Disney’s Aladdin remake is a poor effort from director Guy Ritchie, who has shown a lack of care and attention

I DON'T know who to blame for this not being the rip-roaring success it should be and occasionally attempts.

On one hand it’s Katie Price and Peter Andre for forever ruining one of Disney’s greatest love songs — even in this $100million live action spectacular, I was still sent straight back to 2006 for one of the worst cover versions of all time.

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So it’s either them or director Guy Ritchie, who should never have been allowed within a million miles of the fictional Sultan state of Agrabah (Disney can’t be seen to Disney-fy a real place America spends time bombing I guess).

With Aladdin and Jasmine being played by relative unknowns, the burden of the entire film falls to the Genie, with Will Smith stepping into the ridiculously large boots left by Robin Williams, which by and large he carries off.

The songs and plot are pretty much fascicle versions of the origami animation — although no-one (with possibly the exception of Smith) really having the pipes to pull it off.

There is genuine chemistry between Mena Massoud (Aladdin) and Naomi Scott (Jasmine) who’s romance is the most enjoyable part of the film and Scott in particular is impressive.

Where the film completely falls apart is with both Jafar and Ritchie.

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One of the most villainous characters in Disney canon is rendered a complete dud, who you wouldn’t even boo at a provincial pantomime, which for this classic tale is pretty unforgivable.

What's worse is the lack of care and attention given to the script, CGI, editing, voice-overs, sound editing — basically everything overseen by the director and writer - here the same person.

It really is a poor, poor effort from Guy — who needs a hit only slightly more than his ex-wife.

The film ends with these awful, hackneyed, indecipherable lines:

“Stop thief! Your Sultan commands it!”

“Am I in trouble?”

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One of the three stars given is in sympathy to the cast, who gave it their all in spite of the film.

Aladdin (PG) 79 mins

★★★☆☆