Among the 6 Disney films that broke $1 billion at the global box office in 2019, "Aladdin" can be said to be the most unexpected one. After all, it does not have the brand bonus of Marvel, and it is not like "Toy Story". 4" is a series-based sequel.
In fact, as one of Disney's animated live-action films in recent years, "Aladdin" still has many highlights in terms of its own quality.
From the perspective of animation to live action, its biggest advantage is that it handles all aspects just right . Because it has its own innovations, it cannot be regarded as a simple reproduction. However, the essence of the original animation has been preserved. These are the key to its success.
Difficulties in Adapting Animated Live Action Movies
"Aladdin" is based on the story of the Arabian folklore collection "One Thousand and One Nights", and was made into an animation by Disney as early as 1992 and became popular.
Generally speaking, there are many difficulties in moving animations to live-action movies on the big screen, but in general there are two main ones, which are also mentioned above.
First, how to retain the essence of the original work. The essence here is divided into two main points, namely the theme connotation and the way of expression.
Speaking of which, some people may disagree. All of the original animations are used as the basis. Wouldn't it be enough to directly move the theme and expression to the live-action movie?
However, there is also a so-called scope of application.
Another animated live-action movie "Dumbo" released last year basically copied the animation completely, and it failed quite miserably.
The fundamental reason is that "Dumbo" itself is an animation in the 1960s, and the themes and expressions explained are quite simple , or it is too young.
In fact, in any animation, there will be more or less simple or relatively young points. If these points are moved to the big screen intact, they will easily become slot points. After all, they mainly support the box office . teenagers, not children.
Therefore, putting the essence of the original work on the screen, which ones should be deleted, which ones should be changed, which ones should be kept, which ones can be kept in the way of animation, and which ones need to be redesigned to conform to the way of live-action films, these are all things that the producers need to consider. .
The second is innovation.
The times have been advancing and changing, and because most of the animations in the old era were relatively simple, they themselves had great freedom of secondary innovation.
In addition, since the old animation stories are basically familiar to everyone, if there is innovation, it will obviously bring new surprises to the audience.
However, the difficulty of this step is also not low. First of all, it is necessary to determine which parts of the animation belong to the points that can be re-innovated, and which parts cannot be changed. At the same time, we must also consider the chain after the secondary innovation of a certain point. Will the reaction directly affect the progress of the story? Affect the character of the character? These are all things to consider.
And "Aladdin" can be said to have an inherent advantage in adapting it into a live-action movie.
Reserve
First of all, the core of the story of "Aladdin" is to tell the desire of human nature. This theme itself is suitable for all ages. In other words, the live-action version of "Aladdin" can still retain the theme.
Don't underestimate the advantage of this, because if the theme were to change, the entire movie would basically have to be remade.
A typical example is "Sleeping Curse". Although it is based on the story of "Sleeping Beauty", a prince who has never met before kisses a princess and wakes up a princess, and then the two live happily. This kind of story is obvious in today's era. It's long overdue, so Disney had to change the theme from " Love Between a Man and a Woman at First Sight" to "A Mother and Daughter Love Between Japan and North Korea."
The main point of view of the movie has also changed from the princess in the original work to a witch, and it is not the prince but the witch who wakes up the princess at the end, which is basically equivalent to a brand new movie.
Therefore, because of the advantages of the theme, "Aladdin" can keep the frame and direction of the original work to the maximum extent in the live-action film, and the reasoning and the connotation of its performance will not make the audience feel embarrassed or outdated, which is very huge in itself . The advantages.
In terms of expression, the live-action version of "Aladdin" is quite simple, that is, copying, which has proved to be a very wise choice.
First of all, there are many popular songs in the original work, such as Friend Like Me introduced by the magic lamp elves , A Whole New World when Aladdin and Princess Jasmine traveled to the stars at night , especially the latter is the best song at the 65th Academy Awards/ Music, these must be preserved.
In the original work, these songs are mainly matched with various interesting scenes to show the charm of the characters or create a sense of climax. In other words, these excellent songs complement the plot, and both are indispensable.
Of course, the animation style of the second dimension must be retained to the third dimension, which is not easy in itself. The requirements for the actors themselves are extremely high, but fortunately, the producers have already taken precautions for this.
Will Smith , who plays the genie of the magic lamp , is a rapper himself who debuted, and there is no problem in singing or dancing.
Naomi Scott , who plays Princess Jasmine, is a singer herself and trained to dance for the film.
As for the protagonist Aladdin's actor Mena Massoud , he has neither singing nor dancing foundation, so the film party conducted a series of vocal training for him.
In the end, the effect shown in the movie is basically impeccable. Not only does it maintain the witty style of the original work, but the images formed by the actors' performances and special effects give the audience a wonderful audio-visual experience.
This is also a major key to the success of "Aladdin".
innovation
In addition, the second difficulty of "Aladdin" for live-action, that is, innovation, is to give this task to the characters themselves.
In the original work of "Aladdin", it belongs to "changes that cannot be changed", and the image is already very clear, or because the main characters of the story cannot be changed, only Aladdin and the magic lamp elf are the only two characters, and the rest of the characters are just set. The frame has a lot of white space.
There is a lot of white space, what does it mean? After these characters are made into live-action movies, they can be re-set to make the image more full , and as long as they are not forcibly added to the main line, it will not have any impact on the movie as a whole.
In other words, the innovation lies in these characters, and in the movie, it is mainly the heroine Princess Jasmine who shoulders this responsibility .
Princess Jasmine is already a very individual princess in the original work, but due to the age, the excavation of this character is still not deep enough. The movie has designed quite a lot of original plots for her, such as the sultan (that is, the king) who has been succeeding her father. ) position and study hard, but because of the rules of the country or the imprisonment of the times, he is not favored.
To this end, the producers also specially invited Alan Manken, the song producer of the original "Aladdin", to create a brand new song Speechless for the character .
Princess Jasmine is unwilling to be imprisoned by the times in the movie, and the plot with the courage to speak for herself is matched with this exciting song, coupled with the singing skills of the actor Naomi Scott, making this section the best in the live-action movie The original plot, its expressiveness is quite shocking, absolutely no less than any scene in the original.
Excellent originality, adding many excellent elements of the new era to "Aladdin", is also one of the keys to the success of this film.
Retention and innovation are actually not just the difficulties of animated live-action movies. From the perspective of adaptation, it is also applicable to any old IP remakes of the old era.
As for how to control the degree and make the right choice, it depends on the attitude and skill of the producer.
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