The arrangement for the Academy Award®-winning ballad “A Whole New World” is much more minimal in the live-action film than it was when an animated magic carpet first took flight. Menken and his team, which includes music producer Matt Sullivan and music arranger Christopher Benstead, incorporated pop elements into the kinetic number “One Jump Ahead,” which they approached as more of an action sequence than a dance number. As he set out to reflect the look and style Ritchie intended for the film, Menken balanced between two poles: “I want to pull as much as possible toward the ‘Musical’-with a capital M-and a Guy Ritchie action-adventure, romantic movie.” Though the score for the live-action Aladdin is rich with melodic cues, it is more percussive and its motor is driven by action adventure. That was part of the tradition that goes all the way back to the earliest days of Walt,” he shares. “In animation, you’re drawing on a much more melodically driven score, and certainly back in 1992 I was still doing quite a bit of what we called ‘Mickey Mouse-ing,’ which is using music almost as sound effect. Menken took great care to protect the original music and excitedly took on the challenge of making “textural” changes to the score so that it would be better suited for a high-speed chase through the streets of Agrabah than a hand-drawn animated sequence. The same holds true for Aladdin’s iconic songs and score, which have been revisited by Disney Legend Alan Menken, who brings a contemporary update to the songs and Oscar®-winning score he composed nearly three decades ago. While staying true to the original film, the characters, including the charming street rat Aladdin (played by Mena Massoud), the brave and self-determined Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) and the shape-shifting, wise-cracking Genie (Will Smith), have been reimagined with modern sensibilities. That song is “Speechless,” an empowerment ballad the princess sings to basically tell all the men in her life that she won’t be quiet or pushed into a corner! Hashtag feminism! It‘s all very modern and, stylistically, a step away from the movie’s established sonic landscape, but hey-it’s nice for the princess to finally get a big stand-alone moment.A beloved tale comes to the screen in a new and thrilling way in Disney’s Aladdin-opening in theaters today-which, under the direction of Guy Ritchie, reimagines the 1992 animated classic as a live-action action adventure. Speaking of new songs: the number that generated the most buzz ahead of the film was the new song that Pasek and Paul wrote for Princess Jasmine (played by Naomi Scott, who has a great voice!). Sample line: “This is your chance, man / Wish from your soul / When I’m out of the lamp, man / I’m out of control!” (And yes, comedian Demi Adejuyigbe totally called it two years ago with his impression of Smith’s end credits music.) It’s two pure minutes and 39 pure seconds of Smith rapping in character as the Genie. In the new version, the line is changed to “He’s got 10,000 servants and flunkies!” Great!īut the biggest change to “Friend Like Me” arrives at the end of the film, when the credits roll and it’s revealed that Smith and DJ Khaled made a hip-hop remix of the classic song. Lyrically, there are two notable changes in the original “Prince Ali,” there’s a line where the people rattle off the prince’s bona fides, at one point singing “He’s got slaves, he’s got servants and flunkies!” Which-problematic. Performance-wise, Smith picks to emphasize totally different inflection points than Williams, differentiating himself in subtle ways. In “Prince Ali,” the marquee number Genie uses to introduces Aladdin’s royal alter ego, the music has been amped up to have more of an Agrabah-meets-Mardi Gras big-band effect. Let’s start with some of the more minor, but noticeable changes. The changes range from subtle lyric twists to new songs, including a much-ballyhooed number for Jasmine written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. However-Disney has also allowed a handful of changes and new additions that will tweak the ear of any fan of the first Aladdin. In Disney’s new live-action iteration, directed by Guy Ritchie, that music stays largely the same, a testament to the soundtrack’s classic staying power. Aside from Robin Williams’s iconic performance as Genie, the most enduring aspect of Disney’s 1992 Aladdin is the film’s soundtrack, with unforgettable music composed by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.
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