Aladdin (2019)

Release Date: May 24, 2019

Watch Date: November 25, 2024

“From Disney comes the thrilling and vibrant live-action adaption of the animated classic Aladdin, the exciting tale of the charming street rat Aladdin, the self-determined Princess Jasmine and the Genie who may be the key to their future.”

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   And just after the Aladdin found it’s heart again, it lost it just as quickly. Well…over two decades. But, in our watch it felt very quick and so that’s how I’m going to express the shift. We couldn’t wait two decades to watch this film and see if it felt like a proper homage.

   All I can say is that they tried. Look, I’ll give them that. They really, really tried to do Aladdin justice. And, maybe, like I said, if I hadn’t watched the original in the same month I would have felt like they’d done a good job. The songs get to be renewed, the characters get deeper, the setting become less racist, apparently. Lines that Robin Williams hit so well are still included. The Genie gets a much more fulfilling happily ever after.

   But there’s no heart. It feels like they’re doing it just to do it. Like they were making other live action movies, so therefore Aladdin also had to be made (which is kind of how I feel about most of the live action Disney movies. Does ‘Lilo & Stitch’ need one? ‘Moana’? I have nothing against Hawaiian based movies, that’s just the only films I could think of at the moment).

   Also, I don’t like Will Smith anymore, and I know, I know, I try to separate artists from their art but yea…that’s kind of hard to do at this point when that drama has unfortunately become his entire legacy.

   Look, I didn’t hate the movie. But it was just…a movie. It didn’t really add the things I think it was hoping to add, and it didn’t need to be made. But, again, take that with a grain of salt because so far I’ve felt that about every live action movie Disney’s made based off of one of their classic animated films. Unless you’re going to be like Maleficent and completely change the story, or give it an entirely different angle – don’t fix what ain’t broke. You know?