{"id":5280,"date":"2019-05-23T20:36:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T20:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/?p=5280"},"modified":"2019-05-28T15:37:38","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T15:37:38","slug":"aladdin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/aladdin\/","title":{"rendered":"Aladdin"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Despite colorful costumes, great music and big production numbers, this film is not well-crafted, lacking the magic and emotion of Disney\u2019s original animated feature. Once again, Disney tried to make a movie that\u2019s all things for all people.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s billed as an adventure, comedy, family, fantasy, romance, musical film but doesn\u2019t succeed in all of those realms. It\u2019s bright and glitzy which makes it a little too cheesy. If you keep score of the number of missing parents in Disney films, Aladdin <\/i>is an orphan and the Princess is raised by a single Dad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Will Smith is better than we expected as the heavily computer generated genie. He doesn\u2019t take himself too seriously or try to emulate the iconic character Robin Williams created.\u00a0It\u2019s his first time doing a live-action from for Disney.\u00a0Smith wanted to bring a hip hop vibe to the Disney world by referencing his 1990\u2019s roles in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air<\/i> or as Agent J in Men in Black.<\/i> Director Guy Ritchie chose Smith because he wanted him to be as good as, but not the same character as Williams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Guy Ritchie is known for portraying street smart characters, like the street rat Aladdin, even though some of his previous action films (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E) <\/i>were not artistic successes. But he\u2019s got 5 kids and wanted to do this a film for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Set in a mythical Middle East sultanate, Agrabah, Aladdin is a a preppy looking street-urchin\/thief. He comes upon the disguised Princess Jasmine who has snuck out of the palace to see real people since her father, the Sultan forbids her to leave the cloistered walls. It\u2019s infuriating to watch the ensuing chase scene through the city as Ritchie speeds up the parkour stunts. instead of making them look exciting, they look forced. He does this again over editing the big dance number so you can\u2019t enjoy or get a sense of the choreography. It\u2019s a sign that he has little ability to direct this kind of entertainment.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”5283″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”5294″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”5285″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]Credit is due for picking a diverse cast of actors. Gorgeous Anglo-Indian actress Naomi Scott is Jasmine, Egyptian-Canadian actor Mena Massoud is the spunky street thief Aladdin, Dutch Tunisian Marwan Kenzari is the nasty Jafar, Iranian-American actors, Navid Nergahban and SNL alum Nasim Pedrad are the Sultan and handmaiden Dalia respectively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We never caught much chemistry between Aladdin and Jasmine and their singing is not as inspiring as we hoped. Neither has a distinctive singing voice on a par with Elsa (Idina Menzel) in Frozen<\/i> or Gaston (Richard White) in Beauty and the Beas<\/i>t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The central love story between Aladdin and Jasmine never develops on screen. Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud are both attractive for sure, but they are unconvincing as a couple. Jasmine is given a new Alan Menken song about female empowerment belting out \u201cI don\u2019t want to be silent\/You can\u2019t keep me quiet.\u201d While it\u2019s a timely sentiment, there was not enough power in the delivery. The signature song should have been \u201cA Whole New World\u201dperformed during the carpet ride which should have been more magical. It’s also saved for the bitter end, lost over the credits. Don’t think it made the lasting impression that it did for the audience of the original animated version that had people singing on the way out of the theater.<\/p>\n

Nasim Pedrad,(New Girl, SNL)<\/i> as Jasmine\u2019s lady-in-waiting, has an easy screen presence and is the \u201ccomic relief\u201d utility player. Her scenes would have been funnier if writers Ritchie and John August had given her character a little shading. The evil Vizier, Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) has a sneering visage that let\u2019s the kids know he\u2019 the bad guy, but aside from the moment he pushes Aladdin off the balcony he\u2019s just a cookie-cutter villain.<\/p>\n

Plus, Abu the monkey and the Iago, the evil parrot, were obvious CGI creations that fell flat. The parrot looked disheveled. Voiced by Alan Tudyk, the audio level\u00a0 <\/span>is almost inaudible, and so electronically processed that it\u2019s hard to understand the words.<\/p>\n

The monkey is supposed to have some personality, but he\u2019s neither cute, nor funny. Like much of the movie, there\u2019s not much emotion coming from these characters. Actually, the animated character with the most personality that gets the best laughs is the Flying Carpet. Even the tassels seem \u201ctalk.\u201d The carpet is the the most fun action superhero in this film.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”5290″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”5286″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”5284″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]At a little more than 2 hours, this film is long, but not epic. Probably too long for little ones to endure unless they get caught up in the visual eye candy of the loud, neon-colored costuming that is sometimes more comical than the written material. Will Smith\u2019s Genie is actually lovable. But Jafar might be a bit too scary for little ones and the pacing for those threatening scenes is halting and awkward.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once again, The Disney Company will come into criticism for this live-action remake of an animated classic. (Take Dumbo. Please?) The Broadway musical was a parents pleaser well-received by the kids, but this seems a blast grab for every last buck from this property. Unless, of course, they plan to come up with a few new rides at the Parks! There are several scenes going into the cave to get the lamp and riding the carpet that we could see turn into park adventures.<\/p>\n

Parents will take the kids out of nostalgia, but be disappointed with the results. The saying, \u201cEverything old is new again\u201d may work sometimes\u2026but not for this live action version. This carpet ride never takes off.<\/p>\n

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02 hours 8 minutes \u00a0 \u00a0PG[\/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=foyufD52aog” el_width=”80″ align=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Despite colorful costumes, great music and big production numbers, this film is not well-crafted, lacking the magic and emotion of Disney\u2019s original animated feature. Once again, Disney tried to make a movie that\u2019s all things for all people.\u00a0 It\u2019s billed as an adventure, comedy, family, fantasy, romance, musical film but doesn\u2019t succeed in all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5280"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5334,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5280\/revisions\/5334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}