How to fix Aladdin
Small changes that would improve the remake of the classic.
Aladdin was the first movie I ever saw in the cinemas, so I naturally have a emotional connection with the 1992 animation. When the news about a remake came out, however, I was not surprised: Disney found on those live-action remakes a gold mine, once they are profitable and don’t require too much creativity, that is something the company is terribly lacking in the later years.
I already posted something about how much I loved Mogli’s remake, however I kept myself quiet of how much I hated The Beauty and the beast. It was then with mixed feelings that I went to watch Aladdin: I had an open heart to the movie, but was already a bit tired of unnecessary remakes. I was expecting to sing-along some of the best musics of Disney movies and I am a long-time fan of Guy Ritchie, but had no idea how they could recreate the marvelous and crazy genie from Robin Williams.
For most of the movie, I was truly delighted. They did it, I thought when genie sang “You never had a friend like me”. The rap twist on that music fits really well and the few jokes were nicely adapted. If you don’t compare him with Robin Williams, his act is really cool.
The new musics, including the bigger participation of Jasmine are cool and adds to the story, strengthening her character.
The movie is big, beautiful and epic for most part of it. As it goes, however, it gets worse and worse, as if the writers and producers got lazy and saw the deadline getting closer, so they just ended it quickly and bad.
That’s the main reason why I left the cinema with a bad sensation. The movie could be epic but it wasn’t. They got close to do an amazing adaptation but failed.
Therefore, I spend some hours of my day, while going and coming back from my work, imagining why this movie failed and what changes would I do to save it. I am aware that I don’t have enough skills to save anything, so this is a writing exercise to myself.
Characters
The movie has some wonderful characterizations: Aladdin is amazing, better than I could imagine, Jasmine is wonderful as well. The new characters of Dalia and Hakim are cool.
Will Smith plays a really cool genie when he has the chance. Unfortunately, the jokes and magic of the genie lasts only a few minutes. They kind of cease completely in the middle of the second act with no reason. Why, for god’s sake, can’t you keep the genie funny?
Still in the bad side, Iago unfortunately was stripped from any personality. But the change in Iago still doesn’t bother me as much as the worst character in the movie:
The Villain
Jafar represents one of the main fails in the movie.
The first problem of Jafar comes in the first scene: a terrible actuation of Marwan Kenzari. Actually, it comes even before that, with the poor characterization of him. Jafar is from the time when Disney used to make memorable villains like Scar, Ursula or even Gaston. Villains that we love to hate. The last memorable villain of a Disney movie is probably Mother Gothel from Tangled, a classic bad person, with that nice old wish of imprisonment of the princess. Even Lotso from Toy Story 3, another memorable villain, has not this classic villainesque feeling, once he is a villain due a plot twist, instead of those classic REAL bad villains.
How to fix it?
So you have Jafar. Make his appearance look memorable. Give that twisted goatee of the cartoon, that is incredible cool. Put some eye-liner on him. Don’t hesitate in making him look foolish or cartunesque. Remove that “hypnosis snake of power” that does literally nothing on the movie. Instead of this power, make the character smart.
In the movie, the lamp goes to Jafar almost by accident. Create a better plan for him to get back the lamp. Anything that does not make it look like an accident.
And, definitely, once he becomes powerful MAKE HIM LOOK POWERFUL! That is the main problem of the main problem of the movie:
The final act — The Sorcerer Phase
The main problem with the movie is surely the final act. And it’s mainly a problem because the final act of the original animation movie is SO good. It’s full of action and creativity. It’s memorable and fun and dark, with every character playing some role.
And the way Jafar fights should demonstrate his power, but it doesn’t. He gets the lamp and becomes sultan. This changes almost nothing in the story.
Then he becomes sorcerer. As the plot says “the most powerful sorcerer ever”.
And what does he do with all that power? Absolutely nothing. He basically teletransport people and make them freeze in the air.
Holy crap, it lacks creativity.
Doctor Strange is unquestionably a much more powerful sorcerer. At least a much more creative one.
How to fix it?
Ok. Jafar is sultan. This should look big, instead of that tiny little bit blue dust in a window. Aladdin’s prince transformation was more impressive.
Anyway, those are details. The sorcerer step is much worse.
Jafar’s sorcerer powers should be much closer to Thanos’ reality stone powers.
Remember in Infinity War, when the Guardians of the Galaxy are fighting Thanos in Nowhere and he makes bubbles go out of Peter’s gun, turns Drax in a pile of cubes or Mantis into a spring doll. It’s inventive, it’s fun, it’s powerful.
Instead of making the guards disappear he could transform them into Terracota statues — this would even be an ode to the original Aladdin legend, which is chinese. Play with the powers!
In the original movie, Jafar sends a whole palace’s tower, with Aladdin, Abu and the carpet far away, to somewhere cold — the arctic or Curitiba. This creates one of the best action scenes of the original movie, with the tower rolling in the snow. Ok, it would be expensive (as if money is a problem for Disney) and not everything have to be like the animation, but when you send only Aladdin away and leave the carpet, you are creating a problem: the genie has to take some action and send the carpet away as well. He shouldn’t act by himself, as he keeps repeating through the movie. So, forget about the carpet and leave us, the audience wondering how the fuck will Aladdin get back now?
The final act — The final battle
And now you have Aladdin far away and a boring arranged wedding between Jafar and the princess. This wedding ruins the pacing of the movie. How long did it took to arrange it? How’s everyone accepting it so well?
Then, another problem: Jasmine steals the lamp and runs away. Holy shit, girl, USE THE FUCKING LAMP! In the original movie, no other character apart from Aladdin or Jafar gets even close to use the lamp, so this problem does not shows up. Once you put it in someone else’s hand, it’s just stupid for it not to be used.
You could argue that Jasmine is not aware of the power of the lamp or does not know how to use it (it requires a nice music as training, as you can remember), but Jafar already used it twice, literally in front of her.
She rans away, a huge Iago follows them, destroying a bit of the city (although in the end of the movie, it’s clear nobody cared) and they get back. Nothing happens, followed by a lousy and lazy dialogue which Jafar asks to be “the most powerful BEING”. Not genie. Being. This change on the words seems to be a tiny change, but it is actually a huge turn: the master plan of winning now looks like the genie is cheating. That’s why he repeats so often about that “gray area” when a wish is made, but, even so. This was bad.
Another problem is the carpet: it is ripped apart during the chasing scene. Genie is forced to act again in his own in order to fix it. It’s the second time the genie acts in his own, and we already know he shouldn’t.
How to fix it?
One scene that I love from the original movie is when Jafar asks the genie for Jasmine to fall in love with him. And he just says “Well, sorry… I can’t”. It’s a wonderful touch: the most powerful sorcerer in the world is asking for something and getting “no” as an answer. When Jafar asks for more power later on in the movie, this will be a nice thing to remember.
So let’s put back this scene in the movie. And from this scene on, we need to bring back Aladdin, give something important for Jasmine to do and defeat Jafar.
Let’s suppose that, as it happens in the new movie, Jasmine stares at the lamp on Jafar’s belt. Jafar is pissed off, screaming “I WANT HER TO FALL IN LOVE WITH ME”, and Jasmine acts. She pretends to be in love, just as in the original movie. The genie is confused, but Jafar is glad. She approaches him. Her face is inches from his. She whispers “And I want…”.
Camera cuts: her hand is rubbing the lamp. “I want Aladdin back”, she screams, stealing the lamp.
Genie is the one who brings Alladin back as a request from Jasmine. And now you have the battle. Again we can get inspiration on Infinity War and imagine the fight on Titan as base for this. Put more creativity in the fight, turn the lamp in a MacGuffin jumping from place to place, make the carpet be ripped apart due to Jafar’s actions. This is important, because once Jafar vanishes from the movie, all of his actions will rollback. The idea is to remove the carpet restoration from genie’s will just by making it a consequence of the fight.
The end would stick quite the same, with Aladdin convincing Jafar that he would be much more powerful if he were a genie. As the genie refused to take his order earlier on in the movie and that brought Aladdin back as result, it wouldn’t be tough for a smart guy like Jafar make this association.
It’s just a bunch of small changes. I believe that this would fix the pace of the final half hour, once the wedding scene slow things down. It would give an action much more valuable to the princess. It would fix the problem of the genie acting on his own, despite repeating that he couldn’t (if he can send the carpet to the cold, why can’t he bring Aladdin back?). And it would make Jafar more powerful and, therefore, the movie would get better.
Of course, this is personal opinion. The 94% of freshness from the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes indicates that the movie doesn’t need to be fixed. Honestly, it is not terrible, but it is just ok. Because of that mediocre feeling, the movie feels more unnecessary than ever.
Not that Disney will stop making live-action remakes anytime soon: The Lion King will be released this year and surely they will keep the wheel spinning, maybe with Pinnochio or The Little Mermaid (Luckily I don’t believe they will spoil The Great Mouse Detective in a short lifetime).
For some years already, remakes and sequences are a profitable way of making money without the boring necessity of being creative.
And creativity is something that studios are missing lately.
