Aladdin old story11/13/2022 ![]() ![]() ![]() The thing that struck me most deeply, at least on a conscious level, on my most recent watch was Aladdin’s twin desires to be seen for who he really is - and his counterintuitive decision to hide it. I watched this movie so many times that I think its themes are probably deeply embedded in my subconscious, but I noticed them anew when watching it as part of this project. ![]() “They’d Find Out, There’s So Much More to Me …” So for a long time - until I watched the movie again a couple days ago, in fact - I thought this was the true source of my devotion to Aladdin: that it had been the movie through which I had experienced a romantic/sexual awakening, and that it provided a safe place to explore ideas about falling in love and relationships that suddenly seemed much more pressing than they had when I was younger.īut I’m beginning to suspect that there is more to it than that. I suffered from insomnia as an adolescent, and I played out Aladdin and Jasmine’s love story in a hundred different times, places, and ways through many sleepless nights or hot days working in my dad’s soybean fields. To this day, there is something about the way that Aladdin looks at Jasmine that gets to me. It wasn’t romance alone that enticed me - it was something particular to Aladdin and Jasmine’s relationship that I could never put my finger on. This wasn’t a feeling that just any romantic storyline could produce, though. Watching Aladdin and Jasmine, for the first time in my life I felt the inevitable pull on my heart, that overwhelming realization that, I want that. Although romantic storylines permeate our culture and children’s media - particularly that put out by Disney - I had never really gotten it before. While most people consider Aladdin to be among Disney’s “lighter” fare, to me it was VERY SERIOUS BUSINESS. But something very important happened in that one year between the release of Beauty & the Beast and the release of Aladdin.Īlthough most people would not consider Aladdin the most romantic movie in Disney’s canon, I was obsessed with Aladdin and Jasmine’s relationship. So what was it that made Aladdin different from the first couple Renaissance movies? Its animation was not as beautiful as the rich, dark strokes in Beauty & the Beast, and I had once thought nothing could displace my devotion to The Little Mermaid. I started writing Aladdin fan-fiction before I even knew fan-fiction was a thing, and made quite a name for myself in the Aladdin fandom before I drifted away in college, penning my last fic at age 17. But that wonder I felt upon my first viewing of it intensified into obsession as the years went by and Disney continued to feed my imagination with two sequels and a TV series (which I still have taped on VHS somewhere). The first time I saw Aladdin, I was surprised myself by how much I loved it - I had never been particularly drawn to stories with an Arabian flavor. And based on my feminist sensibilities, they think I would gravitate toward the many options in which Disney offers up a female lead, some of which can even be considered strong women. Based on the types of stories I usually read and write, they expect me to be drawn to movies with more traditional (read: European) or literary roots. People are often surprised when they learn that Aladdin is my favorite Disney movie, possibly even my favorite movie of all time. Watching it last Sunday, I went in searching for the answer to the question: Why does this movie mean so much to me? And why did it speak to me so deeply when I was a 12-year-old girl, seemingly leagues away from a story set in the Middle East about the intersection of magic, poverty, and royalty? Aladdin is my favorite movie from the Disney canon, so taking a “second look” (really, more like a 1000th look) is fraught with nostalgia and colored by the many ways Aladdin impacted my adolescent years. I should begin with a disclaimer that this post is going to lean more personal and less critical/academic than most of my other posts. Female characters include Princess Jasmine. (My family has the original VHS release, too.)īechdel Test Score: Failed. Where I Found It: My personal DVD collection - I own the Platinum edition. But mostly I couldn’t in good conscience give a movie 5 stars that so miserably failed the Bechdel test.) What’s up with that? Well, it’s complicated. My Rating: 4.5/5 stars (OK, so, this is my favorite Disney movie and I STILL gave it fewer stars than The Little Mermaid. First Theatrical Release: November 25, 1992įirst Home Viewing Release: October 1, 1993 ![]()
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