Aladdin (Live-Action Version)

Aladdin is a remake of the 1992 Disney film.

Plot
The film starts with a street peddler, guiding us through the streets of the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah, which is based mainly on a medieval city in the Middle East, the home of the 1001 Arabian Nights, and there are some inconsistencies in the time period. After trying to sell us on his wares, he pulls out an old oil lamp, claiming it "once changed the course of a young man's life. A young man who like this lamp was more than what he seemed: A diamond, in the rough."

The peddler then begins to tell us a tale, beginning on a dark night, where the Sultan's Grand Vizier, Jafar, meets with a thief named Gazeem, who hands over half of a gold scarab beetle, of which Jafar has the second one. Putting them together, the beetle flies off, before causing a giant tiger's head to rise from the sand: A place known as the Cave of Wonders.

Jafar sends Gazeem to enter, telling him to retrieve a lamp inside. However, upon approaching the Tiger's Head, it speaks that only one may enter: "One whose worth lies far within: the Diamond in the Rough!" Gazeem still attempts to enter upon Jafar's orders, but upon entering the tiger's mouth, it bites down on the thief, closing off the entranceway. It is then that Jafar claims he needs to find the Diamond in the Rough in order to enter. Jafar seeks to become sultan himself and become the new ruler of Agrabah.

The next day, on the streets of Agrabah, a street urchin named Aladdin is struggling to steal a loaf of bread, along with his monkey, Abu. After outwitting some of the palace guards, the two settle down to eat their spoils, but are put off their stomach by a couple of hungry children. Aladdin and Abu give the two their bread, but are then sidetracked when a royal prince marches through the streets, and claims Aladdin to be nothing but "a worthless street rat." Aladdin and Abu then retire to their abode, with Aladdin promising his friend that someday, things will be better and people will see him for what he really is instead of as a public menace.

The sultan, meanwhile, is having problems with finding a prince for his daughter, Princess Jasmine, to marry, especially when the last suitor leaves after pet tiger Rajah bites into his suitor's pants. The Sultan talks to Jasmine, who claims she is tired of living her life being cooped up behind walls. The Sultan goes to consult with his adviser, Jafar. By mesmerizing him with his magical snake staff, Jafar convinces the sultan that Jafar needs the sultan's blue diamond ring to find Jasmine a husband. Jafar actually needs the ring to discover the identity of the "Diamond in the Rough."

Jasmine, who does not want to be married off, decides to run away disguised as a peasant girl. However, her act of giving an apple to a hungry little boy lands her in trouble with the street merchant until Aladdin interferes and leads Jasmine away just in time before she can lose a hand.

Meanwhile, Jafar uses the blue diamond ring of the Sultan's and consults The Sands of Time, and discovers the identity of the "Diamond in the Rough": Aladdin.

Aladdin has retreated with Jasmine to his and Abu's place, and she is rather taken by his kindness. However, Aladdin is suddenly set upon by the Royal Guards. It is then that Jasmine reveals herself to them, demanding Aladdin be released. However, the head of the Royal Guards, Razoul, claims he is acting under orders from Jafar. When Jasmine confronts Jafar, he lies to her by saying he had already been executed for "kidnapping the princess." As Jasmine runs to the water fountain after confronting Jafar, she begins weeping over Aladdin's loss, and Rajah comforts her.

In actuality, Aladdin has been imprisoned in the Royal Dungeon. Abu manages to free Aladdin, but are then met within the dungeon by an older prisoner, in actuality a disguised Jafar, who shows Aladdin a hidden passageway out of the dungeon to free and take him to the Cave of Wonders. At the entrance, Jafar tells Aladdin that if he brings back the lamp, he will be rewarded. The Cave's tiger-shaped head allows Aladdin to enter, but he can only touch the lamp. Aladdin and Abu venture deep into the cavern, where they first encounter a magic carpet, that then leads them to the lamp's location. Aladdin is able to retrieve it, but Abu breaks the rule, and swipes a large ruby, causing the cave to begin to collapse on them. Using the magic carpet, Aladdin and Abu manage to get to the entrance to the cave, where the disguised Jafar pleads for Aladdin to give him the lamp. Aladdin does so, and Jafar then reveals a dagger, intending to kill him. Luckily, Abu bites Jafar, and both Aladdin and Abu fall back into the cavern, as the giant Tiger's Head disappears under the sand.

In the palace, a weeping Jasmine is comforted by the Sultan and tells him that Jafar has done the wrong thing to Aladdin. The Sultan comforts Jasmine and gets her to tell him what happened.

Aladdin, Abu and Carpet are all trapped inside the Cave of Wonders. Jafar then laughingly reaches for the lamp, only to find it is gone, and Abu managed to steal it off him before he fell into the cave with Aladdin.

Deep within the cave, Aladdin begins to examine the lamp, finding a worn inscription on the side of it. Aladdin discovers that the lamp is home to an eccentric, fun-loving genie (simply named "Genie"), who will grant him any three wishes, excluding wishes to force a person to fall in love, to kill someone, to bring someone back from the dead, or to give his master extra wishes.

Aladdin tricks Genie into getting them out of the cave, without technically wishing for him to do so. Once out of the cave, and in a small oasis, Aladdin gets to know Genie, and asks him what he would wish for if he had the chance; Genie says he'd wish for freedom, but that can only be granted if his master is benevolent enough to free him with a wish. Aladdin promises to set Genie free with his last wish.

Aladdin, who has fallen in love with Jasmine, is disappointed that he can't wish to make her fall in love with him. However, the law states that only a prince can marry a princess, so he wishes to become a prince. Therefore,as his first wish, Genie turns Aladdin into a fabulously rich prince, and Abu is transformed into a large white elephant to become Aladdin's mount.

Meanwhile, Jafar, who is worried that Jasmine might have him beheaded as punishment for supposedly having Aladdin executed, comes up with the idea to convince the sultan to let him become her husband with the help of his talking parrot and main assistant, Iago. He later tries to mesmerize the sultan into granting this request with his staff. However, his plans are interrupted when a large and noisy royal procession enters the kingdom, proclaiming the arrival of "Prince Ali Ababwa" (aka Aladdin in his new persona). The procession is huge, with riches, exotic animals, hundreds of servants and Aladdin himself. Aladdin's entourage bounds into the palace, impressing the sultan. Jafar appears suspicious and cold toward the new suitor. Aladdin is taken to Jasmine, who is unimpressed and rebuffs Aladdin's charms, thinking him to be another typical rich and self-important prince. However, when Aladdin removes his hat to shoo away Rajah, Jasmine is reminded of the street urchin.

Aladdin tries to gain Jasmine's interest again by telling her how rich and powerful he is but she remains steadfastly ambivalent. Aladdin decides to leave Jasmine and steps off on his magic carpet. Jasmine chooses instead to ride with him. Afterwards, the carpet takes them to China and Jasmine tricks Aladdin into admitting he's the street urchin she met in the marketplace. Aladdin naturally wishes to impress her, so he deceives her by telling her that he really is a prince and had just pretended be a commoner in order to escape the restrictions of palace life, much like what Jasmine did, which she relates to. Aladdin brings Jasmine back to the palace and the two of them share their first kiss together.

Jafar is afraid that "Prince Abooboo", as he incorrectly calls him, may win Jasmine over, ruining his own scheme to marry her, but orders Aladdin out of the way. He orders the guards to capture and kidnap Aladdin. The guards end up having Aladdin gagged with a white handkerchief and tied up in metal manacles (which is not a problem, as Razoul, the chief guard, is plagued with a lust for killing). He tells him that he has "worn out his welcome," and a guard clubs Aladdin unconscious, then drops Aladdin over a cliff into the sea. They have attached to his ankles a large metal ball-and-chain to his ankles, so that he sinks quickly. He hits the bottom, and his turban floats down. The lamp tumbles out and he begins to struggle towards it (which is difficult as the ball-and-chain attached to his ankles pulls him back), but passes out from the lack of oxygen before he can reach it. Aladdin, bound and gagged, slides down towards the lamp, and rolls over, causing it to rub against his fingers. Genie appears (though apparently interrupted in the midst of taking a bath), and rescues Aladdin, using up his second wish.

Aladdin and Genie return to the palace and Aladdin confronts Jafar over having him almost killed. Jafar uses his cobra staff to try to convince the Sultan that Aladdin is lying, but Aladdin, seeing what he is doing, grabs the staff and shatters it. He then shows the Sultan that Jafar has been controlling him and plotting against him. The Sultan calls for the guards to arrest Jafar, but Jafar manages to escape, and, before doing so, sees the lamp in Aladdin's possession. The Sultan is convinced that his troubles are over as Jasmine has finally chosen a suitor.

All seems well, but the future responsibilities of being the new sultan begin to distress Aladdin. He realizes that his prince wish might wear off if the Genie is freed and begins to consider going back on his promise to free Genie so he can keep a wish in reserve. Feeling betrayed by his friend, a heartbroken Genie angrily goes back inside the lamp, pointing out how much Aladdin has lied to get where he is. Chastened, Aladdin decides to tell Jasmine the whole truth of the matter. Unfortunately, Aladdin leaves the lamp in his chamber and Jafar sends Iago to steal it. With the lamp in hand, Jafar becomes Genie's next master, giving him three wishes. His first wish is to become sultan. When the former Sultan and Jasmine refuse to bow to him, he wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Now Jafar forces them to bow to him.

Jafar then uses his magic to expose Aladdin and then banish him with a makeshift rocket to "the ends of the earth", in one of the palace towers. "The ends of the earth" appear to be Antarctica, the mountains of Austria, the Arctic or possibly the Himalayas. Luckily, Abu and Carpet are banished with him, and Aladdin is able to fly back to Agrabah, with the intent of reclaiming the lamp.

Meanwhile, Jafar, who is angry that Jasmine does not wish to become his queen, makes a wish for Genie to cause her to fall in love with him so he can make her his queen. Genie tries to tell him that he cannot grant that wish, but this only frustrates Jafar. Jasmine, who sees Aladdin sneaking into the palace, pretends that the wish has been granted, much to Genie's surprise, in order to distract Jafar. She even goes so far as to kiss him, causing Aladdin, Abu, the Genie and even Iago to nearly vomit in disgust. At first it seems to be working; Jafar, however, sees Aladdin's reflection in Jasmine's crown (made from her shackles via a performance of sorcery) and confronts him before he can reach the lamp.

Jafar uses magic to imprison or transfigure all the good characters other than Aladdin himself so they cannot steal the lamp back, with Jasmine being trapped in an hourglass. Jafar eventually turns himself into a giant cobra and fights Aladdin. When Aladdin appears to be defeated, Jafar tells Aladdin he was a fool for thinking he could defeat "the most powerful being on earth." Aladdin reminds Jafar he is not the most powerful being on earth and that that honor belongs to Genie, since he gave Jafar his power in the first place.

Jafar decides to use his final wish to become the most powerful genie in the world. Jafar is at first convinced that his new powers will allow him to rule the universe, but he realizes too late that Aladdin tricked him, since as a genie, Jafar is no longer free. Jafar is suddenly shackled and is sucked into the new lamp created by his wish and is trapped with Iago.

Of course, since Aladdin is now no longer a prince he is not eligible to marry Jasmine. Genie however insists that Aladdin use his final wish to make himself a prince again, but nevertheless, he keeps his promise and wishes for Genie's freedom. When all seems lost for Aladdin and Jasmine, the Sultan decides that, between his loyalty to Genie and his courage in defeating Jafar, Aladdin has proven his worth; the Sultan therefore changes the law so that "the princess shall marry whomever she deems worthy" meaning Aladdin and Jasmine can be married. Genie flies away to see the world while the happy couple begin their new life together.

At night, while the fireworks begin popping, Aladdin and Jasmine share another kiss and fly off with Carpet, and Genie says "made ya look", while the film goes dark.

Cast

 * Dev Patel as Aladdin
 * Freida Pinto as Jasmine
 * Ben Kingsley as Jafar
 * Jim Carrey as The Genie
 * Andy Serkis as Abu
 * Gilbert Gottfried as Iago
 * Anupam Kher as Sultan
 * Dalip Singh as Razoul
 * Adel Imam as Gazeem
 * Omid Djalili as Peddler
 * Haaz Sleiman as Prince Achmed
 * Frank Welker as Cave of Wonders

Songs

 * "Arabian Nights"
 * "One Jump Ahead"
 * "Proud of Your Boy"
 * "These Palace Walls"
 * "Friend Like Me"
 * "Prince Ali"
 * "A Whole New World"
 * "Prince Ali (Reprise)"

Rating
Rated G.