Prepare to be whisked away on a whimsical journey as we, Natey and Katy, revisit the magic of Disney's "Aladdin"! Our latest episode is a treasure trove of nostalgia, from Robin Williams's spellbinding performance as Genie to the enchanting melodies that have become a staple in the soundtrack of our lives. We'll explore not only the original animated classic but also the dazzling world of the 2019 live-action remake. Peek behind the curtains as Katy unveils trivia about Williams's legendary influence and how he left an indelible mark on the film's legacy and his fellow cast members.
As the sands of discussion shift, we turn our focus to the live-action "Aladdin," including Will Smith's charismatic portrayal of the Genie. Despite initial hesitations, we found ourselves charmed by his fresh spin on the character and the film's commitment to cultural authenticity. Disagreements arise, however, when dissecting Jasmine's modernized role and her powerful new ballad, "Speechless." But one thing's for certain: whether it's the animated classic that captured our hearts or the live-action spectacle that brought Agrabah to life, "Aladdin" continues to cast an enduring spell of wonder and adventure. Join us on this carpet ride as we honor the tales of Agrabah, celebrate the characters we adore, and appreciate the new depths unearthed in these beloved stories.
Prepare to be whisked away on a whimsical journey as we, Natey and Katy, revisit the magic of Disney's "Aladdin"! Our latest episode is a treasure trove of nostalgia, from Robin Williams's spellbinding performance as Genie to the enchanting melodies that have become a staple in the soundtrack of our lives. We'll explore not only the original animated classic but also the dazzling world of the 2019 live-action remake. Peek behind the curtains as Katy unveils trivia about Williams's legendary influence and how he left an indelible mark on the film's legacy and his fellow cast members.
As the sands of discussion shift, we turn our focus to the live-action "Aladdin," including Will Smith's charismatic portrayal of the Genie. Despite initial hesitations, we found ourselves charmed by his fresh spin on the character and the film's commitment to cultural authenticity. Disagreements arise, however, when dissecting Jasmine's modernized role and her powerful new ballad, "Speechless." But one thing's for certain: whether it's the animated classic that captured our hearts or the live-action spectacle that brought Agrabah to life, "Aladdin" continues to cast an enduring spell of wonder and adventure. Join us on this carpet ride as we honor the tales of Agrabah, celebrate the characters we adore, and appreciate the new depths unearthed in these beloved stories.
One's a movie buff, one watches movies, just enough Together. Fun will be had by all. This is Nadie and Katie at the Movies.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new episode of Nadie and Katie at the Movies. I'm your host, nathan aka Nadie, of course, and with me on today's episode is my good friend Katie. Hi Katie, how are you?
Speaker 3:I'm good, and I'm actually not driving or eating something right now, so yay.
Speaker 2:I think that's like two episodes in a row. Congratulations.
Speaker 3:I'm fully focused. I'm sure at some point I will eat some of this Christmas candy I still have left over.
Speaker 2:Good times. You know what else is good times? Watching classic Disney movies. That's what good times is.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today. If you follow us on our social media platforms on Facebook, instagram, twitter, tiktok well, not Twitter, it's called XNOW but if you follow us on any of those things, you'll know that we're not just talking about one Disney movie, we're talking about two, and in Katie's case, she's going to be talking about three. We watched the classic Aladdin cartoon movie, and then we both watched the live action Aladdin movie that came out, I believe, in 2019. And then Katie took it upon herself to watch Aladdin Return of Jafar. For some reason, I don't know why she did that, but before we get into any of those things, I'm going to do the synopsis for the 1992 Aladdin. A kind hearted street urchin and a power hungry Grand Vizier vie for a lamp that has the power to make their wishes come true. Aladdin stars Scott Wigner, robin Williams, of course, and Linda Larkin. Now, did you know that Scott Wigner I don't know if I'm saying his name right, but was actually Steve DJ Tanner's boyfriend on Full House?
Speaker 3:I didn't realize her boyfriend was Arabic.
Speaker 2:Well no, this is when Disney didn't care about cultural casting. They cared about voice acting, and so they cast Steve from Full House and obviously Rob Williams as the genie, linda Larkin as Jasmine and this other white guy as Jafar and Gilbert Godfrey as Iago. I don't know if it's supposed to be like a riff on a fellow, because there's a character named Iago and that Shakespeare play. I don't know if that's why they. Anyway, I digress. So let's get right into our likes and dislikes of the cartoon. We'll talk about the live action and then, katie, obviously you can talk about Aladdin Return of Jafar. So I'm just going to go right ahead and tell you if it's a classic Disney cartoon, I'm just automatically going to love it. And what helps even more is the fact that Rob Williams voiced the genie.
Speaker 2:Rob Williams was obviously iconic, classic, just super funny, very comedic, good at timing, did a lot of dramatic roles too, did a fantastic job in that, and this movie is just fantastic. I just loved it. I love the cartoon. There's nothing wrong with it In my opinion. Obviously, we'll talk about what you think, katie, because I'm sure you found something wrong with it, because you always do so. That's my quick review of Aladdin the cartoon. I loved it and it's just classic. It's classic Disney. That's why I like it so much. So, katie, what did you like? What did you possibly dislike about the 1992 Aladdin cartoon?
Speaker 3:I saw it. I saw it, I fell asleep. What did I like about Aladdin man? Like Nathan, you're spot on. This is classic Disney. Like this was Little Mermaid, lion King Era Disney and it was fantastic. I was born. I'm a little baby, I was born in 1990, and this came out two years after birth. So I obviously didn't see it when it came out. But man, I just. The songs are on point. I love the little quips from Aladdin.
Speaker 3:Jasmine is this like bold, sexy? People would still say she's a stereotype, but I think she's trying for her time and her setting. She's bold and doesn't want to take crap from anybody. She wants to do her own thing. And, as you said, I mean the star of the show was Robin Williams.
Speaker 3:Jeannie, I am just over here. I mean I've seen the movie a thousand times, right, but I hadn't seen it in a while and I'm just cackling. I mean it's just so clever, it's ridiculous. It's not, and it maybe is a little more. My humor, nathan, like some of the slapstick stuff, my husband Scott, not like the slapstick Jim Carrey stuff, but the Jeannie is just so ridiculous.
Speaker 3:And the fact that and most people may know this Robin Williams ad-libbed most of that I mean, it's just they let him basically go to town, and I was doing some research too. This was not a time when famous actors were doing voice. This was a time where you did voicing for cartoons and that was your gig Like you would professionally focus on that and so they really had to work hard to wrangle in an actor who's already done so much to come into the movie, and I watched a little clip that they showed him just a sneak peek. They let him do some ad-lib and then they put a Jeannie image with that ad-lib and he was sold. He's like OK, I'm in.
Speaker 2:I heard that the ad-lib that they used was actually used when Steven Spielberg was directing Schindler's List, and if you've ever seen that movie it's crazy depressing. And the actors who are a part of that got really into character, so much so that they got borderline depressed doing the movie. So Steven Spielberg actually called Robin Williams to entertain the cast and some of what he did for them is what they used for that little snippet of jewel stuff, and so that's kind of what got him to, like you said, got him to be a part of it.
Speaker 2:And so I mean, yeah, I mean, what else is there really to say except that it's just classic Disney. It's one of those movies where you're like, kind of like Beauty and the Beast, you watch it and you're like, why would this movie ever need anything else done to it? And Disney was like, well, this is why. And so, of course again, we'll talk about the live action a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what's your favorite song? I mean, they're all so good, right, there's a lot of very beautiful. I can show you the world, but then the pep and the umph, like what's your favorite?
Speaker 2:I mean it's got to be Friend Like Me, it's just got to be, because again it's Robin Williams, he's a singer, he just does it all and it's just that. And of course, a whole new world are like the staple songs for that movie. And again we'll go into the live action and I do think they made one song that you know is kind of skipped on but they made. I will say one thing I liked about the live action is Prince Ali, the way they did it with Will Smith and just made it something that usually when they do live action it doesn't translate as well like the colorfulness and the excitement.
Speaker 2:They really translated the excitement, the colorfulness to the live action with the Prince Ali song, which again, I agree with you Because in the cartoon it's only good because of the little snippets that Robin Williams does during it, like the little ad libs and the funny things, but in the live action.
Speaker 3:No, no, I like that song, so funny thing that's your favorite song with Robin Williams. I like the ones that are more the cultural, so like Arabian nights at the beginning and then Prince Ali. They have more of that flavor to me the la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la la, and then it's like that slow la, la, la, la, la la. It gets me like hyped. You can see the color for that scene, like you said, better in the live action and I feel like you can get a little better glimpse of the cultural influence from that.
Speaker 2:Before we rate it, we'll talk about the live action. But before we talk about the live action, Katie, you again took it upon yourself to watch Aladdin Return of Jafar, which was actually direct to video cassette. It was not released in theaters and it actually did not feature Robin Williams playing the voice of the genie. Katie, do you know why Robin Williams decided not to return for Return of Jafar?
Speaker 3:I don't. I feel like there was still. It was a decent genie. I could. I mean, I could imagine it's just because he's like dude, this one's not going out in big theater so I'm not gonna entertain it. But when I watched it the second time I didn't think I'd seen it before. And then it's five minutes in. I'm like wait, I remember everything about this, like, no, obviously wasn't as good as the first, but I Remember really liking this and watching the second one multiple times and in Terms of Disney movies that had sequels, like you know, lion King came out with Lion King 2 and 3.
Speaker 3:I Think this was a very well done second, despite having, of course, the lead Genie with Rob Williams was not there. But I think the strong the characters are strong enough without him, like you can't have Aladdin without Rob Williams genie, but it was not that he carried the show on his shoulders completely. I like the character Aladdin, I think I like the character Jasmine and I think Jafar is a great villain. So I thought the second one second was way creepier. I will say I watched with my three-year-old and he's like this is scary.
Speaker 2:What actually happened was Rob Williams and Disney had made a deal that they would not use his voice to promote, like either the movie or anything else. And when they made the posters that this one was kind of weird for me the the character genie wasn't allowed to take up so much of the poster I guess he because he didn't want it to be like him selling the movie, I guess. And so Disney didn't hold up to that part of the bargain and Rob Williams wasn't too happy about it and so he did not agree to go to the second Aladdin movie. But they eventually made up. So they made a third Aladdin movie and Rob Williams did voice genie in that. They did go on to make, obviously, a cartoon TV show. Rob Williams, I don't think, voiced the genie in that, but they did eventually make up and publicly apologized to Rob Williams about that and that is why he lent his voice to the third Aladdin movie. So there you go. Little fun fact For Aladdin Rob William fans out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I would say I have to now go watch the third one. I didn't realize Rob Williams came back, but I would say they're definitely worth it. If you've never, if you're listening and you've never seen the second and third, I Would say it's worth it. And back. I didn't love the live action. I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you know I would rather watch the return of the far than the live action.
Speaker 2:Well, let's get right into the live action then. I'm not gonna go over the synopsis. It's basically the exact same movie, but it does start a few few new people I didn't write their names down so I apologize for that. I do know Jasmine played the Pink Ranger and the Power Rangers movie the 2018 one, I believe and Playing the genie, which was a bit controversial at the time because, again, rob Williams had passed away and they then they announced that they were doing the live action Aladdin not obviously not right after he passed away but they announced that Will Smith was going to be playing the genie. I will admit I was one of those people that was very hesitant, because I just love classic things, but I also Tried to give it the doubt, especially when they released what he was going to look like in majority of the movie. So what I believe they were doing is they were going with the Broadway version of Of Aladdin, with the costuming.
Speaker 2:A lot of people were afraid that there is gonna make Will Smith blue the entire movie, like from blue man group, and it was gonna be weird. But they did not. They made him an actual genie and that means he can transform his likeness and and so it was basically just Will Smith dressed up as the genie, which I actually appreciated. And I'm just gonna go ahead and say that one of my biggest likes for the live action, surprisingly, was Will Smith. I think he made the character his own. I think he had fun with it. I think he obviously gave some very subtle nods to Robin Williams, especially during a friend like me. Just some of the voices he did and things like that were a little bit callbacks to run Williams. But I think Will Smith knew the weight of what he was getting himself into and so he was very respectful with it. He didn't try to ham it up.
Speaker 3:I agree with you, I'm. He wasn't trying to be Robin Williams's version of genie Very much his own. But, unlike you, like the most. First I felt like the CGI. It just looked ridiculous like. When it switched over to just Will Smith I was like thank the Lord, because I just don't think I could watch the whole movie with the blue version. Oh, I hated it. It wasn't as whimsical as Robin Williams, just absolute madness, craziness. The jokes and this was this. Juni was a little cooler, so how he didn't do it for me.
Speaker 2:I mean, I remember when the trailer came out and people were really Hounding on the CGI and I didn't like the CGI either. I liked that they made it that he could transform himself to look more Human, and I was. I was okay with that. And we already talked about the Prince Ali song. I Think I liked it better in the live action, which is which is strange for me because again the cartoon allowed in his classic Like the costuming choice.
Speaker 3:To your point there. And another Comparison I felt like they did a great job of alluding to the same, similar color schemes, but they definitely made it more Traditional. I think I also appreciate Aladdin having more clothes on, and just more clothes on. I grew up thinking man, jasmine's just like really cool, like she's. She's so hot, which I guess I didn't think that when I was young, but I remember being like man. She's got that rocket-bot like I want to, I want to flaunt it like Jasmine. But then you're like this doesn't link up at all with Middle Eastern culture, like this doesn't make sense. And again like why are you trying to sexualize a Disney character? Shout out also to a little mermaid and walking around her, but not walking around the whole movie, but swimming around, then walking around in her little bikini. I'm like why are we showing off mid-drift? And then we got the Aladdin topless. It was it's a little it weird, showing too much skin and they they covered it up in live action.
Speaker 2:Thank you and, with that being said, they did go a little bit of extreme with Jasmine, I think, because I understand what they were doing. They were doing the women empowerment thing. I get it.
Speaker 3:Did you want to see more of?
Speaker 2:No, that's not what I'm saying at all. What I'm saying is Basically what you were saying before. Based on the, the, the time period that this movie is supposed to be taking place in, the cultural aspects that were being supposed to be shown in Aladdin, the whole Giving Jasmine her I'll be heard, not bees, I won't be left speechless. This song just didn't fit for me. It was random. It was random, it felt like a music video, it didn't fit in the moment and it was just. I mean, they kind of basically did it in the cartoon Aladdin, obviously not like as heavy-handed as they did in the live-action one.
Speaker 2:But you, you even said yourself that Jasmine in the cartoon was like I know what I want. The law's stupid, the law is wrong. I want to get married for love, all this stuff. She didn't want to be set up with a prince, she wanted to find someone that she fell in love with. That that was already there. But in the live-action one it wasn't just love that she wanted, she wanted to be the sultan. That's what she wanted. And I just was like but I'm a guy, so yeah, it didn't bother me.
Speaker 3:I mean, I Do think it is a little bit silly to be like man, jasmine strong, and then she still does exactly what she would have done anyway. She's still married as a guy and he's gonna be the prince and she's still under her dad's rules. Like, I'm not actually as mad about a change there reminds me of the Little Mermaid episode we did real. She saves Prince Eric. It didn't bother me too much. I didn't appreciate she was strong because I don't feel like and you could agree to disagree I don't feel like they made her strong at the expense of Aladdin, whereas Eric kind of just seemed like he was the damsel in distress. I feel like they allowed for both characters to be strong and so I didn't. I think that's why I didn't run me. But I've got emphatically disagree with you.
Speaker 3:That speechless song is be chills. I didn't realize I must have heard covers of it or something, but I had heard, I knew the song. I don't know how, I must have just heard it a lot or people loved it. Just if you were to take it out of the movie again, not even in context. I think it's an incredible ballad. It's beautiful. I guess I could agree with you. It feels very weird like this giant epic, beautiful ballad just shoved in the middle of the song. But I thought it was incredible and I think there's a reason that people cover it a lot.
Speaker 2:I mean, yes, it's a good song, but in the context of the movie and the way they just like freeze everybody and she's the only one moving. This is a music video. This is not. It didn't feel like it fit because it just felt very music video-y. So that's my one dislike. And then my other dislike is it's very hard to beat the villainous cartoon, Jafar.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this guy was not.
Speaker 2:He was like a nasally whiny you just can't. It's kind of like how I probably would have felt about Ron Williams if Will Smith, in my opinion, didn't do a good job with the character. But this guy, like he just wasn't Jafar to me he was just a disgruntled guy. Jafar was like straight up evil and they didn't do the whole ending part very well. They kind of copied when he became a bad genie but they didn't do the snake thing which makes him even creepier. In the cartoon they just took away the creepiness of Jafar and it just didn't work for me.
Speaker 3:He was like I totally agree with you. I mean maybe even as this is petty, but his chiseled like the chiseled line, like just the caricature of what Jafar looked like. There's pointy chin and long and he would do all these long, drawn out like big head. This guy was way too subtle. But again, I can understand the live action. It would almost seem too like maybe as over the top. If someone tried to do that over the top while live action it may have fallen flat Like we may have not taken him seriously, but man, he's right up there with that. I saw an interview with someone that I guess was part of the writing team and apparently there was draw from Maleficent that that was a inspiration for that character, for Jafar, and I was like, oh, I see the similarities and it kind of reminds me of Emper's New Groove, isma.
Speaker 2:Isma, I think yeah.
Speaker 3:But yeah, those three kind of have that same just absolute ridiculous. I thought that the casting was great. I liked that they incorporated more actors that were I mean, obviously it's live action, so you have to have people that look Middle Eastern but I thought they did a good job in casting Aladdin and Jasmine. They're both very attractive and also good actors. I felt like and good looking. Unlike you know, the original Aladdin was actually based on supposedly based on Tom Cruz. They literally based Aladdin's look on Tom Cruz, which is funny because you're like that's not supposed to be Middle Eastern, you should use a Eastern actor.
Speaker 3:But anyway, that brings me up to probably my last thoughts on Aladdin, which would be if you watch Aladdin on Disney Plus, there's a warning at the beginning and it says hey, you know, absolute, there's some things in here they're not culturally appropriate and we understand that. We're sorry and we're making changes to be different. I've tried to find reasons. I do have some that I can understand. But for you to Speaking of white people, was there things that made you cringe Like oh, wow, yeah, this kind of didn't age well.
Speaker 2:I mean obviously because they changed the beginning of the live action. They didn't have what in the cartoon Rob Williams does, obviously a stereotypical Arabian accent, middle Eastern accent, as like the peddler. So they cut that. I'm assuming that was part of it. Just some of the. I mean, I guess you could say when she was going in the market and they threatened to cut her arm off, maybe they thought that was a little much. I mean just just little things here and there. I guess some of the stereotypical characters, like the bad guy that they try to get into the cave at the beginning, you know, just stereotypical voices. I would assume that that's what they were going for. And maybe some of the casting choices that they did during Aladdin, you know, casting a majority white cast as the Middle Eastern characters. So I'm assuming that's what they were going for.
Speaker 2:You know, obviously Disney's trying to quote, unquote, write their wrongs, and I guess that's one of the reasons why they're doing these live actions is so they can write their wrongs, I guess. But I still say to this day that my favorite Disney live action is Cinderella. Cinderella. I think Cinderella was the only one that you could look at and be like this could use some kind of updating, I guess, but that's that's just my opinion. I still think Cinderella is the best. Snow White is coming up next, apparently next year. We'll see how that goes. But before we end this episode, obviously we have to rate these movies. So let's go ahead and rate the cartoon first. What do you think for Aladdin 1992 version?
Speaker 3:The theatrics I love Aladdin. I love Jeannie Jasmine's looking good. Raj Abu is hilarious. Defar is scary. It's going to be a six for me, and live action not that's a bunch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to give the cartoon a six. It's just classic Disney, like I said before. But for the live action I'm actually going to give it higher than I originally thought I was going to, because I appreciate Will Smith and the way he made the character his own. I did think the casting choices were great, even though Jafar was weak. Sauce and Jasmine Song just didn't fit in the movie to me. Outside the movie, sure it's great, but in the movie it does whatever. So I'm going to give the live action Aladdin a four point five out of six.
Speaker 3:Oh, I think mine's higher than yours. I would actually OK, I'll give it a four, point five or a five, because the longer I watched it the more I liked it, if you'd asked me in the first 30 minutes when the Jeannie was blue and I'm just having my brains having to delete the Robin Williams version to pick up on this one. But I would still give it a five because it's such a good story regardless.
Speaker 2:Well, that is January for it. This is our last episode of January. We'll get right into the month of love with a police drama.
Speaker 3:Not to get chinned the most.
Speaker 2:Yeah, police drama we're going to be watching, isn't it? The the?
Speaker 3:hottie from. He's the hottie from OC, oc, right.
Speaker 2:Well, he's also Commissioner Gordon from the show Gotham. That's what I know him from.
Speaker 3:Is that that fits for us? I know him from a, from a teenage drama.
Speaker 2:Well, and also there's another guy in there who was on the Walking Dead, so I'm excited to watch Southland. I've seen some clips from the show before, so I think it'll be interesting. So we're going to be watching all five seasons. There are five seasons. They're all on to be. So, katie, what would you like to leave us with for Aladdin?
Speaker 1:Already on line.
Speaker 2:We'll give you such a crick in the neck.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to Nady and Katie at the Moody's. Feel free to leave us a review so people can find the show. Follow us on all our social media platforms and if there's a movie that you want us to watch, feel free to contact us at nadyandkatyatgmailcom. Thanks for listening and have a great day.