Meh

Rating: 4/10 (5 October 2019)

I grew up watching the original, I knew this would be its own unique film and not a shot for shot remake and I was skeptical about Will Smith playing genie but I did my best to go in open minded, curious to see a modern spin.
That being said, I was really not impressed. I was really disappointed from the very beginning. I felt like I was watching a released to TV Nickelodeon movie. Aladdin and Jasmine both performed poorly in my mind, it may have been a directing decision but either way it was the kind of acting I expect to see on a kids tv show. Jafar was by far a bad casting choice, he looked and sounded like something from SpyKids 9 and didn't even feel like a bad guy except in a few parts. Though I do like Will Smith most of the time, the guy did not sing well and the animated characters Iago and Abu looked terrible.
I feel like Disney, long ago went away from doing justice to their classics and now they are more interested in hooking the next generation of Disney kids and creating a "new" feel to Disney. I accepted this long ago but it still feels like Disney today try's a little too hard to be PC.
The pros though, I felt like Disney tried to go for a more culturally accurate portrayal of the film and personally I thought that was great (even with a few glaring inaccuracies). The animated sets and locations were visually good to look at, I was even mildly impressed with the added songs and Will Smith's personal touch on the genies humor was a refreshingly nice surprise in this movie.
To make it simple, I didn't feel nostalgic watching it at all. That's ok but even as a stand-alone movie, it did not impress. The film was more of a television movie with an over inflated animation budget. If you've never seen any version of Aladdin before and don't expect much in acting, then you can probably really enjoy it.