Renew or die has been the motto with which Disney has ventured into the reproduction of the classic stories that it brought to the big screen as part of its traditional historical animation, therefore, when it decided to remake a story as popular as that of a desert thiefwe all had high expectations about a film that we can now enjoy in Azteca 7 programming in Mexico.
‘Aladdin’ was one of Disney’s great successes when it reigned in the nineties with its animation proposal, both, which won the Oscar for best original song in 1993 for the song ‘A Whole New World’, a success that he tried to replicate with a version live action starring Mena Massoud under the direction of Guy Ritchie.
The plot, as many of us already know, takes us to know the story of Aladdin, a young man known for his cunning in theft and a free spiritalthough somewhat lazy.
In his search and ambition to stop being a thief, he enters the cave of wonders, where he finds the legendary Wonderful Lamp. with which he releases a powerful genius.
This one, played by Will Sith, grants the boy three wishes, which, as expected, have their pros and cons in Aladdin’s life, which becomes a little complicated when he falls in love with Princess Jasmine. who is made to believe that he is a wealthy and important prince.
His best live action, so far
Although many raised their voices when they found out that Disney would play this classic from their collection to re-release it to a new audience, We knew we had to give Aladdin a chance and its renewed version. And we are glad we did, despite the hair disaster that Will Smith represents in a character that makes it his own, adding a bit of the style and charm that Robin Williams gave us in 1992.
Although Disney’s production for this film is worth throwing the house out of the window, the truth is that, at the time, it did not escape being the object of several criticisms due to the omissions and changes in its new plot: like the leave aside the fact that Princess Jasmine is forced into marriage, or that, in the animated version, Aladdin stole food and not jewelryas they present it to us now.
Additionally, it must be mentioned: the animation is really extraordinaryso much so that, sometimes, it feels like the special effects eat into the story they have to catch us with.
And, with a considerable duration (2 hours and 8 minutes) we expected that there would be greater chase sequences why the original film became so popular (it even inspired a video game), however, we get an opening sequence that is somewhat disconcerting and a soundtrack that does not stand out as we expectedbut of course, the director’s forte is definitely not musicals.
Definitely, ‘Aladdin’ is a slightly faithful update to the 1992 animated film “which never manages to equal or surpass the original when it gets closer,” as Mikel Zorrilla comments, but which, in the eyes of new generations, turns out to be a unique visual spectacle.
‘Aladdin’ will air today by the sign of Azteca 7 at 9:15 p.m.