SNAPSHOT
The Aladdin cast includes: Two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith (Ali, Men in Black) as the Genie who has the power to grant three wishes to whoever possesses his magic lamp; Mena Massoud (Amazon’s Jack Ryan) as Aladdin, the hapless but lovable street rat who is smitten with the Sultan’s daughter; Naomi Scott (Power Rangers) as Princess Jasmine, the Sultan’s beautiful daughter who wants to have a say in how she lives her life; Marwan Kenzari (Murder on the Orient Express) as Jafar, an evil sorcerer who devises a nefarious plot to unseat the Sultan and rule Agrabah himself; Navid Negahban (Homeland) as the Sultan, the ruler of Agrabah who is eager to find a proper husband for his daughter, Jasmine; Nasim Pedrad (Saturday Night Live) as Dalia, Princess Jasmine’s hand maiden and confidante; Billy Magnussen (Into the Woods) as Prince Anders, a suitor from Skanland and potential husband for Princess Jasmine; and Numan Acar (Homeland) as Hakim, Jafar’s right-hand man and head of the palace guards. (synopsis via Coming Soon)
Disney’s great love affair, commercially-driven or otherwise, with remaking their animated classics, what We Got This Covered rather winningly calls their “wildly ambitious new hobby”, has me in two minds.
On the one hand, I lament the seeming inability or unwillingness to try for something truly original; and yet, on the other, well you have films like Beauty and the Beast and now Aladdin, and a slew of others in the works, which seem to suggest Disney is doing a great job of executing its grand new vision, or hobby, whatever you want to call it.
Granted, as with most teaser trailers, there’s not a whole lot to see and hear in the trailer but lordy, what a sense of wonder and possibility the trailer engenders, a sense of delicious foreboding that might augur poorly or well depending on, I’m assuming the state of your art.
It all feels like a little Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and I am totally there for it.
I’ll just be careful about picking up golden lamps, just in case I’m not as worthy as I think I am …
Aladdin opens 24 May 2019 in Australia, USA and UK.