Aladdin 2019

Will Smith, Mena Massoud,
Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari

"The Magic Comes to Life"

I really don't remember much about the animation version of Aladdin except for its famous song "A whole new World". So I watched this 2019 edition with fresh eyes. 

Aladdin (Mena Massoud) is a thief who robs people with the help of his pet monkey, Abu. A chance encounter with a young lady will forever change his life for the better. Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) is the daughter of the Sultan of Agrabah. She likes to go out in disguise to see how the citizens live outside of their immense palace. She introduces herself as Dalia, her chambermaid to Aladdin who stole her bracelet. Meanwhile, Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) the grand Vizier to the Sultan 'hires' Aladdin to steal a magic lamp from within a cave with a Lion Head entrance. He intends to use magic lamp + the genie for his nefarious activities within the sultanate.

But with the help of Abu, Aladdin somehow becomes the 'owner' of the magic lamp. Upon rubbing it, the genie in the personification of a blue floating Will Smith comes out of the lamp and tells Aladdin, he can grant three wishes. One of Aladdin's wishes is to be a prince so he can vie for the hand of Princess Jasmine as mandated in the laws of Agrabah. Naturally, a major stumbling presents itself before everyone has a happy fairy tale ending.

Guy Ritchie, the English director known for his action filled British gangster movies helms this Disney retelling of a well loved story. Quite surprising as you really don't expect Ritchie to deviate from his usual style of filmmaking. But I believe he does a good job in making us fall in love again with Aladdin, Princess Jasmine and the witty genie. 

The costumes are bright, colorful and reminiscent of an Arabian nights setting. Some of the songs from the original are back and sang in the same tone so we can easily recognize them. CGI (computer generated imagery) plays a big part in making this visually vibrant and fast paced fantasy movie, a success.

Will Smith as the blue genie is sometimes ridiculous and over the top while other times, he blends well with the other characters. It is good he is a rapper/singer so he can certainly carry a tune. His witty dialogue is well delivered but nothing can totally match Robin Williams as the hilarious genie in the animated version. 

Both Mena and Naomi can sing well enough without any pitch problems. Aladdin is portrayed as a wily thief with self esteem issues, who redeems himself and changes for the better, by the ending. Jasmine has changed from the love struck princess singing cheesy love songs while riding a flying carpet to a feisty,  sassy female character who can easily rule her country, sans qualms. A sympathetic leader who knows what her people want and want what is good for her country, her citizens and her man, Aladdin.

Overall, this 2 hour 8 minutes movie is an entertaining musical, in the sense that they don't sing every 2 minutes which can be quite irritating. For me, it is 3.5 out of 5, worth of popcorn buckets.