Fantasy Guy Ritchie Directing Disney's Aladdin

[Loden Greatstorm]

t:

 

[Kane52630]

‘Aladdin’ to Feature New Songs from ‘La La Land’ Songwriters and Alan Menken

http://collider.com/live-action-aladdin-new-songs/

Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, and Tim Rice did some outstanding music for 1992’s animated Aladdin including hits like “One Jump Ahead”, “Friend Like Me”, “Prince Ali”, and “A Whole New World.” Now Guy Ritchie is adapting the animated classic into a live-action feature, and while it will retain the songs from the original, Menken and La La Land songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are adding a few new tunes to the lineup.

Speaking to Variety, Pasek and Paul revealed what they’ve added to the movie:

“We got to write a new song for Jasmine,” Paul tells Variety. “Alan wrote a beautiful piece of music and [Scott] is incredible.”



They also wrote a duet for Aladdin and Jasmine. “It’s a sweet song,” Paul said.



They even got to write a new verse for the original film’s “Arabian Nights.”

On the one hand, I’m glad that Jasmine gets her own song, and hopefully it will be as good as the ones that Aladdin and the Genie get. On the other hand, it takes some serious stones to think, “You know, ‘A Whole New World’ is a classic, but let’s see if we can give them another duet that’s just as good.” To Pasek and Paul’s credit, they know how to write catchy, fun tunes, so it will still probably be fine.

The additions of new songs shouldn’t be too surprising when you consider that the same was done with the live-action Beauty and the Beast, and while none of the new additions were particularly memorable, they didn’t exactly hurt the movie at the box office.

 

[Drizzle]

They should just cut the bull**** and say "We're only doing this so we can score a Best Original Song Oscar".

 

[Pink Ranger]

They should just cut the bull**** and say "We're only doing this so we can score a Best Original Song Oscar".

Deadpool 2 set the bar for everyone this year.

 

[JP]

Pasek and Paul were announced like a year ago btw.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Well, having the composers of Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land on board almost guarantees your film will be vastly overrated.

 

[Drizzle]

Well, having the composers of Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land on board almost guarantees your film will be vastly overrated.

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[Doctor Jones]

Aladdin pretty much as the perfect songs in it, so I just don't see the point in this at all. It's like trying to add more frosting to an already perfect cake. So all you're left with is the idea of seeing your favorite movies in live action with a couple more songs. That's not worth remaking an entire movie at all. And it'll be perfectly acceptable. Because making acceptable movies are the new horrible these days. I really don't see anybody continuing to talk about the Beauty and the Beast remake in a way they talk about the original or any great Disney film.

I get if you want to remake these stories, perhaps go back to the original fairy tale source material and rework it from the ground up. That's at least something. But Disney is just remaking their own movies which are already perfect as is.

If you want to remake their own movies, maybe remake the ones that are solid but aren't Golden Age level like Hunchback and Pocahontas.

 

[Fincher]

Aladdin pretty much as the perfect songs in it, so I just don't see the point in this at all. It's like trying to add more frosting to an already perfect cake.

Depends on who you ask. I'm not too big on the original Aladdin, so I see this as an opportunity to maybe make a version I would like. Granted, I don't think Disney's making this with people who didn't appreciate the older one in mind, but still.

I do really like The Little Mermaid and am interested in that remake, but that has the potential to be visually amazing.

 

[Drizzle]

Aladdin pretty much as the perfect songs in it, so I just don't see the point in this at all. It's like trying to add more frosting to an already perfect cake.

I was being a little sarcastic with my earlier response about the Best Original Song Oscar bait new songs but the other major reason why it's done is to pad out the running time so it's easier to stretch a 90 minute movie into 2 hours.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Depends on who you ask. I'm not too big on the original Aladdin, so I see this as an opportunity to maybe make a version I would like. Granted, I don't think Disney's making this with people who didn't appreciate the older one in mind, but still.

I do really like The Little Mermaid and am interested in that remake, but that has the potential to be visually amazing.

And this is kind of the problem. Nothing against you, but I don't even think Disney is making these movies in order to cater to a minority who didn't care for it. I know you don't care for the original and that's fine, but you have to admit, most people love the movie and it's acclaimed for a reason. So who is it for? Everyone who loves the original movie? Well, everyone pretty much loves the original movie for a reason. Because it's great as is. So what's its purpose to make this entire thing worth making? There doesn't seem to be any artistic inspiration behind this. The only inspiration is to make money in a certain quarter because it's a safe bet.

None of that is really worth it. It's like remaking The Dark Knight where Joker is perma-white and Two-Face survives. That might appease some nitpicky fans with certain preferences, a very small minority, but you're already remaking a great movie that people love. What the hell are those changes gonna do exactly to really improve or do anything? It just comes off as product because it's something you know.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I was being a little sarcastic with my earlier response about the Best Original Song Oscar bait new songs but the other major reason why it's done is to pad out the running time so it's easier to stretch a 90 minute movie into 2 hours.

I hear you. But I wonder what those 30 more minutes are really gonna do to change everything we know about Aladdin? Maybe Jasmyne will be more independent. Maybe it'll be more modern. Maybe there will be a new sub plot. Or we're just gonna see **** dragged out.

...

It'll probably be stuff like that. It's like Belle teaching girls to read and her being some inventor in the Beauty and the Beast remake. Wow, look how modern she is! It didn't effect the plot or re-shape the original movie. It's like they wanted to stay true to the original that was already perfect but then needed to add things because they don't want to do everything the same, but those little, new details are just superfluous and makes things worse. It's superficial.

 

[smallville fan]

Just want to check, A Whole New World is still in the movie most likely?

 

[Drizzle]

Just want to check, A Whole New World is still in the movie most likely?

It'll be in it for sure. The article said that they're keeping the songs from the original, and since that's the most popular song to come from that movie I'm sure there'll also be a new pop cover of it like they did with "Beauty and the Beast".

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

Am I the only person that doesn't care much for the songs?

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

Yeah, compared the other movies in the Renaissance-era, I think Aladdin might have the weakest soundtrack. Still love the movie, but in that regard it doesn’t match up to say, The Little Mermaid, or Beauty and the Beast, or even The Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

[Kane52630]

Am I the only person that doesn't care much for the songs?

Yes. Yes you are.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Yeah, compared the other movies in the Renaissance-era, I think Aladdin might have the weakest soundtrack. Still love the movie, but in that regard it doesn’t match up to say, The Little Mermaid, or Beauty and the Beast, or even The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I would pit:

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and

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and

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or

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against any of the other songs in those other Disney films.

 

[jmc]

Will the actors be singing in this or will autotune once again be helping them out?

 

[chamber-music]

Will the actors be singing in this or will autotune once again be helping them out?

Well Naomi Scott can sing. Will Smith can rap obviously. Billy Magnussen can sing as he did in the movie musical Into The Woods.

 

[sueb1863]

Didn't Howard Ashman die during production of Aladdin? I remember one of the reviewers saying that you could really tell which songs he worked on and which ones he didn't. For example, Ashman didn't write the Prince Ali reprise after Jafar gains power and the lyrics quality difference was noticeable.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

Yes. Yes you are.

Well I'm glad I'm not a sheep.

 

[Broseph44]

Well I'm glad I'm not a sheep.

So since we care about and like the songs in these films we are sheep?

 

[Drizzle]

Didn't Howard Ashman die during production of Aladdin? I remember one of the reviewers saying that you could really tell which songs he worked on and which ones he didn't. For example, Ashman didn't write the Prince Ali reprise after Jafar gains power and the lyrics quality difference was noticeable.

Yeah, Ashman wrote "Arabian Nights", "Prince Ali" and my favorite song from the movie (and many others, I'm sure), "Friend Like Me". Tim Rice wrote "A Whole New World", "One Jump Ahead" and the "Prince Ali" reprise. Personally, I don't think there's a bad song in the bunch. Alan Menken deserves just as much credit as well, but he's a composer first.

Ashman actually wrote a lot more songs but they rewrote the script during production and he was either too ill or had already passed by that point.

 

[MOVIELORD101]

Well, having the composers of Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land on board almost guarantees your film will be vastly overrated.

They also did the songs for The Greatest Showman, which is far better than those two.