Aladdin (2019) (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

The embargo on social media reaction has lifted. The early word seems to trend toward the lukewarm.

Where are you seeing this? I'm certainly not challenging you on the validity, but I haven't seen anything. Pretty much all the posts on social media I'm seeing right now are about Game of Thrones. Searching "Aladdin social media reactions" just brought up a bunch of old articles about people disliking the Genie form when the first TV spot aired during the Grammys.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Where are you seeing this? I'm certainly not challenging you on the validity, but I haven't seen anything. Pretty much all the posts on social media I'm seeing right now are about Game of Thrones. Searching "Aladdin social media reactions" just brought up a bunch of old articles about people disliking the Genie form when the first TV spot aired during the Grammys.

There were a couple hashtags trending when I posted that yesterday, but I can't find them now. The social media news cycle moves relentlessly fast.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Theocial media news cycle moves relentlessly fast.

Fair enough.

I don't know why it matters to me. If only for me, this is the event movie of the year; my ticket is bought and everything, so all the reactions could say it was completely terrible and I would still go. Obviously I hope not, because I want it to be good and I want it to do well, but I'm literally already sold on it, so...yeah. It's not going to make a difference what the reactions (and, eventually, reviews) are in terms of my attendance specifically.

 

[TravisR]

Fair enough.

I don't know why it matters to me. If only for me, this is the event movie of the year; my ticket is bought and everything, so all the reactions could say it was completely terrible and I would still go. Obviously I hope not, because I want it to be good and I want it to do well, but I'm literally already sold on it, so...yeah. It's not going to make a difference what the reactions (and, eventually, reviews) are in terms of my attendance specifically.

Internet opinion has really turned against the Disney live action movies. Unless one of them is really great, I think the internet reaction is going to be pretty vicious. In the case of Aladdin, it'll probably never be able to overcome that immediate reaction to a blue Will Smith so the internet's opinion is set. That being said, the general public is likely to be kinder.

 

[Jason_V]

Internet opinion has really turned against the Disney live action movies. Unless one of them is really great, I think the internet reaction is going to be pretty vicious. In the case of Aladdin, it'll probably never be able to overcome that immediate reaction to a blue Will Smith so the internet's opinion is set. That being said, the general public is likely to be kinder.

Every last bit of internet opinion I've seen headlines for (I'm not clicking on the articles or videos anymore...) says Disney doesn't have an original bone in it's body. What those short sighted people are forgetting is that Walt BUILT the brand name on recognizable IP. There wasn't a whole lot of original content EVER. What he and the company did do was innovate how audiences were going to consume the content. The Alice shorts were a blend of live action and animation. Steamboat Willie was the first synchronized sound cartoon. Snow White was the first feature length animated feature.

 

[Jake Lipson]

A featurette with Will Smith:



and a new TV spot:



Be aware if you want to avoid it that the "stumble on" TV spot includes a split second shot of what appears to be Genie Jafar, although it's not the longer look of him I didn't want to post.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I love this image of the tiger. Is there an identical version that shows more of him?

The reason I was asking was because that style of art would be a beginning of a pattern to carve a pumpkin. So I am looking for the style on the cover of the tiger.

I have the graphic novel now (it came out last week.) The artwork inside it is very beautiful. There are several images of Raja in the book (they've eliminated the H from the end of his animated name for this version for some reason) but I can't exactly tell if one of them would serve your pumpkin-carving purposes or not. The graphic novel is currently selling for only $8 on Amazon, though, or less if you want the e-book version, so if you're curious, buying it to find out is not an expensive propisition.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Internet opinion has really turned against the Disney live action movies. Unless one of them is really great, I think the internet reaction is going to be pretty vicious.

Of course, Disney cares less about internet reaction than they do about money. Even if the general public doesn't like it, it's possible for Disney to make a great deal of money (see: Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent.)

On the other hand, I have a friend who is significantly older than me, who generally doesn't like animation and almost never seeks it out. He doesn't really have any animated films that he grew up with that are touchstones for him in the way that I do. He saw the original Aladdin film probably when it came out but hasn't revisited it for probably a quarter century and didn't really like it much. And yet he wants to see the remake.

He has a VHS of it which he doesn't remember buying, but does have a working VCR which he still uses. I made the point that the live-action version is basically going to be a recreation of the animated version in many respects, and that he might want to watch that VHS to re-familiarize himself with it before seeing the remake. But he doesn't want to watch that.

He also had no interest at all in seeing Into the Spider-Verse, despite the fact that he saw and liked all the live-action Spider-Man films (even The Amazing Spider-Man 2) and the Spider-Man Broadway musical.

This is clearly a case of, for lack of a better term, "anti-animation bias." I can only assume that this is a generational thing that results from a cultural differences with regard to animation's stature when he was growing up versus now. Of course, it disregards that a large portion of the live-action film will be aided by computer animation. But he's going to go see the live-action film because it is a live-action film. I don't mean to criticize him here -- whatever floats his boat is totally fine, and I don't care if our tastes differ -- but maybe there are still people who turn up their noses at animation who will accept the remake.

That feels weird to me, but there you go.

 

[Jake Lipson]

When the cover image for The Art and Making of Aladdin was released, Insight Editions also put out a couple sample pages (which I posted earlier in the thread in post #205 on page 11) about the design of Agrabah and of Jafar's study.

Now, there are a couple more sample pages which have been supplied by the publisher to Amazon and other sites, which I thought I would share here.

First is from the chapter on the cast. This focuses on Mena Massoud.

Next is a page about the design of the Sultan's palace.

If you are really into Aladdin, this book carries my highest recommendation. The artwork is great, the interviews are plentiful and Emily Zelmer did a really great job writing it. (Plus, she's also been very nice to me in our recent chat over Twitter, although I would recommend the book even if that weren't the case.)

I am very glad that I have it, and to be honest I suspect I learned more about the making of the movie from this book than I did from many recent bonus features on Blu-rays. (We'll see what Disney puts on the Aladdin Blu-ray sometime this fall, but this felt much more comprehensive than a couple short featurettes.)

As with most art books, it's not cheap -- it retails for $45 and Amazon is selling it for $28.46 --but for me, as a lifelong Aladdin fanatic, it was worth every cent.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Another new TV spot, including a look at Abu's elephant form:



Also, new character posters:

Nine days until Thursday, May 23.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Another new TV spot, including a look at Abu's elephant form:



Nine days until Thursday, May 23.

And the Carpet claps!

I’ve gone from being very worried about the blue genie to being very eager to see this movie.

 

[Malcolm R]

Was this book edited by anyone? It should be "principal".

 

[Jake Lipson]

Was this book edited by anyone? It should be "principal".

Good catch.

On another note, there is an extended clip of the Prince Ali number which Disney released today. I'm not going to put it here because I'm not interested in looking it up, but it's easy to find if any of you want to see it.

Because I would see the TV spots on TV anyway, I don't have a problem watching those online, but I'm at a point where I don't want to watch any extended clips. My ticket is already purchased and everything, so it's not like they need to sell me on the movie anymore.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Amazon has lowered their price for the physical CD soundtrack to $11.99. Release date is next Friday, although my order still says they'll notify me by email when there is a delivery date. I assume this will happen before next Friday or I'll cancel it and pick it up in a store. Incidentally, my order of the Endgame soundtrack (which is also being released next Friday) says the same thing. I do hope this is just a quirk of the system and not evidence that the Amazon/Disney Blu-ray feud is extending to music as well.

Edit: Nope, no feud over music. I just got an email from Amazon saying the CD has been "upgraded" to release date delivery (which it should have been in the first place) at no additional cost.

 

[Jake Lipson]

More interviews:

Mena Massoud:



Naomi Scott:



another Mena Massoud:



another Mena Massoud:



Mena Massoud on Live With Kelly and Ryan:

 

[Jake Lipson]

And a press conference in France (for some reason, this video refused to embed in my previous post, which is why I replied again.)

 

[Jake Lipson]

The Walt Disney Records Facebook page just posted a video from someone named Becky G., who I assume is a Spanish-language pop star of some sort, announcing that the single of of A Whole New World in Spanish will be available tomorrow. It's being performed by Zayn again (the same guy who did the English version I don't like) and Becky G.

I wonder how many different countries are getting their own versions of the single. The film will presumably play dubbed in a lot of places because it's a family film and kids might be more reluctant to read subtitles.

 

[Wayne_j]

I'm pretty sure Becky G. was in the Power Rangers movie from a couple of years ago. She's an actress who also sings.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm pretty sure Becky G. was in the Power Rangers movie from a couple of years ago.

Interesting. She's the second Power Rangers alum involved with Aladdin, since Naomi Scott was also in that.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Disney uploaded a new making-of featurette. It includes quotes from Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Will Smith, Nasim Pedrad (Dalia), Guy Ritchie, producer Dan Lin, and production designer Gemma Jackson.