Disney+ is in the early development stage of a live-action/CG hybrid remake to the 1976 animated classic Robin Hood. The studio is bringing back Kari Granlund, who penned the Lady and the Tramp remake, to write the screenplay for Blindspotting helmer Carlos Lopez Estrada to direct. Justin Springer, who produced the recent Dumbo remake, is producing […]
I loved the new Aladdin film an embarassing amount. I thought it was wonderful. So it was somewhat disheartening to learn that Mena Massoud hasn’t had an audition since, and even more disheartening to see that Billy Magnussen’s white prince character on the other hand is getting his own spin-off for no reason. Oh god Disney, the optics of that, what the heck?
But anyway, an awful lot of the reaction to all this seems to be “So? He wasn’t any good anyway” and that baffles me because he was! He was charming, funny, could sing well, could dance well… he felt like the animated Aladdin come to life, and I can’t be the only person that felt that way, surely?
Massoud was fantastic and thoroughly deserved to win the role, so I hope things get better for him from now on. In the meantime, enjoy these gifs, which I hope adequately display the dude’s range.
(Also? Robert Pattinson was in Twilight for god’s sake. Now he’s Batman. Just sayin’.)
Ah, I see #NotMyAriel is trending on Twitter… *goes to check* Yeah, that’s pretty much what I expected. Ridiculous. I, uh, tend not to applaud Disney for many things but I DO applaud them for casting a black actress as Ariel. She’s a mermaid. Her skin colour (and even her hair colour really) is totally irrelevant.
I’m really curious how this will work with regards to the Disney Princess merchandise and the face characters at the parks, though. Are they going to phase out original Ariel? I hope whatever they do end up doing, they have someone play the new dark-skinned Ariel at the parks, because it would really suck for black children if they come to Disneyland hoping to see the princess mermaid who looks like them and not getting it.
I reckon this tweet I found sums my feelings up best, though I am not a natural redhead:
Anyway! Dudes, she is NOT your Ariel because she’s not supposed to be! She can now be your Ariel AND someone else’s! LET IT GO. (Sorry, wrong movie.)
So I saw the new Aladdin! And the song “Speechless” has awakened something in me, I tell you. Granted, part of it is annoyance that I can’t find the original version, in all of its magnificent rage and anger, in full anywhere on YouTube. But the other part is awe because WHAT A SONG! I remember when ‘Let It Go” came out and I wanted someone to do a furious version of it so bad, and I think “Speechless” is that song! The original Aladdin has the hella creepy line “speechless I see, a fine quality in a wife” from Jafar to Jasmine, and this feels like her 27-years-in-the making rebuttal.
I’ve heard it being called a feminist anthem and I 100% agree with that, but it gets me thinking about how all the Disney princesses are endlessly pitted against each other in a war over who’s Most Feminist, and I think that’s missing the point. I don’t think you can really have a “Most Feminist” anything, you know? Feminism has a LOT of facets and nothing can be one thing to all people.
But! For me personally, Jasmine was the Most Feminist Disney Princess. I was still in primary schoolwhen the original Aladdin came out, if someone asked me what feminism was I’d probably have guessed it was a kind of fruit or something, but I loved Jasmine so freaking much. She was a princess I’d never seen before. I didn’t know the word “badass” then either but if I had that’d have probably been the description I’d have gone for back then. She didn’t do much fighting in the movie but her personality, her desire for freedom and agency, it appealed to me hugely. (She may have been the seed of my ‘a female character doesn’t actually need to grab a weapon to be strong’ philosophy.) I thought she was so, so cool. I even got my mum to hand-sew me a turquoise Princess Jasmine outfit but sadly all evidence of it has been lost to history I believe.
Anyway, just as animated Jasmine was the perfect hero for my six-year-old self, live-action Jasmine feels like the perfect hero for my adult self (and also other six-year-olds.) There are definitely some aspects of the remake I love more than the original -sacrilege, sorry- and Jasmine’s story is one of ’em. The sexism she faces in this one, it’s not just the sexism leveled against a woman in power, it’s the sort of subtle everyday stuff that all women get. One of the most interesting song changes is in “Prince Ali” where, “heard your princess was a sight lovely to see” has become “heard your princess is hot, where is she” and this is sung right in front of Jasmine, and that sort of mild, frustrating objectification will probably be familiar to, let’s say 50% of the audience.
When Jasmine is made Sultan at the end, everything I loved about her as a kid just sort of clicked into place all over again. Of course she should be Sultan! She’s compassionate and smart and unlike Aladdin she actually wants the job! My favourite moment that demonstrates what kind of a person she is happens in both versions, where she sees starving children on the street and instantly hands them an apple: children need to be fed so she’ll feed them, simple as that.
All hail Princess Sultan Jasmine, long may she reign. (Although technically she should’ve been a Sultana. Which, hey is also a kind of fruit! This is a surprisingly fruit-heavy tribute.)
Okay I am not a fan of all these Disney live-action remakes. ON THE OTHER HAND I can’t stop thinking “A live-action Hercules would be a really good excuse for Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson to team up again”
Disney rehired James Gunn, but they didn’t apologise for siding with an alt-right bigot over their POC actors, and unless they do I will probably not ever trust them, to be honest.
I love Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame with all my heart and I’m dreading this remake. If you do it with a non-disabled actor, YOU MISS THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE ORIGINAL. Cast an unknown actor with a real disability. Cast a Romani actress for Esmeralda. Or what’s the point??!
