The Adventures of Aladdin” hit cinemas last week bringing Disney's original 1992 story to life in a whole new way. The storyline in this new version has not been adapted too much, just some extra unexpected thrills and a few scary moments thrown in for good measure. In my opinion, the transition from a well-known animated movie to a live action musical works extremely well for Disney and the director, Guy Ritchie who have seen the film take in a whopping £67.8 million at the box office in opening week - wow!
The film follows the traditional story of street boy, Aladdin, (played by Mena Massoud) who meets and romances Princess Jasmine by chance in the city market and we are simultaneously introduced to the villain Jafar who plots to take over as Sultan. On his adventures, Aladdin finds a lamp with a Genie, played brilliantly by (a very muscly) Will Smith, who pops out granting Aladdin three wishes. Will Smith brings a very distinctive and quite camp humour to the film, creating laughs the entire way through, while Marwan Kenzari, who plays an excellent villain in Jafar, is fearsome and evil to a tee!
In this era of female empowerment, a new scene which stands out for me is when Jasmine - played brilliantly by British teen actress Naomi Scott - brings a modern twist to this classic by ‘roasting’ one of her suitors – I laughed so hard (and proudly) at this point, although I wasn’t as keen on the kissing scenes! In this film the character of Jasmine develops and she has a larger role than in the original film, which is unexpected but cool. [Note from editor Cathy - she also looks like a young Catherine Zeta-Jones but with the steely determination of Angelina Jolie in Maleficent or Gal Godot's Wonder Woman].
The movie is long enough - two hours and eight minutes long - so little ones might get restless, but I doubt it, as it takes you on the adventure of a lifetime and is worth every minute – so much so that I went to see it twice in two nights!
Overall, I really enjoyed the film and I would recommend it for all ages, from very young children to the elderly. It has a fantastic soundtrack and, like any great fairytale, good overcomes evil, but in this one the girl is as much the hero as the guy, which I love.
I would give Adventures of Aladdin a rating of 5 stars as it is one of the best live films Disney has ever made. So go ahead, get on your magic carpet and fly yourself down to your local cinema to catch this classic with a contemporary twist!
By Angelika Dzenite
Aged 14
Year 10 at Ashfield Girls’ High School, Belfast