He is very blue. Like exceptionally blue
Wow lads. Disney have done it. Disney have actually managed to avoid casting a white person as Aladdin in the upcoming live action film of Aladdin, you know, everyone’s favourite cartoon musical based on an Arabic folktale that came flying to us on a magic carpet all way back in 1992. Fair play, hats off to them. You were half expecting Ryan Gosling or some other nonsense, but Mena Massoud, who is Canadian but was born in Egypt, seems like the best we are going to get from them. (Let’s not talk about Naomi Scott playing Princess Jasmine, or the fact they have added in a random white Scandinavian prince as a character for absolutely no reason at all.)
Do you remember Jake Gyllenhaal playing the Prince of Persia? Because I do, ladies and gentleman. I do. At least this isn’t that. It still isn’t good, but it isn’t that.
The other major casting decision comes in the form of Will Smith, who will be filling the almost impossibly large shoes of the late, great Robin Williams as Genie… who is, you know, the big, blue Genie. You can’t really argue with this one because, in fairness, there aren’t many actual genies about. Unlike, say, I don’t know, the roughly 450 million Arabs alive today they could have cast in this film. You know. As the Arabic characters. That would have been cool. That would have been fun.
And let me be perfectly clear from the outset here; it just doesn’t look right. Any of it really. But especially Will Smith as the Genie. That does not look right at all. He looks like someone unsuccessfully cosplaying as a minor Dragon Ball Z villain or your dad dressed up for a Halloween party as Doctor Manhattan from Watchmen. He looks… well, he looks like someone just painted Will Smith blue. I’m not a fan.
Anyway, here’s the first teaser trailer so you can judge for yourself:
The film is directed by Guy Ritchie (Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) for some unknown reason, as this isn’t a film about a Jason Statham cockney in some sort of gambling debt. It’s due to land in cinemas on May 24 in the US, whilst a UK release date has not yet been announced.
Let’s just try and focus on the fact that ‘A Whole New World’ is one of the all-time great Disney bangers. If it isn’t in the film, @GuyRitchie, you’ll have a riot on your hands. That’s the one thing we will not, and cannot, forgive.
