Aladdin (2019) - Review
After The Jungle Book proved that Disney can make a ton of money remaking their animated films with live action actors and digital animals, it was only a matter of time before they would give a similar treatment to other, beloved Disney animated films. However, so far, the reception to each one of these remakes has seemed to only have gotten worse in the past couple years, with most people lamenting the new versions of their favorite Disney classics. I heard many a complaint lodged at Aladdin before it even came out, so my hopes weren’t exactly high for when I sat down to see it for myself. Having no real attachment to the Disney films of my childhood, I was prepared for it to be good, bad, or mediocre. Guess which one it is!
Pros
Aladdin and Jasmine are cast well and portrayed well
Cool dance and parkour moments that are fun to watch
Sub-romance with Genie, while unnecessary, is a welcomed addition
Some of the songs are good
Cons
Unnecessary character changes to add depth only cause more issues
Wokeness is hollow and feels like shameless pandering
CG animals look bad, especially Abu
Some songs are not so good
Plot & Thoughts
Aladdin is the story about the titular young thief, Aladdin (Mena Massoud), trying to survive in the kingdom of Agrabah and going on a wild journey. He ends up in possession of a magical lamp with an all-powerful genie (Will Smith) trapped inside. Aladdin uses the genie become a prince overnight so he can woo and marry the resident princess, Jasmine (Naomi Scott), but the evil royal counselor, Jafar (Marwan Kenzari), seeks power and wants the lamp for himself to rule. As you might expect, it’s up to Aladdin to stop him. It’s the same story from the 1991 animated movie, so if you’ve seen one, you don’t need to see the other. Essentially, that’s how I feel towards each one of these Disney remakes I’ve watched so far. They don’t do anything to really justify their existence or make them different from the original films. They’re exactly what you think they are: cash grabs. That doesn’t make them inherently bad movies—though I think Beauty and the Beast is far from good.
Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Naomi Scott as Jasmine are a great pair of extremely attractive and talented stars who are well cast for their roles. Both play the parts exceptionally well and bring a lot of charisma to the film. However, both characters get bogged down by the additional quirks the filmmakers add to them to make them more complex, or just politically suitable for the culture of modern audiences. Jasmine has always been a strong-willed symbol of women's suffrage as a princess without a voice or a vote, forced to abide by the laws of the land without much of a say in who she can marry or if she has a right to rule as Sultan of Agrabah. She gives a speech towards the end of the film that is effective and powerful and hits home the point of her character. Unfortunately, it is undermined by a new song she sings just prior to the speech that is meant to point out how hard she has it because she’s a woman in a man’s world and isn’t it unfair and sad? Yeah, of course it is, we got that message already from everything else she’s had to endure and we know that she’s capable of overcoming it. It’s a song that should be sung at the start so that when she gives the speech we can see something of character growth or just acknowledging that she’s overcoming her hardship, much like how the Disney animated film, Mulan, has a song of a similar meaning at the start of the film. Mulan doesn’t sing it again at the end after she saves the day or anything, she proves her worth through her actions, which is what Jasmine’s speech should represent. Jasmine’s song coming at the end of the movie and right before a speech that is much more meaningful to her character is irritatingly distracting. It’s beautifully sung, but it’s a lame song that is hollow and just feels like Disney pandering to its audiences.
Meanwhile, Aladdin is a confident thief until it’s no longer convenient to the film for him to be confident. Likewise, he’s selfless, until it’s no longer convenient. The original film balances these traits of his character more deftly and it never felt arbitrary when he considered going back on his promise to the genie or when he starts to get nervous around Jasmine. The hard swings in this version of the story, however, are much more abrupt and irritating. It makes his character feel inconsistent rather than more human or believably flawed. It’s fine if he lacks confidence at first upon becoming a prince and trying to flirt with Jasmine, but Aladdin is still supposed to be a confident stud who gets over that initial anxiety. Here, it seems like he swings back and forth the whole time and doesn’t really stick to his guns.
The rest of the supporting cast is perfectly fine. I didn’t really like Jafar, but it wasn’t a fault of the actor. I also have become pretty tired of Will Smith’s version of “acting,” but he’s not intolerable as Genie. In fact, I thought that the love interest with him and Jasmine’s servant was a welcome addition to the movie, albeit and unnecessary one. It’s nothing special, but it at least does something to set itself apart from the original in a way that doesn’t involve lame pandering.
The special effects are not great. All the big action scenes that require special effects don’t look particularly good or amazing. The animals are also sitting in an uncanny valley of “not good enough,” especially with the expressions of the monkey. The only time that the special effects did much favors to the movie were during the genie’s song and the Prince Ali song, but if you want color and flair to match a catchy song, it’s difficult to beat the animated version. The songs are all pretty much the same with a few minor adjustments to some lines to keep it more socially acceptable in today’s market, but their sound has been adjusted to suit a less jazzy tone and the vocal ranges of the actors. My preference goes to the original film’s songs, but these are fine too.
TL;DR (Conclusion)
Aladdin is mediocre. There were things I liked and things I didn’t like. A talented cast, good dancing, ugly CGI, and uninventive re-imaginings of the songs culminated in a musical package that just made me shrug and say “fine.” It exists, like many other remakes out there and it does very little to justify its existence, but it at least does not offend enough to make it a travesty.