People have been dragging Disney’s latest live action Aladdin ever since it was announced. First, they got trolled for their casting woes- apparently, they were having a hard time finding actors with Middle Eastern/Asian roots, who could step into the shoes of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine.
Then there was the whole awkward blue Will Smith as Genie, a role immortalised by the voice of the iconic Robin Williams in the animated version. And now, there is more awkwardness than ever before with the ‘Prince Ali’ musical number that dropped a couple of days ago. It is so bad that people haven’t been able to stop trolling poor ol’ Will Smith ever since.
To be honest, Smith had more energy in the you-blink-and-you-miss cameo he did in SOTY 2’s ‘The Jawaani Song’. Someone even joked about how the whole fiasco radiated “‘awkward nervous first time as lead role in a play’ energy” throughout.
i just dont understand why disney thought /prince ali/ of all numbers should be radiating “awkward nervous first time as lead role in a play” energy pic.twitter.com/oDLPoSTLXC
— yani (@dreamyalchemy) May 14, 2019
Another one threw shade at Guy Ritchie, who is directing the musical, the first one in his career.
Guy Ritchie is proof you can be married to Madonna for 8 years and come out not knowing how to direct a musical performance pic.twitter.com/Me99KYUICO
— Russell Falcon (@RussellFalcon) May 14, 2019
Then there was this one who couldn’t help but joke about Mena Massoud’s (who plays Aladdin) terribly awkward expressions.
In that new Prince Ali clip with Will Smith, Aladdin looks like he is watching that new Prince Ali clip with Will Smith pic.twitter.com/ZajZkUd68i
— Samuel Cullado (@Cooleeauto) May 14, 2019
But the best one was this mash-up of a disappointed Cersei Lannister turning her eyes away from whatever is happening in the song.
Cersei wasn’t impressed with the “Prince Ali” song from #Aladdin either pic.twitter.com/x9RYWL74dZ
— Nelson Carvajal (@nelsoncarvajal) May 14, 2019
There really seems no salvaging the disaster that Aladdin seems to be. It’s coming to theatres near you on May 24, 2019 to ruin your memories of a childhood favourite. Maybe we should just skip this one and rewatch the 1992 one, eh?
We’ll leave you with the original ‘Prince Ali’ because we’re nice like that,
