ella misma de valía por sí sola.

  4. Curing says:

    The jungle book is trash, the only good live action one was beauty and the beast , cinderella was meh, aladdin is total trash 8/10 stars? lmfao

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