Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Aladdin Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 1, 2019

It's no surprise that Disney is on the top of the moviemaking world right now. The box office-busting numbers are staggering, and it's not just because the company has absorbed so many popular properties. It's also because of the sheer volume of films the studio is releasing, which includes live action adaptations of favorite internal animated films of yore releasing at a furious, fever pace. These adaptations stretch back further than 2015, but that year's Cinderella certainly seemed to kick the high profile remakes into high gear. Since then it's been a steady parade of films of varying qualities, including The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, and now Aladdin, the remake of the treasured 1992 animated film of the same name that ranks highly on many Disney fans' lists of favorites. Director Guy Ritchie's (Sherlock Holmes) vision for the live action isn't far off the mark, even if it's not particularly imaginative, offering what looks and feels like a fairly straight, if not slightly expanded, take on the treasured tale, favoring lavish production design over a more expansive or expressive narrative focus.

Aladdin (Mena Massoud) and his pet monkey Abu are common thieves who sell their stolen goods for far less than they are worth, happy to earn a few bites to eat in exchange for the merchandise. One day, Aladdin bumps into a beautiful woman named Jasmine (Naomi Scott) who melts his heart. He does his best to resist the urge to steal some of her precious jewels -- it’s obvious she comes from the nearby palace, not the streets -- but he winds up with one of her bracelets, anyway. The relationship grows sour, doubly so when Aladdin learns she’s the princess of Agrabah. When the evil Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) identifies Aladdin as the foretold "diamond in the rough” who can safely enter a living cave and retrieve an all-powerful lamp, he is kidnaped and forced to do so. He barely escapes with the lamp and his life and quickly discovers inside of the prize a genie (Will Smith) who promises to grant him three wishes. Aladdin wishes for nothing more than to be a prince who can rightly marry the princess, but his sudden transformation is interrupted by a ruthless Jafar who will stop at nothing to secure the lamp.

Aladdin as a live action film works well at best and well enough at worst. It's certainly lacking the charms of the original picture as it attempts to balance an approachable, breezy, and light front of fun and music against the ferociously dark beats that surround the characters' plight and fight against the ruthless Jafar. Yet even in Jafar the filmmakers seem bent on walking that fine line between approachability and heinous villainy. Kenzari never seems to be able to take the character as far as he thematically needs to go. There's a clear wrestling with the rating and the story's needs, a balance the animated film could walk with more confidence. Here, there's an effort to mask a somewhat tame and not at all risky portrayal under a deluge of sight and sound that allows Kenzari to ham it up rather than go full-on wicked.

Fortunately, the film's magical tones largely mask the somewhat neutered villain. It's a spectacle of seamless digital sophistication that plays up the effects as necessary -- which is often -- but they're so integral to the movie and done so well that there's a near seamless blend of live action, artificial, and hybrids in between. Audiences will feel like Aladdin and Jasmine are soaring on a carpet and that Will Smith has been transformed into a hulking blue genie. Smith, with the biggest shoes to fill and the most important part to play, proves to be inspired casting, finding the perfect balance between loquaciousness and a larger-than-life presence. Smith stretches the partially CGI character well beyond any of the humans, working a balance between his adherence to genie duties, his longing to escape his captivity, his burgeoning friendship with Aladdin, and the realities of the transforming world around him. It's solid work and one of Smith's best performances in years.

Aladdin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aladdin was digitally photographed and yields splendid results on Blu-ray. Disney's 1080p presentation may not quite live up to its UHD counterpart but make no mistake it's a well-rounded presentation on this format. Colors spring to life with a richness and depth that pushes the format to it limits. There's a parade of shades throughout the film but perhaps nowhere is the image's excellence more evident than in chapter eight during the performance of "Prince Ali." Explosions of yellows and pinks and greens and purples and a multitude of other colors leap off the screen with striking depth and intensity. The Princess' various adornments and jewels shine while earthy terrain seen throughout the film offers positive nuance. Genie's blue skin is a standout in the film's second half. The 1080p resolution brings out the picture's finest qualities with appreciable clarity and complexity. Core skin textures are very impressive while clothes are refined and those same jewels appear tack-sharp. Various digital constructs, from the monkey Abu to vast stretches of Agrabah, yield very impressive clarity that seamlessly blends with the live action material. There's nary a soft edge to be seen in the movie. Black levels are excellent in the various low light scenes, and it is only here where modest amounts of noise appears in any quantity worth mentioning. Skin tones appear spot-on as well. This is a very good presentation from Disney.

Aladdin Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Disney's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack requires the expected upward volume boost from calibrated listening levels. It's hushed at typical reference levels, but the boost yields a fairly enjoyable and very stout presentation. The opening song -- "Arabian Nights" -- presents with solid front end width, healthy surround support, and a fair bit of low end oomph. It's an auspicious beginning that the track largely lives up to for the duration. The marketplace scenes spring to life with impressively immersive din that's also well defined, easily drawing the listener into Agrabah's streets and a few little corners of Aladdin's world. There's plenty of activity in chapter six when the cave crumbles around Aladdin after he secures the lamp. It's a little unruly, favoring raw energy over precision, but it's a fun sequence that pushes the track to it limits for sure and engages the entirety of the listening area with superior saturation. Moments later, the genie arrives out of the bottle with a deep, booming, cavernous voice that echoes about the room with potent authority. Additional score and various songs offer boisterous engagement and fine clarity; "Prince Ali" is the unequivocal highlight. Beyond the need to raise the volume there's not much here that disappoints.

Aladdin Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Aladdin contains a fairly basic assortment of extras, including three featurettes, a few deleted scenes, and music videos. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Aladdin's Video Journal: A New Fantastic Point of View (1080p, 10:39): Watch Actor Mena Massoud's phone camera journal of his experiences in making Aladdin. There are cast and crew interview snippets and plenty of enticing behind-the-scenes highlights.
• Deleted Song (1080p, 2:20): Composer Alan Menken introduces "Desert Moon."
• Guy Ritchie: A Cinematic Genie (1080p, 5:28): A quick look at Richie's filmmaking, drives and inspirations, his vision for the movie, the qualities he brings to the set, and more.
• A Friend Like Genie (1080p, 4:31): Smith discusses the challenges and rewards of following up on Robin Williams' performance of the Genie in the original animated film.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 10:44 total runtime): Included are Falling Petals Into OJ, Jafar's Magic Orrery, Anders' Gift, Wrong Wishes, Silly Old Fool, and Post Yam Jam Debrief.
• Music Videos (1080p, 11:33): Included are "Speechless" - Performed by Naomi Scott, "A Whole New World" - Performed by Zayn and Zhavia Ward, and "A Whole New World" ("Un Mundo Ideal") - Performed by Zayn and Becky G.
• Bloopers (1080p, 2:07): Humorous moments from the shoot.

Aladdin Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Aladdin makes for a fun little diversion and a nice compliment to the original animated film. It's well cast and its visuals are everything one would expect of a live action Aladdin translation. It's not the finest of Disney's live action re-imaginings, but it's certainly far from the worst. Disney's Blu-ray delivers high end video and audio presentations. Supplements are a little thin but adequate. Recommended.