The Cozy Princess Reviews: Disney's Aladdin (2019)

Aladdin is probably my favorite Disney animated movie and I've been really exited and nervous about this new live action version! I've gone back and forth about how I feel about Will Smith as Genie and I'm not the biggest fan of Guy Ritchie... but I think it all worked out nicely in this movie and they did a great job!

The movie starts with a really simply beautiful opening number of Arabian Nights with a shot panning over all of the characters in their own very ordinary world. You can see Aladdin with Abu on the streets and then it goes to Jasmine looking longingly over Agrabah while Rajah goes to attack Iago... It is honestly a stunning way to show all of our characters and it's probably one of my favorite movie moments.

Now let's talk about the music in this movie... the Music of Aladdin is probably my favorite in any Disney Movie... and everyone in this movie really did a great job. Will Smith is very underrated as a singer... I really liked his version of Friend Like Me... which is my favorite Disney song. I also really liked Naomi Scott as Jasmine and Mena Massoud as Aladdin. They sounded really great. I would say Aladdin really sounded as good if not better than the original. The Whole New World Scene was really great for a lot of reasons... but the singing was absolutely amazing.

The one song I really have to say I didn't like was Speechless- which is Jasmine's new song. It wasn't a bad song itself... but it felt very out of place in the movie. Particularly in the reprise... which was just a mess of a scene in general. It was basically a very poppy aside from Jasmine... but it showed the guards kind of disappearing as she walked passed them in a "Thanos Snap" almost. It looked like that and my boyfriend and I both said "SHE JUST SNAPPED THOSE GUARDS" which was pretty funny. It also seemed like it should have been a very powerful moment for Jasmine herself... but it gave the character Hakim oddly too much power. It felt very odd for the most part... and I just didn't love this part.

Another thing I want to talk about is the CGI in the movie. It was actually really good for most of the movie... but there were times I looked at Genie's face and it just looked so strange. It seemed copied and pasted onto his body and it didn't look like it fit. I still overall liked the appearance of the Genie in his Blue, Larger Than Life form- so I didn't find it that distracting... plus he was in his human form for most of the movie. The CGI on the Whole New World Scene was actually really good... and I loved Carpet.

The Chemistry between Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud was incredible too. It seemed very natural... they were just really adorable and it seemed so genuine. Aladdin and Jasmine are my favorite Disney Couple... and seeing them brought to life was just amazing.

All of the characters brought to life were so so good too... one I keep thinking about actually was Jafar. Yes- it's been mentioned that he is actually very hot in this movie... but he was also just a good choice. The more I think about the movie now... the more I'm like "Jafar was actually one of my favorite parts of the movie!" Jafar was played by Marwan Kenzari... I'm definitely going to watch more of his movies... it looks like he's been in a lot of "action-y" movies lately that... were badly reviewed... but now I'm feeling they might be worth watching. He was in 2017's The Mummy and Murder on The Orient Express and 2016's Ben Hur... I want to watch these. Aspen- if you're reading this... I'm probably going to make you watch The Mummy. Love you! Hahaha.

Also Guy Ritchie was just the perfect choice to direct this movie. The Slow Motion Scenes looked really cool... and he just does a good job at action/adventure movies and I'm glad they really went with an action/adventure feel for this movie.

This is definitely my new favorite Disney Live Action remake... but I'll put it up with one of my favorite Disney Live Action movies in general. Like on Par with The Princess Diaries for me. I just really loved it and now I'm excited for The Lion King!

Let me know what you guys thought of this movie! What were your favorite and least favorite parts?

TTFN!
-Shannon