Aladdin it is probably one of the classic tales on the plate Disney that have made people dream generations after generations: who of you would not dream of finding the lamp of the Genius and, rubbing it, realize their desires? Three to be exact! So, while you think locally about the three wishes, we are going to prepare the flying carpet to accompany you there, where the world is yours!
A not too well known story
Difficult to talk about spoilers, since you will know almost everyone about the plot: let's talk about Aladdin a poor boy from Agrabah - an invented city - in the heart of the Middle East. Between one story and another, Aladdin finds himself playing a thief and struggling in the company of his friend Abu the little monkey through the streets of the city, meets Princess Jasmin in disguise who pretends to be a commoner at the market. The boy is struck by the beauty of the young woman, who returns to the palace with an excuse ... but he decides to visit her. Sneaking into the palace, Aladdin is captured by the guards and makes a deal with Jafar, the court vizier: if the young man brings the lamp kept in the Cave of Wonders, the vizier will make him rich and powerful. From here on you know the story for sure but we won't tell you anything else, except that some memories you have, may be different from the current adaptation.
A new Disney
Change is what an immense production company like Disney certainly carries out, and here is the revolution that began with films like Maleficent (which will soon have a sequel) and continued with the most recent Dumbo, is manifested even more present in this live action not really canonical: let's face it without frills, the film was not the success we expected, to the point that we wondered if we were seeing Aladdin or a feminist manifesto that aims to victimize a woman as such for a good hour and a half of film, when then in the last half hour this poor girl has also broken the boxes (rightly) and starts to freak out! The actors are not mistaken in the part, but for God's sake, the story has been really badly altered, to the point where one wonders where the "magic" is, because the general feeling is not what one would have (fittingly!) Expected.
An impossible love story between two people of different social rank, jokes of the Genius of the Lamp, a bad climber but also very multifaceted and a deep friendship between the magical blue genius and the protagonist: none of this happens, indeed we are far from what the old cartoon had brought to the big screen, even Agrabah looks like Istanbul rather than the enchanted city with the castle that overlooked it in the cartoon version and, without falling into the spoiler, even the typical direction of Guy Ritchie it has been turned upside down to the point that you don't even recognize her style. Will Smith was a great genius in terms of acting but he feels that something is missing, as if he wanted to distance the character from the counterpart of the past, the same thing happens for Aladdin that instead of being the classic penniless, is a genius of architecture and engineering, to the point that he builds retractable beams in the wall to access his "home" that at the touch of a rope, what was at first a shabby tent is raised with ropes and beams revealing a comfortable bed of cushions and tea pot still. Jasmin was promoted to cartographer, she aims at personal independence and never misses an opportunity to point out how cultured and educated she is, to the point that traditions can go to be blessed: she wants the throne all for herself, because she deserves it!
Holes in the carpet
Although visually the film is a real feast for the eyes, the sound ruins the whole context: really meaningless dialogues, audio definitely out of sync during the songs, songs not present in the original (not that this is bad, mind you) but that do not add anything to the context, indeed perhaps they also ruin the atmosphere. The scene of the flight on the carpet between "Prince Ali" and Jasmin is truly a feast for the eyes and there the lyrics of the song have not been distorted that much (luckily!), to the point that the scene will make you dream and not a little, but after the dream you will return to the nightmare of a sloppy film and without a decent thread. "Okay but after all this is a film for children, what did you expect?" You could object, and basically you would be right were it not that the film does not tear a laugh even to try, takes herself seriously when she doesn't need it, tries in every way to aim for female emancipation but in the most disastrous way possible, in our opinion debasing and annihilating the figure of Jasmin who for all the scenes in which she appears together with Jafar does nothing but be told "shut up useless woman!" all time. Too bad because this adaptation could have been a real triumph and instead turned out to be a disastrous attempt at a forced revisitation.
