Reviews

To keep it concise - superficial villains, underwhelming story, unusually noticable VFX hiccups.

Good acting by the main cast and partially impressive fight choreos cannot save this loveless spinoff. Particularly towards the end the movie disintegrates in scenes which actually made my friend and I facepalm.

Given that the characters abide by the book, and the book being written even before racial seggregation was ended in the United States (2 years prior), I think it would be very lowbrow to reduce this to the multiculturalism aspect (cough).

It's a cute modern fairy tale.

(Skip to second paragraph for rating) Yeah... I didn't intend to write a full review, but the comments right here are just embarrassing. I personally never watched the Aladdin cartoon version (I guess it's not thaaat big of a thing where I live, compared to other Disney classics like snow white?).

So I just went to the cinema without real expectations, but I must admit: it was totally worth it. And here's why:

• The scenery. Just wow, mind blowing. So much detail, color and creativity, that it's almost overwhelming. Disney really hit the right spot between 'not so great looking' and 'completely drives your focus away from the actors'.

-The CG work. I just have to throw it in here. I have some solid knowledge of 3d art and this just brings it to a totally new level. No spoilers, but some of the characters are super well done, especially fur and animation are insane. I don't know on which basis people are writing their reviews, but this can easily compete with Endgame, in terms of CG (not VFX!! at some points the green screen keying is a let down, but the shots are super short and don't mess up the rest of the movie!) Also particle animation is good, since for whatever reason it makes up a good margin of the CG, maybe because people expect some sort of 'fairy tale magic' when they hear the name Disney.

• Music is fantastic as well. I watched the synchronised German version, but the melodies and the way in which it is integrated into the story work out pretty well, in my opinion.
• Acting is good. The main actors do their job, and even though Will Smith obviously outshines them in his 'blue, flying' version at some points, Aladdin and the Princess show both character and expression more than well.

There's obviously way more to review but I think I underlined why the movie definetly isn't just "bAD cgI AnD caRtOon iS BetTEr".