Aladdin whisks her away from the angry street vendor and clumsily starts singing “One Jump Ahead” that felt so rushed and inorganic that I thought I briefly feel asleep and missed a scene. Aladdin, the ‘street rat’ of Agrabah meets a woman who forgets that money is a thing and gives two children a loaf of bread without paying. The movie quickly introduces several characters at once since the producers assumed anyone watching this movie already is familiar with the animated version. You can clearly hear that his voice had to be autotuned to hit those high notes and at times Will Smith try to remix the song in a sort of hip hop tone that just didn’t work. Right off the bat I knew this movie wasn’t going to be as good as the original after hearing Will Smith attempt to sing the song “Arabian Nights”. The movie starts out with the Genie in human form talking to two children on a semi small boat about the story of Aladdin and the lamp.
With a new cast and a new genie played by Will Smith, those are some large pointy shoes to fill.
But of course the biggest attraction on why Aladdin is so beloved is the magnificent performance of Robin Williams.
