Aladdin (2019) Review

Aladdin

Release Date: 23rd May 2019 - Australia 

Production Companies 

Walt Disney Pictures 

Lin Pictures

Rideback 

Marc Platt Productions

Distribution 

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Australia 

Genre: Musical

Rating: PG

Runtime: 128 minutes

Budget: $183,000,000

Box Office Gross: $1,050,693,953 (Worldwide)

Plot Summary 

Princess Jasmine wants to
escape the confines of her
palace and her father, the
Sultan, who wants her to get
married to Prince Anders.
Once outside the palace and
on the streets of Agrabah,
she encounters the poor but
warmhearted Aladdin, who is
known as a scoundrel and a
thief who charms his way into
her heart. 

The evil sorcerer Jafar, the
grand vizier of Agrabah is the
chief advisor to the Sultan,
but he is secretly devising a
plot to unseat the Sultan and
rule Agrabah for himself. In
order to stop Jafar, Aladdin
discovers the Genie’s lamp in
a cave, rubs it and sets the
mystical entity free, leading
the Genie to pledge his
undying loyalty to the youth.
Aladdin begins his quest to
defeat Jafar and win the
hand of the princess, with
the Genie’s help. (Source -
Metro Cinemas)

Cast

Mena Massoud - Aladdin

Naomi Scott - Jasmine 

Will Smith - Genie

Marwan Kenzari - Jafar

Frank Welker - Abu/Cave of Wonders (Voices)

Alan Tudyk - Iago 

Navid Negahban - The Sultan

Nasim Pedrad - Dalia

Billy Magnussen - Prince Anders

Jordan A. Nash - Omar

Taliyah Blair - Lian

Aubrey Lin - Omi

Amid Boutrous - Jamal

Numan Acar - Hakim

Omar Abidi - Chubby Aladdin

Stefan Kalipha - Imam

Nina Wadia - Zulla

Crew

Screenplay/Director - Guy Ritchie

Based on Disney’s Aladdin 

Animation Screenplay/Creative Consultants -
John Musker and Ron Clements

Based on Disney’s Aladdin Animation
Screenplay - Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio 

Screenplay - John August

Executive Producers - Kevin De La Noy and Mark Platt

Producers - Jonathan Eirich and Dan Lin

Co-Producer - Max Keene

Co-Producer/Unit Production Manager - Mark Mostyn

Choreographer/Dance Double - Jamal Sims

Choreographer - Leah Hill

Production Designer - Gemma Jackson

Art Directors - Renate Nicolaisen,
Peter Russell and Steve Summersgill 

Set Decorator - Tina Jones

Costume Designer - Michael Wilkinson

Director of Photography - Alan Stewart

Splinter Unit Director - Thomas Napper

Stunt Coordinator - Adam Kirley

Special Effects Supervisor - Mark Holt

Special Effects Coordinator - Lucy Meyers

Visual Effects Supervisors - Jeff Capogreco
and Chas Jarrett

Visual Effects Supervisors: ILM - Daniele Bigi
Michael Mulholland and David Seager

Animation Supervisors - Matthew Cowie and
Tim Harrington

Animation Supervisor: ILM - Mike Beaulieu

Film Editor - James Herbert

Songs: Lyrics - Howard Ashman, Tim Rice,
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Songs: Music/Score - Alan Menken

Review

The original 'ALADDIN' was a bold, daring and innovative wonder for Disney that showed audiences a whole new world of a breathtaking fantasy. The 1992 film featured the unmatched voice talent of Robin Williams, whose comic genius brought a level of energy to his scene-stealing performance as the Genie. Jump forward to 2018 and word had just got out that Disney was producing a live-action update of the 1992 animated classic. People were sceptical about how this newer version would capture its predecessor especially fans of the original. This could be attributed to the studio’s apparent ongoing trend to cash in with remakes of their hit animated movies (in my opinion). 

While trying to be politically correct, the new 'ALADDIN' is not exactly a crowd-pleaser and it does deviate with changes made in the storyline and characters from the original film. Guy Ritchie is certainly not the right kind of person to handle this movie as a director. This family musical is unfit for a filmmaker who is known for action-packed dramas which appear to be his preferred genre. However, the costumes and sets are impressive and so are the dance sequences. Some of the bazaar chase scenes reminded me from one of the movies from the Indiana Jones series.

The acting is full of hit-and-miss performances. Those that stand out are from Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott while others that don’t came from Marwan Kenzari. I was sceptical of Will Smith portraying the Genie as I thought he'd never match the late Robin Williams in terms of comic ability. However, Will made his own unique take of the character with his wisecracking attitude. I didn’t like the actor who played Jafar, Marwan Kenzari because his creepy high-pitched voice didn’t suit the antagonist compared to the sauve take of the original given by Jonathan Freeman. While the songs by Alan Menken are about the same, there is a new song sung by the character Jasmine that wasn't in the original film. I was expecting that one of the songs deleted from the 1992 film, "Proud of Your Boy" might be included in this version. I was mildly disappointed when this didn’t happen.

Not exactly the film that is "shining and shimmering splendid", it could never beat the original in its magic. 'ALADDIN' is a semi-decent movie that some audiences may love as they did the classic film. I do hope that Jon Favreau will do a better job on the remake of 'The Lion King' than Guy Ritchie has done for 'ALADDIN'.

Star rating: (7/10) Good Movie

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