Aladdin

Movies, 1992, G (Animated); 2019, PG (Live-Action)

Premise - When a poor street rat starts to fall in love with the princess, he realizes he would do anything to become worthy in her eyes. In a cave of wonders, he finds a magic lamp with a genie inside. By rubbing the lamp, the genie can grant him three wishes to help him win over the princess.

Review - This is one of the great Disney classics of our time. I don't know how readable the text is in 1001 Arabian Nights, in which the fairy tale originates, but I know that thanks to Disney this has become one of the world's greatest stories - from rags to wishes as it advertises!

Like most Disney films, particularly in the Disney Renaissance era, its legacy lies in the music. I have much stronger memories of playing the Aladdin medley in my junior high symphonic band than I have for the actual dialogue of the film. Alan Menken is an absolute genius, as well as lyricists Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. I think they will go down in history more so than any director or animator involved in these films. Therefore, what I enjoyed most about the live action remake is that it utilized (and revamped!) the same musical numbers.

The original animated film is near flawless, and yet I absolutely loved the live-action remake. I think there were some sour opinions, with a lot of controversy over whether or not it's smart to do a repeat of the animated film. Because the animated film is so great already, I liked that they stayed so true to it! The benefit of watching a live-action film is seeing those moments that I already loved so much, come to real, three-dimensional life. I liked seeing the characters acted by real people, with real costumes and hairstyles. I felt the exact same way about Beauty and the Beast. 2015's Cinderella, as a counterexample, was a great film by itself but I would not say it's a direct adaptation of the animated Disney film, and I felt like there were missed opportunities to bring the animated magic into reality. 

There were some changes in the live-action that I thought were highly appropriate. The 2019 version is more strongly feminist, as it eliminates a lot of the harem imagery, and turns Jasmine into the powerful political leader she can be. The lyrics to the song "Speechless" really speaks to the oppression of women, and was especially fitting for Jasmine's suffocating (literally in all of those dresses) situation. The addition of Jasmine's handmaid was also great for adding female-female interactions, and as an added bonus her character added an even more human dimension to the genie character. I also genuinely enjoyed a lot of the casting. Mena, the guy who played Aladdin, had a singing voice SO reminiscent of the original and was highly adorable. I know there was a lot of controversy around the guy who played Jafar for not looking evil enough, but I thought his higher, smoother voice was creepy in its own right. Will Smith as the genie caused the most controversy out of anything in the film, but I can't understand why. I'm not a Will Smith fan, but I'm not an opponent either. I thought he held his own, and it was important to cast a person of color. The best change I believe was making the genie human when he becomes freed. It shows there's a cost to his freedom that is entirely worth it, and makes you believe in the simplicity of humanity, without all the magic.When the genie becomes human, he continues to live a life of simplicity, on a small boat with his family. It also means that if Jafar was ever freed, there wouldn't be a crazy evil genie running around. I did hear an interesting theory about how perhaps all genies have the same origin story - that they wished for too much power.

If I want to get nit-picky with the complaints, I can. I think the pacing was a bit off, especially when Aladdin would have these long, awkward scenes showcasing how truly terrible his social skills were. It definitely didn't match Aladdin's animated character, who was such a smooth talker. In the live-action, he's very smooth with his hands and feet, but not so much with his words, which I suppose makes sense in the social context where he lived. I enjoy the humor of second hand embarrassment, so I laughed a lot, but probably many others found it cringe-worthy.

The other complaint is that it seemed to be a hodge-podge of Eastern cultural imagery. The song specifically denotes that this is an Arab film, but there was a lot of Bollywood imagery, as well as an Indian/white actress playing the princess. The reasoning is that, as a fairy tale, the fictional town does not truly take place in any specific region, and is more just generally exotic and Eastern, but isn't that just a biiiit racist...? I can't complain too much though, because the film is all still about casting people of color that would not normally get to star in a large Disney film, and Indians are included in that.

But genuinely, I enjoy both versions of the film from beginning to end. Watching the live-action in theaters, I got chills in the very first scene with "Arabian Nights." The colors, costumes, and choreography, the whole spectacle of the film, was fantastic. Comedy was good, as the genie was still oddly anachronistic in a way that really makes him seem like an all-knowing being. Musical numbers were knocked out of the park. This is a much dancier film than Beauty and the Beast, which was fun to watch too. As soon as I finished the live action, I rewatched the animated film the next day and still loved it just as much. I will be listening the soundtrack repeatedly for days to come.

I really don't think there's too much difference in my scores for animated/live-action, but I might give the animated one the crown. It's probably a 96/100 for the original, and a 94/100 for the live-action, so let's even it out. (95/100).

Quote - "I can show you the world / shining shimmering splendid"

What to watch for - ALL OF THE MUSICAL NUMBERS! Everything is a classic, from One Jump Ahead, to Friend Like Me, to A Whole New World... they're all perfect.

If you liked these movies, I'd recommend Beauty and the Beast for its duo animated/live action features!

Based on the tale from 1001 Arabian Nights

Animated directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

Live-action directed by Guy Ritchie

Distributed by Disney