Aladdin (2019 Film)

**Aladdin** is a 2019 film directed by Guy Ritchie. It is a live-action adaptation of the 1992 film Aladdin and premiered at Le Grand Rex is Paris, France on May 8, 2019.

## Plot

Aladdin, a street urchin in the Arabian city of Agrabah, and his monkey Abu meet Princess Jasmine, who has snuck away from her sheltered life in the palace. Jasmine wishes to succeed her father as Sultan but is instead expected to marry one of her royal suitors, including the charming yet dim-witted Prince Anders. Jafar, the grand vizier, schemes to overthrow the Sultan and seeks a magic lamp hidden in the Cave of Wonders, but only "the diamond in the rough" can enter the cave.

Jafar's pet parrot Iago spots Aladdin and Abu sneaking into the royal palace and visiting Jasmine. Aladdin is then captured by Jafar. He offers to make Aladdin rich enough to impress Jasmine in exchange for retrieving the lamp and warns him to take nothing else. Inside the cave, Aladdin frees a magic carpet and finds the lamp, but Abu cannot resist touching some treasure and causes the cave to collapse. Aladdin gives the lamp to Jafar, who double crosses and kicks him and Abu into the cave, but Abu steals the lamp back.

Trapped in the cave, Aladdin rubs the lamp, unwittingly summoning the omnipotent Genie inside, who explains that he has the power to grant Aladdin three wishes. Aladdin gets them out of the cave without using a wish on a technicality: he did not rub the lamp in the first place as he stated the wish. Determined to woo Jasmine, he uses his official first wish to become a prince and promises to use his third wish to free the Genie from servitude and turn him human.

Aladdin makes an extravagant arrival at Agrabah as Prince Ali of Ababwa but struggles to impress Jasmine. Posing as Aladdin's human attendant, the Genie is mutually smitten with Dalia, Jasmine's handmaiden. Aladdin and Jasmine bond when he takes her on a ride on the magic carpet. Tricked into revealing his true identity, he lies to her, saying that he actually is a prince and dressed like a peasant to explore Agrabah.

Jafar discovers Aladdin's identity and throws him into the palace moat, knowing that if he survives, it will prove he has the lamp. The Genie saves Aladdin, costing him his second wish. Once rescued, Aladdin returns to the palace and destroys Jafar's magic cobra staff, ending his spell over the Sultan and revealing his plot. Jafar is then arrested and imprisoned in the dungeons. The Sultan allows Aladdin to marry Jasmine. Aladdin goes back on his promise to free the Genie, feeling uncertain of being able to keep up his persona without him. Dismayed that his master wants to continue living a lie, the Genie retreats to his lamp in disappointment.

Freed by Iago, Jafar steals the lamp and becomes the Genie's new master. He uses his first wish to become sultan, but Jasmine reminds the palace guards of their true loyalty, turning them against Jafar. Using his second wish to become the world's most powerful sorcerer, Jafar exposes Aladdin, exiles him and Abu to a frozen wasteland, imprisons the palace guards and Jasmine's pet tiger Rajah, and then threatens to kill the Sultan and Dalia unless Jasmine agrees to marry him. At the wedding, Jasmine rescues the lamp from Jafar and jumps into the magic carpet to escape with Aladdin and Abu, who had been rescued from the frozen wasteland by the same carpet (The Genie sent it behind Jafar's back). Chased by Iago, whom Jafar briefly transformed into a giant, and Jafar using a thunderstorm and sand twister, Aladdin and Jasmine are recaptured and the magic carpet is destroyed.

Aladdin taunts Jafar for being second in power to the Genie, goading him into using his last wish to become "the most powerful being in the universe" which the Genie obliges to, transforming Jafar into an even more powerful genie. This traps Jafar inside his own lamp, dragging Iago with him, and the Genie banishes them to the Cave of Wonders. Abu rescues the magic carpet and Genie fixes it up. Aladdin keeps his promise and uses his last wish to free the Genie, allowing him to live as a human. The Sultan crowns Jasmine the new sultana-regnant, no longer bound to marry a prince, and she and Aladdin marry. The Genie marries Dalia, and they start a family and explore the world together, becoming the mariner who is telling his children the story about Aladdin in the beginning of the film.

## Cast and Characters

* Will Smith as Genie
* Mena Massoud as Aladdin
* Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine
* Marwan Kenzari as Jafar
* Navid Negahban as The Sultan
* Nasim Pedrad as Dalia
* Billy Magnussen as Prince Anders
* Numan Acar as Hakim
* Alan Tudyk as Iago
* Frank Welker as Abu / Rajah / Cave of Wonders
* Tayliah Blair as Lian
* Jordan A. Nash as Omar

## Music

See Also: Aladdin (2019 Soundtrack)

Alan Menken was brought in to compose the score for the film, reprising his duties from the original animated film. Pasek & Paul wrote a new song with Menken, and several songs from the original film by Menken, Howard Ashman, and Tim Rice were featured in the remake.

## Production

### Development

On October 10, 2016, it was announced that Guy Ritchie would direct a live-action Aladdin film for Walt Disney Pictures, with John August writing the script and Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich attached as producers. The studio said that the film would be "an ambitious and non-traditional" take on the tale of Aladdin that would keep the musical elements of the original film. On the non-traditional aspect, the studio had originally planned for the film to be told in a nonlinear format.

On July 17, 2017, it was announced that Disney had hired Vanessa Taylor to polish the original screenplay by August, specifically some "character work" and what is called "script doctoring". Meanwhile, Richie and the studio focused on casting the other main roles with filming slated to start in August in London.

When asked about Ritchie's take on the film, Pasek & Paul described it as "very muscular and action-packed."

### Casting

In February 2017, Lin said that they were looking for a diverse cast and that they would not try "to make Prince of Persia." A worldwide casting call for the lead roles of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine commenced in March 2017, with principal production set to take place in the UK from July 2017 until January 2018. The call for the titular role included both south Asian and southwest Asian (Arab) actors, which some critics suggested was "a simplistic conflation" that signalled "an ignorance offensive to both cultures." On April 19, 2017, it was reported that either Gabriel Iglesias or Will Smith were in talks to play Genie, for which the latter was confirmed in July. In August, Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari joined the cast as Jafar, with Nasim Pedrad cast in a newly created role as Mara, "a hand maid and friend of Jasmine" who serves as a "comic relief." Numan Acar was set to play Hakim. The following month, Billy Magnussen joined the cast in a newly created role as Prince Anders, alongside Navid Negahban as the Sultan.

In May 2017, Little Mix member Jade Thirlwall was in talks for the part of Princess Jasmine. On July 11, 2017, it was announced that principal production on Aladdin had been pushed back by a month, to August 2017, due to struggles in finding the right actor to portray the titular role. Over 2,000 actors and actresses had auditioned for the roles of Aladdin and Jasmine, but finding a male lead of Middle Eastern or Indian descent in his 20s, who could act and sing, was seemingly difficult for the producers. Naomi Scott and Tara Sutaria were the final two actresses in the running for the role of Jasmine, but neither could be cast until a chemistry test was done with whomever would be cast as Aladdin. The studio was initially interested in Dev Patel or Riz Ahmed for Aladdin, but later decided to cast a relative newcomer. Achraf Koutet, Mena Massoud and George Kosturos were among the actors being tested for the role. Two musical film veterans, Marc Platt (who would serve as executive producer) and Chris Montan, were consulted before a final decision was made.

At the 2017 D23 Expo, on July 15, it was announced that Massoud would star as Aladdin and Scott as Jasmine, ending the four-month long open casting call. Julie Ann Crommett, Disney's Vice President of Multicultural Engagement, said the decision to cast Scott, the daughter of an English father and a Gujarati Ugandan-Indian mother, as Jasmine, reflected the mixing or association of different cultures in the broad region that consists of the Middle East, South Asia and China, all of which make up the Silk Road.

In November 2017, Robby Haynes was cast as Razoul, while Frank Welker was announced to reprise his role as Abu the monkey,

On December 20, 2018, Gilbert Gottfried said that he was not asked to reprise his role as Iago, Jafar's pet parrot. In March 2019, it was announced that Alan Tudyk would voice the character instead. In May 2019, Welker was announced as reprising his role as Rajah, Jasmine's pet tiger, and the trailer had confirmed that Welker would reprise his role as the Cave of Wonders as well.

### Filming

Principal photography began on September 6, 2017, at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England, and wrapped on January 24, 2018. Part of the film was shot in Wadi Rum Desert, Jordan. The Royal Film Commission provided support to the production during filming and assisted in facilitating logistics. Reshoots took place during August 2018. The film's production sets were designed by Game of Thrones production designer Gemma Jackson. The "Prince Ali" musical sequence features 1,000 dancers and extras. Smith frequently improvises throughout the film. Massoud also revealed that there was a whole scene, where Prince Ali and Genie meet the royal family for the first time, that was improvised by the cast.

### Visual Effects

The visual effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic and supervised by Michael Mullholland, Daniele Bigi, and David Seager, with the help of Hybride Technologies, DNEG, Nzviage and Proof.

## Release

Aladdin held its world premiere at the Grand Rex in Paris, France, on May 8, 2019. It was released in 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX 3D and 4DX by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on May 24, 2019, replacing the original release date set for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The film was originally going to be released on December 20, 2019. But on September 12, 2017, the film was moved to May 24, 2019.

Aladdin's first regional premiere was in Jordan on May 13, 2019, in the presence of Prince Ali bin Hussein and Princess Rym Ali.

### Marketing

Will Smith debuted the first official poster on October 10, 2018. The teaser trailer was released the following day. In December 2018, Entertainment Weekly offered a first official look at the cast in costume on the cover of their issue for the most anticipated films of 2019. On February 10, 2019, Disney debuted a special sneak peek of the film during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, which was met with largely negative feedback from audiences, primarily due to the quality of the CGI Genie in his blue design, created via motion capture effects. The negative reception sparked a large amount of memes and Photoshop edits mocking Will Smith's appearance in the sneak peek, several of which compared it with Tobias Fünke (from Arrested Development) painted in blue in an attempt to join the Blue Man Group. On March 12, 2019, Disney debuted a second trailer on Good Morning America. The trailer had a much more positive reception than the previous one, as it featured several songs from the original film and more of Smith not entirely in motion-capture. His CGI scenes received better notices, as well, although it was still mostly criticized by some critics when the film was released.

### Novelisation

A tie-in novelization of the film was published by Disney Publishing Worldwide on April 9, 2019.

### Home Media

Aladdin was released in Digital HD for download and streaming on August 27, 2019, and was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on September 10.

Aladdin made its streaming debut on Disney+ on January 8, 2020. With the launch of Disney+ Hotstar on April 3, 2020; it was released in India in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu as well as the original English.

As of 22 April 2020, the film had earned $345 million from worldwide home entertainment and television net revenues, bringing total box office and home entertainment revenue to $1.396 billion.

## Reception

### Critical Response

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 57% based on 381 reviews with an average rating of 5.9 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Aladdin retells its classic source material's story with sufficient spectacle and skill, even if it never approaches the dazzling splendour of the animated original." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 50 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 90% (with an average 4.5 stars out of 5) and a 70% "definite recommend".

Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising Smith, Scott, and Massoud's performances and calling it a "shining, shimmering live-action update." Variety's Peter Debruge summarized his review with, "Will Smith steps into Robin Williams's shoes, bringing fresh attitude to the role of the Genie in Guy Ritchie's high-risk, mostly rewarding live-action remake." However, he criticized Kenzari’s performance as Jafar, saying: "Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari may be a handsome alternative to the animated version’s effete vizier, with his pencil moustache and Sophia Loren eyes, but he no longer looms large enough to feel like much of a threat." A Mir Fantastiki review by Yevgeniy Peklo gave the film a score of 8/10, saying it was "probably the best Disney live-action remake up to date."

Despite praising the cast, William Bibbiani of TheWrap said of the film, "If you don't think about it very hard (although you probably should), the remake of Aladdin might entertain you. But you'd be a heck of a lot more entertained by watching the original film again. Or by going to a real-life parade. Or by doing some light gardening. Or by doing a crossword puzzle." Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+, lamenting that it did not add anything new to its 1992 animated predecessor; he felt that the film was unable to update the original's questionable Middle Eastern characterizations, but nevertheless praised the performances of Smith and Scott. Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press wrote that "Guy Ritchie... was always an odd choice to helm a big Disney romantic musical and proves utterly the wrong guy here. Aladdin, in his hands, is more like The Mummy than Frozen."

Before filming had started, some commentators criticized racial politics implied by the film's production elements and plot. Some expressed scepticism at the conclusion of the casting process, about its conflation of Arab and Middle Eastern culture and "lack of specificity and care." In a review in 7iber, Lamees Assaf observed that "the people and the setting looked more like India than a city in the Middle East." She also critiqued gendered and orientalist stereotypes as reified by the film, writing that "[i]n the eyes of Disney and Hollywood, the stereotypical image of the Arab girl– the belly dancer with a small waist and long hair– and the dark-skinned, jealous, and chivalrous Arab man defending and protecting his women from harm’s way, is much more attractive than actual Arabs, who are truly boring in reality." The 1992 animated version received related critiques about the racialization and othering of its characters and script.

### Box Office

Aladdin grossed $356.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $695.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.051 billion, against a production budget of $183 million. The film crossed the $1 billion mark on July 26, 2019, becoming the 41st film to ever reach the milestone. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $356 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

In the United States and Canada, Aladdin was released alongside Booksmart and Brightburn, and was projected to gross around $80 million from 4,476 theatres over its four-day opening weekend over Memorial Day. While Disney was projecting a $75–85 million debut, some independent trackers had the film opening to as low as $65 million or as high as $100 million. The film made $31 million on its first day, including $7 million from Thursday night previews, the second-best total of the Disney live action remakes. The film ended up overperforming, grossing $91.5 million in its three-day opening weekend, and $116.8 million over four days during the extended Memorial Day frame. It was the third biggest opening of 2019 at the time (behind Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel), and the fifth-highest Memorial Day launch ever, as well as the best debut of Ritchie's career and second best of Smith's. The film then grossed $11.9 million on its fifth day, the biggest post-Memorial Day Tuesday ever. In its second weekend, the film made $42.3 million, finishing second, behind newcomer Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and then made $24.7 million in its third weekend, finishing third. It retained the third-place position at the box office during its fourth and fifth weekends with $17.3 million and $13.2 million, respectively.

Worldwide, the film was expected to open to an additional $100–120 million, including $10–20 million in China. It went on to gross $123.2 million from foreign territories in its three-day opening weekend, for an overall global debut of $214.7 million. It was the number-one film in every Latin American and Asian territory where it was released. Its biggest international openings were in China ($18.7 million), Mexico ($9.2 million), the United Kingdom ($8.4 million), Italy ($6.6 million), and South Korea ($6.5 million). It also won the second best opening of 2019 in Italy, Spain, Indonesia, and Vietnam. In India, it debuted with ₹220 million (US$2.9 million), the year's third best opening for a foreign film (behind Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel). By Monday, the film had a global four-day launch of $255 million. In its second weekend of international release the film made $78.3 million from 54 countries, remaining number one in 32 of them. In its fourth international weekend, Aladdin remained number one in twenty countries. By the end of June 2019, the film surpassed Independence Day (1996) to become the highest-grossing film of Will Smith's career. As of 19 August 2019, the film's top five international markets are Japan ($110.1 million), South Korea ($90.4 million), China ($53.5 million), the United Kingdom ($46.4 million), and Mexico ($32.5 million).

It topped the UK box office for four weeks. In the Middle East, it had the best Ramadan opening ever in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, and went on to become the highest-grossing release of all time in the Middle East. In Japan, the film debuted with $12.9 million, the year's highest opening weekend for a foreign film, surpassing Avengers: Endgame. As of September 2019, it is the year's second highest-grossing film in Japan (behind Weathering with You), and one of the top 20 highest-grossing films ever in Japan. In South Korea, it grossed over $82 million from over 11.4 million ticket sales as of July 2019, making it the year's third highest-grossing film and second highest-grossing foreign film in South Korea, as well as the third highest-grossing foreign film ever in South Korea and the highest grossing Disney film ever (not including the MCU) in the country.

### Controversy

In January 2018, it was reported that white extras were being applied brown make-up during filming in order to "blend in", which caused an outcry and condemnation among fans and critics, branding the practice as "an insult to the whole industry" while accusing the producers of not recruiting people with Middle Eastern or North African heritage. Disney responded to the controversy saying, "Diversity of our cast and background performers was a requirement and only in a handful of instances when it was a matter of specialty skills, safety and control (special effects rigs, stunt performers and handling of animals) were crew made up to blend in."

The decision to cast Billy Magnussen as an entirely new character not seen in the original film also drew criticism from fans. Some viewed the creation of his character as unnecessary, while others even accused the film of whitewashing, since Magnussen is Caucasian. But The Washington Post pointed out that Nasim Pedrad, an actress of Iranian-American descent, also was cast as a brand new character when she was awarded the role of Jasmine's friend Mara (later renamed Dalia).