Aladdin

 Recently, me and Noshi sat down to watch one of her christmas gifts, the real life version of the Disney classic Aladdin.

 

And I must say, I thought it the best of the remakes so far.

The story is well known: common street thief Aladdin meets with princess Jasmin in Agrabah, and wants to win her heart.  He is recruited by the evil vizier Jafar, who sends him to a cave to retrieve a magical lamp.  However, Aladdin sees through the ruse, and obtains the lamp and a flying carpet for himself.

 

By rubbing the lamp, he is granted three wishes by the genie inside, and he vows to save his last one to set him free.  He becomes a prince through the magic of the lamp, and vies for the hand of Jasmin, but the truth gets revealed when Jafar places a coup for the title of Sultan.

Through trickery they manage to seal Jafar away in the lamp though, and set the genie free in return, causing Jasmin to become the next Sultan and change the laws so she can marry Aladdin.

It was a good fun movie, and perhaps I have only two points of critque, one which isn`t even really a critique at all...

Will Smith does a wonderful job as genie, but if you are from the generation like us that grew up with the original one, the ghost of late Robin Williams keeps hanging around.  He just was totally awesome as the genie, and it are peraps impossible steps to follow.

 

The second one though is Jafar.  He is by no means menacing or feeling scheming enough like he was in the cartoon version, and that is a pity that takes away a lot from the film.  

But, as I said, for me the best real life adaption Disney made so far, and a truly enjoyable and visual spectacle!