Aladdin 2019 Preview

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.

Dumbo Review

4.5 Stars

Disney continues its recent movie trend of live-action remakes of their animated classics with 2019's Dumbo.  This is Disney's 11th live-action remake following hits like Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Book, and Christopher Robin, though Christopher Robin was actually a live-action continuance rather than a remake.  And they won't be slowing down any time soon with previews already out for Aladdin, The Lion King and Little Mermaid.  And each one of these live-action movies gets more and more realistic and close to a perfectly imperceptible blend of CGI and actual actors and animals.

After a long string of weird, wonderful, fantastic and bizarrely beautifully haunting movies, Director Tim Burton has been somewhat quiet in the last several years.  He directed Big Eyes in 2014 and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children in 2016 and produced Alice Through the Looking Glass in 2016, but this is the one Burton fans and Disney fans alike have been anticipating for years now since it was first announced he would be taking on the project.  

To add to the cornucopia of delicious movie ingredients, Burton has reunited with stars Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito for the first time since he directed them both in Batman Returns in 1992.  

In the live-action Dumbo, Timothy Q. Mouse has a couple of quick cameos, but is not the encouraging, mentoring friend and manager as was his role in the original cartoon. Instead, it is a pair of children who discover Dumbo's talent and hone his skills.  

In this version, Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) was a big circus star until he went off to fight in the war.  He did not return the same man: his wife had passed, he lost his arm, and he was left to raise his two children with the help of his circus family.  Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) purchased an Asian elephant, Mrs. Jumbo, who was due any day with a baby that would bring a new spark to the dying, struggling circus.  When her baby is born, Medici is shocked and embarrassed by the enormous size of the baby's ears.  Since Holt can no longer perform horseback, the act that made him a circus star, he was charged with caring for the elephants.  Medici charges Holt with fixing the baby's giant ears while he gets to work demanding a refund for the faulty elephant.  Mrs. Jumbo is hauled away, but when Holt's children discover that Dumbo can fly, the are convinced that his aerial feats will draw enough crowds and make the circus enough money that they could buy Mrs. Jumbo back and reunite them.  When word of the flying elephant get out, entrepreneur V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) and circus aerial acrobat Colette Marchant (Eva Green) show up to make the big-eared wonder a super star and give a permanent home to the flailing traveling circus.

The animation, as it appeared from the preview, was nearly flawless.  Burton and Elfman are nearly flawless, especially when they work together.  And having Keaton and DeVito back together was just perfectly fantastic.  There were many throwbacks to the original cartoon, but Burton definitely made this live action film his own.  As I mentioned, we got to see Timothy Q. Mouse a couple times.  I liked the choice in his use of the storks when it was time for the miracle of birth.  It was great to hear Elfman's original yet distinctly recognizable music.  Hearing his take on the classics like Casey Junior and Baby Mine (get your Kleenex ready) and Elephants on Parade.  In the cartoon, Dumbo accidentally drank some of the clown's booze and blew elephant bubbles from his trunk during that song.  The way Burton worked that into this movie was clever.  And, I won't give it away, though I missed the crows singing When I Seen an Elephant Fly, the way he payed homage to that one was as perfect as could be done without actually having the crows back in the movie singing it.

One of the biggest challenges animators still have with CGI is when actual actors interact intimately with their CGI counterpart: walking down stairs, dancing, flying, especially when Dumbo has such an awkward flapping style of flying.  The way Burton accommodated his animators by his choice of shots was genius and made for flying scenes that did not take you away from the movie at all.

I have been excited to see this movie for a long time now and I gave an enthusiastic 4.5 Star Prediction to Dumbo.  I am sticking with my 4.5 Star Rating and the only reason really that it wasn't a perfect 5 stars was because of Holt's daughter who played such a major role in the film but lacked any kind of emotional range throughout 95% of the movie.  I don't know if it was her acting choices or a director's guidance, but she had the same lack of emotion when Holt came home without an arm, when her dad was dismissive of her desires to leave the circus, when Dumbo began to fly, when Dumbo was separated from his mom, when their small circus was bought by V. A. Vandevere.  No facial expressions, no emotion in her voice or eyes.  It was just flat.  But, other than that, I thought it was well worth the money in the theatre, one I'll want to see again and again and will definitely add to my collection as soon as I can.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Dumbo 2019 Preview

Disney is continuing its recent movie trend of live-action remakes of their animated classics with 2019's Dumbo.  This will be Disney's 11th live-action remake following hits like Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Book, and Christopher Robin, though Christopher Robin was actually a live-action continuance rather than a remake.  And they won't be slowing down any time soon with previews already leaked out for Aladdin, The Lion King and Little Mermaid.  And each one of these live-action movies gets more and more realistic and close to a perfectly imperceptible blend of CGI and actual actors and animals.

After a long string of weird, wonderful, fantastic and bizarrely beautifully haunting movies, Director Tim Burton has been somewhat quiet in the last several years.  He directed Big Eyes in 2014 and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children in 2016 and produced Alice Through the Looking Glass in 2016, but this is the one Burton fans and Disney fans alike have been anticipating for years now since it was first announced he would be taking on the project.  

To add to the cornucopia of delicious movie making ingredients, Burton has reunited with stars Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito for the first time since he directed them both in Batman Returns in 1992.  

Dumbo is the story of an baby elephant born into the circus with comically large ears.  He is unwelcome by the other elephants.  During a parade in town, a group of boys tease Dumbo incessantly to the point that his mother must defend him.  For her protective instincts, she is locked away as a dangerous elephant.  Dumbo is alone save for his only friend Timothy Q. Mouse who is determined to look after the pachyderm.   Timothy is able to convince the circus ringmaster to let Dumbo be the top of the elephant pyramid, but he trips over his own ears causing harm to the other elephants.  

The next morning, Timothy and Dumbo wake up in a tree.  A group of crows convinces them that Dumbo flew up there.  Back at the circus, Dumbo's newest trick is to jump from a burning building to be caught by clown firemen as he plummets into a tub of water.  With the aide of a black crow feather and the encouraging words of Timothy, Dumbo flies through the circus instead of plunging into the water.  Dumbo becomes an overnight sensation and the star of the show.  He and his mother are reunited and given a private luxury car on the circus train with Timothy as his manager.

In the live-action preview, we get a peek at a character who looks to be Timothy Q. Mouse, but it's pretty clear from the peek that he will not be performing the same role he did in the original cartoon.  Instead, it is a pair of children who discover Dumbo in a pile of hay.  While there are allusions to similarities to the original film, it is also clear that this will be a very different version of Dumbo.  One thing is for sure, though: the scene that made everyone cry in the cartoon will be there in the live action as Dumbo and his mother share a tender moment outside of her prison cell.  The famous song from the cartoon is Baby Mine.  The preview has a hauntingly beautiful version playing as only Burton's best music buddy Danny Elfman could compose.  

In this version, Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) was a big circus star until he went off to fight in the war.  He did not return the same man.  Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists Holt's assistance in watching after Dumbo, the newborn elephant with giant ears who is the laughing stock of the struggling circus.  When Holt's children discover that Dumbo can fly, entrepreneur V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) and circus aerial acrobat Colette Marchant (Eva Green) show up to make the big-eared wonder a super star.

The animation looks nearly flawless.  Burton and Elfman are nearly flawless, especially when they work together.  And having Keaton and DeVito back together is just perfectly fantastic waiting to happen.  I've been excited to see this movie for a long time now and I'm giving an enthusiastic 4.5 Star Prediction to Dumbo.  I think it will be well worth the money in the theatre, one I'll want to see again and again and will definitely add to my collection as soon as I can.  So, am I right?  We shall see.