Aladdin (2019)

Fun fact: due to the nature of most Disney movies as musicals, there have been MANY stage adaptations for popular films done by the House of Mouse. Iconic among them is the Broadway version of "Lion King," but there are fair tries to capture the spirit of the animated films with such productions as "the Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin."
Why do I bring this up?
Because to appreciate the live-action reboot of "Aladdin," you have to go in expecting a version of the classic animated film that's quite different, but still encapsulates the essence of the story and characters...albeit with beaucoup budget and a lot of visual flair.

Y'all know the drill: a poor orphan living on the streets does parkour, steals stuff with ease, possesses a silver tongue of manipulation, but has a heart of gold...a diamond in the rough; a princess sheltered all her life escapes to see how the 99% live and meets said orphan, and their shenanigans lead to his capture, where he is given an offer he can't refuse: help the king's advisor get a seemingly ordinary lamp. Hijinks ensue when the boy finds a wise-cracking shape-shifting genie within, and this duo must woo the princess and foil a dastardly plan.

The movie takes our expectations, our knowledge that it will never live up to the original 'toon, and embraces that; it has its own unique energy and look that gives this yarn a different spin while it acknowledges the original story.  But for all the advances, there are at least 2-3 steps backwards. The instrumentation on the songs are improved, but the vocalists aren't as fantastic. The city & locales really do look like actual places instead of sets, but even then, the scope isn't as grand or majestic. (The Cave of Wonders was particularly underwhelming since one step into the treasure room and there should've been so much gold the entire color palette should've changed from dark blues to solid yellow, but nope...still predominantly rocks) There are new characters and some pre-existing characters have their motivations expanded, but that comes at the expense of the characterization of other characters. Finally, while there are many magical feats and visuals to astound, the climax in general felt remarkably underwhelming with the villain hardly creating anything fantastic to combat the hero.

Overall, an entertaining flick on its own merits, but when compared to the original, what I have unabashedly called my favorite Disney animated movie ever, you could see there was an attempt to put that particular genie back into its bottle, and they failed. 'Twas a valiant effort at least.

There it is; the impetus for Princess Jasmine getting her own "girl power anthem."