Feature Friday: Aladdin

Have you heard about the live-action version of Aladdin? I call it a "version" not a "remake" because it's not a remake. Not really.

Princess Jasmine was one of my favorite princess when I was a girl (along with Ariel). The Disney cartoons are not what I would call my favorite movies, but they are cute enough. Some people are not thrilled with all the live actions coming out, but I loved the Cinderella from a few years ago and was excited to see what they might do with Aladdin. It would be a bit more challenging to pull off well and, of course, what do you do with Genie?

Let me tell you, I was very impressed.

How do you replace Robin Williams? You don't. And Disney/Will Smith didn't even try. The Smith genie is not the same as the Williams genie and I think that's a good thing. There was a point in the movie when I was a little disappointed that some of my favorite lines were not coming up, but then I thought about it more and I was glad. They were not just redoing the animated movie verbatim with live people (and CGI animals). As my mom put it, they did a great job honoring the story and Robin Williams, not redoing it over, but not keeping everything exactly the same.

My dad asked, "was Will Smith just Will Smith, or did he try to be the Genie?" Since I've only seen two other movies with Smith (and those only once each), I couldn't really answer that question, but my mom said he did a good job. For me, I know the guy is funny and he delivered on that. I did not know he was a singer and he is pretty good! I was just excited to see him in a movie where there wasn't all kinds of bad stuff that needed filtering out :)

Besides Smith, the only cast member I'd heard of was Naomi Scott, who plays Princess Jasmine. She was in a Disney Channel Original Movie called Lemonade Mouth and she has not changed a bit in eight years!

On the subject of Jasmine, I had heard from someone else who saw the movie before I did that she was much more covered up, which surprised me. Her (potential) outfits were actually the one thing I was a little worried about. I was pleasantly surprised! Her outfits were absolutely gorgeous! They didn't look very comfortable, but certainly stunning. I also thought that her role was very balanced.

There were a lot of positive messages in this movie, more so than the animated one. I'll be honest, I haven't seen it in a few years, but I don't remember "good" messages being a part of the first one. This one, however, I was pleased with some of the themes presented.

Finally, I just love Arabic and Indian architecture and clothing! The grandeur and beauty and color... it's simply breathtaking. That is the backdrop for Aladdin, which is one reason I wanted to see it and it did not disappoint. Prince Ali's entrance to Agrabah  is, well, epic.

If you want to go see a movie, this would be a good one!