Fantasy Guy Ritchie Directing Disney's Aladdin

[Legendver2]

So far the two most successful of these Disney cartoon to live-action films IMO have been Cinderella and The Jungle Book.

In particular, Jungle Book actually improved on the animated film.

I feel there’s more freedom in adapting the earlier Disney animated classics than the newer ones.

Dumbo probably will turn out to be the better out of the three (Aladdin, Lion King) this year because there’s more you can do with it.

Personally, with Lion King being my favorite of the Disney animated features in the 90's, and seeing as how Jungle Book turned out, I already know I'm gonna be wowed by Lion King. But this confidence also puts me in a position to get disappointed

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Now at 26k likes, 30k dislikes on the official channel. Just from a marketing point of view this is a disaster.

 

[Lencho01]

Beast’s CGI was really bad too.

I don’t think Disney cares too much about that. As long as it’s “good enough,” they’re fine.

Except that had they just painted Will Smith blue and CGI'ed out his legs some of the time (Genie did have legs at some points in the animated film), he still would've looked like Genie. Just not nearly as cartoonish and over-the-top from an anatomical standpoint.

This seems like creating more work for themselves than they needed to, and the results are borderline creepy.

Well, I still imagine they want Genie to look as close as possible to the animated version, but with Will Smith’s face. I don’t know... are they first to depict genies in that style? Like colorful humans with bigger builds than the average person? Either way, I can see why they didn’t want to deviate too far from that look. I do agree that at least adding the glow may have helped.

Sure, they could’ve done a better mocap and performance capture for it, but I don’t think Disney has cared that much to do so with these adaptations. At least, not for all of them.

And if they had actually made Smith wear blue makeup, I think people would still complain and still make comparisons to Arrested Development or Blue Man Group or whatever.

 

[Guts]

A little odd how a movie that came out ten years ago has better looking blue people than a modern Disney movie.

 

[Micromind]

Some of the Disney's live action fantasy movies/ remakes have underperfomed.

Mary Poppins Returns, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The BFG..

Can't say where this will land.

 

[redfirebird2008]

A little odd how a movie that came out ten years ago has better looking blue people than a modern Disney movie.

People thought Avatar’s blue guy looked bad in the first teaser trailer. Turned out a lot better in the actual movie. Of course Guy Ritchie is no James Cameron.

I believe that Avatar trailer was a year in advance, not 3 months like Aladdin. Plus as you mentioned, we are 10 years down the road in VFX. Pretty embarrassing for Disney.

 

[Abudefduf]

Did they say this was not a musical and would not have the actors singing the musical numbers?

No that's what they said about Mulan (only to retract it later).

God bless Disney, I have been laughing at this all day

I genuinely can't look at the Genie without laughing.

He reminds me of this gif

 

[Lencho01]

Looks good to me guys. Looks like a Genie

I think there would be less issue if he looked this good in motion as far as that teaser goes. This looks more like a final product to me.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

Something is just off with this movie.

 

[Micromind]

If things don't improve, they could release it to their new streaming service, Disney+

 

[Hunter Rider]

I don't know what I was expecting, but something about that gave me Casper vibes and I definitely was not expecting that, lol.

And yeah, most of the casting just seems...off.

I quite liked Casper.

 

[harlequinade]

The memes this have given us are already amazing, just imagine what people will do with even more footage

 

[Legendver2]

Well, I still imagine they want Genie to look as close as possible to the animated version, but with Will Smith’s face. I don’t know... are they first to depict genies in that style? Like colorful humans with bigger builds than the average person? Either way, I can see why they didn’t want to deviate too far from that look. I do agree that at least adding the glow may have helped.

Sure, they could’ve done a better mocap and performance capture for it, but I don’t think Disney has cared that much to do so with these adaptations. At least, not for all of them.

And if they had actually made Smith wear blue makeup, I think people would still complain and still make comparisons to Arrested Development or Blue Man Group or whatever.

Someone on reddit mentioned that this looks like someone deepfaked Will Smith's face onto Genie, and that's probably the most accurate description of what it looks like. And to be honest, even that promo still looks off, in that his eye's don't seem to be looking in the exact direction of Aladdin, so the mocap is off as well.

People thought Avatar’s blue guy looked bad in the first teaser trailer. Turned out a lot better in the actual movie. Of course Guy Ritchie is no James Cameron.

I believe that Avatar trailer was a year in advance, not 3 months like Aladdin. Plus as you mentioned, we are 10 years down the road in VFX. Pretty embarrassing for Disney.

To be fair, Avatar's blue people didn't really need to replicate an actual real life person's face onto a CGI body, so the overall result isn't as creepy or divisive. The problem with this is, I don't understand why they can't just create an original face for Genie that resembles Will Smith, like what they did with Hulk and Thanos which worked out wonderfully. Instead, they put Smith's ACTUAL face on it, which resulted in whatever the hell this is.

 

[samsnee]

A little odd how a movie that came out ten years ago has better looking blue people than a modern Disney movie.

To be fair, no one had a preconceived notion what they should look like, nor did they try to make them look like the actors playing them.

Disney wants to cash in on Smith's appearance so they weren't going to make him look unrecognizable.

 

[redfirebird2008]

To be fair, Avatar's blue people didn't really need to replicate an actual real life person's face onto a CGI body, so the overall result isn't as creepy or divisive. The problem with this is, I don't understand why they can't just create an original face for Genie that resembles Will Smith, like what they did with Hulk and Thanos which worked out wonderfully. Instead, they put Smith's ACTUAL face on it, which resulted in whatever the hell this is.

I agree, they should not have given us Will's actual face. He has one of the most recognizable voices in the world. Did they think the audience was too stupid to figure out who Genie is without showing his actual face? Hulk and Thanos are very good examples of how it should be done.

 

[-JKR-]

I still maintain my position that there was absolutely no need for him to be blue in the movie, and that his "human look" would've worked perfectly fine for the entirety of the movie.

 

[harlequinade]

Considering how bad it looks Disney should have just not reveal that....form in the actual marketing

Have people be surprised and puke all over each other when they see it in the movie

 

[kaypain]

I still maintain my position that there was absolutely no need for him to be blue in the movie, and that his "human look" would've worked perfectly fine for the entirety of the movie.

Now you know there would been greater outrage if he wasnt blue

 

[DarkKnight88]

Eh, I don’t think it’s as bad as the internet is making it out to be. But that’s par the course for this kind of thing.

They should definitely release an actual trailer soon though to calm people’s fears. Show more of him instead of one single reveal scene.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Eh, I don’t think it’s as bad as the internet is making it out to be. But that’s par the course for this kind of thing.

They should definitely release an actual trailer soon though to calm fears of people.

What if they just decide to hide it until release day? If they've made disaster-level mistakes in casting and VFX, they might be better off not showing anything else until they are forced to release the full movie.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Well, “damage” is done so at least with a trailer they can cut something pretty spectacular even if the product isn’t.

Disney is fantastic with their trailers.

 

[harlequinade]

I mean....NOPE

 

[Silvermoon]

I actually don't mind the look of Genie all that much. Still looking forward to the movie

 

[samsnee]

Effin' green screen

 

[harlequinade]

The first teaser for this was not bad because at least it looked finished, why do studios release promos where there's so much CGI which is obviously not done yet? It's not gonna have the desired effect