We have been waiting for months and been teased with amazing looking trailers. And here is what we think of the remake of the beloved Aladdin movie!
Our history with Aladdin
Before we give you our opinion on the new movie, we dive into our thoughts on the original Disney animation:
Pelle watched the movie quite a lot when he was growing up and it was his second favorite Disney movie after the Lion King, on which the live action remake will be released July 17th.
Lisanne on the other hand watched it a couple of times when she was younger and when Pelle insisted her to watch all the Aladdin movies again. She liked the movies, but did not really love them. She started to feel more for Aladdin when she read the book: “A twisted Tale, A Whole New World” from Liz Braswell.
So now that we gave you a little bit more perspective let’s start with the actual review.
Old vs New
Disney already confirmed that the merchant, who started to sing in the original animated movie was indeed the genie, so we both got so excited to see that back in the beginning of the live action movie.
The movie both got us of our guard during the first five minutes. It is amazing to see much more background stories of all the famous and beloved Disney characters that we grew up with.
When Aladdin and Jasmine run away for the guards at the market, wow, that scene is just amazing. All those vibrant colors, costumes, attention to detail and movements / the stunts all the actors are doing, just blew us away.
While the song and scenes from “a whole new world” in the animated version was the highlight of the entire movie. This time there was so much to see and experience during the live action movie, that the carpet ride didn’t stand out comparing the the songs and scenes during the rest of the movie. During the animated movie this song was really calming and like a break from the storyline, we would have preferred that as a little contrast to the excitement during the rest of the movie.
All the greatest scenes of the original animated movie made a come back to the live action movie: the Cave of Wonders, Prince Ali entrance and of course the magic carpet ride.
The characters
The Genie is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Will Smith really nailed his character. He really made the Genie his own way, and damn it is amazing. He did an amazing job being a genie.
Also we really loved the new Jasmine. She had so much personality and a more modern character. That made it much easier to relate to. Jasmine has different outfits during the movie, is elegant, but shows some real girl power and has her own song!
Magic Carpet also has more personality and plays a bigger part in this movie, which is really nice. Now it made much more sense why the Magic Carpet wanted to stay with them and helped everywhere he could.
Aladdin really IS Aladdin. The acting is so well done, we couldn’t imagine anyone else as Aladdin now. All the stunts and the way he created the character in this new movie is amazing and we loved it so much.
Abu, didn’t really do much for us in the beginning. We didn’t really like the way he was animated. But after a little while they entered the cave of wonders, where he started to get more personality and we really warmed up the him and now we wouldn’t see him any another way.
And Raja: he is just the cutest pet tiger ever and is beautifully animated. But plays a less big role than in the original movie.
Jafar wasn’t as scary as the original Jafar in the original animated movie, but was scary in a very different and demanding way. He really gets under your skin and the great background story made him even more scary.
There’s also a new character in the movie, but you have to see for your self, otherwise we would spoil a bit of the new storyline!
Overall feeling
The story is a little bit different from the animated version, but has so much more story and depth in it. Lisanne loved that especially since a couple of things corresponded with the book, we preferred to earlier.
The movie also contained a lot of jokes, funny moments and other little things which made us laugh out loud in the movie theater.
The vibrant use of colors, the attention to details, the hidden referees to the old movie, Disney made the movie even better.
But the main thing that made this movie even better than the animated version is the music. We are both huge fans of all the work that Alan Menkin has made and he has outdone himself this time. The music is that extra detail that makes you want to laugh or cry. Yes, we cried, well Lisanne did.
So overall: we where mindblown, speechless and amazed by this new live action Disney movie. We both loved it to pieces and can’t wait to see the movie for the second time.
Have you seen Aladdin?
