Warning: Movie spoilers ahead.
Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ soared at the Memorial Day Weekend box office, bringing in an estimated $112.7 million domestically. The Guy Ritchie-directed spectacle — a live-action remake of the 1992 animated classic — notched the fifth-biggest opening weekend for the holiday.
In the original, Princess Jasmine’s struggle was to marry who she wanted. In the 2019 version, she brings girl power to a whole new level.
‘A very different ending to the original’
“It had been given some very worthy updates,” says Entertainment Weekly senior movie writer Piya Sinha-Roy (video above). “Especially in the arc of princess Jasmine, who has a very different ending to the original.”
Disney (DIS) gives Jasmine a current spin that is fitting for a woman in 2019: She doesn’t just want to decide whom she’ll fall in love with and marry — now she wants to run the joint.
A new song in the film, “Speechless,” shows how the new Jasmine does not allow men to make decisions for her. Her sights are set on succeeding her father and leading Agrabah herself. She sings:
“I won’t be silenced / You can’t keep me quiet / Won’t tremble when you try it / All I know is I won’t go speechless / 'Cause I’ll breathe / When they try to suffocate me / Don’t you underestimate me / 'Cause I know that I won’t go speechless”
Eventually the song brings her to the point where she talks about breaking free from society's rules and standards because no one — man or woman — should be forced to be anyone but who they are.
“I thought it was very strong, very poignant.” Sinha-Roy said in reference to the stronger Jasmine. “I think [the movie’s] performance is a testament to how much audiences have liked it as well.”
Disney had only expected the movie to make between $75 to $85 million, and now it could double that.
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