Disney always delivers with its stage musical and Aladdin is certainly no exception - at times. 

I say at times, because the show, which is touring at the moment and currently at the Bristol Hippodrome just down the M4, is something of a confusing spectacle to behold. 

It's full of the polished high-production values you'd expect from the people who have previously delivered incredible shows like The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins to the stage. 

In fact, Aladdin might be amongst the best looking of all of them, its sets are vibrant and full of depth if not a little simple, costumes and buildings are full of sparkle and rich colours and all of it feels alive and colourful and this translates across to its diverse ensemble cast who are all pitch-perfect throughout. 

(Image: Deen Van Meer)

It also boasts, what could be one of the best musical set pieces ever put to the stage in the Genie's re-introduction inside the Cave of Wonders with "Never Had A Friend Like Me" - a sprawling, prolonged masterpiece anchored by an exceptional Yeukayi Ushe as the magical lamp-dweller. 

The magic carpet ride for 'A Whole New World' is also one of the more impressive things anyone is likely to see on stage (providing you've not seen Back To The Future), with twirls and direction changes that will leave you wondering quite how it's done. 

The two lovers who form the leads at the centre of the story, Gavin Adams' Aladdin and Desmonda Cathabel's Princess Jasmine are also the perfect Disney performers, both incredible singers with the perfect mannerisms. 

But, the stage adaption, which makes a number of albeit-necessary changes from the animated film, like removing the magic carpet and monkey sidekick Abu as characters, changing Iago from a parrot to a person and adding three friends for Aladdin in Babkak, Omar and Kassim, fails to quite capture the magic of that same film. 

(Image: Deen Van Meer)

And, at times the script choices, I suspect deliberately so although it doesn't quite work, feel a little too much like a regular panto, with lots of transitional scenes full of hit-and-miss humour, panto-villain evil laughs from Jafar and fourth-wall breaking pop culture references, taking place in front of the curtain so that the set can be changed in the background. 

This also means that it bizarrely has jarring peaks and troughs that ultimately lead to a very underwhelming and disappointing ending that completely does away with the peril and threat of the film, as well as its spectacle with a giant snake and Jasmine in an hourglass, and rushes things to a conclusion. 

The Disney magic is still there at various points and people, families and children, will undoubtedly have a great time with it, and indeed many did, but that magic is spread rather thin at times and at others, like the ending, seems to completely run out. 

Despite this, it is still really, really good and it is still really, really fun, it just didn't leave me with the same sense of awe and wonder as The Lion King did, a high bar I know, but still a bar nonetheless. 

Tickets are available at the ATG website page for the Bristol Hippodrome, and the show is there until August 11.