鈥楢laddin鈥� remake is missing original鈥檚 energy
Even the magic carpet looks bummed out in the Disney remake of 鈥楢laddin,鈥櫬燿irected and co-written by聽Guy Ritchie.
Even the magic carpet looks bummed out in the Disney remake of 鈥楢laddin,鈥櫬燿irected and co-written by聽Guy Ritchie.
Please forgive the pun, but the new Disney 鈥淎laddin鈥� rubbed this critic the wrong way. This film 鈥� about a street urchin who frees a wish-granting genie from a lamp and transforms himself into a prince in order to win the heart of a princess 鈥� continues the studio鈥檚 highly dubious trend of remaking its animated hits as live-action extravaganzas. This may make commercial sense but in every other respect, the results don鈥檛 begin to measure up to the animated originals, some of which weren鈥檛 exactly classics anyway.
Take, for example, the rejiggerings of 鈥淭he Jungle Book,鈥� 鈥淏eauty and the Beast,鈥� 鈥淐inderella,鈥� and 鈥淒umbo.鈥� None of these live-action iterations came close to the visual inventiveness or wit of their sources at their best.
The 1992 鈥淎laddin鈥� was not even top-drawer Disney animation, but it showcased Robin Williams鈥� Genie in perhaps the best and funniest animation performance of all time. Guy Ritchie, who directed and co-wrote the new version, is a specialist in cacophonous, ultra-violent crime capers (鈥淟ock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels鈥�) so it鈥檚 not clear why he was chosen to direct a children鈥檚 classic, and a musical to boot. (Most of Alan Menken鈥檚 original score, plus a new, unexciting song, 鈥淪peechless,鈥� are back.) No big surprise that the musical numbers in 鈥淎laddin鈥� are cloddishly staged by Ritchie. There are no speeding cars, no brass knuckles, no firepower to juice things up.
As Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott are so flavorless and squeaky-clean that they might almost be mistaken for CGI effects, of which there are plenty in this film, almost all of them cheesy. As the princess鈥檚 handmaiden, Nasim Pedrad at least has the comic timing that the rest of the cast, including, surprisingly, Will Smith, conspicuously lack. Smith understandably didn鈥檛 want to compete with Williams, but as the big, blue, top-knotted Genie, he鈥檚 uncharacteristically bland. Even the magic carpet in this movie looks bummed out.
Next up later this July is the live-action 鈥淭he Lion King.鈥� I hope this film will be an improvement over these others, but until then, I鈥檓 withholding my roar.