At last, we have our first glimpse of Disney’s live-action remake of its 1992 animated classic Aladdin. The upcoming feature is directed by Guy Ritchie, and will feature a new repertoire of songs by Alan Menken and La La Land songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Menken, Howard Ashman, and Tim Rice did the music for the 1992 animated version — can this new trio come up with anything as classic as “A Whole New World”? We’ll soon find out!)
The trailer is pretty much what I expected based on the teaser trailer for Beauty and the Beast. It’s a straight up teaser set to get your nostalgia tingling as you see an animated classic translated to “live-action” (I don’t think there’s a single shot in this trailer that isn’t filled with CGI, which is fine, but it’s live-action in the same way that Jon Favreau‘s The Jungle Book is live-action). If you were expecting an irreverent Guy Ritchie spin on the material, that’s unlikely to happen. It appears like he’s playing it straight, which is fine. People love Aladdin, and while I’m sure there will be some additions and some alterations, overall the new movie will likely bear a strong resemblance to the animated original.
Aladdin opens May 24, 2019 and stars Mena Massoud as Aladdin, Naomi Scott as Jasmine, Will Smith as the Genie, Marwan Kenzari as Jafar, Navid Negahbanas the Sultan, Nasim Pedrad as Jasmine’s handmaiden, Billy Magnussen as a potential suitor for the Princess, and Numan Acar as Jafar’s right-hand man.
