Aladdin

I know everyone wants to compare this to the Animated version, but don't. Take it as it comes and you will thoroughly enjoy it. It does stay pretty faithful to the animated version I think. Will Smith as the genie could never be the Robyn Williams genie, but I don't think he tries to. He does fantastically well in his own right. Absolutely loved the Prince Ali song where Aladdin enters the city as the prince. Brilliantly colorful spectacle captured really well. Jafar missed a little for me as had lost the smarmy-ness of the animated version. The songs were great and the Aladdin and Jasmine characterization was pretty spot on. I think kids would love this and I would definitely recommend it.

I was left cringing during each musical sequence due to the blatant over use of autotune. The actors bring no emotion to the story.

I honestly didn't know what I was going into and it was such a delightful surprise! It really exceeded my expectations and I had fun during the whole movie. Critics are really being harsh and I can't believe that beauty and the beast was more critically praised. The movie was so bland and boring while this one has so much energy and life to it. The characters had amazing chemistry with each other and the lines were delivered smoothly. The two things I was worried about that subsided as soon as the movie started are: 1- Jafar's character: Marwan tries his best to make but the material he's given isn't strong enough. I wish they developed his character more. However, I didn't mind the change they did it with his character as it fits more with this version. 2- Cultural representation: The trailers made the movie look like a production from bollywood. Not hating on the Indian culture, but it really annoyed me as Arab to see a Middle Eastern/Arabic folk tale that we all know long before Disney introduced it to the world to be represented in a fully different culture. Fortunately, the movie looks and feels way more Arabian such Arabic writings here and there, hearing some people speaking Arabic briefly, the names and appearance of the people of Agrabah and of course the amazing score! Although there are some slight hints of India/South Asia in the clothing and dancing, but I didn't mind that at all.

I would've give it a 10 if the cinematography was better. This is my only issue with movie as it looked like high budget TV soap opera in some scenes.

Don't miss on this one! You'll have fun.

I watched this movie this morning and it's beautiful. The original animation is better but it's a little good movie. Will Smith is amazing as the genie. I loved it.

When it comes to visuals, through out the movie was just... beautiful- the clothes, culture and architecture. Will Smith's Genie was unexpectedly good and created his OWN version which is great! As for the rest of the major characters? Well...

Jaafar was a bit of a let down from the beginning. Not menacing enough on the outside. Yet still cunning in some ways. Can't say much about his parrot... Jasmine's dad was disappointingly boring (prefer the bubbly albeit blur cartoony-version). Jasmine herself was alright (neither great nor terrible). The "feminist" like scenes were like an unecessary extra and a bit annoying to watch (don't ask me why). Abu (monkey) was cute. He was captured nicely. And lastly Aladdin? For a break through actor, he actually did a good job portraying Aladdin. EXCEPT his relationship with Jasmine...

..And THAT'S where the "magic" is missing. The core lovey-dovey magic thats hard to explain except through emotions. I feel it's one of the major things that makes Disney's Aladdin.. "ALADDIN"! But I felt nothing from the "Whole New World" scene. No chemistry between the two "lovers". Even in other scenes... This is similarly felt between Aladdin & Genie. Particularly towards the end. The lack of that "core" emotion is so disappointing that I couldn't enjoy the movie as a whole. It just felt more on how it looked rather how it SHOULD feel. I mean this is Aladdin! Where's the magic?