Lesson 4) A Whole New World (Aladdin)
Welcome back to today's lesson on Aladdin (1992)! One of the earliest versions of the Aladdin story, Aladdin ou la lampe merveilleuse (1906)
is a trick film which relies on live action and animation techniques to
create the illusion of genies appearing as if by magic. The "all powerful genie" (with 'itty bitty living space') is the locus of Disney's film, disrupting the quasi-oriental medieval world with anachronisms. When watching Aladdin, you should play the "spot-the-reference" game!
Some examples include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson. It's also probably one of the most "meta" Disney movies, as it references Fantasia, Pinocchio, The Little Mermaid, and Dumbo. Even the film's directors, John Musker and Ron Clements, as well as the studio executive, Jeffrey Katzenberg, are extras in the crowd during the "Prince Ali" number. Finally, there was even a "plug" for Disney's second international theme park (which opened that same year) at the end of the film.
There really is no better professor to introduce this lesson than Professor Honeysett since the studio-sponsored book Aladdin: The Making of an Animated Film asserts that the production designers developed the style of Aladdin from the study of Persian miniature paintings from approximately 100 to 1500AD, various Victorian paintings of eastern cultures, as well numerous photo-essay and coffee-table books of the Middle-East (Sharman 14). If you're interested in taking Magical Art, please visit the Magical Art Facebook page for more information https://www.facebook.com/hihmagicalarts.
Another important thing to remember when learning about Aladdin is that it is, like Mulan and Pocahontas, a Western rendition of a non-Western story. In other words, Aladdin (as well as Mulan, our next film) engages in the production of a non-Western culture through the lens of the West--an Orientalist practice, according to Edward Said, the father of Orientalism (1978) which eventually gave birth to the field of literary criticism known as Postcoloniasm. While the original lyrics of the film's opening number caused critical controversy, Professor Honeysett and I agreed that this was not the place to properly address it. Given that our students on this website are as young as 13, I must end the discussion of this subject here, as it is a sensitive one. We merely wished to acknowledged our awareness of the issue, but wanted to steer our students towards other interesting aspects of the fairy-tale and film.
Finally, I would like to introduce today's guests: Professors Morgan (Ancient Studies) and Riley (Magical Transportation). If you would like to know more about Ancient Studies, please visit the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/782075055162942/. If you would like to know more about Magical Transportation, please visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hihmagicaltransportation.
We'll be screening Aladdin and its sequels all day:
http://www.watch2gether.com/rooms/hihdisneyscreeningroom-alh65kcv8x3pdecy.
For those of you wanting to receive continuous updates about Disney Lit Weeks, please feel free to add me: http://www.hogwartsishere.com/emmahart/
Please give a warm welcome to Professor Honeysett!
EH
Lesson 4: A Whole New World (Aladdin)
Hello everyone! For those who do not know me, I am Professor Honeysett, and I normally teach Magical Art. I’m thrilled to be joining you for Disney Lit Week, and I hope you have all been enjoying it so far. Today we will be taking a look at one of my favorite Disney movies – Aladdin! Some of you may be aware that this film is loosely based on a tale from The Thousand and One Nights, or Arabian Nights, but did you know that the story of Aladdin was actually added into those stories in the early 18th century by Antoine Galland? Let me begin by explaining the very basic concept of The Thousand and One Nights and then we will discuss the literary version of Aladdin and the beloved Disney movie.
The Thousand and One Nights were a collection of folk tales compiled during the Islamic Golden age. The first European translation was Galland’s in the early 18th century and it led to the first English translation in 1706. The main premise is that there is a ruler, Shahryār, who takes a new wife each night and has her executed the following morning. One night he takes Scheherazade as his wife and she begins to tell him a story. Being a clever woman, she ends the story on a cliffhanger rather than telling him the conclusion. The next night she finishes the story and begins another, again, without concluding it. The actual number of stories present varies from a few hundred to over a thousand, but the concept was that she told him these tales in order to keep his interest and stay alive. The endings vary, but they all involve the ruler letting his wife live.The Original Story
Now, on to discussing the story of Aladdin! There is some debate as to whether the story is one of Arabic or Islamic origin that Galland recorded for his edition or if it is one he made up himself. For now, we’ll focus on the telling of the story itself.
In the Thousand and One Nights version, Aladdin is actually a young Chinese boy who refuses to learn a trade and instead sneaks away to play with other boys all day. One day a sorcerer comes into town and convinces Aladdin and his mother that he is Aladdin’s uncle, brother of Aladdin’s late father. He brings gifts for the family and wins their trust and affection. After winning their trust, the sorcerer takes Aladdin out of the city and reveals the entrance to a magic cave. He gives Aladdin a ring and instructions on how to proceed through the cave to retrieve the lamp. Aladdin collects the lamp, and some other treasures from the cave, and returns to the entrance where the sorcerer awaits him. When Aladdin refuses to hand him the lamp until he is safely out of the cave, the sorcerer grows angry and leaves after blocking the entrance.Aladdin spends two days in the cave. It wasn’t until he went to pray, rubbing the ring as he clasped his hands, that a genie comes forth. This genie was bound to the ring that the sorcerer had forgotten to reclaim, and was able to transport Aladdin home to his mother.Once home, Aladdin decides to sell the lamp so that they can buy some food, but when his mother rubbed it to clean it, a genie appeared. Aladdin’s mother fainted and he took the lamp and demanded that the genie fetch him food. He brought plenty of food in fine, silver dishes. When his mother came to, he explained the lamp and his mother begged him to sell it, fearing that it was enchanted by evil magic. Many of you may be familiar with the warning never to trust an object that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain, lest it be enchanted with some sort of dark magic. Aladdin refused, and the family fell into a cycle of selling the fine, silver dishes once the food was gone, and then having the genie bring them more food and fine silver. This works for some time, but one day the Sultan announces that everyone was to stay home behind closed doors so that his daughter could pass, unseen, to the bath. Aladdin decides to hide behind a door in the bath in order to catch a glimpse of her face when she removes her veil.
Upon seeing her face, he falls in love with her and returns home to his mother, insisting that he must marry her. He finally convinces his mother to speak to the Sultan for him, and she takes gifts of the treasures Aladdin had brought from the cave. When she is finally granted an audience with the sultan, she explains her purpose and begs for forgiveness. The Sultan is impressed by the gifts, but the Sultan’s vizier advised him to wait three months to respond, hoping that his son could win the Sultan’s daughter. The Sultan agreed to the match, but bade Aladdin’s mother to wait three months before returning to discuss it again. 
Of course, the sorcerer who had once left Aladdin in the cave eventually learned that Aladdin had not died, but was doing very well for himself. He knew that the key to Aladdin’s success was the lamp, and set out for China to claim it for himself. Upon arrival, he learned that Aladdin was away from his palace and formed a plan. He disguised himself as an old man and went about offering new lamps in exchange for old ones.
The princess and her slaves, not knowing what Aladdin’s lamp truly was, took advantage of his offer. Once he was out of the city, the sorcerer waited until night and then had the genie transport the palace, the princess, and himself to Africa.
The next morning the Sultan and the vizier assumed that the missing palace was some enchantment of Aladdin’s and had him arrested. He was to be executed, but he was so loved by his people that they refused to allow it. Only when he was spared did he learn that the palace and the princess were missing. He asked for forty days to find her, agreeing to accept his execution if he failed. After a few days of searching he rubbed the magic ring and sought help from the genie of the ring. He learned that the genie of the ring was not powerful enough to undo what had been done, but could take him to his palace and leave him beneath his bride’s window. He gave her some poison and told her to convince the sorcerer that she had decided to marry him and to slip the poison into his wine. When their plan succeeded, Aladdin reclaimed the lamp and had the genie move the palace back to China. He explained what had happened to the Sultan and there was much celebration at the return of the palace and the princess.
Despite Aladdin’s prayers that he and his princess would be able to live their life in peace, he was not done facing trials. The sorcerer had a brother who sought to avenge his death, and disguised himself as a well-known holy woman, Fatima. When he neared the palace, the princess sent for him, as she had long wished to meet Fatima. She quickly became very fond of “Fatima” and showed her around the palace. When “Fatima” said that the hall would be amazing if only it had a roc’s egg hanging from the ceiling, the princess could think of nothing else. When she told Aladdin that this was what she wanted, he went to the genie of the lamp. This request angers the genie who tells Aladdin that the sorcerer’s brother put the thought into the princess’ mind and plans on killing him. With that, Aladdin returns to the princess and “Fatima” and asks “Fatima” to use her healing powers aid his headache. When the disguised sorcerer approached, Aladdin killed him and explained what had happened. It was only after this final trial that Aladdin and the princess finally lived, as we put it, happily ever after.The Story vs. the Movie
It is fairly obvious that, in many ways, the movie is quite different from the story that it is based on, but they also share many similarities, and many changes are easily justified. For example, in the movie, the setting was changed to Arabia. They also made Aladdin a bit older and an orphan. The shift to Arabia is not surprising, as the story itself is blatantly Middle Eastern. Reading through it, the names and most cultural references are Middle Eastern or Islamic and do not really reflect anything to indicate that the story originated in China. Most Disney characters who are based on other stories have been aged up for the films (as you have previously seen in your lesson on Snow White) and being an orphan seems to have become part of Disney tradition. The changes in both setting and Aladdin’s family were intentional choices made by the Disney production team.Disney’s Aladdin does contain the key plot points and themes of the original story. Let’s look at the plot of the film, overly simplified to hit just those points that they share in common.
In the movie, Aladdin:
- Sees the princess
- Falls in love with the princess
- Is taken by an evil sorcerer to a cave and sent in after a lamp
- Is abandoned to the cave to die, but manages to keep the lamp
- Escapes the cave with the help of a genie
- Seeks the Sultan’s approval to marry his daughter (which the vizier does not approve of)
- Uses lavish gifts to convince the Sultan of his worth
- Is faced with a challenge when the sorcerer gets the lamp, takes the princess, and tries to convince her to marry him
- Aladdin rescues the princess, sets things right, and they live happily ever after (until the next movie)
That sounds about right, doesn’t it? A bit of the plot occurs in another order; for example, in the original story, Aladdin gets the lamp before seeing the princess, but both of these incidents occur in both versions. Many of the changes made by Disney make it much more suitable to the type of film that Disney is known for producing.
Revamping the Disney Princess
The princess is one of the most notable personality differences between the two stories. For one, she wasn’t named Jasmine in the original. For another, the Jasmine of the 1990s Disney movie was much more independent, whereas the princess in the original story was much more in line with “Old World” gender and cultural expectations; for example, obeying her father’s wishes regarding her marriage. You've already briefly discussed this idea in The Little Mermaid and you'll be learning about it in greater detail in tomorrow's lesson on Mulan.
Such alterations set the stage for the movie that we all know and love today. If Disney’s Jasmine had been submissively docile, she never would have snuck out of the palace and met Aladdin, nor would she have had it in her to openly challenge the way things were done. Islamic culture of the time dictated that women were never in the presence of a man, save for their family or husband, unsupervised. The original story of Aladdin shows the princess terrified when she is transported to Aladdin’s home in the middle of the night. That would have been due to more than just the magic and uncertainty, but also the completely unacceptable situation of being alone with a non-related man. Jasmine, on the other hand, has no qualms about going on a magic carpet ride with Aladdin.
After the success of The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991), Disney seemed to be on a roll, especially with the production of Aladdin, Disney's sixth classic fairy tale adapted by the studio. The song "A Whole New World" was composed by Alan Menken and the lyrics were written by Tim Rice (made even more famous after his role in Disney's The Lion King). Menken, along with Howard Ashman (the man we introduced you to in yesterday's lesson), are credited for the catchy song "Friend Like Me". The film won two Golden Globes: Best Original Score and Best Original Song ("A Whole New World"). This song, like "Tale As Old As Time", embodied the very heart of Disney. Like Aladdin who shows Jasmine 'the world', Disney opened our eyes, time and time again, to the beauty of adventure, love, and magic.
Modern Audiences
Some aspects of the original story may have been removed to make the film a bit more appropriate for young and modern audiences, but not everything was completely removed. In the story, the Sultan asks that Aladdin provide slaves and riches in order to wed the princess. Well, Disney can’t very well promote slavery or paying for a bride, but do you remember the scene in Aladdin where Genie conjures an impressive parade as Aladdin makes his way to the palace?
The lyrics to “Prince Ali” list many possessions that Aladdin, as the prince, brings to offer as proof that he is worthy of Jasmine. These possessions include: golden camels, purple peacocks, white Persian monkeys, slaves, servants and flunkies. It goes on to list more, but I think you have the idea. Disney kept that piece of the original story, although hidden in a song where it was a little more subtle.
Delving a little deeper, let’s look at the way that this story was portrayed. As Professor Hart mentioned at the beginning of this lesson in reference to Said's Orientalism, Disney does not only tell a non-Western story through a Western lens, it also melds together Western and Eastern cultures; it does this with blatantly Western humor and design while incorporating Middle Eastern elements. In a way, that is what the original story did, but on a greater level. While the story was “set” in China, it was mostly built around Middle Eastern and Islamic culture. Many of the names are Arabic, and while Islam reached parts of China, aspects of the other Chinese religions are missing from the story. The original setting of China was likely chosen to give the story an exotic feeling, much as the setting of Arabia in the Disney version has a sense of the exotic.
One of the most loved characters of the movie is a prime example of a character from the original story being revamped with the blatantly Western humor that I mentioned, and that is the Genie. In Disney's version, the genie is neither quite good or evil: he is slave to the whims of the lamp and the "master" who owns it. He has some limitations: he can't make anyone fall in love, he can't kill anyone, and he can't bring anyone back from the dead. He also can't grant anyone more than three wishes. Despite his limitations, he can certainly give people the power to kill others; Jafar certainly could have killed the sultan, Aladdin, Jasmine--anyone who crossed his path--during his time as an all-powerful sorcerer.
The Disney's character’s existence is based on the original story, but the character development is all due to the late, and infinitely great Robin Williams. In fact, Robin Williams was allowed to ad lib much of the script, allowing the directors to choose which of his brilliant and silly lines worked best.
Aladdin's granting of the Genie's freedom at the film's end, unprecedented in earlier versions of the story, suggests the desire for a rejection of such double-edged 'magical technology'. As we have learned time and time again, with great power comes great responsibility. Or, as we learn from Disney, with phenomenal cosmic power comes "itty bitty living space"--aka, a kind of narrow-mindedness that we saw in none other than Lord Voldemort.
It's important to remember that those who oversaw the film's production wanted to target a new audience rather than "win souls". Despite this, Aladdin (the entire series, especially the third one!) captured our hearts.
Works Cited
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage. 1978.
Sharman, Leslie Felperin. "New Aladdins For Old." Sight and Sound. 12-15.
Thank you so much to Professor Honeysett for that absolutely wonderful lesson. For those feeling nostalgic, we highly recommend having an Aladdin marathon!). Although most people aren't always a fan of the sequels, this series has something for everyone. After all, who wouldn't want to (finally) see Aladdin and Jasmine get married?
You can participate in discussion on today's lesson here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lUFQbOd_VI2K5vpKcNwaIcgUaXibh2ESHmsmWY-du_Y/edit?usp=sharing
Like the original Aladdin being set in China, so is our next Disney movie: Mulan!
EH
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