How Aladdin Changes the Animated Version’s Music and Lyrics - Vanity Fair

How Aladdin Changes the Animated Version’s Music and Lyrics - Vanity Fair

Aside from Robin Williams’s iconic performance as Genie, the most enduring aspect of Disney’s 1992 Aladdin is the film’s soundtrack, with unforgettable music composed by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. In Disney’s new live-action iteration, directed by Guy Ritchie, that music stays largely the same, a testament to the soundtrack’s classic staying power.

However—Disney has also allowed a handful of changes and new additions that will tweak the ear of any fan of the first Aladdin. The changes range from subtle lyric twists to new songs, including a much-ballyhooed number for Jasmine written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

Let’s start with some of the more minor, but noticeable changes. In “Prince Ali,” the marquee number Genie uses to introduces Aladdin’s royal alter ego, the music has been amped up to have more of an Agrabah-meets-Mardi-Gras big band effect. Performance-wise, Smith picks to emphasize totally different inflection points than Williams, differentiating himself in subtle ways. Lyrically, there are two notable changes; in the original “Prince Ali,” there’s a line where the people rattle off the prince’s bonafides, at one point singing “He’s got slaves, he’s got servants and flunkies!” Which—problematic. In the new version, the line is changed to “He’s got 10,000 servants and flunkies!” Great!

Not so necessary? Changing the lyric “Heard your princess was a sight/Lovely to see” to be “Heard your princess was HOT/Where is she?” Hm! Maybe the Kids These Days don’t understand what it means to call someone “a sight to see,” but it is nonetheless a lyrical tweak that sticks out like a sore (HOT) thumb.

Also problematic? “Arabian Nights,” the introductory song that whisks viewers into the mysterious world of Agrabah. In the original film, there’s a lyric that goes “Oh, I come from a land/From a faraway place/Where the caravan camels roam/Where they cut off your ear/If they don’t like your face/It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” Those last few lines kicked up backlash after the 1992 film was released, so the song was edited for the film’s home video release—tweaking the lyrics to “Where it’s flat and immense/And the heat is intense/It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.”

The new Aladdin takes things a step further, changing those lines so they go, “Where you wander among / Every culture and tongue / It’s chaotic, but hey, it’s home.” So, bye-bye, “barbaric.” Unlike in the animated feature, the Genie himself sings this version of “Arabian Nights,” keeping him busy from the very first moment of the movie. (In the original film, the song was performed by Bruce Adler, a Broadway vet.)

“Friend Like Me” is still Genie’s biggest song in the movie, just like in the original. Like “Prince Ali,” it’s kept mostly the same, though its sound has been upgraded to a more robust, big band feel. Smith occasionally rap-sings and deploys different accents in order to distance himself somewhat from Williams’s bold original version. For example, in the original movie, Williams sings the line “Life is your restaurant/And I’m your maître d” with a nasally French accent; Smith opts for a British one.

But the biggest change to “Friend Like Me” arrives at the end of the film, when the credits roll and it’s revealed that Smith and DJ Khaled made a hip hop remix of the classic song. Let me repeat: a hip hop remix. Like, Men in Black-style. It’s 2 pure minutes and 39 pure seconds of Smith rapping in character as the Genie. Sample line: “This is your chance, man/Wish from your soul/When I’m out of the lamp, man/I’m out of control!” (And yes, comedian Dami Adejuyigbe totally called it two years ago with his impression of Smith’s end credits music.)

Speaking of new songs: the number that generated the most buzz ahead of the film was the new song that Pasek and Paul wrote for Princess Jasmine (played by Naomi Scott, who has a great voice!). That song is “Speechless,” an empowerment ballad sung the princess sings to basically tell all the men in her life that she won’t be quiet or pushed into a corner! Hashtag feminism! It‘s all very modern and, stylistically, a step away from the movie’s established sonic landscape, but hey—it’s nice for the princess to finally get a big standalone moment.

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Yohana DestaYohana Desta is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.

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2019-05-24 02:00:00Z

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