Aladdin (2019 film)

Aladdin is a 2019 American live-action film and remake of the 1992 animated film of the same name, based on the story of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

Synopsis
When a street urchin finds a lamp with a genie inside, he uses the lamp to turn himself into a prince in order to win the heart of a beautiful princess. But an evil vizier is after the lamp too.

Cast

 * Mena Massoud as Aladdin
 * Will Smith as Genie
 * Naomi Scott as Jasmine
 * Marwan Kenzari as Jafar
 * Navid Negahban as The Sultan
 * Nasim Pedrad as Dalia
 * Billy Magnussen as Prince Anders
 * Numan Acar as Hakim
 * Alan Tudyk as the voice of Iago
 * Frank Welker as the voices of Abu, Rajah and the Cave of Wonders

Songs

 * Arabian Nights
 * One Jump Ahead
 * Speechless
 * Friend Like Me
 * Prince Ali
 * A Whole New World

Development
On October 10, 2016, Deadline.com reported that Disney was developing a live-action remake of Aladdin with Guy Ritchie in talks to direct the film. John August is writing the script that will reportedly retain the musical elements of the original film while Dan Lin is attached as producer.

In March 9, 2017, announced the start of the casting of the protagonists (Aladdin and Princess Jasmine). Lin revealed that they are looking for a diverse cast.

On April 19, 2017, Will Smith was in talks to portray the role of The Genie.

In August 2017, Guy Ritchie revealed that he wanted Tom Hardy to take the role of Jafar.

Later that month, Alan Menken revealed that he will return to compose the music (he also composed music in the original film.

Production on the film was slated to begin in July of 2017. However, on July 11, 2017, it was reported that production on the film would be delayed to August, due to difficulties in finding suitable actors and actresses to portray the leads, Aladdin and Jasmine. Both actors are required to sing, dance, and be of either Middle Eastern or Indian descent. It has also been stated that the studio would prefer newcomers and unknown talents for the two lead roles. Around 2,000 auditions for Aladdin and Jasmine have taken place in London, Egypt, Abu Dhabi, and India, and despite the global search, Disney has not been satisfied with the results. The same report claims that actor Will Smith is "locked" to voice the Genie, while Disney is looking to cast a "big name actor" for the role of Jafar.

At the 2017 D23 Expo, the main cast was announced, including the confirmation of Will Smith as Genie, Mena Massoud as Aladdin, and Naomi Scott as Jasmine.

International premieres

 * May 22, 2019 (United Kingdom)
 * May 23, 2019 (Brazil)
 * May 24, 2019 (Spain and Poland)
 * June 7, 2019 (Japan)

Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 58% based on 262 reviews, and an average rating of 5.84/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Aladdin retells its classic source material's story with sufficient spectacle and skill, even if it never approaches the dazzling splendor of the animated original."

Differences from the 1992 film

 * The Peddler was replaced by Genie (who is a human at that time) and he serves as the narrator of the film. Also, the beginning of the film takes place on the sea instead of the desert where the Genie cruises with his wife and his two children.
 * This change reflects the original concept that the Peddler was just the Genie in disguise.
 * The "One Jump Ahead" sequence happened when Aladdin and Jasmine tried to flee from the palace guards after giving bread to the street urchins.
 * In the animated film, Jasmine's mother was briefly mentioned. In this film, Jasmine's mother is said to belong from the kingdom of Shirabad and was murdered there. Aladdin's parents were also briefly mentioned in the animated film while in this film, it was mentioned that he lost his parents when he was young. This butchers the possibility for the events in Aladdin and the King Of Thieves to happen.
 * Jafar's characterization in the film was changed. In this film, Jafar desired to invade Shirabad rather than being a sultan. Also, it is said that Jafar was once a street rat like Aladdin.
 * Jafar did not disguise as an old prisoner where he meets Aladdin.
 * There are some characters in this film that are added or renamed:
 * Dalia is a new character in this film who is the handmaiden of Jasmine and the love interest of the Genie.
 * Prince Achmed was renamed as Prince Anders.
 * Razoul was renamed as Hakim.
 * Unlike the animated film, Jasmine's goal was to marry a prince for love, not by law. In this film, Jasmine's goal was to unite the people of Agrabah and to bring back the glory done by her mother.
 * In the animated film, Aladdin never went to the palace until he became Prince Ali by the Genie. In this film, Aladdin breaks into the palace to return Jasmine's bracelet stolen by Abu.
 * The Harvest Festival was absent in the animated film.
 * The animal characters: Abu, Rajah and Iago were given smaller roles in this film. Iago is not as talkative as in the animated film but instead, he is more of a normal parrot who mostly imitates people that surrounds him while being able to speak for himself limitedly.
 * In this film, Jasmine was given a solo song entitled "Speechless."
 * In this film, Genie helped distract Jasmine by asking Dalia for a evening stroll so Aladdin could get to Jasmine's room.
 * Jasmine was not as rejective of Aladdin as Prince Ali during their conversation in her room.
 * Aside from turning Abu into an elephant, Genie also turns him into a donkey and a camel in this film. In the animated film, Genie only turned Abu into an elephant.
 * During the musical number "Prince Ali", certain scenes in this film were different than the ones in the animated iteration:
 * The part where Genie transforms into a journalist during the golden camel and purple peacock verses was omitted.
 * The golden camels and purple peacocks are depicted differently. In the animated film, each of the golden camels are depicted with two people holding them together while the purple peacocks are shown on a large parade float. In this film, the golden camels are shown being held individually while the peacocks are shown standing on plates albeit with their eye spots being colored purple rather than having each peacock being entirely purple and on a peacock-themed parade float.
 * During the verse about exotic mammals, a flock of ostriches was shown during the verse instead of an enormous gorilla balloon in this film.
 * While on his stroll with Dalia, Genie used his magic to appear simultaneously on a map to both help Aladdin with his conversation with Jasmine and convince him to be himself instead of appearing as a bee in the original film. He also helped him make the kingdom of "Ababwa" appear on the map so Jasmine can believe it's real.
 * In the process, he made the landmarks of Disneyland such as Fantasyland and Adventureland appear on the map.
 * During the "A Whole New World" sequence, Aladdin and Jasmine only flew to Agrabah, the desert, and the seas. This change was made because obviously, it is impossible to fly from Agrabah to Egypt, Greece, and China for one night as it is presented in the animated film.
 * Abu and the Magic Carpet were not kidnapped after the "A Whole New World" sequence.
 * Abu was changed back into a monkey earlier in the film before Aladdin was caught by the guards the second time. In the animated film, Abu is frequently seen in his elephant form before being turned back into a monkey during the scene where Jafar takes over as the ruler of Agrabah.
 * Aladdin was tied to a chair, but not gagged, and was interrogated by Jafar before he was pushed to the sea.
 * In the climax, there is a moment where Jasmine is supposed to marry Jafar, but she refuses to; this scene does not occur in the animated version.
 * During the climax, Iago turned into a giant bird while chasing Aladdin and Jasmine; this scene is not present in the animated film. This replaced the moment when Jafar became a giant cobra to attack Aladdin.
 * During the climax of the film, many of the inhabitants of the palace are sent to the dungeon when Jafar becomes the ruler of Agrabah also with Carpet getting torn and weakened during the final battle against Jafar. In the animated film, Rajah was turned into a tiger cub, Abu was turned into a toy monkey, and Carpet becomes unraveled during the final battle against Jafar.
 * In this film, the city of Agrabah is situated near the sea, not in the middle of the desert.
 * Jasmine and the Sultan did not become slaves when Jafar becomes the sultan by his wish.
 * When the Genie was freed by Aladdin at the end, he transforms completely into a human and he doesn't retain his powers unlike in the animated film.
 * In this film, wishes should be more specific in order to be granted by the Genie. The lamp must also be rubbed while granting the wish, a loophole which was how Aladdin got the Genie to get him to escape the Cave of Wonders for free by.
 * In the animated film, the Sultan changed the law in order for Jasmine to marry Aladdin. In this film, the Sultan passes the throne on to Jasmine in which she changed the law to marry Aladdin and to fulfill her goal to bring back the glory of her kingdom during her mother's ruling.
 * There are some costume changes in the characters:
 * Aladdin now appears to be donning a striped cream-colored long sleeves layered by a red sleeveless vest. Instead of being barefooted, he now wears a pair of pointed shoes.
 * Jasmine is seen wearing different kinds of dresses. In her famous turquoise jumpsuit, peacock feathers were added and her belly is completely covered. The red slave jumpsuit is not present in the film.

Cameos and Easter Eggs

 * When Genie explains that he is the most powerful being in the universe, he pulls out a scroll that features drawings of the 1992 animated versions of Aladdin, Sultan, and Genie, to illustrate his point.
 * Carpet made a sandcastle of Cinderella Castle (complete with a sand arch over the castle like in the Walt Disney Pictures logo) while Genie explains the wish process to Aladdin.

Trivia

 * Production officially ended on January 25, 2018
 * Frank Welker, who voiced Abu, Rajah, and the Cave of Wonders in the original, reprises his role, making him the fifth actor to reprise his role for a Disney live-action adaptation of a previous Disney animated production after Jim Cummings (who voiced Razoul in the orginal animated film), Brad Garrett (both of who reprised Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, also voiced by Cummings since the late 1980s, and Eeyore, whom Garrett voiced previously in Animated StoryBook: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and recently in Ralph Breaks the Internet, respectively in 2018's Christopher Robin), Nancy Cartwright  and Patton Oswalt (both of who reprise Rufus and Professor Dementor in the live-action Kim Possible film), and James Earl Jones (who reprises his role as Mufasa in The Lion King remake) will be the sixth.
 * The voice of the Cave of the Wonders as depicted in the first teaser trailer is archived dialogue of Frank Welker from the original animation.
 * This is the first film in the Aladdin franchise in which Iago isn't voiced by Gilbert Gottfried, with Alan Tudyk voicing the character instead.