Aladdin (2019) (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

This is bizarre.

Here's the Spanish single with Becky G -- but it's only partially in Spanish. Zayn still sings his portion of the song in English; it might even be taken from the English single. Only Becky G. (doing the Jasmine part) sings in Spanish, and even she has one verse of the song in English.



I will say that she has a nicer voice than her counterpart from the English single. I still don't like Zayn. But the whole execution of this track seems bizarre to me. If you're going to do a translated single, what's the point of only translating half of it? You'd think it would be all or nothing.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think you are underestimating the worldwide global appeal of One Direction and their members towards the age group that Disney will need to attract in order for this film to be a success.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I think you are underestimating the worldwide global appeal of One Direction

Not at all. I said I don't like Zayn on the song, which is a personal taste thing; I didn't say he wouldn't make it popular, which is a whole other conversation. There is no denying that One Direction is a popular group, and people who like them will probably eat this up.

However, I do think it's weird to do a single that's half Spanish and half not, regardless of who is singing it. Zayn did the English single; was there no one who could sing the Aladdin role in Spanish for the Spanish single? No one comes to mind because I don't really listen to Spanish pop music, but certainly they must have their equivilant stars over there.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Guy Ritchie interview:



Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud:



Naomi Scott:



Costumes, props and concept art (some of which is also in the art book) on display at Disneyland:

 

[Mike Frezon]

Hey Jake:

This was at the checkout of a local supermarket of mine tonight:

 

[Jake Lipson]

Thanks, Mike. I might have to look for that the next time I'm out and about. Incidentally, EW just shared this on their Facebook page, which I suspect is inside there.

https://ew.com/movies/2019/05/16/aladdin-production-design-agrabah/

 

[Jake Lipson]

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

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.

I just found these posted tonight. They seem generally positive-ish, but not glowing. Several appear to be surprised that it's not awful. The best praise seems to be for Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott.

https://movieweb.com/aladdin-2019-early-reactions-twitter//

I'm not sure when the review embargo lifts, but a friend of mine has a screening on Tuesday night.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The best praise seems to be for Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott.

Even the more negative ones I came across had praise for Scott.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Another new TV spot:



Also, Will Smith interviewing Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott:



an interview with Mena Massoud:



an interview with Naomi Scott:



an interview with Will Smith:



On another note, according to the seating chart, my reserved seating Cinemark XD opening night screening on Thursday has now grown to a whopping nine people.

Obviously there will probably be some day-of walk-ins, but it looks like it's going to be very dead, which is unfortunate.

The 9:15pm screening following mine has absolutely nothing sold yet.

 

[Jake Lipson]

An interview with Guy Ritchie:



another interview with Naomi Scott:

 

[Edwin-S]

The trailer was playing again in front of Detective Pikachu. I really can't help it but every time I see a trailer for one of these rote live action/CGI remakes all I can ask myself is why? It isn't like the thing is terrible as much as it just generates the feeling of being totally unnecessary.

 

[Jake Lipson]

why?

Well, obviously the cynical but accurate answer is because a remake will make more money than a re-release of the original film would.

The original is my favorite film of all time, and I certainly don't see that being supplanted by the remake. But that doesn't mean the remake automatically can't be good. If Disney is going to do it anyway, at least they are hiring talented people and putting time and effort into it. There are new ideas in this one in addition to the requisite homages, and I'm looking forward to seeing what those are. There are worse ways to do cash grabs than making a deluxe remake, and Disney has done many them before

 

[Edwin-S]

Well, obviously the cynical but accurate answer is because a remake will make more money than a re-release of the original film would.

The original is my favorite film of all time, and I certainly see that being supplanted by the remake. But that doesn't mean the remake automatically can't be good. If Disney is going to do it anyway, at least they are hiring talented people and putting time and effort into it. There are new ideas in this one in addition to the requisite homages, and I'm looking forward to seeing what those are. There are worse ways to do cash grabs than making a deluxe remake, and Disney has done many them before

Were you meaning to say can't be supplanted? Or did you really mean that the re-make could supplant the original in your eyes?

 

[Jake Lipson]

Were you meaning to say can't be supplanted? Or did you really mean that the re-make could supplant the original in your eyes?

Yeah, I could have sworn I wrote "don't" in there; it's fixed now. Thanks for pointing that out. I will go into the remake with the original as my favorite movie of all time and I would be shocked if I came out of it preferring the remake.

But just because the original won't be supplanted by the remake doesn't mean the remake automatically has no value. It's a chance to spend more time in this world with these characters and to have more music and new ideas thrown in. Because I love the characters and the world and the music so much, the idea of spending more time in their company is exciting to me. And yes, I know I could just re-watch the original -- I do that several times a year, it's the most-watched disc I own -- but getting something new in this world is exciting in a different way.

Jasmine never got a song of her own in the original film; she only sang part of A Whole New World (which admittedly is as good a song as you could have, but still.) I think the original movie is perfect, but I have to admit that structurally, it's kind of weird to have your female lead in a musical not have a song to call her own. So, it's exciting that they've now given her a solo number. This is just one area in which the goal is not to supplant the original, but to do something new with these characters, and I fully support the idea of that. I'll see on Thursday if I'm pleased with the execution.

 

[Jason_V]

On another note, according to the seating chart, my reserved seating Cinemark XD opening night screening on Thursday has now grown to a whopping nine people.

Obviously there will probably be some day-of walk-ins, but it looks like it's going to be very dead, which is unfortunate.

The 9:15pm screening following mine has absolutely nothing sold yet.

You prompted me to check mine. At 7 on Thursday night, the first two rows are completely open (which is normal) and three non-handicapped seats are open otherwise. The 10:30 screening is about half full.

I'm keeping in mind this is a Thursday night right before a three day weekend.

Sidenote: I started to watch "Prince Ali" on YouTube over the weekend and then turned it off. Not because I didn't like it but because I want to see the movie in its entirety and not individual clips out of context. I think that has made all the difference for me in the last year or so with my movie viewing.

 

[Jake Lipson]

At 7 on Thursday night, the first two rows are completely open (which is normal) and three non-handicapped seats are open otherwise.

Glad to hear it's doing better where you are. There's an energy in the room with a crowd for the first show that won't be there at mine to the same degree if it stays on the empty side.

I want to see the movie in its entirety and not individual clips out of context.

I completely agree. I've got no problem watching trailers or TV spots (which I would normally encounter at the theater or on television anyway) but I don't want to see extended clips out of context.

That being said, as much as I go to the movies -- which is usually once a week or more -- I am surprised to say that I have never seen the trailer (either the first teaser or the full trailer) for Aladdin on the big screen. That seems like a marketing failure to me, because I am in Disney's target audience for this and you'd think I would have seen it somewhere. The closest I came is that during the pre-show before Rocketman on Saturday, there was an ad with Mena Massoud and Will Smith talking to each other. But I never saw the actual trailer at all.

 

[Wayne_j]

The review embargo lifts the day before it opens in theaters.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The review embargo lifts the day before it opens in theaters.

Do you mean it lifts Wednesday before the Thursday preview screenings, or it drops Thursday before the "official" Friday opening?

 

[Wayne_j]

I'm not sure, I'm just going from what I heard on youtube from people who are actual critics.

 

[Jake Lipson]

A friend of mine in the press confirmed for me that the embargo lifts Wednesday morning at 9am Eastern time.

Also, here's another new TV spot:



Disney has also uploaded a featurette which includes a look at filming (and clip from) Speechless, the new song for Jasmine. As soon as I realized it was going to show footage of this, I shut it off, as I really want to experience that song for the first time in the film. But it's on The Walt Disney Studios YouTube channel if you want to find it.

Also, Naomi Scott will appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight (Monday, May 20.) Then Will Smith will also appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live tomorrow (Tuesday, May 21.)

My theater (which is struggling to sell lots of tickets for the 6pm Cinemark XD screening I'm attending and hasn't sold any for the 9:15pm XD showtime after mine) already had a non-premium showtime at 7:15 and 10:25, plus 3D at 6:30 and 9:30. In addition to those, they've now added standard 2D showtimes at 7:30, 8:00, 9:00, and 10:30. This means there will be a total of ten screenings at my theater on Thursday night, even though advance ticket sales have been very soft.

To be totally fair, they only do reserved seating in the XD rooms, so I can't see how many tickets have been sold for the non-premium priced showtimes. However, if the two XD showtimes that have been on sale since April 29 haven't sold more than nine tickets combined at this point, I would be very surprised if there was enough demand to justify ten screenings on Thursday night here. I am the most pumped for this out of anyone I know, and I still don't see it.