Two weeks ago, I saw the new live-action Aladdin movie. I was hesitant on going to see this movie because this was my favorite movie growing up, and I am the type of person who does not think Disney should mess with their classic films. But then I felt hypocritical because I went to go watch the live action Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, and Cinderella. So, I convinced myself to give it a chance and went to watch it. Since Aladdin was (and still is) my favorite Disney movie, I thought it would be fun to write a review on the movie. Bear with me, I am not good at critiquing anything. I am usually too hard or soft on what it is I am critiquing. I am trying to be objective, but this is a review, so I do need to be subjective to an extent. Just a heads up, there are huge spoilers ahead, so if you have not seen the new Aladdin movie and intend to stop reading. This is my spoiler warning. The 2019 live action of Aladdin shows a lot of changes to the original. Some I love, and some I did not like as much. However, some of these changes made to the movie are classified as politically correct. The 1992 version had a few “touchy” topics that caused controversy, so the 2019 version made these changes to make the movie less insulting. For example, in the opening song, “Arabian Nights” they change several lyrics in the song because they were flat out rude. The original lyrics in verse one goes as such: “Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place Where the caravan camels roam Where it's flat and immense And the heat is intense It's barbaric, but hey, it's home” -Alan Menkin Aladdin 1992 Those lyrics nowadays are far from okay to use. They are stereotypical, racist, and rude. It paints a horrible picture of Middle Eastern Countries. With that in mind, the 2019 version made this change: “Oh, imagine a land, it's a faraway place Where the caravan camels roam Where you wander among every culture and tongue It's chaotic, but hey, it's home”-Will Smith Aladdin 2019. These lyrics make the song a little bit more politically correct. The changed other song lyrics in the movie as well, and I would need an entirely separate blog post to talk about each change, so to make both of our lives easier I’ll post a link in the bio so you can see the changes. Another change was Characters and their appearances. This version of Aladdin added a few new characters and made sure that each character in the movie was the correct ethnicity. In the ’92 version, there were a lot of complaints that most of the characters were drawn in a racist way, but Aladdin and Jasmine looked Caucasian compared to the others. Looking back at the ’92 version I can see their point. So, the ’19 version decided to show correct ethnicities to make it relevant to Middle Eastern countries. There are some major changes to the plot too which I will discuss in the next section where I discuss my likes and dislikes. Let us start with something good. I absolutely loved what this movie did with Princess Jasmine’s character arc. They made Jasmine a force to be reckoned with! She is a strong, independent, woman who knows exactly what she wants and what she needs! In the ’92 version, they made her somewhat a damsel in distress. She knew she wanted to marry for love but did not have many ambitions apart from that. In the ’19 version, Jasmine has ambitions to become Sultan. She shows a strong ambition to do what is best for her country and will do anything in her power to make Agrabah better. She even has her own new song, “Speechless.” I have listened to it on repeat for two weeks now. Every time I hear it, I get the chills! I love the girl power represented through Jasmine and I must admit she is my favorite change to this movie! Another change I loved was the addition of Dalia (Jasmine’s Handmaiden). Dalia is a new character and plays an important role in this new movie. She is not only a handmaiden she is a friend to Jasmine. In the ’92 version, the only friend Jasmine had was her tiger, Rajah. Not only does Dalia’s inclusion give Jasmine a friend, but it also adds more women to the movie! In the original, Jasmine is basically the only female character! Yes, I am aware of the background characters and the Harem girls, but how much do we see of them? I am biased because I am a woman, but I love the inclusion of more women! Speaking of more women, another change I like was a backstory for Jasmine’s mother! We learn a little history of the queen! We learn that the queen was killed (by Jafar) and that is what causes the Sultan to keep Jasmine enslaved inside the palace. He does not want harm to come to his only daughter. But she is a strong woman and knows how to escape and goes in and out as she pleases. I could go on and on about things I liked (loved) about this movie but I feel we need to go into the things I disliked. First and foremost, I did not like what they did to the character of Aladdin. When I say this, I do not mean I did not like the actor. I think Mena Massoud was a great pick to play Aladdin. However, I do not like how Aladdin was portrayed. In the original, Aladdin, is a cool, confident, person, “who steals only what he can’t afford. That’s everything.”-Aladdin 1992 In this movie, he is, for the most part, the same, however, he lacks the confidence he had in the original. Let me explain, in the scene where Aladdin, Abu, the carpet, and the Genie are stuck in the cave of wonders; Aladdin tricks the Genie into getting them out by taunting him and doubting his powers. So, he does not lose a wish because he never actually wished for the Genie to get them out. In this movie, Aladdin straight up wishes to get out of the cave and only gets away with not wasting a wish because he did not rub the lamp when he made that wish. Speaking of, I did not like that you had to rub the lamp in order to make a wish. I thought that was stupid. This is my opinion hate if you will (Jazmin I’m talking about you!) I understand why it was done but I did not care for it. They did this because some complaints about the original said Aladdin was robbed wishes because they did not actually have a way to track his wishes. Others claimed he made too many wishes, so to satisfy everyone they came up with this dumb rule. Once again, this is my opinion if you don’t like it, leave! Next, Will Smith as the Genie. There were so many comments, both good and bad, about Will Smith playing this iconic character. I, for one, loved how the Genie was portrayed. I think Will Smith did a great job making the Genie his own, along with following in the footsteps of Robin Williams. Something that bothers me of most people who had negative comments toward Will Smith playing the Genie was they were expecting him to become Robin Williams. The whole point of a remake is to make changes to the original. Yes, Robin Williams did an amazing performance as the Genie and no one can replace him, but I do believe Will Smith did him justice. As for my rating for Aladdin, I would have to give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. I loved the feeling of nostalgia I felt while watching. I also loved some of the changes because it made this movie its own and I respect that. I do feel some of the changes were ridiculous but hey, I am not a filmmaker. If you saw Aladdin, what did you think? Let me know what you all thought in the comments!
Credit to Screen Rant and Genius.com https://screenrant.com/aladdin-movie-2019-new-ending-explained/ https://genius.com/Will-smith-arabian-nights-2019-lyrics
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