Directly on the heels of the live-action film Dumbo, Disney has released its 12th re-imagination of one of their animated classics. Aladdin is the story of a street rat kid in Agrabah who steals to survive with his pet monkey Abu. He meets the Princess Jasmine who snuck out from the palace. Aladdin releases a magical genie who grants him three wishes. Aladdin's first wish is to become a prince so he can impress Jasmine.
The animated film released in 1992 featured Robin Williams as the many voices of the Genie. Williams tragically passed in 2014 and Will Smith has taken on the impossible task of filling the curly pointed shoes. While Robin Williams had a very distinct voice that is immediately recognizable, he also possessed the genius talent of creating characters in whom you did not see Robin Williams. Unfortunately, from the brief glimpses we get of Will Smith's Genie, it's clearly Will Smith. Yes, I know it's live-action, so you're supposed to recognize him. What I mean is that even the performance just seems filled with typical Will Smith-isms. It feels like not only will the audience be comparing his performance to Williams' Genie, but will also be watching another Will Smith comedic performance that could have been pulled from Fresh Prince of Bel Air; Bad Boys; Men In Black; or Wild, Wild West. I almost wanted the iconic role to go to someone unknown, rather than someone who is known for a pretty specific comedic acting style.
Aladdin is directed by Guy Ritchie, and this is a bit of a new arena for the director with quite the resume. Ritchie is known more for his gritty, raw, uncomfortably funny and dry films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Snatch; RocknRolla; and the Sherlock Holmes movies. Not only are those films not logically translatable to directing a movie like Aladdin, but they are not known for their integrated use of CGI. Disney's live-action remakes have been getting more and more flawless with their CGI needs to make their cartoons come to live. Jon Favreau was absolutely genius in his direction of Jungle Book. Bill Condon put forth a wonderful remake of Beauty and the Beast. And Tim Burton dazzled and amazed us with Dumbo. We'll see how Ritchie is able to keep up with the animated demands Aladdin requires to make realistic.
Disney has also taken calculated risks in each of their live-action remakes by changing up some of the original stories we grew up with and quote word-for-word. So far, the changes have been appropriate and successful. With so much that could potentially be wrong in Aladdin (Smith's performance, Ritchie's ability to direct a film like Aladdin and the use of CGI), the storyline tweaks might be just what the film needs to set it apart from the 1992 original. We'll see how realistic Abu the monkey and Iago the parrot and Raja the tiger are created and how magically believable the iconic carpet ride will be.
I've been excited about each one of the remakes and I absolutely cannot wait for The Lion King to come out in July with Jon Favreau calling the shots once again. Aladdin, I have some concerns, so I'm going to give it a cautious but optimistic 3.5 Star Prediction. I'm hoping I'll enjoy paying to watch it in the theatres and will want to watch it again. I'm hoping to be delightfully surprised and raise my rating which would mean it reached the status of finding a home in my personal collection. Am I right? We shall see.
No comments:
Post a Comment