Does anyone else think that Disney might be reaching a bit? Ryan Scott from MovieWeb has announced that there are plans to make an Aladdin 2 and that this idea will be moving forward eventually but it still feels as though it could be a less than great idea, especially given how they ended the first movie. The Genie was free, remember? And in the animated world the Genie did come back, but without a family attached, and greatly diminished in power. Also, the second movie, which was sent straight to home video, featured the return of Jafar, this time as a genie since he took the original Genie’s place. Oh yeah, and the second movie kind of bombed in comparison to the first one for a few reasons.
It might be that the claims of being able to find suitable material for a sequel wouldn’t have to go the same route, but those fans that know something about the home videos might have something to say about it, even if their words fall on deaf ears as is pretty standard. Right now though it does seem like kind of a bad idea to keep going forward with Aladdin simply because the story itself seems complete and more than adequate to entertain people in its own way. Disney has been grasping for every chance to make one movie after another since it started up with the live action remakes of its classic animated movies, but this seems to be taking things a bit far. One has to wonder if they’re going to extend this line of thinking to other movies such as Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King, which had a couple of sequels to be honest. If that’s the case then things are going to get out of hand just as swiftly as they did with the animated versions since quite honestly there’s plenty of story to tell, but rarely have the sequels ever had the same effect as the original movies.
Mulan has had a sequel, laughingly so has Pocahontas. As Petrana Radulovic from Polygon shows, many of Disney’s animated movies have had direct to video sequels that many people wouldn’t even know about unless they visited the store now and again to look at the Disney section and their continually expanding array of movies. But while they might be all well and good as sequels in animated form it does stand to reason that there might be doubt about their veracity when being made into live action. At this point a TV series, perhaps something on Disney+, would be better served than another movie since honestly Aladdin should be allowed to stand on its own just as the other movies have done. There are of course a lot of questions concerning Aladdin’s story, but a TV series seems like a much better venue to answer them them than on the big screen where time is more limited and any room for lengthy explanation is next to none. Given the fact that the idea seems to be to avoid going shot for shot with the sequel that’s already in place, creating a series out of Aladdin at this point would no doubt be far more appreciated by fans that want to know more about the street rat turned prince, and on TV that could take up a season or two all on its own as he could be seen to adjust to palace life.
There does seem to be more money to be made with a big screen version however, and where the money goes, so does the House of Mouse. If no one else is seeing this as another cash grab though then it might be because Disney has grown so skilled at placating those that want to see a quality story that they’re not willing to question the motives behind such a project. Aladdin stands fine on its own as a standalone movie, just as the animated version did. In keeping the story going this does appease a lot of fans that want to see more development and learn more about their favorite characters, but it also starts to thin the story out a bit the further along it goes. Some might not care about this and make claims that it only enriches the story and makes it that much better, and this is certainly a valid opinion, if that was the overall goal of Disney. But money is the bottom line with the corporation and as we’ve seen more than once in the past they’ll create a flop just to make a cash grab and then try to hype it up as much as possible. As of right now a sequel to Aladdin is already on the table and could be getting more and more attention by the day. But the truth is, it’s not really needed.
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