Re-posting my impressions from the
Review Thread:
It's very solid fare, and I left on a good high. They pull the right amount of elements from the original to make it an earnest retelling, with enough differences to not make it slavishly so. It's pretty much what I had hoped for.
What I dug:
- Menken's new score. He understands the legacy of these songs better than anyone, and he integrates their melodies into several key scenes. Arabian Nights in particular has a far larger presence, thanks to how it now serves as a villain motif to Jafar. A Whole New World also gets some very memorable reprisals.
- Those Bollywood-style dance numbers are
spectacular. The harvest dance sequence is a lot of fun, and even the obligatory all-cast number during the finale was welcome.
- Will Smith's Genie. True, there are a lot of Smith-isms on display and more than once you're going to be reminded of his character in Hitch, but he makes for one helluva entertaining wingman to Aladdin. I'm also impressed by how much of the Genie's powers are on display; you really only get a glimpse in the clips and trailers, but he goes full-tilt with magic in the film, and it translates well to live-action.
- Prince Ali is far and away my favorite musical sequence. The clip doesn't do the full scene justice; in context and on the big screen, it is a showstopper in the truest sense of the word.
-I'll admit that I thought Dalia would have been a superfluous addition, but she's a welcome presence to the cast. She shares some of the better comedic beats with Genie and Jasmine.
- Rajah. I was delighted when he was first revealed to be in the movie after initial reports saying that he wouldn't be. He gets plenty of screentime too.
What I felt a little more ambivalent about:
- While both Speechless and A Whole New World are musically sound (Scott belts out great performances), their accompanying sequences are much less interesting. The green-screen is noticeably rough during A Whole New World, and it was enough to take me out of the scene.
- Iago is largely stripped of his character, serving as little more than a glorified surveillance drone. I understand the decision to ground him more in reality, but paring down his dialogue to the bare minimum of squawking repeated phrases is a disappointing contrast to Gottfried's memorable turn in the original.
- The Sultan, too, is a far less interesting figure, due to his low-key performance. It's another inevitable case of comparing what came before, but I imagine most are going to miss that affably goofy side of the character.
- I wasn't feeling this Jafar for a lot of the film. I get the sense that they were maybe trying to go for a less overtly wicked version, but in the process eliminated the deliciously villainous charm of the character. What we end up with is a Jafar that's still painfully (and frustratingly) obvious in his evil machination, while portraying it in the most paint-by-the-numbers generic bad guy way possible. (And yes, no Prince Ali Reprise either.)
