Aladdin

Odd as it sounds I believe Disney may have missed a trick by not, somehow, placing these live-action interpretations of their classic animations into some sort of shared cinematic universe.

Maybe I’m still reeling from Endgame but a shared character or all-seeing narrator would have given the project some cohesiveness. At the very least, it’d be nice to have a consistent style or unifying mood and tone to the entire enterprise.

The Jungle Book is largely the catalyst for the latter train of thought by bravely ‘going dark’ and thoroughly rejigging the songs. Beauty And The Beast then skewed back to being more traditional and, for better or worse, their latest: Aladdin, does the same.

Now, I understand keeping to the formula and I equally understand needing to hew close to the stage show but this, once again, falters by being extremely faithful to the 1992 animation.

There’s a few shaken-up plot points and lengthier exposition to flesh out the run time but this is very much the tale you know and love. This does mean we get some nice sequences which, quite literally, bring the animation to life with the opening one-take, rollercoaster ride through the streets of Agrabah being one particular example.

It is obviously a great story and the live action suits it well but, much like Beauty… before it, this does have a tendency to slip into (whisper it) pantomime territory. Keeping close to the original outfits can’t be helped (but the frankly baffling mid-credit dance and walk to camera certainly can!) but this is something that is always going to affect these remakes.

The songs, as you know, are also great and, once again, like Beauty… these sequences stand as the best thing about the film. Disney throw their production clout behind these numbers and it pays dividends. The Friend Like Me scene betters the original, much as Be Our Guest did.

They’ve also added additional songs for this version with Jasmine getting three (!) reprises of her new solo piece Speechless. Granted, the message behind the song perfectly suits the character but the gloss of the production suggests that Disney are looking for their next soundtrack-selling Let It Go-style mega-hit.

Speaking of Jasmine and Naomi Scott does a fantastic job with the more nuanced and fully-fleshed version of the character and praise as well to newcomer Mena Massoud as the titular Street Rat whose acting, and dancing, chops are sure to see him break big from here.

What everyone will be discussing upon leaving the cinema though is The Fresh Prince himself; Will Smith, in one of the most talked about casting choices of recent times. Going up against Robin Williams’ performance-for-the-ages is a bold task but Smith delivers with aplomb, beguiling and OTT in all the right ways. He knows when to play nuanced and when to break loose and he’s eminently watchable. Disney wisely steer clear of using Williams’ lines but there’s lots of comedy to be found, especially in his interactions with Aladdin.

It’s all high-production, blockbusting, family entertainment (as to be expected) and criticising a film so obviously trying to be all things to all people feels like picking holes in the performances of a school play but this approach is never going to win Disney critical kudos.

Hewing close to the animation is a sure-fire way of selling movie tickets and soundtracks but the vast majority will leave the cinema knowing the original remains unsurpassed. There’s a long-held fan theory that the street vendor who opens the animated version is telling Aladdin’s story in order to sell his customer the lamp. In a cruel sense of irony, this film feels just as cynical.

Hiring Guy Ritchie to direct and then reining him in just feels a tad wasteful and some of the Director's not inconsiderable flair could have gone a long way to making this version very much its own beast.

Not A Whole New World then, alas, but the same movie we’ve seen before.

3 stars ***