Aladdin (1992)
4K Ultra HD | Blu-ray
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Writer: Ron Clements, John Musker, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio
Cast: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, Douglas Seale
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios
Rated G | 90 Minutes
Release date: September 10, 2019

Disney adapting their animated classics into live-action films are sometimes predicated on the critical and commercial success of the predecessor, though the studio’s recent wave of live-action adaptations has been met with varying degrees of success. But what matters most is how these films perform at the box office, and as long as they at a hit, the studio will come out with more and more. And, of course, none of these live-action films would be here without their animated origins.

Take, for instance, 1992’s Aladdin, before we can get into reviewing the live-action film from Guy Ritchie (to come soon), we must look back at the animated film by Ron Clements and John Musker. Considered to be one of the best from the Disney film era known as the Disney Renaissance, Aladdin is a beautifully animated musical that continues to hold up well. But with new technologies and televisions bringing us higher definition and better picture quality, it was only a matter of time before Disney started to go back in their vaults to release upgraded versions of their greatest hits.

Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers have chosen a director for their battle of the titans movie Godzilla vs. Kong.

Adam Wingard, best known for his work directing horrors/thrillers You’re Next, The Guest, Blair Witch, and segments of V/H/S, V/H/S/2, and The ABCs of Death, has signed on to helm the movie.

Jonny Quest is considered to be one of the most popular Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Since it was first launched back in 1965 two subsequent series, as well as a number of video games, have been launched. Now it’s time that the character gets its own feature film. In a new report, Robert Rodriguez has been named as the new director of the title film.

Jonny Quest, which will be under the Warner Bros. banner, will also be written by Rodriguez along with Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean). More on this story below.

We’ve been hearing about a new He-Man movie for longer than I care to remember, with seemingly countless names shifting in and out of duty trying to make it happen. Columbia Pictures is still determined to make Masters of the Universe a reality, and so they are now enlisting the help of someone with big time blockbuster and franchise experience on their resume.

It’s being reported that Terry Rossio has been brought in to work on the He-Man script, following the many others who have tried their hand.

The release last month of the first image of Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in character from next summer’s big-budget western adventure The Lone Ranger didn’t particularly set the world on fire. One of the major question marks surrounding the troubled production was how Depp would look as the Ranger’s faithful Indian companion Tonto. In the months before the release of the first Pirates of the Caribbean, images of Depp in character as Captain Jack Sparrow led skeptics to believe the eclectic actor had gone off the deep end and the movie would be an epic bomb for Disney.

Instead Pirates was a blockbuster smash that finally made Depp a bona fide movie star and spawned a billion-dollar franchise for the Mouse House. It also established the quirky and roguish Captain Jack as the first iconic movie hero of the 21st century. Pretty soon the stylish swashbuckler would become a popular Halloween costume as well. Depp had taken an unusual approach in his ideas for the character’s look, much to the consternation of studio executives already sweating over the movie’s gargantuan (for 2002/3) budget and the nagging uncertainty of a pirate movie, much less one based on one of their famous theme park rides, but the gamble paid off handsomely.