Posted on 02/12/2019 12:52:08 AM PST by Simon Green
The first reveal of Will Smith in full blue mode as the Genie in Disney’s live-action Aladdin remake has not gone down well with fans. While The Walt Disney Company’s current strategy of live-action remakes of their animated classics has yielded glorious profits, the end results haven’t been so beloved in more critical terms. So far, the movies have been met with responses ranging from surprisingly good (The Jungle Book) to OK (Cinderella) to highly mediocre (Beauty and the Beast). However, with audience demand so high and the benefits so strong for the company, they’ve been given no reason to slow down with this plan. 2019 alone will see 3 live-action remakes release in theaters: The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau; Dumbo, directed by Tim Burton; and Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin.
Aladdin is the film of this trio that has been on the shakiest ground since its announcement. Eyebrows were raised at every turn, from the unusual choice of director to the casting to the questions over how Disney would handle a story set in the Arab world. The casting of Will Smith as the Genie was divisive but made sense in the grander scheme and offered some real star power to a movie whose ensemble is mostly made up of unknowns. The first reveal of Smith as the (non-blue) Genie proved underwhelming, with many wondering if we would ever see the character as he appears in the animated film. And then we saw blue Will Smith.
The latest Aladdin TV spot prominently features Smith in blue form, and the reactions were, to put it mildly, not great. Indeed, the image of large shirtless Will Smith with blue skin, a pointy black beard and long ponytail atop a bald head has already become Twitter’s favored meme of the week. For fans of the original concerned that Aladdin might not be able to pull off the translation to live-action, the new trailer did not inspire any hope. Smith is not the only problem the new footage features, but it remains the most prominent and the sheer strangeness of it highlights a problem the movie and Disney cannot ignore: The genie looks bad.
Is this something that’s important to you, or anyone?
Important enough to me to spend a few minutes posting. Likely important enough for some people to take a minute or two to reply.
Do you have some sort of issue with that?
Is it offensive for non-blue people to go in blueface?
I hate mind pollution.
I’m curious as to why it’s important to you?
Important enough to post, as if you are a pr man, on a conservative political forum.
>> While The Walt Disney Company’s current strategy of live-action remakes of their animated classics
Odd that they call these “live-action” when there is so much computer animation.
Hell’s bells, Black Panther probably should’ve been in the “best animated feature” category at the Oscars rather than “Best film”.
Because I'm a fan of Disney animation and think this doesn't bode well for the remake...and I thought others might feel the same and be interested.
Important enough to post, as if you are a pr man,
Um, the article is not at all complimentary to the new film. Did you even read it? If I'm a pr man, I'm terrible at my job!
on a conservative political forum
How is the politics of this forum relevant in this case?
Looks kinda gay. Then again, so is most of Hollyweird and their product.
The makeup job looks okay to me, but I’d hate to have to follow Robin William’s version of the genie.
Oops, Williams’, not William’s.
They did miss on matching the color. The cartoon genie is a bit more purple.
“Because I’m a fan of Disney animation”
Me too, but there’s no Disney anymore.
Everything since Katzenberg has been meh or worse.
Important enough for you to open and comment apparently. Did you know you can keep scrolling past something you don’t like?
These would be the mehs, to my mind.
Pixar they aren’t.
And not Ghibli for sure.
The world wide Disney audience loved it.
It is actually the 14th highest grossing film in history at $1.26 billion.
The relentlessly hyped “Black Panther” is only $84 million higher than “Beauty and the Beast.”
“Did you know you can keep scrolling past something you don’t like?”
I think that’s against the law of the internet.
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