LogFAQs > #922456193

It's a good movie. It's hard to compare it to the original because there aren't a ton of things I'd say could improve my favorite film in the Disney canon. The one thing that really could was improving on Jafar with some sort of backstory, which they did actually touch upon and reference/make use of several times throughout the story. It gave a character that, while liked, honestly never really shows you any motive or character. Jafar is all style with very little substance. That isn't to say this film blew me away with his portrayal, and at times I felt it fell a little flat just because initially, I was impressed by the character and their changes to him a bit. However, ultimately I don't think he felt strong or powerful enough. That was the biggest flaw I could point out in the film though.

The songs were all pretty good. I enjoyed Smith's portrayal of Genie. He didn't attempt to mimic the original yet there was still plenty of good throwbacks anyway. I especially liked him taking the place of the Peddler though. His Arabian Nights was actually really, really good to me so I'm not sure why people are claiming they butchered it. They took the most liberties with it and I was impressed by it. As far as the other songs go, as I said I pretty much liked them all. I'm not sure what complaint anyone could have for Aladdin's voice here because in the original, I hate to break it to you, but the dude is not a singer. He doesn't have a powerful voice; he sounds like his character singing, which is the same thing this guy sounds like. In fact he sounds very similar to me, much more similar than Jasmine or Genie sound to their original voices. Jasmine is an improved upon character here, which is something I think they've struggled with for their live action adaptations so far. She was more interesting than Belle, whom Disney really just lifted from the original film and plopped down in a new one.
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Truly smilin'