Note: Contains spoilers for the Aladdin remake.
While the live-action remake of Aladdin largely follows the structure of the original animation, Guy Ritchie has added new elements to his tale of the "street rat" and the Princess.
There's a whole new song in the form of Jasmine's power ballad 'Speechless', some changes to the original lyrics and Aladdin is even wearing more clothes. But one of the biggest developments happens with the Genie.
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For the most part, Genie's arc is the same as in the animation. Aladdin promises that he'll free the Genie with his final wish and, after a dramatic final battle with Jafar, Aladdin does just that.
It's here where the remake introduces the biggest switch from the animation that links into the framing device.
As with the animation, the movie starts with someone about to tell the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp. Here though, instead of being a mysterious merchant in Agrabah, it's a man on a boat, played by Will Smith, telling his two children the tale.
Robin Williams did voice the merchant in the animation, although the planned ending, which would reveal the merchant was the Genie pretending to be human, was cut from the movie.
That original ending is brought back for the remake with an added twist.
During the movie, the Genie has a bit of a thing for Jasmine's handmaiden Dalia, a new character introduced in the remake. It's a bit of an undercooked subplot, unfortunately, as there's some cute awkward chemistry between the two, but it comes to the fore at the end.
After Aladdin frees the Genie and wonders what he'll do now, we cut back to that boat we saw at the start. We see Dalia on board as well to give the full context to the scene: it's Genie talking to his two children about his past.
But wait, does that mean the Genie is a full-on human now? We'd have to imagine so, which is a marked change from the animation's ending. In that movie, the Genie seemingly remained a magical genie (well, he was still blue) and just went off on vacation.
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Without putting too fine a point on it, does Genie have the, erm, equipment to have children with Dalia? And if he did, would they be slightly less powerful human-genie hybrids?
Of course, Dalia and the Genie could have adopted a couple of children and maybe he's just hanging out in human form and still retains his genie powers. There are other ways to start a family, after all.
Perhaps we'll find out for sure if the remake is a success and Disney looks to update The Return of Jafar too.
Aladdin is in cinemas now.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
