In the overall scheme of things, Disney’s live-action remake initiative has gone pretty well. Sure, there have been a couple of hiccups, most notably the sequel to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and most recently, ‘Dumbo.’ However, as a whole, the Mouse House has happily (and fairly easily) earned billions of dollars just by remaking their already-beloved films. Earlier this year, the plan got called into question with the release of the first trailer for “Aladdin,” and the world’s introduction to Will Smith as the big, blue Genie.
To say that Will Smith’s Genie character was mocked after the release of the first “Aladdin” trailer is an understatement. While most of the criticism surrounded the CGI that was clearly not ready for primetime, there was also a big shock to fans that have never seen Will Smith in this type of role, and also couldn’t imagine any other voice other than Robin Williams coming out of the blue, comedic character. No matter what the reason, “Aladdin” became the butt of jokes, the source of a million memes, and seemingly the first real sign that Disney might not be bulletproof with the remake plans.
But during that whole fiasco, no one really asked Will Smith what he thought of being mercilessly mocked by the internet. Well, according to the actor, he took it all in stride and actually enjoyed the attention quite a bit.
“It was very funny,” Smith said (via Empire). “There was a Sonic The Hedgehog / Genie frog. Everything is under such critical scrutiny. I came up in an era where there was no internet. It’s a new thing that I’m trying to get a handle on.”
Another person that was affected by the criticism was the film’s director Guy Ritchie, who was already seen as a questionable choice for this film. The filmmaker was surprised by the initial reaction, but was heartened by the second trailer receiving so much love, after the effects were fixed and fans got a better idea of what to expect.
READ MORE: Disney’s New ‘Aladdin’ Trailer Has Better CGI, Classic Songs, And Non-Blue Will Smith
“It even came with apologies from the cynics who were so adamant initially,” Ritchie said. “I’ve never seen apologies in that world. I thought, ‘Oh well, great, we’re back to where I’d hoped we’d be.’”
After this year’s “Dumbo” has only performed “decently” at the box office, it’ll be interesting to see if “Aladdin” has earned back enough good will to guarantee another hit for Disney. We’ll find out when the film hits theaters on May 24.
You can see a new image for the film below:
