Aladdin is one of Disney’s most beloved properties ever since the 1992 animated original introduced audiences to the street rat with a heart of gold. Now, a new generation will get to experience the story with the Guy Ritchie-directed live-action remake – but does Aladdin’s charm hold up without the magic of Disney animation?

The plot of this live-action redo is basically exactly the same as the original. Aladdin (Mena Massoud), a poor thief on the streets of Agrabah, encounters Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) who has disguised herself as a commoner in order to escape her sheltered – but confining – palace life. The two hit it off almost immediately, but Aladdin is eventually captured for his crimes. He is convinced to run a mysterious errand for the Grand Vizier, Jafar (Marwan Kenzari), into the Cave of Wonders. There, Aladdin meets the Genie (Will Smith), who grants him three wishes; Aladdin uses the Genie’s power in order to disguise himself as Prince Ali, so that he may properly court the Princess. However, Jafar uncovers who Ali truly is, and his schemes to become all-powerful – starting with taking over Agrabah – eventually prove to be his undoing.

The 2019 Aladdin is certainly faithful to the original in all of the right ways. It also adds some layers: Jasmine now has a handmaiden, Dalia (Nasim Pedrad), who serves as both Jasmine’s confidant and as a cute love interest for the Genie. Jasmine is given more of a personality by giving her some life aspirations beyond simply getting out of the palace; she now hopes to one day become Sultan herself, despite the fact that the kingdom has never been ruled by a woman. Jafar is also given more of a backstory, so that he has more context to his actions beyond “doing evil things because he’s an evil wizard.”

For the most part things play out really well. Visually, the film is spectacular: the special effects (save for an occasional “uncanny valley” moment when Genie is full-on blue) are incredible, the costume design is fabulous, the set design makes Agrabah feel like a real place. Massoud and Scott have great chemistry together as Aladdin and Jasmine, but the supporting cast is also full of talented players.

The biggest question for most long-time fans of the film was how, exactly, would Will Smith handle the Genie? It’s an iconic character thanks to how Robin Williams was able to infuse his energy and personality into the script, and beloved perhaps even more so now that Williams is deceased. I thought Smith breathed a different kind of life into the role, and was able to make it his own without totally changing the core of the character that Williams had established. I don’t think people give Smith enough credit for being a naturally charismatic and funny guy – folks seem to forget how his breakthrough into acting was largely through comedy. His take on the Genie suffers only in so much that the script itself reused some jokes from the original. I think it would have been better to completely scrap the Genie’s lines from the animated feature as much as possible just to provide as much distance between Smith and Williams as possible.

The music is definitely a highlight here, for the most part. The new renditions of “Arabian Nights,” “One Jump Ahead,” and “A Whole New World” are all great, but “Friend Like Me” is a total showstopper and “Prince Ali” is one of the most over-the-top productions I’ve ever seen. It’s a ton of fun and these tunes are all treated with the respect they deserve. But they also added a new song, “Speechless,” sung by Jasmine – perhaps to spotlight Naomi Scott’s admittedly impressive vocals. However, the song doesn’t really fit thematically with the rest of the soundtrack; it kind of sounds like generic Top 40 pop fare, and it doesn’t pack the emotional punch that I assume the folks who wrote it thought it would.

There were two big downsides to this film for me. One, making Iago a more “realistic” parrot means losing out on a lot of the humor that Gilbert Gottfreid provided in the original. Alan Tudyk is an incredible talent who provided his own sense of snark to the few moments that this version of Iago has to himself, but for the most part, I miss the banter between Jafar and his avian subject from the original. And two, the film didn’t do much to improve what was a weak third act in the original and remains a weak third act in this. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, but ultimately everything after “A Whole New World” feels like an afterthought.

Overall, the 2019 Aladdin is a lot of fun, and it’s worth a trip to the theater. I’m growing fatigued of these Disney live-action remakes in general – I think the originals are still superior in every single case provided so far – and this film didn’t do much to change that feeling for me. But this might be the best one so far, and I hope at the very least that it will get a new audience to go back and watch the 1992 film as well.

-Carrie Wood