This is another great retelling of a classic tale. I like this version better than the 2018 live action Disney remake. This has become my second favorite adaption of Aladdin after the 1994 or 1995 Disney's Aladdin movie. Vanessa Hessler once again does an excellent of playing a princess and I say her version of the princess is superior to Disney's version of the princess. She's beautiful, adventurous, outspoken, a genius, and has read numerous books and loves botany and the stars. She doesn't desire marriage and enjoys her freedom and learning. Her father supports his daughter but his evil wife has other plans and constantly find ways to undermine Princess Shahrazad for her own ulterior motive. In this version, Aladdin is not a thief. He's a shoemaker who works for his father. He lives with his mother and three younger siblings. He doesn't let poverty get him down. He can read and loves reading, poetry, and is a great storyteller entertaining his young siblings with tales of adventure and magic. He is better kindhearted and humble. When the princess's carriage with the princess in tow, he saves an old beggar's life in the streets and offers him the shoes he promised he would sell for his family to put money on the table. When by chance, he encounters the princess who sneaks out the palace to see the festival, it's love at first sight. He rescues you from kidnappers trying to kidnap her and brings her to the festival where they dance, eat, talk about the stars and share their first kiss all in one night. Because of her action, her stepmother convinces her father to force Shahrazad to marry. When Aladdin tries to return Shahrazad's shoes to her, the palace guards refused to let him in and tell him she's getting married. His family and his fellow villagers come together and help him disguise himself as a prince so he can win the princess's hand in marriage and makes her a pair of shoes as a gift using crystals to represents the stars since she loves the astronomy. Not knowing what Aladdin has planned, Shahrazad comes up with a riddle for all her suitors to solve if they want her hand in marriage. Aladdin is the only one who is able to solve the riddle, but when she finds out he lied about being a prince, she dismisses him. She is then impressed by Prince Jafar who her stepmother wants her to marry. And it's quite obvious her stepmother gave him advice in how to impress the princess. Aladdin is so heartbroken by Shahrazad's rejection, he gets drunk and then decides to leave his family and Agrabah and join a traveling caravan in order to forget the princess. Meanwhile, Shahrazad stumbles upon her stepmother and Prince Jafar speaking about their plot to kill her father and the princess once she married the princess and learns her stepmother and Prince Jafar are lovers. When Prince Jafar almost kills her, her father comes to her defends and fights him off. Her stepmother stabs her father in the back and Jafar strikes him too, killing her father. He tells his daughter to run away before he dies. Shahrazad escapes with Jar and his soldiers hot on trail beginning tales of adventure for Aladdin and his princess.
This movie could have went so bad but as soon as Aladdin and Shahrazad appear on the scream, you know this movie is cast full of good actors who can act so the casting director deserves an applause for doing a wonderful job with the casting of this movie. The actors were all great. I don't know what it is about filming in the desert but sometimes movies about the desert's backgrounds seemed fake. In this movie, it didn't matter because the actors were amazing and well developed. There's not many movies where you have a princess as smart as Shahrazad yet still a woman of her time. Marco Bocci who plays Aladdin does an excellent job and seemed to get sexier by the second. I think it's the hair and the facial hair. But you can see why the women lust after Aladdin but he's a one woman man making them want him more. This movie plucks out some of the greatest stories from Arabian nights like the thieves, Aladdin, the genie, seductive sorcerers, magic lamps, and gentle genies. It's a great story full of well developed characters from the children actors to even Aladdin's family. It's a wonderful movie and the score and the clothing are just as beautiful. A great story of adventure, star crossed lovers and magic.
