Aladdin (2019)

While this remake of the classic Disney tale was fun, entertaining, and stunningly beautiful. I left the theater with mixed emotions about how I felt about this new take. After giving it some thought, and reflecting on the film, I've come to the conclusion that I really don't like the 2019 remake of Aladdin.

While fans were worried about the casting choice of Will Smith as Genie, no one really payed any mind to how the plot, story, and characters might be portrayed. Now, the film does retain the basic plot.

-Homeless boy meets princess
-Both fall in love with eachother
-Boy finds a genie
-Boy uses genie to impress the princess
-Bad Guy gets the genie and makes selfish and evil wishes
-Homeless boy outsmarts Bad Guy.
-Princess marries Homeless boy and Genie goes free.

While the film does retain the incredibly basic plot, the dialogue and personal stories within the film are absolute garbage. Well...two in particular.

You see it wasn't the character of Genie we needed to worry about. It was the characters of Jasmine and Jafar. In the original film, Jasmine refused to fall into line and marry a prince and instead wanted to marry for love. In this new film, she aspires to be the first female Sultan. Claiming she can run and rule the kingdom better than any other. And as well claims that the law is unjust and that she needs no Prince in order to rule.

This film clearly has an agenda, and Disney is not hiding it. The original film had two messages. 

1. Friendship and love prevail over all obstacles.
2. Be yourself, love yourself, and you will always know happiness.

Now this new film has a singular message of it's own. And it's not any of the two listed above.

1. Women are ambitious creatures who are strong and independent. Woman can do anything a man can do, maybe even better than a man can. Women have no "place". Women will not be silent, they will be heard.

I get the point Disney is trying to make. But for a company who is so hellbent on trying promote a Politically Correct culture, they seem to avoid the fact that in Arab culture if any woman, princess or not, tried to promote a female Sultan or anything similar those woman would be either banished imprisoned, dismembered or killed. I mean they even changed the lyrics in the song 'Prince Ali' from "fresh up your Sunday Salaam" to "fresh up your Friday Salaam" in order to be culturally appropriate. But I guess a massive multimillion dollar company can pick and choose what they deem "Culturally Appropriate", as long as it suits their needs and message.

Now, Jafar. The animated Jafar was slick. He carried himself in a dignified and respectful fashion. Never once did he raise his voice or argue with the Sultan. When in his presence, Jafar gave his opinion and advice as Royal Vasir but ultimately he kept is composer and acted as if he respected and admired the Sultan. 

In the live adaptation, Jafar is completely transparent. There is a scene where the Sultan tells Jafar "Jafar, you forget your place". To which Jafar responds "Forgive me, my Sultan.". Now, this would have been an awesome scene if it wasn't for Jafar's eyes and mouth consistently twitching while uttering the words. 

Aladdin is one of my favorite Disney films. But this adaptation proves that something's should be left alone. Although, I reccomend watching it for yourselves. What were your thoughts on 2019's Aladdin?