Shane Fisher

I have always loved Disney classics and have been pleasantly surprised with the new releases coming out over the past few years, Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, amongst others! However the two make or break movies for me were always going to be Aladdin and The Lion King! Admittedly I did cringe a little when I found out that Will Smith was playing the role of the genie, don’t get me wrong I love Will Smith’s movies, but let’s face it the genie is and always will be Robin Williams, and trying to live up to that... Never going to happen. Despite my reservations I thought I’d go take a look see, giving it the benefit of the doubt... to my surprise Will Smith was the best thing... Nay, the ONLY good thing about this movie! Will Smith’s fresh new take on this character was pretty good, it had some of the familiar comedy of the original genie with a little Will spice thrown in, he would have done Robin proud! The rest of this movie though, I’m fairly certain would have left Walt, not turning in his grave, but doing somersaults like an Olympic gymnast, if you’re going to remake a classic you need to do it justice! There unfortunately wasn’t much good to say about it all, the extra songs sung by Princess Jasmine were enough to get the gag reflex going, she has a nice voice but at one point I was almost certain I had teleported to another cinema and I was watching Frozen, I wanted to shout in at the screen in frustration, but instead I “Let it go.” Sorry Disney this was without a doubt a classic... Fail! I only hope that The Lion King will be better and restore my faith.