Home Show Aladdin 2019

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Now Network, welcome, because it is time for another home show.
Number 462 for those of you playing the home game.
My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse Podcast, and we will be sitting
back a little bit on this one, because I don't know how I am going to feel about what
we are about to talk about, but I am not alone sitting in the co-host chair, is my co-host,
and a man who I think is taking the same route as I am on this, he is Chad, welcome, sir.
I am intrigued and awaiting with baited breath.
Rounding out the Deus is the most important person to this episode, because he is the only
one that has seen it, and he is a wonder of Caves himself, he is Alex, welcome, sir.
First, Yikes, second, we got a shout out, and thank everybody at Levinson, especially
Steve, because they let Alex come see the new version of Aladdin, shout out JT, we love
our vendors, they take care of us, they let us see movies and stuff early, so we can talk
to you guys about them, so you can spend your entertainment dollar wisely.
And we did get to see it in IMAX, so I noticed how the picture you took.
It was a very, very good picture, IMAX, just to be honest, that way we can frame this properly.
1992.
What a time.
Right on that?
Yes.
The original?
Uh-huh.
Or the Disney original anyway.
Which I own on LaserDisc, by the way.
It's right over there.
Robin Williams plays the genie.
Gilbert Godfried as Yago.
Oh, there's a surprise.
God, you scared the fool out of me.
I might have a hot attack and die from that surprise.
No Bryson.
Was it Roberta Flak that did a whole nother?
I believe so.
Or was it a beat Baker?
No.
No.
It was not a beat Baker.
Okay.
I feel like Roberta Flak wasn't right either.
If only we had this tool that could look-
You guys are both doing it right now.
Hey, I'm that tool looking it up, hold on.
No, it wasn't Roberta Flak, I can tell you that, and I can see her and I can't think of her name.
Wow, goodness mercy.
We go back to Agrabah in real life.
Ish.
Because it's live action.
I thought you had it, dude.
I'm wondering if there is two versions of-
Regina Bell.
Thank you very much.
But what I'm seeing right now is I think it might have been the movie version which was Leah Solonga.
In the movie, but not the one that went and played on the radio.
Right.
Regina Bell and Pito Pivo Bryson.
That's it, yeah.
Yep.
Smart as made a live.
Thank you.
Will Smith plays the genie this go round?
And he is Will Smith.
Guy Richie directs this.
Although there is an interesting tidbit on that behind the scenes.
Go ahead.
Your original screenplay and you could tell where Disney was trying to go with this.
Tim Burton's writer.
Well, Guy Richie's created as the co-writer.
Right.
He three wrote parts to make it more his.
Meena Mossad plays Aladdin Naomi Scott plays Jasmine.
Marwan Kanzari plays Jafar.
Nassim Pedrod from SNL plays Dala.
Prince Anders played by Billy Magnuson.
And Alan Tudyk plays Yago.
Barely.
Let's not-
You saw it.
You saw it.
You got to talk about it.
Let's start off with some good.
Naomi Scott, I haven't seen her in much since Teranova went under from Fox.
I did not see Power Rangers last year.
I very much enjoyed that show.
I very much enjoyed that show with Teranova.
She-
She's going to be in the new Charles Angels.
Yes, she is.
She is a star.
Okay.
There was-
I'm trying to stay spoiler free.
There were some more to this movie that allowed her to showcase.
Um, as a more full character than the original Jasmine who-
I'll be it.
My favorite Disney princess, I think.
And she sounds like she's from London.
Because she is.
She did not sound like that.
So as much as you wanted to-
She warned that one in because jokes-
You're welcome.
She was great.
She was absolutely great as Jasmine.
Uh, it fit-
She-
Who ever did the cost of-
What a more favorite Disney princesses?
Yeah.
Whoever did the costuming did a great job.
Okay.
There's an easy one.
Uh, an easy win for them.
I enjoyed the movie.
I-
I had super low expectations.
This may be my this year's Bumblebee, but I think there's more issues with this one.
Costume designed by Michael Wilkinson.
Michael Wilkinson did great.
A-
Making a live adaptation of cartoons is never going to be easy.
Especially when it's Disney.
Especially Disney.
And there's the same guy that did American hustle, tron, legacy, and 300.
Yeah.
It's a costume designer.
There's a lot in this movie that is purely for an nostalgia sake.
But then there's other parts where-
As much as I enjoyed the movie, it's not a good movie.
It-
It's just not.
Um, there are multiple times where you're sitting there going,
Are there only four sets to this entire thing?
And then the worst part is you see that they actually went to the Kingdom of Jordan to shoot part of it.
And you mentioned that in your review currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
That's our website.
About specifically about a whole new world where you said would you say like it felt like they went like a two mile radius?
Yeah, I believe that was the exact phrase.
But I mean, because when you think about the cartoon and they cover all these, let's call them the wonders of the world.
And-
That I can show you those.
Yeah, thanks.
But in this one, it's like, hey, I have a magic carpet.
Let's just, you know, tool around the city a little bit.
And it feels very underwhelming.
Especially when it's not much better than two people on a quote unquote carpet in front of a green screen.
And you can see them acting like kids on a roller coaster.
It's a little bizarre.
Was it very SNLE?
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah, which is interesting since one of the better characters is from SNL.
Although I don't know if I needed her making a body joke or her love interest being the genie.
That was-
Hey.
I mean, it's everybody needs love, sir.
Everybody needs love.
But at the same time, it's one of those where it's like, this is shoehorned.
We don't need this.
So let's finish with that bad to circle back to my biggest issue.
I thought going in was going to be Blue Will Smith.
Will Smith did a great job.
This might have been his most enjoyable work in over a decade.
I mentioned that in the review as well, located at the class.
I'm sorry, what?
This might have been his most enjoyable work for me in over a decade.
I did that for you, sir, because I read it in this review.
But I-
And I'm going to ask the question I know that is on Chad's mind.
And he and I have not talked about this.
Go on.
I have to ask about a friend like me.
Yeah.
There's two versions.
But I just- I find that particular song to be hard to do.
It is.
It is very hard to do, but much like many things in this movie pertaining to that.
I actually think the man said it best.
I'm not going to be able to do what Robin Williams did.
Nobody will.
But he took parts of it that, you know, you had to fit in because context
and there's such love for the Robin Williams portrayal, even if animated.
But he does make it his own.
There are certain aspects where it doesn't play because it's not Robin Williams improving.
But he doesn't try to be Robin Williams in that as much as it's just hitting on the notes.
He made a living space.
That not as great because he doesn't have the-
He's not Robin Williams.
Voice talent.
Yeah.
Range of Robin Williams.
But this is what concerns me about this film too.
Because I just feel like this is not one that needed to be translated.
No, it doesn't.
None of them need to be translated.
Let's be honest.
Well, I will tell you the one I'm very intrigued by is next.
No.
Or is next year.
Mulan's the one I'm intrigued by.
Right.
See, and I have no basis for that one.
You've never seen it.
Just on on you.
Just on on your family.
Just on on your cows.
Now, I thought you were going to ask me about a difference number in the movie based on how it's so easily to play it in an animated form.
You talk about Prince Ali.
Prince Ali.
Yes, it is.
Oh, I bought one.
You know him.
It actually played great.
I was shocked how well it came across.
But see, I would see that would come across in a very Bollywood kind of way.
You're not far off.
Yeah.
But to me, that one would be easy to translate.
But to me, because.
Of course, like me is the one that would.
Now, for me, Prince Ali was the one I was worried about based on how much of the fantastical goes into the animated picture that they did play well.
But there is a subtle change to that to the Prince Ali in this version from the 1992.
That plays better, and I can't believe I'm going to say is that plays better in the story than it did in the cartoon.
Now, it's a very subtle moment, and I'm not going to tell you what it is.
I'll tell you off air if you want.
But I'm not going to say it here.
What about Abu?
Oh, let's just lump this all together.
Iago, carpet, Abu.
All pretty much a waste in live action.
Now, they hit points that they had to hit for story content.
But there's nothing you can do live action that the cartoon doesn't do better.
I felt like a boob did a better performance in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I'm just saying.
Well, I know they got Wilkert to come back to be his voice again.
I don't know if they really caught him back as much as they used the same tape.
I probably said that.
Hey, let's be honest.
Don't worry, Jack.
Yeah.
I know they got him to do that and to do the cable wonders voice again.
Well, Abu doesn't really do anything in this.
There's no subtle speaking.
There's nothing from Abu in this.
But between that, I am deeply disappointed in the Iago character more than anything else.
Because Alan Tudyk is a fantastic talent.
Yes, he is.
And one of the things that I really enjoyed from the original was the interplay between Iago and Jafar
that allowed them to let you into the interworkings of why this guy is evil.
Have a cracker.
Yeah, except for the fact that they played Iago like an actual parrot who happens to speak a few extra words.
Instead of actually being able to converse.
Oh, man.
It's just gotten Gilbert Godfried.
I agree.
He can't.
From what I understand, he campaigned to come back.
What else is he doing?
Well, what really killed me is who was campaigning real hard to play Jafar?
Go on.
It's who they were asking who they asked originally and he turned them down.
I'm waiting, still waiting.
One Sir Patrick Stewart.
I could see that a lot better.
He said that he's regretted turning that roll down ever since he did it.
And he pushed real hard to get this.
Allow me to put it this way.
I could see that a lot better having seen both films.
Because much like the huge fan of the original Disney Aladdin that I am.
I like Jafar and Scar.
Those are my two big villains that I really enjoyed.
Because they're very charming.
My new favorite Disney T-shirt that I saw when I was in Orlando.
It's Scar and it says Simba.
I am your uncle.
Go go.
But while...
No.
No, that's for the T-shirt.
The T-shirt gets that.
Okay.
Because I like the T-shirt.
But Marwan Kinsari crushes every role he or every scene he's in.
But he's not the Jafar I was expecting.
And I had a hard time rectifying that.
Even though with a live action.
Because the Jafar from the animated movies.
I'm going to go that far.
And it's allude to the other.
You would know him from Murder on the Or in Express.
He was in the new version of Ben Hurr.
Most recently he was in this new what happened to Monday on Netflix.
Yes.
He was in the newest mummy.
But the hard part with him is the fact that Jafar is such a tall slender.
A conniving character that has that voice that lures you into his plans.
And this guy has a high pitch voice that is strictly like...
I'm trying to think of how to say this without blatantly saying like...
If you want to go with somebody being stereotyped into a role of a terrorist.
That's how he plays Jafar in this.
I would have loved if they would have gotten Kingsley to do this.
Oh, Kingsley would have been great.
But the thing is, is it's like...
He did the best he could with what he had to work with.
It's just the fact that...
He felt whiny.
He really felt whiny with his voice.
Like there's something about the fact that if you just made him a baritone.
I don't think I would have found him as...
Meh.
Oh, apparently the scene Pedro was on SNL for nine seasons.
Yes.
I believe she was a writer for a number of them.
And she's currently done a pilot called Chad.
No, that's true.
It's about a Parisian kid coming of age, but yeah.
Yeah, but she is the handmaiden to Jasmine and Dahlia,
who is the comic relief aside from Genie.
So they redid a number of the songs, including Arabian Knights,
which I...
The opening is not the opening that you should expect.
They do it very differently.
Now, are you familiar with the rumor of the meaning to the opening of the 92 one?
I've slept since then.
That the man in the bazaar trying to sell you something is either just trying to sell you something
with a fantastical story, or it's actually the Genie in a different form.
Because the voice is Robin Williams.
Right.
So this thing's almost two hours and ten minutes long, sir.
It doesn't feel that long.
It doesn't feel two hours and ten minutes,
but that's probably because there's like one set for everything they do in the city.
So it was like an NBC live musical.
It felt a lot like that.
There was a number of times where something else was going on and I went,
isn't that the same set from ten minutes ago?
Because it's literally...
It was a restaurant and now it's the bazaar.
Well, it's...
The palace looks great, but everything feels claustrophobic.
Very, very tight.
Very tight.
Like a twiger?
Yes.
Okay, I'm gonna give you that one.
But...
No.
But for something that's supposed to be so grand as the Kingdom of Agrava.
Everything feels his pain.
It feels his pain.
Yes.
It feels like the entire city has an itty bitty living space.
Any more questions?
Bring it.
Is there anybody else that you feel like was horribly miscasted?
You would have rather seen played by somebody else.
I was available.
It's all I'm saying.
Interestingly enough, no.
Everybody fit their role.
Everybody did a great job.
One of the things that my personal preference on these type of movies where there are musical numbers.
Everybody did their own singing.
Everybody did their own singing and it wasn't as...
It wasn't forced.
It felt very natural, especially from Naomi Scott and Meena Masood.
But that kid really embodied Aladdin better than I expected.
It was cracking me up whenever I was hearing people saying, well, you know...
Will Smith's got no business doing it.
Between Will Smith and Robin Williams, which one of them actually had a successful recording career?
As a musician, what's your definition of successful?
What's your definition of recording?
Well, come on.
I mean, I would say that Robin Williams has the higher selling album.
Not as a musical artist though.
It depends on what you consider a friend like me and the soundtrack to your Latin 1992.
I just...
I don't know.
There is literally nothing added by this movie.
They change a couple of things up to try and modernize certain things.
There's a couple of scenes added that weren't in the original that do play okay.
But I got nothing out of it.
I mean, I mean, I enjoyed it.
I love the music. It's still there.
I still love the story.
I enjoyed it.
I mean, I can't...
It's one of those...
I expected to hate it at this point because I felt like it was going to, you know, step on my childhood.
It didn't do that.
It did enough for my nostalgia while not necessarily being a great movie.
Did they work in that lost number that they put in the DVD?
Whatever they re-released in a couple years back, that proud of your boy song?
No, they didn't.
Okay.
All right.
Well, let's get to the final analysis.
Maybe you do the final analysis on the show.
We're not going to give you thumbs-up, thumbs-down.
Letters, numbers.
Great.
Plants.
Plants.
Plants.
Plants.
Plants.
Plants.
Plants.
Plants.
That's for me.
Fail.
Up to two questions.
Question number one.
One...
Well, they have lanterns.
Maybe along.
Question number one will be, what Alex see this again?
If the answers know than we're done here.
If the answer is yes, the follow-up question will be, how far is he willing to go to do so?
From the best to the best of the worst of the best, here is the order.
Full price of the theater down to a Twilight show-in down to a matinee show end under early morning on a weekend.
Down to second run of the dollar theatre.
him actually leaving his house to get it from a red box type deal, down to him streaming
it, down to him watching it on cable. Alex, would you see the 2019 version of Aladdin
again? Yeah, I would. How far you willing to go to do so? I got to answer this in two
parts. Okay. So if the sensational Shawnee wanted to go see it because she's a big
Disney fan, I'd do an early screening on the weekend. I don't even know what to do for
that. That's what you get for that. That's all I got. Okay. Now, part two is if it's
just for me, I'm not going anywhere to see it, but I will throw it on on the TV. Okay,
fairness. Guy Richie directly 2019 live action remake of Aladdin. Thank you to Levinson
and JT and everybody over there. They take care of us so well. They let us see movies
and stuff before they come out so we can talk to you guys about them and you can make
the choice best choices for your entertainment dollar. Let's do the plugs. Visit our website
the aforementioned www.theclubhousepodcast.com. That's where you'll find Alex's written
review and so much more. Follow us on social media, Twitter's at clubhouse show. Everything
else is the clubhouse podcast. All three words in that order. Are you wind up somewhere
else? You can follow me on social media if you'd like. Everything is yes. That Rob
Urban. That is about the RBI and I am at Chad NPG 6.9. I am Bexplet on all social media
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live shows and hanging out with the Empire. He is Don at the clubhousepodcast.com. I,
if you would like to email me for the questions, comments, concerns or to tell me to go
poundstand. I just got lost in a loop there for a minute. What in the world? I'm telling
you the wheels just got just a little wobbly there. I am Rob at the clubhousepodcast.com.
I am completely confused. Chad at the clubhouse podcast. That's a long week. Our normal show
every Sunday night, 7 Eastern 4 Pacific is your one stop shop for all things pop culture.
Listen to our secondary show all about pro wrestling called the Cheap Popcast every Sunday
at 5.30 Eastern 2.30 Pacific. Until next time, for Alex, Chad and the Empire, I'm Rob
clubhouse is closed. I mean, the Prince of Leesequans just have Britney Palmer in here.