Aladdin - Bollywood Style

It’s trash.

Well ok, it’s not the worst movie I have ever seen but it’s pretty bad in regards to Disney standards.

I’m a product of the 90s and as such, I grew up during the Disney renaissance era where one of my favorite films was Aladdin. I loved the music, the characters and the simple message of:

But of course the biggest attraction on why Aladdin is so beloved is the magnificent performance of Robin Williams. With a new cast and a new genie played by Will Smith, those are some large pointy shoes to fill.

** Spoilers Below **

The movie starts out with the Genie in human form talking to two children on a semi small boat about the story of Aladdin and the lamp. Right off the bat I knew this movie wasn’t going to be as good as the original after hearing Will Smith attempt to sing the song “Arabian Nights”. You can clearly hear that his voice had to be autotuned to hit those high notes and at times Will Smith try to remix the song in a sort of hip hop tone that just didn’t work. The movie quickly introduces several characters at once since the producers assumed anyone watching this movie already is familiar with the animated version. Aladdin, the ‘street rat’ of Agrabah meets a woman who forgets that money is a thing and gives two children a loaf of bread without paying. Aladdin whisks her away from the angry street vendor and clumsily starts singing “One Jump Ahead” that felt so rushed and inorganic that I thought I briefly feel asleep and missed a scene.

The first thing I didn’t like about the movie was how the live action movie had rewritten the characters. Aladdin in the animated version is portrayed as a cocky and overconfident thief but with a heart of gold however the live action version is an awkward and stuttering idiot. As a youth, I remembered Jasmine being this feisty and sassy woman with a gentle side that refuses to marry for politics and instead wants to marry for love - in this movie she’s this stoic timid girl whose only signs of ‘strength’ is smiling politely when someone says something dumb to her and she walks away in a hurry.

Unlike the animated version where Aladdin gets caught stealing and taken to the dungeon, the live action Aladdin sneaks into the Sultan's palace to visit Jasmine and after leaving her room he gets kidnapped by Jafar, the main villain of the movie. Jafar is another betrayal of the animated version that was a manipulative man in his early 50s where as the live action villain is portrayed as a 30’s something dude with no real motives except the basic “I want power” mentality. Jafar sends Aladdin off into the Cave of Wonders to retrieve a simple oil lamp with the condition that he doesn’t touch any of the treasure inside. In the animated version, it is stated that Aladdin can’t touch ANYTHING or the cave collapses - in the live action movie, Aladdin and Abu (his monkey) are clumsily touching EVERYTHING, stepping on gold and gems without a care in the world. It is only when a ruby the size of a watermelon literally falls into Abu’s hands does the cave decide that now is the time to close down the cave.

After the destruction of the cave and being trapped at the bottom, Aladdin rubs the lamp and outcomes the biggest disappointment in the entire movie - Will Smith’s version of the genie. Like I said before, William's portrayal of the genie is some large shoes to fill and Smith’s feet are just too damn small. The biggest thing that kills his performance is surprisingly his singing - despite a successful music career, Will Smith just can’t sing these songs. For a song like “Never Had a Friend Like Me”, I felt bored watching the scene because it didn’t seem earned. The movie rushed into singing the song nearly seconds after the Genie was being summoned from the lamp before any proper introductions can be made - the genie even said at one point mid song “what’s your name again?” to Aladdin that just felt like lazy writing. There is a short scene that I enjoyed of the Genie and Aladdin discussing the grey area of a wish and in the end settled on Aladdin saying “I wish to become a Prince” as his first wish.

The one scene I truly enjoyed was the next one with the “Prince Ali” number - that is where I thought “oh good, here’s the Disney magic I’ve been looking for”. All the extras for the dance number were fantastic and well choreographed and a great live action adaption to the animated classic. It was only after the song ended did the movie go back to a dumbed down version where Jasmine is once again portrayed as a nervous girl and Aladdin as a mumbling idiot.

The movie added a couple new scenes to the movie to spice things up however the new song Disney tried to shoehorn in fell flat on its face. Jasmine has a new motive compared to her animated counterpart and instead wants to rule Agrabah as Sultan but is dismissed by her father because ‘women can’t be Sultans’. Her new song is called “speechless” that is suppose to represent her being silent about her opinions on wanting to become Sultan and just being a woman in general. I get what Disney was trying to do by changing her motives to one that speaks to the current political climate however this change of character does nothing to the plot. In the animated version, the reason why Jasmine was pressured to marry was because the law states she needed to get married to a prince by her next birthday in order to keep the throne in their family name. With that plot thrown out the window, the movie feels empty whenever she is introduced to possible suitors since there is no political fallout if she remains unwed.

There is a ball held later that evening to celebrate the last harvest and Aladdin fails to woo Jasmine but even after Jasmine rolls her eyes when talking to “Prince Ali”, she asks him to dance with him as a way to end the conversation. If you are turned off by someone, why the hell would you ask them to dance with you as a method to turn them away? Regardless, in comes a bollywood dance off scene where the Genie secretly puppets Aladdin to breakdance in front the entire party where at first Jasmine is impressed but after he does an impressive backflip she is all like “well screw this guy” and leaves the party. Determined to win her heart, Aladdin sneaks onto Jasmine’s patio deck and convinces her to pretend to act like they are both on a magic carpet as they flatly sing “A Whole New World”. You would think that I’m making this up but this scene looked so damn fake. This has been the biggest complaint about Disney doing live action remakes of animated classic - failure to find decent green screen actors. Emma Watson was terrible at green screen acting during “Be Our Guest” and the same can be said for “A Whole New World”. To convince the audience that the two main characters are truly on a magic carpet, you would think they would look genuinely happy, excited but yet slightly scared of this new experience? Instead we get is two actors stiffly sitting on a fake set, looking straight ahead and never once looking around their surroundings all while singing a song with so little passion that I thought I was watching an 8th grade play. Also, this is a scene that was suppose to develop their feelings with one another however the entire time on the ‘magic carpet ride’, they were sitting so far apart from each other that I felt the two actors weren’t even the same room when filming this scene and instead the editing team had to spliced them together in post production. Seriously, when I re-watched this scene in the 90s movie Aladdin and Jasmine were cuddling like crazy but in the live action movie they never touched once.

Meanwhile, Jafar quickly realizes who Prince Ali really is and able to kidnap Aladdin, tie him to a chair and toss him into the sea all in the span of 5 minutes. The genie is able to save Aladdin from drowning however at the cost of Aladdin’s 2nd wish. Aladdin tells Jasmine and her father about Jafar and they get their guards to throw him into the dungeons. There is a weird scene about questioning the guards loyalty and them saying they are loyal to the Sultan when talking to Jafar in jail. Jafar is easily able to escape from jail, steal the lamp from Aladdin and summon the Genie to make his first wish to become Sultan of Agrabah (all within 5 minutes).

This is the where the movie really goes downhill. When Jafar makes his wish to become Sultan, the only thing that really happens is Jasmine’s father and himself switch hats. That’s literally it. Then Jafar orders the guards to take Jasmine and her father captive and there is a pause from the guards because they are truly debating if ‘he who wears the hat is the sultan’. This is where the line “we’re loyal to the Sultan” comes in to play and the guards take Jasmine away all because Jafar is wearing the fancy hat. Here’s the rub - ‘Sultan’ is merely a title that is inherited so I would think that the guards are loyal to the family blood line instead of just the title but maybe I just watch too many Game of Thrones.

While Jasmine is being escorted away, she decides this is the moment to start singing the new song “Speechless” again and everyone around her starts evaporating. Yes, everyone starts evaporating. For the second time I thought I feel asleep and was watching Avengers instead. It’s later revealed she is actually imagining everyone evaporating while singing this song and only when she’s done is the audience brought back to reality and she then stops in her tracks and shouts “No!” to Jafar. She then has this long winded speech about she’s the best choice to be Sultan and it’s apparently so moving that the guards change their mind and attempt to arrest Jafar for the second time. Jafar uses his second wish to become a sorcerer and only then does he come up with the idea of marrying Jasmine to gain the title of Sultan the right way. Keep in mind, this decision comes out of nowhere - in the animated version, Jafar is heavily trying to manipulate the current Sultan to marry Jasmine out of lust and power but the live action Jafar seems like someone with ADHD who is making it up as he goes.

The shotgun wedding gets interrupted by Aladdin again where he attempts to steal the lamp back. Jafar is now a badass sorcerer and the only cool thing he does in the entire movie with his new powers is to turn his parrot, Iago into a giant bird the size of a 737. A chase scene between Iago and Aladdin on the magic carpet was honestly one of the best scenes of the movie and a nice change of story from the animated version. Aladdin during the chase mocks Jafar and says he will always be second best to the Genie that tricks Jafar into using his 3rd wish to make him a genie as well. Wish granted and now Jafar is stuck in his own personal oil lamp, the end. Well kind of - similar to the animated version, Aladdin uses his 3rd wish to not set the genie free but to make him human and everyone lives happily ever after. Sure, why not?

If you read this entire summary/review and have seen the movie already you’ll noticed that I left out someone from the movie. Disney introduced a new supporting character named Dahlia who is the handmaiden of Jasmine and love interest for the Genie however she literally added nothing to the movie. If Dahlia were to be removed from the movie, nothing changes and the plot stays the same - sure the Genie doesn’t get his love interest but that side plot added nothing to the story either. Also, have you noticed how quickly the ‘couple’ went from dating to lets have two kids right now? I thought Disney wanted to step away from the “you can’t marry someone you just met” mindset but here we are with the Genie and Dahlia getting married after a 20 minute stroll through the gardens talking about their favorite sandwiches (yes, they literally spent time in the movie to talk about sandwiches).

Overall I thought this movie was garbage. It’s clearly a cash grab and attempt to ride the coattail of the Renaissance period of Disney that only shows the studio is out of ideas. Even though I didn’t pay to see this movie, I left the theater feeling robbed.

Screw this movie, I’m going to watch the animated version instead.

Grade: 3/10