See Will Smith’s Genie in Action in the First Full-Length Aladdin Trailer

Movies News Aladdin
See Will Smith’s Genie in Action in the First Full-Length Aladdin Trailer

Seemingly eager to assuage the doubts of the legion of ’90s kids who found themselves concerned after seeing the first Aladdin footage—not to mention the odd reveal of Will Smith as Genie—Disney dropped the first full-length trailer for Aladdin today. This action-packed, highly magical several minutes of footage will probably go a long way toward answering fans’ questions, even if it simultaneously raises some new questions in the process.

At the very least, while watching this is becomes easier to see why Disney was targeting Smith for the job in the first place. His “hip-hop” Genie seems pretty comfortable in his own skin, and it’s hard not to be reminded of the effortless (if slightly dorky) cool Smith possessed on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In a way, it’s almost as if he’s now turning his attentions to freshening up Aladdin, who also wants to be a prince.

As for Aladdin and Jasmine, they look … fine? We get to see a bit of Al doing his “street rat” thing, while Jasmine is primarily a pretty face in this trailer, although we at least get an ample hint of “A Whole New World.”

The most concerning aspect, though, is arguably the film’s villain. One can understand why Disney would want both Aladdin and Jasmine to be portrayed by young, attractive people, but why exactly did they want evil sorcerer Jafar to ALSO be portrayed by a young, attractive person? This film’s Marwan Kenzari simply doesn’t seem to possess any of the delectable charisma—what the Wicked Witch of the West would call “beautiful wickedness”—that came so naturally to voice actor Jonathan Freeman in the 1992 animated original. It may seem like a small nitpick, but it points to what could be fundamental flaws in Disney’s conception of this new Aladdin. Only time will tell if the trailer footage has misrepresented this key character.

In the meantime, catch the full Aladdin trailer below. The film, directed by Guy Ritchie, hits theaters on May 24, 2019.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Share Tweet Submit Pin