Surprisingly excellent fun

Rating: Null/10 (27 May 2019)

Aladdin, a street urchin, uses a magic oil lamp to unleash a powerful larger than life genie to makes his dreams come true and fall I love with the beautiful daughter of the sultan of Agrabah.
A surprisingly colourful fantastic adaptation by John August and director Guy Ritchie. Excellent effects, staging and songs etc the whole production is magical, exceeding expectations.
All the cast are on form, the casting is exceptional. Will Smith gives an enjoyable energetic and restrained performance as the Genie. The trailer didn't do him justice. With a great singing voice and screen presence Mena Massoud takes all the best cues from his cartoon feature counterpart and offers a likeable and memorable Aladdin. Tweaked for the better by August and Ritchie actor Naomi Scott lifts the Princess Jasmine character even more, while also giving her a social and political subtext.
Although a good performance, Marwan Kenzari's Jafar has been reworked. August gives him and Aladdin a commonality but unfortunately it doesn't work as well as the cartoon stereotype villain did and sadly Alan Tudyk Iago suffers too. There's not much chemistry. This aside, Abu the monkey and the Magic Carpet are finely brought to life and are just as much fun as their animated incarnations. The dance numbers are fun and wonderful choreographed.
Children and adults of all ages can enjoy. Thankfully, Disney have chosen the live action route and not horrid a CGI animated feature affair.
While nothing can compare to the animated version this is one of the best, if not thee best live adaptation of Disney's own outings to date.