As somebody who grew up in the 90s, Aladdin was THE Disney cartoon. It had great music, great voice actors, great pacing and best of all, its direct to video sequels (and subsequent cartoon series) didn’t suck!
Of course, Disney wouldn’t (couldn’t!) leave it alone to sit enshrined in the minds of 90s kids everywhere. Of course they wouldn’t. Like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin’s going to get a live action version that nobody in their right mind asked for.
The latest trailer might have some of the music magic back (I still get goosebumps hearing ‘A Whole New World’) but until I hear ‘Prince Ali’ and ‘A Friend Like Me’, I’m going to stop myself from jumping on the bandwagon.
Plus, I’m on the fence regarding a couple of things seen in the trailer.
One, Jafar seems much too normal without his sinister and sneering voice like in the cartoons. He doesn’t have his snake staff (that I noticed) and he looks like a totally normal dude.
Two, and this is the big one, why does Agrabah look like an Indian city? I’ve nothing against Indians, it’s just that the original clearly took place in an Arabic influenced land and while this version is clearly Indian with its architecture and clothing. Is the Sultan going to be called a Maharaja instead in this one?
It doesn’t matter though, when it’s all said and done, all I’m hoping to come out from this is (hopefully) a score that doesn’t suck. Please Disney! Do NOT ruin the classic score from the original film with updated versions!
What about you guys?
Does the trailer give you hope that the movie will be awesome? Or did it just reinforce the sinking feeling that Disney’s going to destroy another childhood classic?
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
