Aladdin (2019)

(In French, Video On-Demand, January 2020) Disney is not to be congratulated for raiding their past classics as fuel for their current lineup of movies (which seems to be working, judging by the box-office receipts), but at least they have the decency to fuel their self-rips homages with decent-enough means and filmmakers. For a movie that doesn’t need to exist, the live-action Aladdin does have big stars, starting with Will Smith, a competent director in Guy Richie, very good special effects and some necessary tweaks to make the details of the story slightly less annoying. Perhaps the biggest creative decision is to propose Will Smith in the role that Robin Williams so memorably voiced back in 1992—it proves to be an acceptable replacement because Smith does have a bigger-than-average presence and he doesn’t try to imitate Williams. Smith’s genie uses Smith’s persona to good effect, and frequently feels more approachable than William’s manic energy did. As a result, much of the script plays on a slightly different tonal range even when it goes through the motions of the same plot once more. (There’s, notably, a budding friendship subplot that wouldn’t have fit as gracefully in the original, and much of the credit for this working well does to Smith’s image as a friendly guy.) Casting issues aside, Aladdin is slightly more sensitive to cultural issues, definitely more adept at making good use of its female characters and a bit more controlled (in admittedly a blockbuster-bland fashion) than the swerves that Williams’ ad-libbed verbal pyrotechnics caused along the way. Richie is clearly cashing in a paycheque to justify his next passion project here, because there’s not much of his directorial verve to go around (although the bit there they re-watch the movie to settle whether Aladdin cheated on his first wish is very funny). Still, Richie does have experience managing big-budget special-effects-heavy productions, and this shows in his sure-handed take—although I definitely prefer him in pop-auteur mode. Although aimed at kids, this Aladdin is potent enough for parents with colourful visuals, including a Bollywood-inspired musical number. Considering that Jasmine is one of my favourite Disney Princesses, her portrayal here is quite good—Naomi Scott plays the character with regal dignity and energy, and the decision to give her a confidante (played by Nasim Pedrad) works well at giving more dimension to the character. The overall result is good enough—good enough to make money at the box office, good enough to be judged acceptable by reviewers, good enough to give the kids something to watch and parents a good excuse to watch along with them, at least the first few handfuls of times. Aladdin is straight out of the Disney playbook, and I expect that there will be more than a few more live-action remakes going now that they’re practically a tradition of their own.