Film / Aladdin (2019)

aka: Aladdin

"Your life begins now...Aladdin."

♫ Oh, imagine a land.
It's a far away place,
Where the caravan camels roam.
Where you wander among,
Every culture and tongue!
It's chaotic, but hey it's home.
When the wind's from the east,
And the sun's from the west,
And the sand in the glass is right,
Come on down, stop on by, hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian Night! ♫

— "Arabian Nights"

A Live-Action Adaptation of the classic Disney Animated Canon film Aladdin that was released on May 24, 2019. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie, written by Ritchie and John August, and stars Will Smith as the Genie, Mena Massoud as Aladdin, Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine, Marwan Kenzari as Jafar, Navid Negahban as the Sultan, Nasim Pedrad as Dalia, Numan Acar as Hakim, Billy Magnussen as Prince Anders, and Alan Tudyk as Iago.

It adapts the original film while also including new elements, such as new original songs and characters.

In December 2019, a spinoff starring Magnussen's Prince Anders was announced to be in development for Disney+. Two months later, it was announced a sequel was on the way, which will not be a remake of Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (in fact, Disney waited to make the announcement until they could get a solid idea of what the story would be).

Previews: Teaser, Special Look, Trailer.

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Aladdin contains examples of:

• Abdicate the Throne: After seeing that she has the intuition and will, the Sultan passes his throne to Jasmine, to rule in her own right instead of marrying her to an Heir-In-Law.
• Actor Allusion: The movie is a Whole Episode Flashback told by Will Smith to his kids. As the story is about how he changed from an all-powerful genie into a human husband, father, and merchant, he's telling them (and the audience) a story all about how his life got flipped, turned upside down. What's more in "Friend Like Me," the Carpet does the Carlton Dance.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • The genie laughs when he rewinds the film and sees that Aladdin tricked him out of a wish.
  • When the Genie says "Heard your princess is HOT! Where is she?" Jasmine is offended, but Dalia looks like she's going to burst out laughing.
  • "Prince Ali" and Jasmine have a laugh over how the backflip during his dance was overdoing it.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: As with the movie version, Aladdin uses his third wish to free the Genie. However, this results in the Genie becoming a normal man without magic instead of a somewhat less powerful genie without a master. This change enables Genie to marry Dalia and travel the world by boat. In addition, the Sultan steps down and passes his title onto Jasmine who promptly changes the law and proposes marriage to Aladdin. While the four remain friends, Aladdin and Jasmine only see Dalia, the Genie, and their children when they come into port at Agrabah. However, a Deleted Scene and the novelization reveal that Genie, Dalia and their kids decide to make Agrabah their home once more, reuniting with their friends.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The only mention of Jasmine's mother in the animated version was the Sultan wisecracking about her not being nearly as picky as their daughter. Here the Sultan and Jasmine are shown to still be mourning her even years after her death.
• Adaptational Attractiveness:
  • Marwan Kenzari's Jafar is younger and far more attractive than his Obviously Evil animated counterpart.
  • This also applies to the Genie. In the 1992 film, his character design was very cartoony, even in human form, with a suggestion of Robin Williams. In this film, the Genie spends most of his time onscreen disguised as a human who looks like the tall, trim and handsome Will Smith. Dalia even directly remarks on his good looks.
  • The woman who sings "still I think he's rather tasty" during "One Jump Ahead" is depicted as more of a Big Beautiful Woman than an Abhorrent Admirer like her animated counterpart. Additionally, instead of sexually assaulting Aladdin, she aids his escape by thumping one of the pursuing guards.
  • Throughout "One Jump Ahead," a far higher number of ladies of Agrabah seem taken with Aladdin. In particular note, the school girls (formerly the massage parlor girls) swoon over him (before the headmistress comes at him to swat him out) instead of sharing their mistress's disdain for him as in the animated original.
  • The Sultan is considerably taller, slimmer, and has more head hair than his animated counterpart.
  • Downplayed with Hakim. He's not exactly attractive, but he's less thuggish in appearance than Razoul of the animated film.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • None other than Iago himself. He replaces his master as the One-Winged Angel that Aladdin ends up fighting for the lamp, after Jafar turns him into a massive Rukh and sends him after the escaping Aladdin.
  • Also the Sultan is more of a Defiant Captive towards Jafar. He escapes the guards holding him and rams Jafar from behind so that he drops his staff over the balcony, reverting Iago back to a normal parrot and nearly making him fall out of the sky under the increased weight of the lamp. Granted, Jafar just summons the staff back to his hand, but points to the Sultan for trying.
• Adaptational Heroism: Razoul the jerkass head of the guards in the animated film - who happily threw Aladdin off a cliff and grudgingly took orders from him in the series - is replaced with Hakim. This time a noble Reasonable Authority Figure who after a pep talk from Jasmine, refuses to take orders from Jafar when he makes himself Sultan.
• Adaptational Intelligence:
  • The Agrabah city guard in general evolve from being spineless idiots meant for being comic relief (as exemplified by being terrified by Abu with a sword) into something believably competent. Aladdin appears truly only one step ahead instead of several.
  • The Sultan similarly was elevated from being a bumbling toy-loving manchild to actually acting like a head of state for a sultanate.
  • The Genie immediately suggests that Aladdin use his first wish to ask for a means of escape from the Cave of Wonders, and doesn't fall for his attempts to coerce the Genie into doing it for free. Aladdin has to trick him a different way by pawning the lamp off to Abu as he's making his wish, meaning he didn't technically rub the lamp to make it official.
  • Jasmine and Jafar are both instantly suspicious of Aladdin as Ali saying he's the Prince of Ababwa, a country neither of them have heard of before. Jasmine later challenges him to point it out on her map, while Jafar checks his own maps for it and this is what clues him in that Prince Ali isn't who he says he is.
  • This time, Genie cottons on to what Aladdin's move is when he's berating Jafar for always being second to someone, and is ready and waiting to subvert Jafar's last wish.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Both Aladdin and the Genie get it, albeit in opposite directions and both ultimately proving temporary:
    • The Genie in this version starts off a lot more aloof, consequent of his history with selfish and uncaring masters. "Friend Like Me" is described after the fact as being intended as instructions rather than any sort of up-front friendliness, and at one point, he tells Aladdin to his face that they're not friends. After a while, however, he does start to warm up to Aladdin.
    • Aladdin, meanwhile, starts off with the same friendliness as his animated counterpart, but after badly embarrassing himself as Prince Ali, he grows more obsessed with the idea of seeming like a proper, powerful prince. He breaks his promise to free Genie when his insecurities drive him to the point of feeling that he can't be a prince without the Genie's help and needs to keep him around. After a talking-to from Genie, however, he has a Heel Realization just in time to discover Jafar's taken the lamp.
    • In the animated film, we only see Aladdin and Abu steal food (and they give most of that to other hungry children). Here, he's a rather blatant pickpocket.
  • Downplayed with Jasmine, who is still a kind person, if more determined politically speaking, but during the scene where she takes food to give to the starving children, instead of apologizing and coming across as genuinely ignorant about how the economics of the city function like in the animated film, she instead argues back with the merchant in a way that comes across more hot-headed and aggressive over her views. Both have the same general outcome, but it makes Jasmine seem less ignorant and apologetic about doing so, and instead more sure she isn't wrong in what she did.
• Adaptational Modesty:
  • Jasmine in the original animated version is famous for wearing an outfit that exposes her midriff. This version wears dresses that cover her midriff up, for conservative and practical reasons; although her main costume is still blue around the chest and beige around the waist to resonate with her original look. Also she does not go through Go-Go Enslavement; during the climax, she stays in the same purple dress she already had just before Jafar starts to make wishes.
  • The animated Aladdin was bare-chested, only wearing an open vest. This one wears a shirt under his vest, and wears shoes now, too.
  • The sultan is no longer stripped to his underwear after Jafar usurps his position. Instead, he loses his turban but remains dressed just as he was before otherwise.
  • "One Jump Ahead" featured a trio of sexy harem girls in a massage parlor, which is replaced here by a school with female students wearing fully concealing robes.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • The woman in "One Jump Ahead" who comments that she thinks Aladdin is "rather tasty" delays the guards from chasing him via blocking the stairway, rather than creepily hitting on him, in this version.
  • The school girls/harem girls are also more curious than haughty towards Aladdin here.
  • Downplayed with the street vendor from whom Jasmine steals food. While he's not prepared to cut off her hand like in the original film, he still demands that she turn over a valuable gold bracelet in return for two loaves of bread. He also mentions that the bread in question was being sold by his brother, which would mean that it's not up to him to seek compensation in the first place.
  • The replacement for Prince Achmed - Jasmine's rude, snobby wannabe suitor in the animated film - is Prince Anders, a well-meaning, if bumbling and simple-minded foreigner.
• Adaptational Protagonist: The film follows Disney's idea of giving the original Aladdin's Princess Badroulbadour (now named Jasmine) more prominence. This time, it goes even further as not only is Jasmine Aladdin's Deuteragonist but she is also responsible for half the plot's events. She becomes a (good-intentioned) politically ambitious princess who becomes Sultana at the end of the movie.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Jafar is given this treatment by showing he has a Freudian Excuse, unlike the power-hungry version seen in the original film. While he still seeks to dethrone the Sultan, he feels his peace-loving philosophy towards a neighboring kingdom is flawed, as Jafar grew up there, living on the streets as a dirt-poor common thief (not unlike how Aladdin is now), and was always put down his whole life (to the point that being accused of being second best is a Berserk Button for him).
• Adaptational Villainy: While Jafar in the original movie certainly wasn't above murder, this version of the character is far more murderous, killing people (or attempting to do so) for much less reason. For example, he pushes a lackey down a well for unintentionally pressing his Berserk Button, and when he becomes a genie, he comes very close to wiping out all of Shirabad. Also, he's much more of a General Ripper, trying to urge Agrabah to attack other kingdoms even before he takes the throne, whereas the original seemed pretty content to Take Over the City without bringing up the issue of war.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Unlike in the original film, Genie says his desire for freedom is to become human so when Aladdin wishes him free he becomes a mortal man, rather than turning him into a less powerful unbound genie.
  • Jasmine is not as physically active as in the original. When pole vaulting across rooftops in the original film, she surprised Aladdin by fearlessly mimicking him. Here she freezes trying to follow him, and has to be coached into making the attempt. Similarly, wearing full length dresses instead of her original harem outfit left her less engaged in the climax.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • The live-action remake combines Aladdin's "I Am" Song "One Jump Ahead" with his first meeting Jasmine. Instead of fleeing from stealing a piece of bread, the song is segued into as he guides Jasmine in running away from the law after his sleight-of-hand to "pay" the vendor with Jasmine's heirloom bracelet. This establishes the start of their relationship sooner, and also makes Jasmine see Aladdin at the top of his street rat game during the song.
  • Jafar's first attempt to have someone venture into the Cave of Wonders to retrieve the lamp for him was a drawn-out sequence in the original film. Here, it's a short panover that happens during the "Arabian Nights" number, with no dialogue.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • This movie expands on Jafar's history (a former street criminal eager to prove himself, not unlike Aladdin himself), and the politics of Agrabah. Jafar is interested in changing Agrabah from a relatively peaceful trade empire to a war-mongering expansionist state, and has set the kingdom of Shirabad (homeland of the late Queen) as his main target. Jafar is also given a personal vendetta against Shirabad. Jasmine, on the other hand, hopes to repair the social inequalities in the kingdom and prove herself as a worthy political leader. There is also more detail about the late queen and how her views on leadership influenced Jasmine.
  • The film has another meeting between Aladdin and Jasmine before the former is taken to the Cave of Wonders - where Aladdin sneaks into the palace at night to return Jasmine's bracelet and promises to meet her again the next night. This also introduces a minor Chekhov's Gun when Aladdin meets Rajah, and later Rajah not being hostile to 'Ali' helps tip off Jasmine to his true identity.
  • In his Ali disguise, Aladdin's interactions with the royal court are given more emphasis, showing that despite Genie's help, Aladdin has no experience on how to maintain the ruse or charm Jasmine as a prince. He is given another opportunity to impress Jasmine at a party that night - where Genie tries to get him to wow the princess with flashy dance moves. This only serves to put her off his pompous facade even more.
  • Jasmine is given new motivations with regards to challenging the Stay in the Kitchen attitude of the kingdom around her, where her political intelligence and knowledge of the surrounding kingdoms would make her a competent ruler but she is told to know her place by Jafar.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
  • The original film made it clear that while Genie could be very theatrical in displaying his powers, he couldn't actually use them to benefit his master unless they made a wish (or at least he perceived that a wish was made). Genie saved Aladdin from the Cave of Wonders because he thought Aladdin had wished for such, and saved him from drowning by taking him passing out as a nod of consent for a wish to that effect. This remains vital for the climax as Genie is unable to interfere because "I have a new master now." In the original climax, Jafar turns a tower into a rocket and uses it to send Aladdin to the arctic, with Carpet chasing after for a rescue later on. In this film, Aladdin is teleported to the arctic, requiring Genie to teleport Carpet in secret to get him back. Not only is Genie using his powers to directly aid someone without being wished to do so, he's doing it in defiance of his current master. Genie established earlier in the film with the drowning wish that he can bend the rules if he so chooses, and his assistance in selling "Prince Ali" goes well beyond the context of the original wish, but this does raise the question of just what limits exist on Genie's ability to act independently.
  • In the animated movie, Genie is shown having no issues granting wishes outside the rules he sets in place early in the movie. This movie adds a plot point about Genie requiring more in-depth explanations for some wishes, with Genie pointing out that a vaguely worded wish can be left up for interpretation. This is shown when Aladdin makes his "make me a prince" wish, since there is a lot of ambiguity in the wording and Genie has him give a more in-depth wish instead. However, when Jafar wishes to become the Sultan, Genie does so without any issue or discussion of what is meant by the wish, and grants him the authority and power that comes from becoming the Sultan, which doesn't line up with the film's point about the Exact Words point he made earlier, especially when in the finale, Genie exploits Jafar's vague wish of becoming the strongest in the universe by making him a genie, which does line up with his earlier point. Since the film never discusses what separates "make me a prince" from "make me the Sultan" to explain why there Jafar's wish is done without issue, despite one being very easy to do, it creates a plothole about why the Exact Words point is inconsistent with the Sultan wish, despite being introduced for this film.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • While the animated version of Jafar certainly had a temper, he was also eloquent and had a noticeably sharp, sardonic sense of humor with his Villain Song being entirely devoted to mocking Aladdin. This version of Jafar is much more serious and intense, seeming to boil with barely suppressed rage every moment he is onscreen.
  • Jasmine has totally lost her tease side that showed twice in the original movie. Though, Jasmine had already lost this personality trait on all others supports (direct-to-video movies, TV series, Broadway show or Once Upon a Time.)
  • Genie, when first released, is fairly dismissive of Aladdin since he finds it hard to believe this kid can be his new master, and due to past experience of bad masters he prefers to keep an emotional distance and doesn't really warm up to him until later on. Note that he doesn't even learn Aladdin's name until they're nearly through "Friend Like Me."
  • Iago is still a remarkably intelligent parrot with a pretty extensive vocabulary, but the only thing adapted to this version is his extreme mean streak. Even then, virtually every comedic trait from the animated version is scrapped and he speaks in small sentences.
  • The Sultan is not a Manchild here, which was already the case in Once Upon a Time.
• Adaptation Species Change: In the original film, the entrance to the Cave of Wonders was the head of a tiger. Here, it seems to be changed to the head of a lion.
• Adapted Out:
  • Genie does not say there is a "no killing" limitation on his wishes.
  • The Peddler, the original movie's framing character, is absent and replaced by the Mariner who like the Peddler, is also played by the same actor as and implied to be the Genie.
  • Jafar's second plan, which is to manipulate the Sultan into having him marry Jasmine in order to become Sultan, is never shown. Although he does demand Jasmine's hand in marriage late in the film, he's already become sultan and sorcerer at that point and is doing so solely to make her father suffer.
  • Jafar doesn't change into his giant cobra form after becoming a sorcerer.
• Affirmative Action Girl: In the 1992 film, Jasmine was the only named female character. The remake adds Dalia, a palace servant and Jasmine's closest friend (a role filled by her pet tiger Rajah in the original).
• Agony Beam: One of Jafar's spells after he becomes a sorcerer. He uses it on Aladdin, and a few moments before on the Sultan and Dalia, with nightmarish effects. In the latter case, it was to induce a Please, I Will Do Anything! reaction on Jasmine, and make her accept a forced marriage.
• Ambiguous Situation: Is the Mariner's story really just a story, or is it an actual telling of Genie's past? Dalia was very specific about her desires to travel the seas on a boat with a son and daughter born 3 years apart with predetermined names. Or perhaps it's both? The audience is never given an answer. At least not in the final cut. A deleted epilogue showed the genie and his kids meeting Aladdin and Jasmine on Agrabah port.
• Ambiguous Syntax: Aladdin asks Genie to make him a prince, and Genie demonstrates how this request can be twisted by making a prince for Aladdin out of thin air, instead of turning Aladdin into a prince. It also is an Establishing Character Moment, showing how Genie could be a Literal Genie without being a Jackass Genie.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Jafar tortures Jasmine's father to cause a Please, I Will Do Anything! reaction and force her to marry him. He does so to make sure the former Sultan will greatly suffer seeing him take Jasmine as his wife.
• Arc Words:
  • Be Yourself. Genie even questions why, if Jasmine already likes Aladdin for who he is, he wants to change?
  • Drink from that cup. Genie uses variations of this phrase to warn Aladdin about the intoxicating power of using wishes, and changing yourself to get your goals.
• Ascended Extra: The Prince seeking Jasmine's affections does not leave right away, but stays in town and appears at a party later on, becoming more of a Hopeless Suitor to make Aladdin more insecure about pursuing Jasmine.
• Aside Comment: Genie rewinds a part of the movie and watches along with some audience shadows to see Aladdin make the first "wish" to get out of the cave of Wonders.
• Babies Ever After: Inverted. We see the Genie and Dalia's family in the beginning of the movie. It's later stated that they want to start a family (which they do).
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The story starts with a large ship and then we're shown a nearby small boat where the narrator actually is.
  • In-Universe too when the Mariner's kids ask him to sing while he's telling the story. He declines, saying it's been a long day, and starts climbing a ladder, only to start singing and dancing as requested.
  • Aladdin deduces that Jasmine is from the palace due to her expensive jewelery and garments. Thus, he points out that she must be...the princess's handmaiden!
• Becoming the Mask: Despite Genie repeatedly telling him that Prince Ali is a stepping stone to reaching Jasmine, Aladdin starts to appreciate the rich life and sees the Ali persona as a crutch he has to hold on to.
• Benevolent Genie: When Aladdin proposes a wish inadvertently containing Ambiguous Syntax (namely, wishing to become a prince, which he phrases as "make me a prince"), the Genie takes the time to explain to Aladdin how his wishes could be misinterpreted, and how Exact Words are vital. He does not give Jafar the same advice.
  Genie: Be specific with your words. The deal is in the detail.
• Berserk Button: Jafar gets his turban in a bunch when anyone calls him "second." This is what gets him into trouble at the end of the film when Aladdin says Jafar will ALWAYS be second to the Genie.
• Beta Couple: Genie and Dalia. Unlike Aladdin and Jasmine who have some drama, they have a much more stable get-together and continue their relationship after The Reveal of Genie being a genie and not human as he'd presented himself to be.
• Be Yourself: A principal component of Aladdin's storyline, and a lesson that the Genie wants him to take to heart.
• Big Damn Heroes: Aladdin doesn't have the lamp on him when Jafar sees through his Prince Ali disguise. Abu sees what is happening and has Carpet take him to the spot where Aladdin falls so he can throw the lamp in after him.
• Big "NO!":
  • As per the original, Aladdin yells one when he realizes Abu is holding the ruby in the Cave of Wonders despite its warnings.
  • Jasmine yells this when she sees Aladdin being teleported by Jafar to an arctic wasteland.
• Bonding over Missing Parents: When Aladdin and Jasmine first talk properly in his hideout, she talks about losing her mother years ago, and Aladdin in turn opens up about losing his parents at a young age. Both their mothers also taught them each the same piece of music.
• Book Dumb: Aladdin's lack of formal education works in his favor when he meets Genie, who realizes that Aladdin's lack of preconceptions about what he could do with his wishes presents an opportunity to guide him down a better path than Genie's previous masters, which is why he is not the Jackass Genie he could be otherwise.
• Bowdlerize: A few due to Politically Correct History.
  • "Arabian Nights" is altered yet again. "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense/It's barbaric, but hey, it's home!" is changed to "Where you wander among every culture and tongue/It's chaotic, but hey, it's home!"
  • The line in "Prince Ali" — "He's got slaves, he's got servants and flunkies" — in the original animated film has been altered to "He's got 10,000 servants and flunkies" for the live-action remake.
  • When Jasmine gives food to some kids, the cart owner grabs her hand demanding her bracelet as compensation, rather than being about to cut off her hand as punishment.
  • The tease aspect of Jasmine's personality is gone.
  • The harem Aladdin stumbles into in the original is turned into a classroom here.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The movie establishes the rule that the lamp has to be held and rubbed while making a wish. Aladdin is able to get Genie to free them from the Cave of Wonders without using a wish by having Abu take hold of the lamp just before he makes his wish. The Genie then rewinds the movie to make sure and sees how he was fooled.
  Genie: Oh! "Little Monkey With the Lamp" trick. Never seen that one before. I'll keep my eye on you.
• Brick Joke: After Genie's first 'prince' outfit, Aladdin complains about the 'big hat', whereupon Genie proclaims "That's not a big hat." During the "Prince Ali" parade, Genie himself is wearing a much bigger hat.
• Brought Down to Normal: In the original, wishing for Genie's freedom unshackles him from the lamp, which may have lowered his magical power but he was still a genie. Here, Genie specifically says his wish for freedom would be to turn human and he goes on to start a family with Dalia.
• Call-Back: When presenting the numerous gifts to Jasmine and her father, Aladdin goes on an extended ramble about jams. After he wishes Genie free from the lamp, he asks Aladdin to ask him something so he can try and refuse; Aladdin asks him to get some jams.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Prince Anders of Skånland, a prince seeking Jasmine's hand in marriage, did not appear in the original film. He borrows elements from Prince Achmed, another foreign prince interested in courting Jasmine.
  • Dalia, Jasmine's handmaiden and best friend is another new addition. The original included no palace servants, no friends for Jasmine besides her tiger, and in fact, Jasmine was the only named female character. Dalia also turns out to be a Love Interest for Genie.
  • Hakim, taking the place of Razoul as captain of the palace guard.
• Cassandra Truth: Downplayed when Jasmine asks Aladdin how he got to the balcony in her chambers. He responds "Magic Carpet?" as if it wasn't plausible and he knew she wouldn't buy it despite how he really was carried there by Carpet, albeit offscreen.
• Casting Gag:
  • At one point in the film, Dalia pretends to be Princess Jasmine and does a very poor job. Her actress Nasim Pedrad had previously played the character in a Saturday Night Live sketch.
  • This is the second time Billy Magnussen has played a bumbling prince in a Disney live-action musical. And both times the character is an Adaptational Nice Guy compared to his original portrayal.
• Chekhov's Gun: After Jafar makes his final wish to be more powerful than the Genie, the latter again mentions a lot of "grey area" on making a wish, which he warns Aladdin about earlier in the film. He grants Jafar's wish anyway by making him a genie without warning.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Aladdin's Le Parkour skills come in handy when rescuing Abu from an icy crevasse.
  • Jafar demonstrates to Aladdin that he too was once a skilled thief. Jafar later puts these skills to use by disguising himself and snatching the lamp from Aladdin in an alley.
  • During "A Whole New World," Jasmine is clearly learning how to ride and direct the Magic Carpet. During the climax when she, Aladdin and Abu are trying to get away from the magically enlarged Iago, there are several times when Jasmine has to direct the Carpet by herself.
• Central Theme: The identity you project to others versus who you truly are inside. Aladdin is a street thief with a heart of gold (the "Diamond in the Rough") who becomes a prince because it's the only way he can get people to take notice of him, but he starts to lose himself in the "Prince Ali" act. Jafar on the other hand is a street thief who became a vizier, and is secretly a warmongering aspiring Evil Overlord who hides his true colors. Then there's Jasmine, who wants to be sultan herself and not have to marry a foreigner who just wants the throne, but feels she's being ignored and not given the opportunity to show her worth. Genie tells Aladdin that most people who get their hands on the lamp immediately wish for money and power, and implies that even when his past masters haven't been greedy and ambitious out of the gate, the power of the wishes goes to their head and they get Drunk on the Dark Side. It's clearly made him a bit jaded and cynical to keep using his powers for such selfish, shallow wishes, and he urges Aladdin not to let himself be changed like he's seen other master sdo.
• Clark Kenting: Lampshaded. Aladdin points out that people will still recognize him if he marches into Agrabah wearing different clothes, but Genie points out that his magic is all about the charade and that'll keep people from identifying him. Ultimately downplayed when Jasmine and Jafar both eventually do recognize him, and Genie says that the magic doesn't mean people can't put two and two together.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Jafar wished to be the most powerful being in the Universe. Genie accomplishes this by making Jafar into a genie, and without a master to command him, he gets sucked into his newly-created lamp.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • When Jasmine signals Dalia to play along with Aladdin's assumption that they're each actually the other, Dalia wonders if Jasmine lost her voice.
  • When Jasmine mentions her late mother's bracelet to Aladdin in a panic upon discovering it missing, Aladdin simply says the bracelet was beautiful.
  • Iago sarcastically tells Prince Anders that Rajah 'likes' him and Anders agrees, blind to the sarcasm.
• Costume Porn: Jasmine's costumes in particular are stupendously gorgeous, richly detailed and vibrantly colored.
• Covers Always Lie: The film's poster (shown above) places the Cave of Wonders in the middle of the desert, like how it was in the original movie. In the actual film itself, the cave is carved into the side of a mountain.
• Creator Thumbprint: It's a Guy Ritchie movie so naturally Aladdin also has his signature stylized Overcrank.
• Cymbal-Banging Monkey: Happens to Abu like the original, but is more passive and takes a few seconds to kick in, after which Genie sings a quick intro stanza. He's then turned into a full on drummer who plays along to "Friend Like Me."
• Dance of Romance: While at a party celebrating Agrabah's harvest, Aladdin clumsily joins Jasmine in a dance with Genie's help making him better. As things progress, Jasmine even finds herself enjoying the moment then Genie goes overboard and makes Aladdin break dance and do a back flip, causing Jasmine to once again dislike the show-off "Prince Ali."
• Dance Party Ending: The credits begin to play over this, with every good guy dancing at Aladdin's, Jasmine's, the Genie's and Dalia's weddings.
• Darkest Hour: Jafar has usurped the Sultancy, become a powerful sorcerer, disposed of loyalists in the guard, and coerced Jasmine to marry him. As Jasmine's about to say her vow, off in the distance she sees Aladdin booking it on Carpet back to the Palace from his exile of certain death...and then Jasmine seizes the moment to renounce the vow, swipe the lamp, and jump off the balcony to be caught by Aladdin and Carpet.
• Dark Reprise: While 1992's "One Jump Ahead" had one of these reprises depicting Aladdin's desires for a richer life, this version not only retains this song, but also adds another reprise, where Aladdin begrudgingly accepts having to tell Jasmine the truth, despite the potentially damaging consequences. Also, while Genie is granting Jafar's second wish, a minor-key version of "Friend Like Me" plays.
• Dead-Hand Shot: After the Magic Carpet is fatally ripped due to being caught in a sandstorm, one of its tassels (which it uses in a hand-like manner) falls to the floor, cementing its death. It gets better.
• Deadpan Snarker: Genie. Justified as he's probably had to deal with the same sense of naivete or lust for power from his masters for millennia.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Jasmine's mother who was not only well-loved by her family but also by her kingdom.
• Decomposite Character: Prince Achmed's role is split between two characters in this version: Prince Anders is the royal suitor who's subsequently attacked by Rajah, and a random guard is the one who verbally attacks Aladdin with the "Only your fleas will mourn you!" jab.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • The non-human characters Abu, Iago, Carpet, and Rajah have smaller roles overall. Iago in particular is a normal parrot saying brief phrases rather than the eloquent original.
  • Gazeem's only screen time is of his last few seconds before the Cave of Wonders swallows him and tells Jafar only a diamond in the rough may enter.
• Disney Death:
  • Jafar kills a lackey by pushing him down a dark well.
  • When Jafar summons a sandstorm to recapture an escaping Aladdin and Jasmine, the Magic Carpet they're on tries to grab onto a ledge and fight it. Unfortunately, it rips in half, perishing in the storm. Luckily, the Genie restores it back to life after Jafar's defeat.
• The Dog Bites Back: After Jafar makes him watch Dalia getting tortured, the Genie with a malevolent smile quite happily grants the man's last wish: to become the most powerful being in the universe. There is a reason why the Genie warned Aladdin about grey area in wishes.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When meeting Jasmine at the start of the movie, Aladdin correctly deduces from her silk garments and valuable gold jewelry that she's from the palace. But he assumes incorrectly that she's one of the princess's handmaidens instead of the princess herself; she goes along with it and introduces herself as Dalia. Perhaps a nod to how Jasmine's been kept in the palace for years after her mother's death?
• Establishing Character Moment: Jafar's first speaking scene has him rant to his henchman about the sacrifices he had to make to achieve his status, including asking the henchman if he knew how many bodies Jafar has had to bury. Then he kills the henchman for pointing out that he's second only to the Sultan.
• Evil Chancellor: Jafar is Agrabah's Grand Vizier, second only to the Sultan in power. He also maintains his position by hypnotizing the Sultan, is constantly pushing to have Agrabah go to war with its oldest ally, and seeks the power of the lamp to make himself Sultan.
• Evil Laugh: Jafar does this for the first time when he summons Genie and realizes he has just become his master.
• Exact Words:
  • The Genie warns Aladdin about this when Aladdin carelessly wishes to be a prince without putting much thought into how he worded it.
    Genie: There's a lot of grey area in "make me a prince." I mean I could just... [he conjures a random prince from thin air] ...make you a prince. Yeah. You'll be snuggled up with that dude for the rest of your life.
  • When Jafar wishes to be Sultan, Genie grants him the title which amounts to little more than swapping his clothing for more appropriate attire. Since nothing in his wish prevented a challenge to the title, Jafar's authority is short-lived when Jasmine motivates Hakim to start a palace coup. This forces Jafar to spend another wish to give himself the power to enforce his authority over Agrabah.
  • Finally, Jafar wishes to be the most powerful being in the universe, Genie even comments that there's a lot of grey area in that wish and decides to make Jafar into a genie, forcing him to share the same curse of servitude and imprisoning him in his lamp until he gains a master.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Part of Aladdin's transformation into Prince Ali involves him going clean shaven with a much shorter haircut. Even when he's restored to his original look, the hair remains short.
• Failed a Spot Check: The seafarer's children don't notice a massive trade ship until it passes within a hundred feet of their own smaller vessel.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • Like the original film, Agrabah is based on a blend of Turkish, Persian, Moroccan and Indian cultures.
  • Shirabad, the kingdom where Jasmine's late mother hails from, has very heavy Indian influences.
  • Prince Anders' kingdom of Skanland is clearly based on Scandinavia.
• Flaw Exploitation: As in the original film, Jafar is ultimately undone by his inability to accept being beneath anything or anyone.
• Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: The film ends with the Magic Carpet doing this, with Abu along for the ride.
• Foil: Aladdin and Jafar are clearly intended to be foils to each other, as Jafar reveals that he was once a street thief like Aladdin (stealing a pendant Aladdin had previously borrowed from Jasmine to demonstrate his skills), to the point that Jafar uses his pickpocketing skills to steal the lamp from Aladdin. However, while Aladdin and Jafar each express a desire for respect beyond their humble origins, Aladdin never seeks that respect at the expense of others, while Jafar will never be satisfied unless he is at the top of the table and controls everyone else.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Dalia's awkward attempt to act how she thinks a royal princess should foreshadows Aladdin's ''much worse'' improv when he's trying to impress the Sultan as Prince Ali in the second act.
  • The "Friend Like Me" sequence is pretty heavy on foreshadowing. For example, there is a scene where Genie controls Aladdin on puppet strings, making him dance, foreshadowing the Harvest Dance scene.
• Framing Device: In place of the peddler in the 1992 film, the 2019 opens with a seafarer telling this story to his children. It's later revealed that the seafarer and his wife are the Genie and Dalia. The novelization takes it further by having the family return to Agrabah, where they plan to stay and reunite with Aladdin and Jasmine.
• Freudian Excuse: In his youth, Jafar spent 5 years in the dungeons of Shirabad. This has left him with an all-consuming desire for revenge against Shirabad and its people, which drives a large part of his schemes in the court of Agrabah.
• Funny Background Event:
  • Carpet is shown building a sandcastle in the background as Aladdin and Genie discuss his Prince wish. It gradually becomes a rather impressive sculpture and, and Carpet even does the Disney logo arch by throwing sand over it.
  • Genie creates a random prince on a distant hilltop, then as he and Aladdin continue talking about Aladdin's wish, you can see the prince waving his arms yelling "Yo, you seen my palace?" After being ignored for some time, you hear the prince remark, "I wanna go home, man."
• Funny Foreigner: Prince Anders of Skånland, who comes from a generic northern land, is always smiling and none too bright. Unlike his counterpart in the animated film, he is mostly comic relief.
• The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: Downplayed with Genie as a result of not trying to imitate Robin Williams Rapid-Fire Comedy style too much, the anachronisms are much more sparse and the celebrity impersonations are almost nonexistent. When he is trying to make Aladdin his Prince Ali attire, Genie refers to numerous modern fashion houses and Aladdin questions who these names are. "Friend Like Me" has a 1920s big band vibe out of tradition. And when reviewing how Aladdin tricked him into leaving the cave he rewinds the footage of the movie itself, complete with a silhouette of the front row of the audience.
• Giant Flyer: During the climax Jafar sends Iago to retrieve the lamp after Aladdin and Jasmine fly off with it on Carpet, using magic to make him one of these.
• Good Parents: The seafarer in the beginning advises his children not to dwell on someone else's good fortune when they have blessings of their own to count. He also takes it upon himself to sing the story to his children, despite claims that he was too tired to do it. The Genie counts as well, since they are one and the same.
• The Ghost: Despite the fact that neither the Kingdom of Shirabad nor any of its citizens make an appearance in the film, the place is constantly mentioned and a lot of Jafar's plans aim toward its utter destruction.
• Hand Wave: Done to patch up the Paper-Thin Disguise of Prince Ali from the original film (as it took time for Jasmine and Jafar to recognize him). Here Aladdin directly asks if people would recognize him and Genie references "genie magic" as putting up a barrier. When Jasmine and Jafar identify him, Genie admits it's not 100% effective (although neither could outright recognize him, and had to deduce it through other means).
• Hidden Depths: In the Dance Party Ending, it's revealed that both the sultan and the Captain of the Guard are great dancers. They happily join in the festivities.
• The High Queen: Jasmine wants to be a benevolent ruler for her people instead of just the next Sultan's Hot Consort, but is blocked by Agrabah's male-centered laws. Her mother was also said to be one; Aladdin says early on that the entire city loved her and was devastated when she died. Her father makes use of a legal loophole to make her one, abdicating without an Heir-In-Law, defaulting the sultancy to Jasmine. She then changes the laws in this regard.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: As with the original, Jafar is transformed into a genie and imprisoned by and within his lamp. A variation is that this time Jafar is smart enough to not directly wish to be a genie but rather the most powerful being in the universe. However, this leaves Genie with a lot of "gray area" as to how to satisfy that wish.
• Hope Spot:
  • When "Prince Ali" makes his entrance, Jasmine watches with curiosity, and not disgust. It does help that she sees him tossing coins to her people, who are cheering him on. Then Genie sings, "Heard your princess is HOT, where is she?" and that offends her enough to walk away.
  • In the climax, when Jafar forces Jasmine to marry him, she grabs the lamp upon seeing the Magic Carpet returning with Aladdin and jumps from the palace balcony to make her escape. The Sultan then makes Jafar drop his staff when the latter turns Iago into a Rukh to retrieve the lamp. Unfortunately, neither Aladdin nor Jasmine thinks to quickly make a wish while flying before they lose the lamp at various intervals, and Jafar recaptures them.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick:
  • Magic Carpet and Abu to an extent.
  • Iago - with his Comic Relief status downplayed - is now the one who finds Aladdin, finds the lamp, steals a key to release a prisoner and fights Aladdin for the lamp.
  • Ummm...the freakin' Genie anyone?
• Hypocritical Humor: Jasmine scolds Aladdin for lying about being a "prince," yet she also lied to Aladdin at the start of the film by saying she was a handmaiden to the princess rather than the princess herself, and she continues the charade when Aladdin sneaks into the palace to return the bracelet. She even ropes Dalia into pretending to be the princess.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Dalia, pretending to be Princess Jasmine, says she needs to "wash the cat" because "it isn't going to wash itself!"
  Aladdin: Don't cats wash themselves?
• "I Want" Song: A new solo, "Speechless," was written for Jasmine, whose only song in the original was the duet "A Whole New World." Whereas in the 1992 film, Jasmine wanted to marry for love, the 2019 Jasmine wants to prove herself as a leader in a male-dominated world.
• Idiot Ball: While it is kind and noble of Jasmine to give food to starving children, her lack of foresight in not taking money with her in public nearly leads to the shopkeeper demanding either her Tragic Keepsake as compensation or her arrest for theft.
• Indy Ploy: Exemplified by Aladdin's "I Am" Song, "One Jump Ahead."
• Ironic Echo:
  • When the Genie first emerges, he was enthusiastically expecting there to be an audience to witness his arrival, so is disappointed that there's only Aladdin and Abu. When Jafar gets hold of the lamp and summons him, most of the palace are there to see it, but Genie is distraught at where he is now.
  • Hakim tells off Jafar for upending the Sultan when one should serve the Sultan. Then he points out "It's the law." Later, Jafar throws these words back at Hakim's face when he uses his first wish to become Sultan.
• Jackass Genie: The Genie makes it clear that he can twist vague wishes to a bad interpretation, but he is kind enough to warn Aladdin ahead of time, demonstrating how the example of "Make me a prince" can be twisted into literally conjuring a separate prince character out of thin air. When Jafar gets his hands on the lamp, Genie does take advantage of the grey area in Jafar's wish to become "the most powerful being in the universe" and decides to make Jafar into a genie and bind him to his lamp.
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: When Aladdin infiltrates the palace to return "Dalia's" mother's tragic keepsake that Abu took from her, Aladdin takes a servant's uniform and hat and wears them so he's ignored by the guards as he moves about the palace.
• King Incognito:
  • Jasmine doesn't even dress down very much to walk around the streets of Agrabah. Aladdin takes note of her fine clothes and just assumes she is the handmaiden to the princess. Justified since the princess hasn't been allowed to leave the castle in years, so no one in town would know what she looks like.
  • When Jasmine realizes Ali is Aladdin by asking him about Abu, Aladdin uses this same idea to explain that "Prince Ali" came to the city a short time ahead of his large entourage to truly know and understand the people of the land.
• Large Ham: Given he has Robin Williams's original performance as a reference, Will Smith goes full-on Fresh Prince to show people he's worthy of the role.
  Genie: O Great One who summons me, Terrible One who commands me, I stand by my oath, loyalty to wishes three!
• Leitmotif: A clever twist: for much of the film - like the original - Aladdin's theme is the refrain/reprise of "One Jump Ahead" (specifically the "riff raff, street rat, I don't buy that..." portion). However, when he starts to fall into the lies he tells everyone, becoming outwardly arrogant and losing himself in the process, his theme transitions to "Prince Ali" (which, as Genie says, is all flash and no substance) until he learns his lesson.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Metaphysically, with sound instead of sight. When the subject of "I wish to become a Prince" comes to where "Prince Ali" is from, Genie flubs out the non-word "ub-bub-wuh" when he gets caught unprepared with a response, and it evolves from that into "Ababwa."
• Long List: At the end, Genie summons the list of Agrabah's laws, which is this. Though Genie being Genie, it could have been exaggerated.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • The Cave of Wonders is set up in such a way that only someone with a good heart (a "Diamond in the Rough") can claim the lamp and become the Genie's Master. Jafar tries to get around this by finding an individual who fits the criteria and getting him to bring the lamp to Jafar. The Genie's immediate assumption that Aladdin is working for someone else because "there's always a guy," implies that Jafar is not the first one to exploit this loophole.
  • The rules of wishing require the Master to have the lamp and rub it while making the wish. In the original film, Aladdin got Genie to get them out of the cave by mocking his power but technically not using a wish. In this film, Aladdin pawns off the lamp to Abu when wishing to escape the cave, deceiving Genie, which Genie only realizes after reviewing the footage. He doesn't let Aladdin get away with this twice.
  • Discussed Trope in the "make me a prince" scene. The Genie points out that "there is a lot of gray area" within a wish. He shows that by summoning an actual prince before them when Aladdin asks if he could "make [him] a prince," instead of transforming Aladdin into a prince as intended.
  • Later on, Genie saves Aladdin from drowning by forcing him to sign a waterproof contract (with an X) stating such to be his second wish, backdated by a day. He does acknowledge he's playing fast and loose with the rules, but he had already promised that he wouldn't let Aladdin get away with not making a wish again.
  • Genie magic can't bring people back to life. A magically animated weave of cloth, while a character all its own, is not technically a person, so when Carpet gets torn by Jafar's magic, Genie can magically stitch him back together.
• Love at First Sight:
  • Judging from trailers, (and the DVD deleted scenes), the scene where Aladdin finds himself instantly smitten with Jasmine would have appeared in the remake, but was cut.
  • Dalia is entranced when she sees the Genie introducing Prince Ali with a giant musical number and starts dancing along to his singing. Even though Jasmine didn't get a first good impression of Prince Ali, she gives Dalia permission to go for a stroll with Ali's right-hand man.
• Magic Staff: Jafar can use his snake snaff to hypnotize people. When Aladdin catches on, he snatches the staff to render him powerless. Subverted when Jafar is given actual magic powers. The Sultan tosses the staff off the balcony to render him powerless once more, only for Jafar to casually summon the staff back to himself.
• Meaningful Echo: During the "make me a prince" scene, Genie comments that vague wishes contain a lot of "grey area" that allow for the wish to be fulfilled but not in the way the wisher expected. Later, he makes the same "grey area" comment about Jafar's wish to become the "most powerful being in the universe" which leaves it up to Genie to decide how to fulfill that wish.
• Mirror Character: Jafar's backstory gives him a lot in common with Aladdin. Both men started off as street thieves with big ambitions. Through their cleverness and some magical aid, they rose to power, but over time, the power corrupts them and they begin to act selfishly. Aladdin realizes this and manages to turn his life around.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Iago and Abu are a macaw and a capuchin monkey, both of which are native to South America. While not really wild, it still doesn't make sense how they ended up in Arabia.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The movie is framed as a story told by another version of Genie, just like what is implied in the original animated version.
  • One of Genie's suits as Prince Ali's servant is based on James Monroe Iglehart's appearance in the Broadway musical.
  • When the Genie shows Aladdin a floating, open scroll in his introduction, the drawings contain Aladdin, the Genie and the Sultan in their original cartoon appearances.
  • The Genie's entrance, in which he dramatically swirls out of the lamp and towers over Aladdin, is a near identical recreation of a shot from the original "Friend Like Me" (specifically during the line "Mister Aladdin, sir, what will your pleasure be?").
  • Genie commences the cheap version of "Friend Like Me" by giving Abu a kazoo, drum, horn, and cymbals to play. This brings to mind the scene from the animated film where Jafar briefly turns Abu into a toy monkey with cymbals.
  • During the "Make me a Prince" scene where Genie and Aladdin are talking about the wishes, keep an eye on Carpet. He makes a sandcastle that looks very similar to Cinderella's castle before flinging sand in an arc over it, not unlike the Disney logo that begins most of the company's movies.
  • In one scene, Aladdin gives the rest of his dates to a younger boy, like how Aladdin gives his half of the bread to a boy and girl in the original film. In this movie, not only does the boy also have a sister, but a mother as well, similar to the single peasant woman with two children who briefly appeared in The Return of Jafar and occasionally in Aladdin: The Series.
  • Jafar's beggar disguise may be one to his old man disguise in the original movie.
  • Aladdin and Abu meet Carpet who's stuck under a rock, just like what happened in the original movie while they try to escape the collapsing Cave of Wonders. Though it also happens here.
  • When Jafar makes his "most powerful sorcerer" wish, his outfit changes from black and red to nearly all red with little black. This could be a reference to his "art change" in The Return of Jafar.
  • Jafar "recruits" Aladdin as himself instead of disguised as an old man, like he did in the stage musical.
• Never My Fault: Jafar's third wish to Genie is to become the most powerful being in the universe. When Genie twists his wish and curses Jafar to be a genie himself, Jafar immediately blames Aladdin for somehow having done this to him, even though Aladdin points out that Jafar is getting exactly what he wished for.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: When Jafar brings Genie out to watch as he kills all of Genie's friends after their bid to steal Genie's Lamp from Jafar fails, he only succeeds in allowing Genie to see enough of Aladdin's dress-down of Jafar's motives to cotton on to what Aladdin's planning.
• Nice to the Waiter: In his Prince Ali guise, Aladdin tosses out coins to the people of Agrabah during his grand entrance. Of course, he knows how much a few coins will make their lives better, and it's the only point where he looks genuinely happy.
• No Escape but Down:
  • Aladdin ends his "I Am" Song "One Jump Ahead" with a fakeout, throwing a heavy rolled up rug through a roof below before swinging into a window below him to throw off the pursuing guards. Jasmine is aghast thinking he did himself in falling through a roof, only for him to clamber back up, to her relief.
  • Non-urgent version, where "Prince Ali" deliberately falls backwards off Jasmine's balcony onto Carpet, once again shocking her.
  • Jasmine combines the contexts of the two for her own escape from a forced marriage to Sultan Sorcerer Jafar when she sees Aladdin returning with haste on Carpet. On sight, she refuses the vow, swipes the lamp off of Jafar, and jumps off the balcony to be caught from the fall by Carpet.
• No Song for the Wicked: Unlike the original film, the "Prince Ali" reprise as performed by Jafar doesn't make it into the film.
• Not So Above It All: The Dance Party Ending features Captain Hakim happily dancing with his new sultan, Aladdin, and the genie. It turns out he has quite a few moves!
• Not His Sled: The Scaled Up cobra transformation is traded in for Iago getting turned into a rukh while Aladdin and Jasmine try to escape.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Jasmine also points this out between Jafar and the captain of the guard, Hakim. Both have humble origins, but where Jafar rose above his birth station by trickery, backstabbing, and even murder, Hakim went from a servant's son to the leader of the guards without losing his sense of honor or concern for the people's well-being.
• Odd Friendship: Abu and Carpet form one over the course of the movie. At the end, Abu beseeches Genie to revive the ruined Carpet, and the first thing Carpet does after being revived is roll up around Abu in a quasi-hug.
• Oh, Crap!: Aladdin has this reaction twice: first when he notices Abu holding the ruby in the Cave of Wonders, then when he sees the chaos going on at the palace, realizes that the lamp is gone, and puts two-and-two together that the beggar who had bumped into him in the alley was actually Jafar.
• One-Man Band: Abu is briefly turned into one of these by Genie to serve as musical accompaniment. Genie eventually segues into a bigger musical number when he finds the performance and its reception lacking.
• One-Winged Angel: Similar to the 1992 film, the climax does feature a villain getting transformed into a giant demonic beast by sorcery. Except this time...it's Iago.
• Overly Long Gag: Prince Ali's first meeting with Jasmine and the Sultan, where his nervousness makes him get stuck on a loop discussing the jams included in his gifts to the princess.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Justified (kinda). Much like Disney's Cinderella remake, Aladdin's prince outfit is enchanted so people will not immediately recognize him, though they can see through it with a little deductive work. Both Jafar and Jasmine, having met Aladdin previously, glean his true identity not long after meeting him.
• Painting the Medium: When Aladdin reveals he didn't technically wish to escape the cave, Genie literally reviews the footage with audience silhouettes at the bottom of the screen before realizing he was deceived.
• Le Parkour: Aladdin uses parkour to traverse sets of rungs in an alley while being chased around Agrabah.
• People Puppets: Genie uses his powers to directly control Aladdin's movements during "Friend Like Me," and later makes him dance at the Sultan's party.
• Percussive Pickpocket:
  • While a woman flirts with Aladdin to distract him, her friend attempts this kind of pickpocket on Aladdin, but he catches on and steals his money back. Meanwhile Abu steals the woman's necklace while they're distracted by Aladdin.
  • Jafar, disguised as a beggar on the street, bumps into Aladdin and steals the lamp from his bag.
• Pet Gets the Keys:
  • When Jafar is exposed as a traitor, he ends up in the dungeon, but Iago brings him the key to his cell.
  • Abu does pilfer a more metaphorical key from Jafar: the Lamp, when the Cave of Wonders is collapsing. The Genie within provides the means of escape from the sealed off Cave that imprisons them.
• Politically-Active Princess: Very much subverted in Jasmine's case, to her dismay. In her first appearance in the bazaar, she examines the dirty, poor, and hungry children. However, she has almost no say in political matters. It's implied she has been studying and observing the politics of her father's reign. Double-subverted in the end when she becomes the next Sultan.
• Politically Correct History: Unlike the original, there is no mention of amputation, beheading, or slavery.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • Iago's talking is reduced such that he doesn't hold conversations with Jafar, but he does speak many intelligent lines indicating he understands what's going on. However, his animated antics would look overly silly in Real Life, and Jafar is even more serious in this version and far less likely to share quips with his pet. Similarly, Abu utters a few noises, but doesn't speak in long animal-noise sentences or barely English screeches.
  • Rather than escaping the guards at the end of "One Jump Ahead" by gliding on a carpet, Aladdin uses it as a fake out by throwing it through a roof while swinging into an open window.
  • Genie's human appearance in the original film is very brief, limited primarily to the "Prince Ali" segment. In this film, Aladdin specifically asks if Genie can take on a human form (which is Will Smith without CGI), and he maintains this for the majority of his scenes, presenting himself as Prince Ali's assistant while in the royal court.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Although an extremely minor villain, if he can even be called that, the fruit merchant simply takes Jasmine's bracelet from her, rather than trying to cut off her hand like in the original film. As he could sell the bracelet to another merchant and thus get money from it, it is infinitely more pragmatic.
• Race Lift: Jasmine's late mother came from the kingdom of Shirabad, a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to South Asia. This reflects her current actress Naomi Scott's part-Indian ancestry. Indian influences can also be seen in many of Jasmine's costumes in the film.
  • Also the Genie. In the animated film, his human form appears nondescript, i.e. Arab like the rest of the populace. Here, he's black, like his current actor Will Smith.
• Rebellious Princess: Jasmine. She wants to become the ruling leader and travel the world when neither of these things are typical of a princess in her kingdom.
• Remake Cameo: In the Canadian French dub, the Sultan is voiced by Denis Mercier, who also voiced Cassim (Aladdin's father) in Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
• Revenge Before Reason: Jafar's main priority is the destruction of the kingdom of Shirabad as revenge for spending five years in its dungeons for thievery. Most of his actions in the film are in pursuit of this goal, even when doing so goes against his best interests, to the point where his first order as sultan is to mass the armies for an invasion of Shirabad, and the first thing he tries to do upon receiving the phenomenal cosmic power of a genie is not to deal with Aladdin and Jasmine... but to try to obliterate Shirabad off the face of the Earth.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Jasmine wants to do more than just marry and carry children. Dalia expresses disbelief that she wants to become Sultan, or rather Sultana in her case. It's implied that part of her reason for falling for Aladdin was his belief in her.
• Rule of Three: The "gray areas" in a wish are mentioned three times by Genie over the course of the film: first when explaining to Aladdin to be exact in his wording when he first wishes "make me a prince," second when Genie is frantically muttering to himself to figure out a way to save Aladdin from drowning, and third after Jafar wishes to become the most powerful being in the universe.
• Running Gag: Genie does not let Aladdin live down the rambling "jams" part of his failed attempt to woo Jasmine.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: As in the original, the Sultan uses his power to change the law to allow Jasmine to marry Aladdin. This time, he allows her to succeed him as the first female Sultan and lets her change the law herself. Genie also suggests to Aladdin to use his last wish to change the law so Jasmine can marry him without him being a prince.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Hakim switches loyalty to Jafar after he makes himself the new sultan, as required by law, but after Jasmine calls to him, he decides to support her father.
• Sealed with a Kiss: The ending combines this with Time-Passes Montage, as Aladdin and Jasmine appear in different clothing at the end of their final kiss. They're apparently their wedding clothes, as the score used during the scene is called "the wedding".
• Secondary Adaptation: This live-action film is a remake of Disney's Aladdin, an animated film. Said animated film is loosely inspired by the Arabian Nights tale of "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," a written copy of Arabic Oral Tradition.
• Servile Snarker: Dalia, Jasmine's maidservant, teases her for her relationship troubles.
  Dalia: A handsome prince wants to marry you. Oh, when will life get easier?
• Shapeshifting: Like his animated counterpart, Genie has the ability to change his appearance at will. He most famously can transform into a normal human, which becomes permanent once he is free from the lamp. However, while the animated Genie shape shifts into different celebrities and pop cultural characters, in this film the Genie only shape shifts into different roles such as a waiter and flight attendant.
• Sherlock Scan: Downplayed. Aladdin notices the silk and fine jewelry Jasmine is wearing and correctly knows that such high quality material is transported to the royal palace to be worn by the royals and probably their personal servants. Since the princess has not be seen outside of the palace in years, he (incorrectly) concludes she must be the princess's handmaiden rather than the princess herself.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Jasmine is delighted when she learns that Genie is interested in Dalia and encourages Dalia to accept Genie's proposal.
  • And Genie, like in the original. During the harvest festival scene, he literally pushes Aladdin towards Jasmine, saying "Showtime!"
  • Even the magic carpet, pushing Aladdin toward Jasmine during their meeting on Jasmine's balcony.
• Shout-Out:
  • During the climax of "Friend Like Me," Genie and Aladdin jump down some steps — doing splits!!! — in the exact same fashion as the Nicholas Brothers in Stormy Weather.
  • Perhaps unintentionally, but Jafar pushing his lackey down a dark well brings to mind of a similar scene from 300.
• Skyward Scream: Jafar does this upon discovering that he doesn't have the lamp after the Cave of Wonders collapses.
• Slow-Motion Fall: The movie goes into slow motion after Aladdin is thrown out a tower toward a watery grave below.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Mostly when Aladdin has to present as Prince Ali, with copious amounts of Digging Yourself Deeper and Open Mouth, Insert Foot. As the street thief Aladdin, he's charming, fast on his feet, and intrepid, but when all eyes are on him as Ali, he's terribly, terribly gauche. He stumbles over his words badly when speaking to Jasmine, and knocks into her stuff in uncharacteristically maladroit fashion, among other things.
  Aladdin: I'm sorry for the jams, and the jewels... and the buying you. That wasn't me — it was me, I don't... It was me, I don't have a twin or anything, but I... um... [Beat]
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Marwan Kenzari gives the Evil Chancellor Jafar a soft, high-pitched voice, compared to Jonathan Freeman's much deeper voice for Jafar in the original movie.
• Soft Water: A justified example. After Jafar pushes Aladdin out a window into the ocean, the chair he's tied to hits first and absorbs the impact, breaking apart and leaving Aladdin mostly unharmed.
• Stereo Fibbing: Aladdin and Genie are asked point-blank where exactly Ababwa is and they stutter out "It's north" and "It's south" simultaneously.
  Aladdin: ... Uh, yes, we have a north... and a South.
• Stood Up: Aladdin has a good reason not showing up to his first date with Jasmine; Jafar has just kidnapped him. Jasmine comes as herself, as she was wearing an obviously royal dress. She was certainly planning to tell the truth, and reveal that she actually was the princess. Later, in the end, she asks for her headpiece back as he prepares to say goodbye to her forever.
• Summon Backup Dancers: As you would expect for a live-action recreation of the Prince Ali scene. The Genie summons not just backing dancers, but a legion of dancing celebrants, decked out like an Arabian carnival to parade Aladdin through the town's main street.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Thanks to the Genie, Aladdin is able to present himself as a prince to the Sultan and Jasmine. However, he doesn't know how to behave like a prince and ends up insulting Jasmine and making a fool of himself.
  • Aladdin is one of the Agrabah's most well known street thieves, making it difficult for him to find people willing to do business with him. He's barely able to talk a trader into taking a necklace he stole and even then he can't convince her into giving him more than a single bag of dates.
  • Jasmine, a princess who has spent a majority of her life in royal comfort, doesn't know how to pole-vault. At least, not without Aladdin's assurance that this jump can be done. She also can't go strutting through the marketplace wearing fine clothing and lavish jewelry without being identified — Aladdin easily surmises from her attire that she would have to live within the palace walls to have such adornments.
  • Dalia serves as the voice of reason when Jasmine chafes at her father wanting her to marry, pointing out that it's not a death sentence. She says more likely than not, Jasmine will be marrying a young, handsome, and rich prince who will worship her; Prince Anders is the exception rather than the rule. Jasmine agrees, her prime worry being that she'll just be a wife then, unable to protect her people.
  • Ababwa is noted specifically to not exist in this version. Genie modifies one of Jasmine's maps when she asks "Ali" to show her where it is, but Jafar checks his own maps on his own time and fails to find it, leading him to discover who Ali really is.
  • Neither Aladdin nor Abu are dressed properly for the cold weather at the "ends of the Earth" and quickly succumb to the frigid conditions until Carpet arrives to save them.
  • Jafar realizes that while he may have wished for himself to become Sultan, he hasn't earned the loyalty of the guards or anyone else for that matter, so they can just stage a coup to put the original Sultan back in power. He's only able to stop them by wishing to become a sorcerer and using his new powers to physically banish them.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When Aladdin deduces from "Dalia's" clothes that she must be Princess Jasmine's servant, Jasmine plays along with his assumption rather than admit who she is.
• Take Over the World: It's implied that this is what Jafar's endgame will be if made Sultan.
• Tempting Fate: After returning Jasmine's bracelet to her and stealing her hairpiece from her under the guise of seeing her again the next evening, Aladdin makes a comment to Abu about this being the most heavily guarded place, only to be confronted by Hakim and the other guards.
• That Came Out Wrong: When Aladdin arrives as Prince Ali, showing his treasures and jams, Jasmine questions what he hopes to buy with these, to which Aladdin responds with, "You". Aladdin quickly realizes what he said and tries to correct himself to try to have an audience with her. Everyone gives an embarrassed look for Aladdin's slip-up.
• To Be Lawful or Good: When Jafar wishes himself into the Sultancy, he demands the guards serve him as the law demands. Jasmine, as she is being led away, calls out to the head guard Hakim and essentially poses this question: will he follow the law and obey who ever the Sultan is (even if he's a tyrant), or will he remain loyal to the well-being of Agrabah's people? Hakim chooses loyalty to Jasmine, the Sultan, and the people of Agrabah, which spurs Jafar's Villainous Breakdown.
• Took a Level in Idealism: Genie is used to cruel masters exploiting him, and when Aladdin promises to free him he isn't convinced, saying that Aladdin will just get greedy like the rest. After becoming his friend, he starts to think better of him, even appealing to his better nature when it looks like Aladdin will go back on his word.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Aladdin goes through one after using the Genie to become Prince Ali and obtain the Sultan's favor. Fortunately, he snaps out of it just before his lamp gets stolen.
• Too Dumb to Live: In contrast to the snobbish, jerkass Prince Achmed from the original film, Prince Anders is simply a complete idiot. He even thinks Rajah the tiger 'likes' him even though the latter is on the brink of attacking him, falling for Iago's sarcasm.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Jasmine has a lot of costumes here, as befitting the ruler's daughter in a powerful realm.
• Wedding Finale: In a deviation from the animated film (where they did not marry until the sequels), this film ends on a Dance Party Ending at Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Prince Anders completely vanishes after the harvest festival.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Genie does this to Aladdin after he decides to continue pretending to be "Prince Ali."
  Genie: So you just never tell her the truth? You're gonna keep living the lie?
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • When they first part, Jasmine believes Aladdin stole her bracelet given to her by her mother. At the time when Aladdin finds out where it is (Abu stole it), he believes she's but a handmaiden, so what does it matter if a handmaiden who assumes he's nothing but a conning thief is missing her bracelet? However, instead of selling the bracelet, Aladdin goes to great effort and considerable risk to sneak into the palace and personally bring it back to her.
  • Right before Jafar steals the lamp, Aladdin wrestles with this. The genie is disappointed in him for wanting to continue living a lie, and Abu and Carpet give him twin What the Hell, Hero? looks. Aladdin goes back to his slum home, and decides that even if Jasmine no longer wants him, he must tell the truth and free the Genie.
  • After dealing with Jafar, Genie gives Aladdin some ideas on how he can use his third wish to allow him to marry Jasmine. Aladdin instead uses it to set Genie free, knowing that it will mean he and Jasmine cannot be together.
• Where's the Fun in That?: During the scene where he steals bread, gets pursued by guards, and then climbs up a building, Aladdin uses door tents to cushion his fall. Jasmine tells him there are stairs, so Aladdin replies with this line.
• Xanatos Gambit: Upon suspecting that Prince Ali is really Aladdin, Jafar has him captured for interrogation. Upon Ali's denials, Jafar threatens to have him thrown into the sea if not told the location of the lamp. If he dies, then Jafar will know he was telling the truth and will have also eliminated a powerful rival. If he survives, then Jafar will know exactly who he is.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Part of the reason Aladdin debates going back on his third wish is that he tells the Genie that he needs to be Prince Ali and lie to Jasmine for the rest of his life. Rather than call out Aladdin for lying to everyone and him, as he did in the original film, Genie tells him that Aladdin doesn't need the Genie's powers because Jasmine loved him for who he was when he was a "street rat" and no magic could accomplish that. Of course, Genie has been used to greedy masters and knows that Aladdin is panicking and doubting; while he's disappointed that Aladdin has been tempted, he seems to be waiting for Aladdin to come around. Unfortunately, by the time Aladdin does, Genie has a new master...
• You Have Failed Me: Early in the film, Jafar kills one of his own soldiers for bringing him the wrong man and for pointing out that Jafar's power is already second only to the Sultan by shoving him down a well.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Aladdin tries to play by his own rules when, as Prince Ali, he and the Genie spot Jasmine. Genie just uses his magic to "blow" him over to her, and once Aladdin notices this, he responds with a "Really?"

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