A Delicate and Faithful Work

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2019)

Well, admit it. There are undeniable charms in animations that cannot be matched, compared, or imitated. Disney's remake of its 1992 masterpiece 'Aladdin', however innovative, lively, and visually stunning, proves insipid in the grand shadow of its former original. There is no denying the great effort the film crews dedicated in the making of this 2 hours live-shot feature, in the face of such subtleness and devotion in the aspect of editing, production designing, cinematography, custom designing, and of course, visual effect. Despite a few flaws that might be there in the actors acting and the structure of the story, if one wants to look too critically, the 2019 Aladdin has presented us a whole new world. But in the amazement it has to offer, I still miss the purity of animation, where Genie can do whatever magic tricks that even the best of nowadays CGI technology finds difficult to oblige, where Abu and Iago can do the funniest facial expression with their hand-drawn eyes, where the film set can switch from concreteness to abstraction as will. The same thing occurred to others of Disney's adaptation as well, such as 'Beauty and The Beast'. The limitation of live-action forces the film makers to alter the script to great length, changing 90 minutes into more than 120, while trying every effort to outshine every original detail and element, which the fans would be so agitated to miss. Every song in the 1992 animation was inserted perfectly in place, some slightly recomposed, some adding new lyrics and instruments, rendering brand new musical effects. I am thrilled to see Alan Menken back to the studio once more. After all, edition of the script means the needs of a entire set of scores to be recomposed. Menken even added a new song - as well as a reprise - for Jasmine to sing solo. A very beautiful song as it is, however, it is not hard to see from which the great length Disney would go to voice the now prevalent theme of feminism. This is of no doubt important, but is it worth compromising the layout of the entire art piece? Altering an already well-laid story is risky enough without the burden of conveying public messages. Feminism is a good thing, but why cannot it be inserted flawlessly like that in Frozen and Moana? Overdoing it at the expense of losing grip on the story is, if anything, a dangerous sign.