Saber Forum

I get it that there's no replacing Robin Williams but Will's not replacing nor is he trying to replicate him in that way. He's doing his own take. I just hate hearing about Will replacing Robin and he's going to do a bad job. 

Sorry... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXmvU3K9YP8#)

wow..the guy playing Jafar is not even close to being as intimidating as the animated version.

Jafar is wimpy AF.

I've been hesitant about this movie but was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Until now. Enthusiasm gone. Will probably give this a miss.

Same.  They did it better on Once Upon a Time.  Considering they got Oded Fehr to play Jafar...which was perfect casting.

Jafar is really wimpy sounding

Yep. Not commanding or scary at all.

Yup, at lease use Jonathan Freeman's voice. I'd like Jeremy Iron's voice as well

 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1ucrWy_Oo#)
What he said ^^^

I don't know. I'll wait until it comes out to judge it, but as of right now I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe they are still working on the CGI. I mean, you look at the tiger behind Jasmine and that looks beautiful (though for all I know, it could be a real tiger). You look at the bird flying or the elephant dancing, they look good. I'm hoping that they just aren't done on the look of Genie.

As to Jafar, we'll see. It almost sounded to me something more along the lines of this "Bring me the lamp." and when Aladdin doesn't bring it to him he says it again, only this time like "BrinG ME THe LaMP!!!" and ups his scary factor a bit. But yeah, we'll see.

I have no doubt they're still working on the CGI. I'm assuming he will have a subtle glow around him or something by the time they're finished. But I keep going back to the purpose of a trailer:

1) To get people who know about the movie more excited
2) To inform other people that the movie is coming out

As I fall in group number one, I personally think all the trailers so far have failed in this respect. I am actually less excited the more I see.

True.

Again, Same.

I'm sorry. Did we all just......agree? On the internet? About a movie (trailer)?

There is hope left in this world after all!

I still hope it blows our minds when it does finally come out.

Annnnnnnd, no one did any name calling..... The world as we know it, is ending.....

At this point I think Dumbo is likely to be better. But, time will tell.

I think we all universally agree that The Lion King is gonna be awesome.

I'm extremely hopeful for Dumbo, and yes, Lion King is going to rock. Speaking of Lion King:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwp-SLcK09k (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwp-SLcK09k)

Not going to embed it, but give that a watch and see if it doesn't just make your heart soar. ;D

So far, these teasers are doing absolutely nothing for me. I can't call a sub 1 minute trailer a real theatrical trailer. With the movie coming out in a few months, they may want to get a real trailer out. Usually, you've got a full on theatrical trailer out by now, but the ad campaign for this movie has been lackluster. I'm feeling very "meh" about the whole thing.

At least the people who complained that Will Smith wasn't blue can now see that he is.

Point of contention...I have not liked any of the Live Action remakes and have no excitement for the Lion King.  Honestly the Lion King isn't one of my favorite Disney Films anyway

you know what's funny? When the Entertainment Weekly cover came out lots of people complained that he wasn't blue. Now this teaser trailer has come out and people are complaining that the blue CGI looks bad. Now, I think we can all agree that the CGI isn't great (and is probably unfinished), but does anyone think a lot of this backlash is due to nostalgia and Robin Williams being so amazing and perfect in the animated version?

I haven't hated any of the live action remakes. However, the only one I actually enjoyed was The Jungle Book, partly because the CGI was amazing and partly because they made changes from the animated version (although I still say they should have got John Goodman to voice Baloo).

Out of "classic" Disney movies (everything pre-Beauty and the Beast that relied on hand drawn animation) my favourite was always The Jungle Book. Out of "modern" Disney movies (everything from Beauty & the Beast onwards that used computers in some form) my favourites are The Lion King, and Hercules.

I'm curious to see if they make any changes to The Lion King story that we know.

And without any name calling...  The world as we know it, is about to end....

You're probably right. I don't think anything Will or Disney does in terms of the Genie is going to please some fans. What I don't get is, if they feel so strongly about the cartoon, why not just watch the cartoon version again? It still exists. In fact, Disney will likely have it back in stores again soon. In fact, that that sounds good, I may do that myself. It's been too long since I last watched Aladdin.

It's just like we three previously discussed.  If they go one route, there's complaints, if they go another route, still complaints.  It's a double edge sword no matter what they do, no matter how they do it.  And yes, lots of the hate and backlash is due to nostalgia but mainly the late Robin Williams being so amazing and people are afraid that this movie may not live up to his legacy.  It may or may not live up to Robin, there's a lot to fill his shoes but that's the thing though, Will's not here to fill Robin's shoes.  Sure, he's playing genie, but it's his take on it but no matter how different he tries to be, he'll still get backlash from it saying that it's not like the original. 

It's a shame though, if Robin was alive and didn't want to voice the genie but gave Will his blessing to play the part, I don't think that there would be that much backlash as it is now.  There would be quite a bit, but not as bad

DUDE! If you don't watch Aladdin at least once every couple years then the Hellmouth opens. Get on it.

The funny thing about Robin Williams was he specifically asked Disney not to promote the fact he was voicing the genie in the trailers. Disney agreed then went back on their word, which is why he never returned for the straight to dvd sequel. I think they eventually apologised and he came back for part 3. But thi was the first time Hollywood had got an A list actor to do a voice in an animated movie. It changed the game forever, unfortunately putting a lot of voice over actors out of work. But the rise of video games has given them new careers.

If they absolutely had to do a live action version, then whoever they cast as the genie would have to be different. I remember watching a Sinbad movie way back in the day that had a genie in it, and loved that (I think Harryheusen was involved in it too).

My main issue with this trailer is Will Smith seems to be doing his usual Will Smith thing. Don't get me wrong. I like him and a number of his movies. But his usual shtick feels like it will be massively out of place.

Yeah, it actually shocks me thinking how long it's been since I last watched Aladdin. I do need to get on that.

I never knew about the thing with Williams and Disney. He's definitely one of the things that makes that movie great, and I'd have promoted the heck out of his involvement, given how big a star and how well liked he was at the time. That did kind of open the gates for A listers to do animated movies, didn't it? Now it's interesting to see who they're going to get to do the voices, as it seems to be a hot thing to do. Cartoon TV shows and games definitely keep dedicated voice actors employed, though. You hear a lot of the same voice and see a lot of the same people in the credits of cartoons on TV and games.


The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, that is indeed a Ray Harryhausen film. Great movie.

I was a kid the last time that I watched Aladdin myself so over 15 years ago.

For shame, sir.

That's the one. Love a good Harryheusen movie.

Definitely hear the same voices in the games. Which is no bad thing.

Yeah, it was a big thing when Disney lied to Williams. He was hugely upset.

reading comments from multiple other forums and comment sections.....the consensus seems to be Jafar is not impressing anyone

Agreed, he sounds really wimpy and not intimidating like the original

Yep, he's got some great stuff. I have a handful of his movies, but I need to get the rest. Usually, I don't like it when movie plots are written around special effects sequences, but I give his films a pass because of the amount of time it took him to do those shots. He had to start before there was a script just to get it done on time.


The sad thing is, they weren't the only studio to do him wrong. WB used him as bait to get Jim Carrey to sign on as the Riddler in Batman Forever, a role that Williams campaigned hard to get. You can't figure those experiences did anything beneficial for him, since he suffered from long term depression.

Correction - they used him as bait to get Jack Nicholson to sign on as the Joker, then they released Williams after he had already signed on. Then, I think they had the nerve to approach him about the Riddler, but he passed due to that incident.

Oh, and I would have edited my original reply, but the forum is stuck on stupid and seems to think I posed it 7 hours ago, instead of a few minutes ago. ::)

Eh, Williams would have made a terrible Riddler, just like Carrey did. The character is not some zany Joker-clone. He's a highly intelligent man who is obsessed with puzzles to the point of insanity. To that end, Kevin Spacey or James Spader would have been perfect.

Now, onto the topic at hand...

I watched this trailer and felt existentially violated.

Will Smith is the wrong person for the role of Genie simply because the little snippet we saw was him acting like Will Smith in Smurf cosplay.

Also, Jafar is supposed to be menacing. This guy is about as menacing as the head of a high school A/V club. After he said "Bring me the lamp," I half expected him to whip out an inhaler and take a puff.

While I agree that Will Smith appeared to be playing himself in the clip, I will also play devil's advocate for a second and say it is a bit harsh to judge his whole performance on a 10 second clip.

However, the Robin Williams genie fanboy inside me agrees that this was the wrong casting choice. He's not even doing an accent or a "performance". That being said, unless they found an amazingly talented unknown actor to play the role I don't think fans of the original would be happy with any casting choice.

And Jafar should have gravitas, intelligence, menace with shades of pent-up anger and sarcasm. This guy (from that one line delivery) has none of this.

I actually think Will Smith should do the Genie his own way. I would respect nothing else. Also, I'd imagine he'd tick off the Williams fans even more if he tried to do it the same as Robin. Even if he did it as a tribute, it would be taken the wrong way. But, as Knox said, not enough there to judge him by.

Agreed. I'm hoping he'll do the Genie his way as I have the impression that he will.  The fans won't be happy either way so he minus well do his take and have fun