Aladin series

  • Les nouvelles aventures d’Aladin (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, February 2022) The Arabian myth of Aladdin (filtered through many pop-culture sources) goes for wild parody in silly French comedy Les nouvelles aventures d’Aladin. Placing its bets on all-out comic devices, the story has a framing device (with a ne’er-do-well trying to distract kids from an upcoming robbery by narrating a version of Aladdin’s story) that presumably explains the pop-culture references, multiple anachronisms and tone shifts in the genie’s tale. You probably know the basics: a likable thief, a beautiful princess, a marriage-hungry king and a mischievous genie. The production values are not bad—there are plenty of rough special effects to get the point across, some rather good set design, and one expansive musical number executed as a rap music video. Kev Adams plays Aladdin with some panache, Vanessa Gudie is cute as the princess and Eric Judor turns in a nicely charismatic performance as the genie. I strongly suspect that much of the film’s comedy relies on a thorough knowledge of French pop-culture circa 2015, as some of the jokes land weirdly from a French-Canadian perspective, and the film occasionally gesticulates wildly toward walk-on characters. (Sequel Alad’2 is much worse in this regard.)  There isn’t much here in terms of plotting, which is perhaps just as well considering how the film can rely on audience familiarity with the plot to tweak it humorously. (The sequence in which the traditional three wishes are extended to more of them is expected, but amusing.)  I smiled throughout much of the film and even chuckled a few times, which already makes this much funnier than several so-called “comedies” I’ve watched recently. Les nouvelles aventures d’Aladin is not meant to be particularly witty, but it does score a joke every few minutes. Not bad—although I seriously wonder how the film would fare in translation.

  • Alad’2 (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2022) While Alad’2 is technically a sequel to the 2015 comedy Les Nouvelles Aventures d’Aladin, you don’t need to have seen the first film in order to make sense of this one (well, except for the call-backs)—in fact, the sequel aspect of the story following up on Aladdin’s familiar first adventure works no matter how the first adventure was told, and the off-the-wall comic approach may even feel fresher. The (disappointing) framing device has to do with a young man travelling by plane to the wedding of his former flame, and telling an Aladdin story very much influenced by his life to the boy sitting next to him. Within the framing device, we have a madcap, completely anachronistic take on Aladdin’s further adventures — complete with an evil dictator (Jamel Debbouze, returning to the big screen after a few judicious low-profile years following his massive overexposure circa 2002–2012 but still holding on to his showboating tendencies) competing for the lovely princess’ hand. The script throws everything it can think of in the hope that something will stick, and sometimes it does—although the funny factor of cramming an extended reference to Frozen’s “Let it go” is debatable. (Significantly, the gag very specifically relies on the French translation of the song—I wonder how that would get back-translated in English.)  The comedy is quite uneven and when it doesn’t work, it’s bad enough to grit our teeth. On the other hand, a lot of material does work, the special effects get the message across and the framing device helps get to the film’s somewhat unlikely happy ending. Alad’2 is a silly comedy and should be approached as such—fun if you’re indulgent, but probably not worth pondering longer than the end credits roll.