Stephen: “I thought the scenery and lighting in ‘A Whole New World’ was dark and boring.” Lee: “Apparently Disney’s new world is dark and boring.”
Later on, I said, “The only reason this movie was redone was that Disney knew there was a market for it and they’d make a lot of money. Which they have. It’s doing great at the box office.”
Stephen later commented (I’m paraphrasing), “Even though I haven’t seen the original version, I have to believe Robin Williams did a better job as the Genie.” I replied, “Will Smith did a decent job but because the director of the movie and Disney kept the Genie’s dialogue almost identical to the original script so people can’t help comparing the two. It’s not fair to Will Smith and you can blame Disney for that.”
After we saw how absurdly high the scores were on Rotten Tomatoes (94%) and Metacritic (86%), I half-jokingly said Disney must have hired a bunch of people to write reviews on those sites. Stephen said the scores were so high because it was a fun movie and even though some of the acting was bad, most moviegoers aren’t that picky and won’t notice it.
It’s a shame Disney didn’t let Guy Ritchie take the story in a different direction than the 1992 film. One obvious choice would have been to let the feminist advocate for representative democracy, Princess Jasimine (played by Naomi Scott) be a bigger part of the story. Instead of just making her the sultan, which was a fantastic start, I would have omitted the part about her changing the law to allow her to marry Aladdin. Just let her focus on being a fantastic leader and make Aladdin a really close friend instead of a husband. It would have a been gutsy, nontraditional take on the original film that would have resonated with today’s mostly-feminist-movement-supporters moviegoers.
The overly muscled, blue physique with Will Smith’s face stuck on top doesn’t work. Maybe if the actor playing the Genie wasn’t so well known it would have been okay but Smith’s iconic career that’s not the case. You can’t blame the actor. It’s Disney and the director, who was paid by Disney. Guy Ritchie is best known for creative, gritty and gutsy re-imagining of the Sherlock Holmes franchise and the movie “Snatch” but his signature edgy directorial style is watered down here.
So while the immense production budget allows for lavish scenes for the familiar songs to play out against, the musical numbers, except for the forced, horrible “Speechless” sang by Princess Naomi, are identical to the original.
The original animated “Aladdin” worked so well because of the expert 2D animation and manic comedic performance by the unparalleled Robin Williams. The live-action version doesn’t work because it tries too hard to be a CGI version of the original using an iconic actor largely rehashing a legend’s hilarious improvised lines.
To learn five fascinating facts you probably didn’t know about the original movie released in 1992, check out this link: https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2472100/5-facts-you-didnt-know-about-the-original-aladdin-movie
My rating of the 2019: 3.5 kernels Stephen was much more (too) generous: 7.5 kernels.
The Movie Review Show starring Stephen Craig and Lee Eide 