Aladdin (2019)

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About

Aladdin (2019) is a live-action remake of the 1992 animated Disney film Aladdin. The film is directed by Guy Ritchie and will release on May 24th, 2019.

History

In October of 2016, Disney announced a live-action remake of the film was in development with Guy Ritchie directing. In July of the following year, it was announced that newcomer Mena Massoud had been cast as Aladdin, Naomi Scott as Jasmine, and Will Smith as the Genie. The first trailer for the film debuted on October 11th, 2018 (shown below). The film is set for a May 24th, 2019 release.

On December 19th, 2018, Entertainment Weekly^[1] posted stills from the film (examples shown below).

Will Smith Genie Reveal

On December 19th, 2018, Entertainment Weekly revealed their cover for the week's magazine, which featured the cast of the live-action remake, including Will Smith as the Genie (shown below).

Smith as the Genie prompted strong responses from Twitter users. User @hullojess tweeted that she wished she'd never seen it, gaining over 830 retweets and 3,600 likes (shown below, left). User @Kyle_Cardine tweeted a photoshopped image of a Simpsons scene, gaining over 1,600 retweets and 7,800 likes (shown below, right).

Twitter users also made comparisons between the appearance of Smith to Sinbad in the non-existent film Shazaam!, a classic example of The Mandela Effect. User @RJCity1 gained over 240 retweets and 1,200 likes making the comparison (shown below, left) and user @Bacon_House gained over 90 retweets and 570 likes (shown below, right).

Smith clarified that the genie would be blue and CGI in the film, but the art for that was "not quite ready."^[2]

Trailer Reveal

On February 10th, 2019, the second trailer for Aladdin debuted at 2019 Grammy Awards. In the trailer, the Genie, now blue-skinned, was briefly shown.

[This video has been removed]

Following the release of the second trailer, the appearance of the character has been heavily mocked on Twitter as CGI-heavy and unnatural, with numerous users comparing the character to Thanos ^[3], Shrek ^[4], Smurfs^[5] and Tobias Fünke from Arrested Development ^[6].

Release

Aladdin opened on May 24th, 2019. The film opened to a "mixed" aggregate score of 54/100 on Metacritic^[7] and a 59% score on Rotten Tomatoes.^[11] On the positive side, Richard Roeper wrote the film "is on balance a colorful and lively adventure suitable for all ages and a touching romance featuring two attractive leads" in a 3/4 star review.^[8] Less positive was Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune,^[9] who wrote the film was more akin to "cinematic karaoke" and declared it "pointless." Jake Cole in Slant^[10] wrote "the film settles for telling you a joke you’ve already heard and botching the delivery."