Aladdin - A Must Watch Live-action Remake

I have always been fascinated by this movie. If, like me, you have a toddler, you most probably have memorized each line of this movie because that's just how it is with two year olds. They love a movie, they watch it over and over and over again. I'm not complaining though. Luckily, this is one of the cartoon movies I would never get tired of watching.

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And when they showed the trailer for the live-action movie a couple of months ago, I was like How are they gonna top something like that? I thought maybe they'd just literally translate the animation into live action. That wouldn't be so bad. But that would be meh! But then again, deep inside my heart, I already love how the story is. Jasmine being very determined on marrying someone only for love, Aladdin, being a good combination of a mischievous yet kind-hearted and street smart guy, Genie with his comedic genious, even Jafar's epic example of greed, selfishness and ambition. I am back to the question. How will they make something this good even better?

I'll try to make this as spoiler-free as possible but just to be sure, I might have some slip of the tongue moments in here so I apologize in advance.

Loopholes corrected

If you watched the animated movie as a kid, you'll be amazed. If you watched it again as an adult, you'll still be amazed but you'll find some point in the movie which the Genie would say "gray areas." But it's still given that you'll end up singing or humming A Whole New World over and over. The not so bothersome loopholes in the animation movie were somewhat corrected. Some were good corrections, some so-so, some made the movie a lot more satisfactory.

Hanging questions answered

The animation movie fully focused on the two main characters. Backstories, origin stories and explanations were given in the remake. It gave me a lot of "Oh, so thats why..." And a couple of "Now I know..." It somehow gave closure. And a whole different light to the characters themselves.

A musical retreat

Have you ever experienced getting teary-eyed while watching someone sing? I have. Just now. The musical aspect of the movie remake made it a lot more fantastic. I am just so glad it had enough songs to keep my little one entertained and focused on the movie while inside the cinema. Oh and the dance moves. Spectacular!

Epic closures

We all know how the story ends. The bad guy gets a doze of his own medicine, the guy gets the girl or rather the girl gets the guy. But this remake was very ambitious in making sure there are sparkles in their viewers eyes when the movie ends. It had a nice cutesy cutesy, sparkly, romantic, giggly touch.

Conclusion

In case you haven't noticed, I really loved the remake. This is the first time I ever made a sorta kinda movie review but if I am to recommend if you should watch it or not, I'd say go for it. If you want to just have a good time, go out and see the movie.

And just to answer the question: Were the movie makers able overthrow the animation? Not really. I still love the animation. They were successful in not hiding behind the shadow of a great animatio, they gave it a new direction without steering too far away from the original. I think they are at an entirely different level. In fact, they made me love Jasmine even more. I liked her determination in the animation but they gave her more character in this remake.