Aladdin Review

There is not enough Guy Ritchie for me to feel the Guy Ritchie vibe, but there is just enough Guy that it really makes me feel odd. Please bring either all of Guy or none of him. .

This remake goes from surprisingly enjoyable, with some real sets and musical numbers that dazzle, to completely confusing and frustratingly OFF-SCRIPT. I wanted to see the great payoff that the original has, but instead some corporate office at Disney decided to pause the narrative to bring me a cringe filled solo from Jasmine that sounds like radio pop.

It was well cast, besides Jafar, who was less scary than Mike Wazowski. In fact, besides Jasmine's film-breaking solo, Jafar was the single worst part of the movie. He simply cannot be as scary or interesting as the original.

The original numbers were actually well put together, with Guy Ritchie adding a little bit of modern flair and *fast paced editing*. This works in the musical numbers, but the rest of the movie suffers from the editing.

The dancing and music was bombastic and fun, because they used Menken's originals. The live sets were *lively* , the costumes were excellent, and the music and humor are giddy and nostalgic.

Will Smith does all he can, including rapping the credits (thank goodness), but he simply will never be Robin Williams, and he really just plays himself. He has effortless charisma, but he overdoes it a bit, even though it is a children's movie.

I could not stop grinning through most of the first half, but Disney managed to screw up an incredible story in the latter half regardless. 

One more note, there is a Bollywood influenced Slumdog Millionaire style dance party at the end, and it is thoroughly enjoyable. It caps off the narrative on a fun note. We need more of this in Hollywood as soon as possible. Imagine at the end of Avengers: Endgame, every character, including villains, does a big dance number to celebrate victory. We can only imagine...

5/10

Stanton Pruitt