BEFORE: It's Disney's world now, we all just live in it - especially since Disney owns ABC, ESPN, Marvel Comics and a bunch of other things. They just can't make much money right now, with the theme parks and movie theaters closed. So like many people, I'm on Disney Plus this week, I joined the service with a free year last October after getting a new iPhone on our Vegas trip, and then I got another free year as a Christmas gift, so come November I can add the 2nd free year to my first free year, and maybe by then the Marvel superheroes shows will be airing.
Up until now, I've only used the Disney Plus service for "The Mandalorian" and the final season of "The Clone Wars", but that's not nothing - that's a lot, and if it's the only way to watch TWO "Star Wars" TV series, then I'm in. Now, after 7 months on the service, I can finally get to some movies. I should re-watch "Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker" but who has the time? (Oh, wait, that's right, I do because I'm technically unemployed right now.).
Originally, I was supposed to be in Orlando last week, that was the plan we made in February, bought the plane tickets and everything, but then March came along and said, "Mmm, nah, I don't think so..." so we had to cancel the trip. While it was snowing in May in NYC, we could have been on a Florida beach - but you know what? Beaches suck, I don't know why people are clamoring for beaches to be open by Memorial Day. Who wants sand in their shoes and getting sunburned and possibly being drowned by the undertow or eaten by a shark (or an alligator, it is Florida...)? I like some things that are near beaches, like boardwalks and amusement parks and seafood shacks, but I can do without the beach itself. But then again, I could have been at Epcot Center or Galaxy's Edge, so hey, Orlando, maybe I'll see you next May? Disney Shanghai did open up the other day, so there's some hope.
Alan Tudyk carries over from "Frozen II" as the voice of Iago, the parrot.
THE PLOT: A kind-hearted street urchin and a power-hungry Grand Vizier vie for a magic lamp that has the power to make their deepest wishes come true.
AFTER: Well, if last week was a big week here for "Star Wars" actors, there's no doubt that this week has been just as big for stars from "Saturday Night Live". There was Molly Shannon twice, Maya Rudolph a bunch of times, plus Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Jones, Pete Davidson and Beck Bennett in "Angry Birds 2", Will Forte in "The Willoughbys", and Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer in "Wine Country" (along with SNL writers Paula Pell and Emily Spivey). No SNL actors in "Frozen II", but I've got Nasim Pedrad tonight in a new character (best friend of the princess) created for the remake. But every trend has to end sometime - George Carlin will be here tomorrow, but he only hosted the show a bunch of times, he wasn't a regular cast member.
It's been a LONG time since I last watched Disney's 1992 "Aladdin" movie - but I remember dubbing that movie and its two sequels to a DVD, so I must have watched them in order sometime between 2004 and 2009, I think the Disney channel had a marathon or something. Strangely, I approve of the live-action/CGI update, so this bodes well if I want to get around to the new CGI version of "The Lion King" - which is on my list, I've just been in no hurry to get to it. That film has a fair number of connections, so I think it (and Disney) will be OK if I wait.
But man, what an update for "Aladdin", from 2-D animation to full-on live-action spectacular, complete with a cast of thousands and big dance numbers that seem a little more Bollywood than Khali-wood, but what do I know? (Actually, the Arab cinema industry in Hyderabad is nicknamed "Tollywood", and the Pakistan cinema industry is called "Lollywood", but I had to look those up.). And I heard that Will Smith was concerned about replacing Robin Williams as the Genie, but really, he shouldn't have been. He got to be expressive and over-the-top in his own way, which involved a little bit of beatboxing and some rapping, but he's also a fair singer, it turns out. Williams was manic and hilarious, but not really a great singer, so it's great that somebody else could step into the same role, and use different talents to shine, and not just do a copycat performance.
And I think the music really stood out here too, a couple songs were new and some from the 1992 film got updated or reworked, which was also smart. I never noticed how clever the rhymes were in the 1992 film, like when the song "Prince Ali" rhymed "camels" with "mammals" or "monkeys" with "flunkies", were those rhymes always there? My one quibble was that in "A Friend Like Me", Will Smith pronounced "bona fide" as "bone-a fee-day", which may be more correct in terms of Latin words, except that in the song, it's paired to rhyme with "certified", so it should have been sung as "bone-a fied". They couldn't record another take?
The whole thing's just a bit too long now, running 2 hours and 8 minutes, when the original 1992 animated version was just 90 minutes. I got a little bored right before Jafar stole the lamp and got his own wishes, there was a bit of a drag leading up to this. Really, I shouldn't be rooting for Jafar at that point because his success is going to be a nice change and get the story moving again. I understand the importance of adding the handmaiden/friend character for Jasmine, and also her dissatisfaction with the patriarchal society that somehow prevents her from becoming the sultan and forces her to marry a prince. Pointing out gender inequality is always a good use of time, even if it's somewhat apocryphal, but even so, that shouldn't add an extra half-hour to a movie meant for kids (and their parents, who might need to use the cinema's restroom halfway through the film).
For that matter, almost the entire cast is olive- or brown-skinned people, and that's also great news for equality. Who says kids won't go to see a movie unless the cast is mostly Caucasian? It may have cost nearly $200 million to make, but it took in over a billion, great for Disney's bottom line - I hoped they saved some of that money for the tough theater-less days ahead.
It's also great that special effects have progressed to the point where anything is possible in a live-action film. Animation used to have an advantage where anything somebody could think of, if it could be drawn, it could happen in animation. Now it scarcely matters, anything's possible with CGI too, so there's only a marginal difference now between a "live-action" and an animated film, when everything is this seamless it may even be tough to tell where the live-action leaves off and the CGI starts. So I'm sort of OK with people calling this the "live-action" remake of "Aladdin", but it's still the wrong term for the remake of "The Lion King", which is about 99% CGI and very little live.
Also starring Will Smith (last seen in "Quincy"), Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott (last seen in "The 33"), Marwan Kenzari (last seen in "What Happened to Monday"), Navid Negahban (last seen in "12 Strong"), Nasim Pedrad (last heard in "Despicable Me 2"), Billy Magnussen (last seen in "Velvet Buzzsaw"), Numan Acar (last seen in "Spider-Man: Far From Home"), Nina Wadia, Jordan A. Nash, Taliyah Blair, Amir Boutrous, Aubrey Lin and the voice of Frank Welker (last heard in "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker")
RATING: 6 out of 10 palace guards
No comments:
Post a Comment