Disney works its magic again, turning the lazy and happy-go-lucky Aladdin in "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" into a “street rat” with heart and dreams. This becomes immediately apparent when he sees the kids on the street and offers them bread and defends them from the abuse of the neighboring prince. The audience has no choice but to emphasize with him as he vies for Princess Jasmine’s heart.
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Mary Ness has written that the original Aladdin was about “sly rebellion, of the powerless taking control," and Disney’s version has hints of this in how Aladdin eventually climbed from his state of poverty to a prince who would eventually overtake the Sultan’s role. However, Disney’s film centers more on the idea of attaining freedom as opposed to being trapped. This includes:
- Jasmine locked inside the castle, unable to experience the outside world and find her true love,
- Aladdin trapped in his way of life due to his social status,
- and the Genie stuck in the lamp serving a master when he wants to be free of having to obey.
By the end of the film, these conditions have all changed, and each character succeeds somehow in freeing themselves. This is the heartwarming aspect of the film, though, contrasting with the more problematic and misogynistic subtleties.
The non-factor that the unnamed princess was in the original version sadly carried over into the Disney version, continuing the more traditional view of gender roles rather than offering anything particularly progressive. The females in the film were grossly over-sexualized in their appearance and mannerism both in their limited upper body clothing and their dancing, perpetuating an insulting stereotype for Arabic women. As Ella Shohat puts it in “Gender in Hollywood’s Orient”, “darker women, marginalized within the narrative, appear largely as sexually hungry subalterns,” visible in this film.
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Jasmine was once again treated as a sexual “object” to be desired. Aladdin, as in the original, falls in love with her immediately on the streets after her seeing her face as Disney promotes unrealistic standards of beauty in creating an Arabic princess flawless and of generic Westernized standards of beauty (including thin frame, long thick hair, and big eyes). The film demonstrates its misogynistic agenda with the treatment of Jasmine throughout — she was sexually abused by Jafar after he became Sultan and he even had the audacity to call her “pussycat.” This implied that the role of women was to be subservient to men, an upsetting portrayal in what is supposedly a family film, friendly to young children. During this final conflict, Jafar even locks Jasmine up inside an hourglass, and, suddenly, Aladdin turns into a hero who must save Jasmine from death as she becomes becomes useless (and arguably a hindrance) for Aladdin while he is trying to get rid of Jafar.
The film also portrayed Arabic culture and the Middle East in questionable ways. Beyond the way the women were shown as seductresses, The film doesn’t do Arabian culture any justice, notable in how the main characters, particularly Aladdin and Jasmine, were portrayed with more Westernized features, mentally signaling “good”, compared to the more insulting and stereotyped portrayal of the others, including the evil characters. This was notable in the contrasting physical appearances, attire, and accents.
Disneyfication is written all over the story, as Disney took out all the killing inside the original, even brilliantly eliminating Jafar without actually killing him off. Robin Williams was absolutely brilliant as the Genie, and I found his light-hearted character and humor the highlight of the film. Overall, I definitely enjoyed the Disney film more than the original although it definitely perpetuated stereotypes of Arabian culture and the Middle East (at least it was better than the completely geographically inaccurate original?). I’m interested to see how the story will be further altered in the live-action remake!
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