Disney's classic hit Aladdin has been remade with… Will Smith as the Blue Genie, prompting endless lampooning of Guy Ritchie's vision of the classic on social media. The movie will be released on 24 May and stars Mena Massoud, who takes the leading role as the movie's protagonist as well as Marwan Kenzari as Jafar and Naomi Scott as Jasmine.
NEW trailer for Disney's #Aladdin gives the first look at Will Smith as Genie! pic.twitter.com/NTvmiWRN40
— GameSpot (@GameSpot) February 11, 2019
"I wanted a muscular 1970s dad," Director Richie said about Will Smith's version "He was big enough to feel like a force — not so muscular that he looked like he was counting his calories, but formidable enough to look like you knew when he was in the room.”
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Smith said at the time: “Whenever you’re doing things that are iconic, it’s always terrifying/ The question is always: Where was there meat left on the bone? Robin didn’t leave a lot of meat on the bone with the character.”
Disney's live-action teaser has parted the waters of the Internet in a "haters vs. hype" flurry of comments. Immediately when visiting Twitter, one can witness the magic unfold.
— Sir BBG Cater (@jayfan07) February 11, 2019
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) February 11, 2019
— PJ (@kickthepj) February 11, 2019
— Brian Drolet (@briandrolet) February 11, 2019
— Chris Demarais💩 (@ChrisDemarais) February 11, 2019
Some stuck to their convictions and rushed to defend the new trailer:
— IGZ (@igzrap) February 11, 2019
— Paul Shirey (@arcticninjapaul) February 11, 2019
Will Smith, 50, said that the late actor Robin William “infused the character with a timeless version of himself” and decided he would do the same.
“I started to feel confident that I could deliver something that was an homage to Robin Williams but was musically different,” Smith said. “Just the flavour of the character would be different enough and unique enough that it would be in a different lane, versus trying to compete.”
