THE GENIE DISCUSSION- "THE ALADDIN"
To start off, I just want to say, I am not going to compare the performances of Will Smith to the late Robin Williams. William's depiction of the character in animated form was amazing, and Smith could make a just as good performance as Williams, or take a different take on the character which might be just as entertaining.
The biggest complaint of the Genie in live action is that it just looks like a painted blue Will Smith or not even that, someone just placed a blue filter on Will Smith in photoshop to bring the charcter to life.
This is a complaint I have, and a complaint I have about these Disney live-action adaptations in general. They try to look photo-realistic, where it could look better if characters like the Genie, or even some of the animals in Lion King trailers, looked a little more animated, a little more out of this world.
The live-action Genie looks a little mundane in the way that he looks like something that could easily be seen in the real world. Like someone who is doing a bad impression of the blue man group in the back alley of a Paradise hotel.
But I do wish that the Genie did look a little more animated, a little more fluid in expression. We see the shots of the Genie floating, and that looks great, and an awesome start to the body of a live-action adaptation of the character, however, the face doesn't look expressive for what the Genie should be. That is nothing against Will Smith, he's a great actor, but there should be other means to present the face of the Genie because a human face over a blue body would not cut it for the Genie. I feel like there needs to be some warping to the characters face, where his eyes and his mouth are larger, creating a distinct and larger than life character.
The overall design of the character's torso and other body looks awesome, with the different patterns on the side of the character, and the jewelry, it creates a weird out of this world feel. The first time I saw this, I was getting hyped just seeing that behind shot of the character, especially with the previously mentioned mist coming off the character to show him floating.
When looking at other CG characters in live action who use motion capture, I think of characters like Neytiri, or Thanos. These are great examples because they all demonstrate something which the Genie fails to demonstrate. So let's go through these examples.
Neytiri- From "Avatar" played by Zoe Salanda. The character is made to look human-like and uses the motion capture to illustrate that. This plays into the film as it is supposed to show that humans shouldn't wage war on the alien race, because, in many ways, they are very similar to use. This helps the film to more easily paint the human war generals as the antagonists by showing that they are inhumane.
Thanos- From "Avengers Infinity War" played by Josh Brolin. The point of Thanos is that he is a character that looks menacing character who is supposed to illustrate deep emotion and conflicting feelings, and that is done well, to show his struggles, and to help prove the point in Infinity War that he deserved to achieve his goal in some degree.
The Genie is supposed to be mystical, presenting something to Aladdin that he could never have, to achieve the dreams and goals that he could never think of having. By the end of the film, Aladdin doesn't free the Genie because of his looks, however, because of the character generosity and charisma.
I want to wrap up is by saying is that Will Smith has the charisma that the character of the Genie has, and honestly seems like one of the only people who could play the Genie, and this design choice is not his fault. The character's depiction in live action should look something more like Alita from the recent film "Alita: Battle Angel" which has impressive CG giving the character of Alita more animated expressions, which does utilize the actor, Rosa Salazar's talents to bring the character to life.
In conclusion, those are my thoughts of the live action reveal of the Genie from the upcoming Aladdin film. I did present my thoughts on the design of the character, and why he should look different, and more animated, a way that he could look to look more mystical and animated, as I gave Alita as an example.
What do you think of this design choice for Will Smith's live-action Genie? comment below your thoughts and opinions down in the comments section below.
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