Year(s): 1992 & 2019
Director(s): Ron Clements & Guy Ritchie
Country: US
Language: English
Aladdin (2019) is a live-action remake of the animated Aladdin (1992) which has elements of Thief of Bagdad (1940) which itself is a remake of the silent Thief of Bagdad (1925) which was inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, a collection of many middle eastern stories that was first published in 1704. The genie, magic carpet, jafar, princess in distress etc. have all been told for hundreds of years and had a LONG fall to get to...Will Smith.
Aladdin is both poor street rat and "diamond in the rough". Jafar is a villain who wants to enter the "cave of wonders" to get a lamp which evokes an almighty genie, but needs Aladdin to do so. Chaos ensues, Aladdin is in possession of the lamp & wants to use the genies' powers to make himself a prince so the princess will marry him.
Much of Aladdin (1992)'s success is due to Robin Williams' portrayal of the genie. Disney Execs obviously believed this to be true, considering they marketed the hell out of his likeness. He's charming, funny and endearing. His genie appeals to children because of his zany adhd behavior and appeals to adults because of the random-ass celebrity impersonations. Groucho Marx in a 90's animated movie? Really!?
The film itself is a nice compact 90 minutes that doesn't meander and gives every scene a reason to be there. The animation provides an epic feel to each song, Prince Ali in particular has quite distinct and powerful visuals. They really emphasize how important Aladdin is now that he is a prince. Jafar's voice actor creates a menacing and powerful villain. I appreciate his transormation into a giant snake near the end of the picture.
Aladdin (2019) is terrible in comparison. Will Smith can't even carry Williams' bags. He's an unfunny dad-joke genie that doesn't do impersonations, doesn't improve Aladdin (Menna Massoud) and adds very little soul to his musical numbers. There isn't enough CGI in the world to improve the lazy Prince Ali number. Smith does not bring much charisma to this role. The effects from the 1940 movie are more convincing.
Marwan Kanzari also lacks a great deal of acting ability in his role of Jafar. The 1992 animation elicits more fear than this possible Starbucks manager. Conrad Veidt would be spinning in his grave if he saw such lackluster acting of the same character.
Aladdin (2019) also adds 38 minutes to its run-time, none of it improving the story even slightly. We get the Genie flirting with a human girl, a "girl power" ballad and a lot of filler that I've forgotten. Yikes! The changes don't improve the picture at all. Instead of a menacing snake Jafar turns into...a giant parrot? Huh?
The only positive thing that I can say about Aladdin (2019) is that Naomi Scott is incredibly beautiful. I can certainly understand why Aladdin would want to move mountains for her & I would love to see more pictures that she is in.
Lacking any type of heart I'd avoid Aladdin (2019) and stick with Aladdin (1992) or the two Thief of Bagdad films. None of these "live-action" (although mostly CGI) remakes have been as good as the animation. All, except Jungle Book, have been hollow and lifeless.
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| Aladdin (1992) |
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| Aladdin (2019) |
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