Aladdin
Year of release : 2019
Run time : 2h8m
Genre : Musical / Fantasy / Family
Cast : Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Nasim Pedrad
Director : Guy Ritchie
The movie is the live-action adaptation of the 1992 Disney animation of the same name, inspired by the Middle Eastern folk tale.
The movie opens with a sailor and his family, as a large ship passes by them. The kids wished they could live on that boat, and their father, looking suspiciously like the Genie, decides to tell them the story of Aladdin.
Aladdin is a street kid who, with his monkey, Abu, steals in order to eat. After he steals a woman’s necklace and gets a bag of dates for it (which he gives to a poor child who was begging on the street with his mother and sibling), he meets a beautiful woman from the palace who takes a bread from a vendor’s stand and gives it to a poor child, thinking she or they, don’t have to pay for it! She gets into trouble, and Aladdin saves her, taking her to his humble abode. She tells him her name is Dalia, and Aladdin assumes she is working at the palace due to how she’s dressed.
Jafar, the sultan’s vizier, is looking for the “diamond in the rough”, the man who can enter the Cave of Wonders, a treasure cave, where the oil lamp nesting a genie, he seeks rests.
We find out the girl is actually princess Jasmine (I can’t believe she didn’t know you have to pay for things people sell, because she’s supposed to be smart!) as she meets another man who came from far away, wanting to marry her, at the news of her beauty. Jasmine actually wants to be sultan herself.
Jafar is trying to persuade the sultan to get his daughter to marry the prince who came to see her, as he keeps on talking about unknown enemies. Jasmine walks in on them when Jafar was working his magic on the sultan, disrupting the spell.
Iago sees Aladdin sneaking into the palace, as he wants to give Jasmine her bracelet back, and he tells Jafar.
After talking to the princess, thinking her her handmaid, giving her the bracelet back, Jafar’s guards take him, and he wakes up in the desert, as Jafar took him to the Cave of Wonders. Jafar tells him he was actually speaking to the princess who was just playing him, and told him if he finds the oil lamp for him, he’ll make him rich. He also tells him not to take anything else, no matter how tempted he is, for he’ll get locked inside the cave.
The cave’s entrance lion head speaks to him, that only one may enter, “the diamond in the rough”.
Aladdin finds the lamp, and helps a flying carpet which was stuck between 2 big rocks.
As Aladdin finds the lamp, Abu sets his eyes on a big ruby which falls from the top, and touches it. The cave’s keeper awakens saying they touched the forbidden treasure, and they are not allowed to ever leave, the cave sinking in.
Jafar waits for him at the entrance and asks for the lamp in order to help him. Aladdin gives him the lamp, and Jafar steps on his hand, admitting he doesn’t plan on helping him, only wanting the treasure.
Aladdin is rescued by the magic carpet, and Abu gives Aladdin the lamp which he stole back from Jafar as he was walking away.
The carpet tells Aladdin to rub the lamp in order to get out of the cave. A genie comes out of the lamp, thinking he cannot be the one owning the lamp, but someone resembling Jafar.
The genie sings him a song about who he is and what he can do for him, as Aladdin doesn’t know anything about it.
Aladdin makes his first wish without rubbing the lamp, so he still has 3 wishes. Not knowing what to wish for, he asks the genie what would he ask for, so he tells him, he wants to be free. Aladdin promises his final wish will be to release him. The genie warns him the more he'll have the more he'll want.
So, his first wish is to be a prince, to impress princess Jasmine, as she has to marry a prince.The genie gives him a name, prince Ali, from Ababwa.
He enters the city with a big parade, curtesy of the genie, and princess Jasmine is not impressed. When she finally recognizes him, he lies to her he is a prince disguising himself as a street kid, to know the city.
Problem is, Jafar recognizes him too, and wants the lamp, and.. will stop at nothing to get it.
I personally enjoyed the movie, I even liked some of the songs, as I don’t like musicals.
I liked the bond between Aladdin and the genie, and also the love story between the genie and Dalia.
I liked the world they created, the set design, the costumes and jewelry.. the dances..the vivid, vibrant colors.
The actors were good, they were beautiful and had beautiful voices.
The soundtrack was good, it has Middle Eastern influences, obviously.
The visual effects were great.
The movie received mixed reviews (with a 57% critics score, and a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes; and a 53 critic score with a 6.5 audience rating on Metacritic ). Cinema Score audiences gave it an A.
Aladdin grossed over 1 Billion dollars at the box office against a budget of 183 million dollars, being the 9th highest grossing movie of the year 2019, the 8th most expensive Disney movie, and 3d highest grossing Disney movie.
The movie received a few award nominations, including a Razzie Redeemer Award for Will Smith.
Rating : Worth a watch !