Disney’s live-action “Aladdin” (May 24, 2019)

Surprisingly, they later commented that the cat was CG most of the time, because the real-life cat was very uncooperative. It's funny when you realize that the CG cat was sitting on the CG lap of Samuel L. Jackson, who had a CG face through the entire film.

 

I decided to see this one today. It couldn't be any worse than the mess that is Rocketman.

 

Oh yes it could.

 

I saw it a couple of days ago and I liked it.

I didn't think that I would based upon seeing two different trailer's for Aladdin.

My comment is that they had the worst of any trailer's that I have seen this entire year.

I watched the 3D version and I enjoyed it all the way through. I thought it was an excellent family movie and it deserves to do well at the box office.

 

Will Smith, as the CGI genie was excellent as Oatsdad has pointed out.

I thought he did a excellent job all the way through.

One thing that is standing out in my mind, is the aging princess.

Naomi Scott, who does a very good job of playing princess Jasmine, is 26-years old.

Most traditional Disney princesses are about 16.

For a rundown, the 11 characters of the official Disney Princess franchise are Snow White (age 14), Jasmine (15), Ariel (16), Aurora (16), Mulan (16), Merida (16), Belle (17), Pocahontas (18), Rapunzel (18), Cinderella (19) and Tiana (19).

She is a pretty princess, but she looks to be already out of her teens.

CGI genie's are one thing, aging princesses are altogether another thing.

We need a teen princess for the next movie, like someone Millie Bobby Brown's age.

Even Emma Watson, in the 1917 Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, was 27 at the time the movie was released. Though she can still play a teeneger fairly well, she is ten years older than her character.

Emma played her age during the Harry Potter movies, which is proof that we don't need to use older actors/actresses to play younger rolls.

Then, when they get really old, the use CGI de-aging software.

What's next, Meryl Streep as Gidget?

 

I was looking at the reservations for movies at my local AMC today and Aladdin, is by far the most reserved movie for all showtimes today.

Here is the 6:15 PM show.



Here is the 3:45 PM show.



Rocketman is next, followed up by Godzilla.

Rocketman 2:45 PM show. The 7:30 PM show is about sold out.



Godzilla 7:00 PM show.



John Wick 3, has zero reservations for the 5:00 PM show, so it looks like it has about finished it's run.

There are very few reservations for Brightburn, with 5 seats reserved for the 6:00 PM show.

Booksmart has 13 reservations for its 8:00 PM show. It doesn't appear to be having any stronger showing for it's second week.

Avengers: Endgame has 12 reservations for the 6:30 PM show. People are still showing up.

NOTE: The more popular movies are being shown in more than one theater.

 

The most reserved movies today (Sunday) seem to be Rocket Man, followed closely by Aladdin.

Aladdin is closing in on $500M at the box office, in total.

It only has about $100M to go to be in the money.

Godzilla is in third place reservation wise, but has already made more than it's production cost.

 

Aladdin is doing fine, weekend estimates.

1 N Godzilla: King of the Monsters WB $49,025,000
2 1 Aladdin (2019) BV $42,335,000
3 N Rocketman Par. $25,000,000
4 N Ma (2019) Uni. $18,260,000
5 2 John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum LG/S $11,100,000
6 3 Avengers: Endgame BV $7,813,000
7 4 Pokemon Detective Pikachu WB $6,665,000
8 6 Booksmart UAR $3,328,648
9 5 Brightburn SGem $2,315,000
10 8 The Hustle UAR $1,300,000

 

Is Rocketman what they named that Elton John movie? What a horrible name. I thought it was about Kim Jong Un. Lousy name for all the great lyrics to plunder.

 

How they ended up. Not in any order. Domestic / Worldwide / Production Cost

Godzilla: King of the Monsters $49.025M / $179.025M / Production cost $170M
Aladdin (2019) $185.032M / $449.345M / Production cost $185M
Rocketman $25M / $56.2M / Production cost $40M
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum $125.753M / $221.653M / Production cost $55M
Avengers: Endgame $815.502M / $2,713.912M / Production cost $356M
Pokemon Detective Pikachu $130.601M / $392.101M / Production cost $150M
Booksmart $14.367M / $14.367M / Production cost $19M
Brightburn $14.213M / $24.713M / Production cost $6M
The Hustle $33.196M / $73.996M / Production cost $21M
Ma (2019) $18.260M / $21.060M / Production cost $5M
A Dog's Journey $18.765M / $55.565M / Production cost $22M
The Sun Is Also A Star $4.902M / $5.326M / Production cost $9M

 

We just rented this last night. Our almost-5 year old daughter chose it for our weekly family movie nights. She enjoyed the original when we watched it a couple of months ago but this one didn't keep her interest for whatever reason.

It was better than I expected, but my expectations were waaaaaay low. I agree that Smith is a highlight, playing a more subtle, "cooler" version than Williams' Genie. I adore the original and Williams' character, but Smith mostly made it his own.

The design and costumes were sumptuous, the action sequences were very well staged and shot.

I'm a little more impressed with the rest of the cast, particularly Naomi Scott. The CGI magic carpet mostly preserved the personality of the original, but lost some of its comic "expressions" in the process. I always admired how the original animators gave a faceless, inanimate SO much personality. Brilliant.

The absolute best part of this movie was the Bollywood-style dance number just before the credits that runs, what, barely 5 minutes?

Honest to god if they had extended that to 15 or 20 minutes and tightened up the middle to make room, that alone would make this a big winner for me. It was one of the most joyous, colorful, energetic and flat out fun things I've seen in a long time. WHY didn't they do that! Afterwords I felt a little robbed.

dan c

 

I liked the movie a lot, but I can see it not holding the interest of younger children the way the animated version did.