Trivia / Aladdin (2019)

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: The setting in the original story was stated to be China, but still otherwise Islamic. The state that most fits this description, keeping with the Islamic Golden Age setting, would be the Karluk Turkic Kara-Khanid Khanate, whom had marriage relations with China's Liao dynasty, meaning the sultan and princess of the original story would have been of Karluk and Khitan ancestry, much like how Jasmine in this film is portrayed as half-Arab, half-Indian.
• Acting for Two: As with the 1992 film, Abu and the Cave of Wonders are both voiced by Frank Welker.
• Actor-Shared Background: Many of the important cast members are played by actors who are of Middle Eastern, Indian and North African heritage.
• Approval of God: Although he was reportedly not happy with the announcement of the remake, feeling it to be the same film, Terry Rossio, one of the writers of the original film, ultimately felt that the remake was very good and even did some consulting behind the scenes.
• Author's Saving Throw: The climax has Jasmine take part in the action to get the lamp back, instead of having to go through Go-Go Enslavement and Show Some Leg like in the animated movie. As years went by, this part was seen as tasteless and sexist, and even more so because Jasmine was only 15.
• Billing Displacement: Will Smith gets top billing, for obvious reasons, despite the Genie not being the main protagonist. For the DVD/Blu-Ray release, Smith's name appears above the title.
• California Doubling: The Agrabah scenes were shot at Longcross Studios in London, and the desert scenes were shot in Jordan's Wadi Rum.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub:
  • Aladdin is voiced by film and television actor Tomoya Nakamura.
  • Musical theatre actress Haruka Kinoshita provides the voice of Jasmine.
  • Veteran actor Kazuki Kitamura voices Jafar.
• Creator Backlash: The late Gilbert Gottfried, who famously voiced Iago in the original film and reprised the role in all other Aladdin-related projects, was upset that he wasn't asked to star in the live-action adaptation. This has some sense, considering that James Earl Jones was brought back to reprise his role as Mufasa in The Lion King, and that Frank Welker returned to voice his previous roles.
• Dueling Works: In a weird case of a work competing with another version of itself, when the film was released in Adelaide, Australia, the Broadway version was also playing at the local Festival Center, leading to confusing advertisements that shows either Will Smith or Michael James Scott as the Genie.
• Executive Meddling: The reason that Aladdin and Jasmine get Adaptational Modesty on their costumes, and why Iago isn’t as anthropomorphic.
• Fake American: As per the animated film, Jasmine's accent is American, but her actress, Naomi Scott, is English. Conversely, two other American actors, Navid Negahban (the Sultan) and Nasim Pedrad (Dalia), use normal Arabic accents to portray their characters.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Some of the trailers (like this one, "Within"), featured a sequence with Aladdin staring at Jasmine - apparently going through Love at First Sight. It is not in the final cut, as Aladdin helps Jasmine without looking at her first.
• Orphaned Reference: Aladdin and Jasmine revealing that their mothers taught them the same song has led to speculation about a greater connection being left for a sequel. It turns out it was really meant to lead up to a Distant Duet, but the song, "Desert Moon", was ultimately cut from the movie.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In the Japanese dub, Yohei Tadano replaces Akira Kamiya and Tōru Ōkawa as the voice of Iago.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Arturo Mercado Jr. replaces Rubén Trujillo as the voice of the Genie. He also replaces Smith's regular voice actor, Juan Alfonso Carralero.
  • In the French dubs (both European and Canadian), Anthony Kavanagh replaces both Richard Darbois and Mario Desmarais for the Genie's voice. He also replaces the usual French dubbing actor of Will Smith, Greg Germain a well as Will Smith's usual French-Canadian voice actor, Pierre Auger.
• Role Reprise:
  • Frank Welker reprises his role as Abu and the entrance to the Cave of Wonders.
  • In the Japanese dub, Kōichi Yamadera, who voiced the Genie in the dub of the animated film, reprises that role again. As it so happens, he is a recurring dub voice for other roles of Will Smith in movies such as I Am Legend.
  • In Brazilian Portuguese, Márcio Simões reprises the Genie, as he's the official voice of Will Smith.
  • In the Hungarian dub, Károly Kassai reprises his role as Iago.
  • In the German dub, Michael Pan reprises his role as Iago from the sequels and TV series.
• Throw It In!: Mena Massoud confirmed in an interview that he and Will Smith completely improvised “the jam scene”.
• Trolling Creator: "Friend Like Me" starts out in the slow rapping style that many people had feared would happen when Will Smith's casting was announced, before the Genie says "Just kidding" and launches into the real song. Smith even did the rap version on Jimmy Kimmel shortly before the film's release, giving no indication that it was a joke.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Avan Jogia, Riz Ahmed and Dev Patel were considered for Aladdin before Mena Massoud was cast.
  • Jade Thirwall and Tara Sutaria screen-tested for the role of Jasmine before the casting of Naomi Scott.
  • Gabriel Iglesias was the runner-up for the part of the Genie before Will Smith was cast.
  • Production had originally been scheduled to begin in July 2017, but got delayed due to Disney having trouble finding the right people to play Aladdin and Jasmine.
  • According to writer John August, Prince Anders was supposed to be one of Prince Hans' brothers, but Disney vetoed it presumably to avoid complications with an implied Shared Universe as well as to avoid implying that a live-action remake of Frozen was in the works.

---