{"id":7390,"date":"2019-05-23T09:57:27","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T13:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7390"},"modified":"2019-05-23T09:57:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T13:57:29","slug":"review-aladdin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7390","title":{"rendered":"Review: ALADDIN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A wacky Will Smith and winning musical numbers keep this remake flying.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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It sure ain\u2019t \u201cDumbo.\u201d Disney\u2019s live-action adaptations of its classic animated catalogue hit a low point with Tim Burton\u2019s flying elephant story released in March. But take heart, \u201cAladdin\u201d is much better.

The 1992 \u201cAladdin\u201d was a huge hit and won Oscars for best song, \u201cA Whole New World,\u201d and for its original score. Thankfully, the classic music that worked so well with hand-drawn animation is preserved in director Guy Ritchie\u2019s enthusiastic and reverent retread. The script, written by John August and Ritchie, loses its momentum with the perfunctory action-packed conclusion, but the musical moments are wonderful.

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Naomi Scott’s singing voice is the leading reason to see this remake.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The story has thief Aladdin (Mena Massoud) falling in love with princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott), while attempting to save the kingdom from the evil Jafar (Marwan Kensari). And, of course, Aladdin gets help from a kind genie (Will Smith). The cast is solid, as the lead couple has the right, youthful, romantic chemistry. Scott\u2019s singing voice is a real standout. \u201cSpeechless\u201d is a recurring tune, and Scott passionately delivers the \u201cI won\u2019t be silenced\u201d lyric at a time when that line has special meaning.

The effects that morph Smith into the genie are uneven, but clearly cognizant of this problem, throughout much of the film, the production has Smith appear in his normal form with his real skin tone intact. He\u2019s charming in the role made famous by the late Robin Williams. And Smith\u2019s often freakish appearance and flamboyant attitude are reminiscent of Williams\u2019 iconic performance. For the most part, Smith makes the part his own, while not insulting the master who first brought it to the screen.

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Monkeying around–some of the film’s best, and funniest, moments involve Abu.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s surprising that the genie\u2019s creepy blue skin, that concerned fans when the trailers dropped, is less distracting than the character\u2019s odd, lifeless look in its animated eyes. This is a recurring problem\u2014computer generated effects take over rendering a strange, sometimes, perverse facsimile of the actor. Recently, similar effects were employed in the \u201cHellboy\u201d reboot with disastrous results. But it\u2019s Will Smith in there somewhere. Still, when he\u2019s allowed to just be Smith, he\u2019s much more engaging. Of course, the fantastical elements of the story help to somewhat ameliorate the understandably inhuman qualities.

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Thankfully, Will Smith’s genie doesn’t look like this the entire time.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s frustrating is the true reason for these live-action reimaginings isn\u2019t to offer audiences a unique take on the material. However, I suppose that this new live-action, PG-rated \u201cAladdin\u201d will introduce the story to a new generation that might be resistant to watching a cartoon version that\u2019s now over 25 years old. And while there are plenty original stories worthy of feature treatment, mass audiences won\u2019t embrace them. The familiar governs. It\u2019s a numbers game and producers are risk averse. That fear, though, keeps even the remake from being inventive. Even the great screenwriter John August and once edgy director Guy Ritchie have succumbed to the Disney machine.

Regardless of the mediocre story that trades on the goodwill that came before it, \u201cAladdin (2019)\u201d has joyous moments, and for young viewers should be, at times, delightful family entertainment.

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New live-action Disney remake is much better than the last one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1499,294,1501,1502,1371,1504,1503,1505,1500],"class_list":["post-7390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-aladdin","tag-disney","tag-guy-ritchie","tag-john-august","tag-live-action","tag-marwan-kensari","tag-mena-massoud","tag-naomi-scott","tag-will-smith","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7397,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390\/revisions\/7397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}