Before I watched the Disney live-action remake of Aladdin, I’ll admit I was a little nervous. As a South-Asian woman, I have been yearning for more South-Asian representation in media. Growing up, Disney movies Aladdin (1992) and Mulan (1998) (which Disney just released its live-action trailer for) were particularly notable in their depictions of different countries and cultures. Even though many of these characters were voiced by non-PoC actors, that never mattered to me because I was still visually seeing a diverse set of characters.
I remember watching the original Aladdin and feeling such a deep sense of relatability while doing so. Even though I am not from the same place Aladdin is set in, there are many cultural similarities. And I always appreciated that. However, so far, all of the Disney live-action remakes had been predominantly non-PoC, and I was nervous. Hollywood has a notoriously nasty habit of white-washing their films (ie. hiring white actors to play PoC roles despite the fact that there is an infinite number of PoC actors out there). Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the trailer:
My prayers were answered. Mena Massoud, a Canadian-Egyptian actor was to play Aladdin. Naomi Scott, who is half Indian, to play Jasmine. Will Smith was playing Genie, Marwan Kenzari to play Jafar, Nasim Pedrad to play Jasmine’s handmaiden, and so on. The entire cast were all PoC actors. I will say that I had a slight bias against Naomi Scott because though she is half Indian, she is also half white. Whenever I watched Aladdin as a kid, I reveled in the fact that Jasmine was so unapologetically ethnic in the way she looked. She had darker skin, thick black hair, and beautiful big brown eyes. With someone like Naomi Scott, who could easily pass as being white, I was frustrated. There are tons of Middle Eastern and South Asian actresses out there who could have embodied what the animated Jasmine embodied much better.
However, after watching the film, I will say that perhaps I judged too harshly. Scott did a great job with Jasmine, and while I do think that actors who are fully PoC should be given more opportunity (especially when the role actually calls for it), I came out of the movie surprisingly satisfied with Scott’s performance. As well, the addition of Nasim Pedrad as Jasmine’s handmaiden Dalia was extremely interesting. Pedrad is mainly known for her comedic roles and sketches on Saturday Night Live. She contributed a delightful source of comedic relief and was a welcome addition.
Will Smith was surprisingly great as Genie, and this is because he never attempted to pass the impossibly high bar that Robin Williams set. Smith never tried to emulate Williams; rather, he took on the role and made it into his own. Robin Williams’ Genie is iconic, and Williams himself was a legend, so I really respect that Smith never attempted to outshine or compare to the original character. Rather, it felt like a tribute and resulted in another iteration of Genie that felt authentic to who Will Smith is as a person and an actor. Smith brought his own classic sense of humour to the role while maintaining the sentimentality that was so important in the original film.
Though Marwan Kenzari was a rather striking choice for Jafar, I would say he started off stronger than he ended. Though he did have a compelling presence, he was the most underwhelming character in the film The only reason I say this is because, in the original film, Jafar was one of the most terrifying villains I’d ever seen. The way the animated Jafar looked, spoke, and moved was intimidating, the epitome of corrupt power. And ultimately, Kenzari was not nearly as intimidating and came across more insecure and whiny than anything else. The original Jafar was legitimately threatening, and I felt the consequences were much higher in the animated film. This made me feel like the live-action Aladdin was much lighter in tone, largely because Kenzari’s Jafar was so much less menacing.
Mena Massoud as Aladdin was definitely the best choice of the entire film. Massoud was uncannily spot on, in both appearance and voice, to the original Aladdin. He was filled with the same lively, romantic, and somewhat naive spirit. All in all, Massoud did an excellent job, and I’m excited to see where his career goes from here on out. My favourite parts of the film were the “Prince Ali” musical number, which brought alive one of my favourite Disney songs of all time. The attention to detail when it came to the colours, festivities and customs were spot on. Even the pronunciation of certain words, like Agrabah, were not anglicized as they were in the animated film, which I appreciated.
This is a film that celebrated its characters and their diversity. As well, its heightened emphasis on feminism compared to its original counterpart was something I thoroughly enjoyed. Jasmine’s autonomy was a major plot point, and I loved seeing her speak up for herself and actively fight against the oppressive regime she lived under. There is actually less emphasis placed on the romance between Jasmine and Aladdin in this film, which balanced out the various storylines and made it equally about Jasmine as it did about Aladdin. I’m all for bringing female characters to the forefront and breaking free from the stereotypical “love interest” trope, and Aladdin did so in a great way.
All in all, I felt this film was a respectful and tastefully done remake. The representation was key, and this live-action version did a wonderful job in choosing a representational cast. I hope that Disney continues to diversify their cast in the continued remakes (such as casting Halle Bailey, a black actress, to play Ariel in the Little Mermaid). The visuals were stunning and saturated, as they typically are under the direction of Guy Ritchie. While I think it’s extremely hard to make a live-action remake version that’s comparable or better than its animated original, I think Aladdin held up really well, and that a large part of that success was its strong cast.
~ Z ~
Feature photo by Giorgio Parravicini on Unsplash
