The Best of the Disney Remakes

Rating: 9/10 (4 December 2019)

The following is an unpopular opinion. If you are easily offended, please click away.
I grew up with the original Aladdin. I'm not original or special in that way. The stunning visuals of Agrabah and the fun, upbeat music present in the original provided the soundtrack to my childhood.
The big hang-up on the original for me was that I was never a fan of Robin Williams. I love his dramatic work in films like World's Greatest Dad or Dead Poet's Society, but I never liked him as a comedian. I just didn't think he was funny. And his performance as the Genie came off as a pretentious attempt to be comedic that just fell flat in every conceivable way for me.
That being said, the best parts of this remake are Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Will Smith as the Genie. They have chemistry together that works really well, I get a great sense of the relationship these two characters share in the film.
Both Mena and Naomi Scott are incredible young up-and-coming actors with a lot of talent and potential, and I hope to see them in Hollywood blockbusters for years to come.
I went into this movie expecting to hate it,, as I think anybody who sits through a remake of a huge part of their childhood would. But I just couldn't. The sets are beautiful, the acting is spot on, the music is much more fun and fresh than the original, Will Smith isn't doing a Robin Williams imitation (thank god for the little things)... everything about it was wonderful.
Except Jafar. Minus one star for Jafar, but only because it's not really a character that translates well to live action, and the writing of his character was quite weak, I thought.