A pandemonium of ninis

The animated film characterises the frustration of a poor orphan boy with immoral greed and trickery and elevates Jasmine, the person in a position of power and privilege, as the party whose approval should be sought. The class difference doesn't imply any need for change on her end, only Aladdin's.

admittedly i was pretty young last time i actually watched Aladdin, but i'm struggling to remember the movie actually demonizing him or his actions (even "One Jump Ahead", a number in which he steals from a merchant and is chased by the guards, is more sympathetic to Aladdin, while the guards get subjected to the same amount of cartoon torment as Wil E Coyote lol). i thought it might be because he has to become a prince to win Jasmine's affections, but the movie makes it fairly clear that Jasmine is interested in him as Aladdin and Prince Ali both, and Aladdin hiding the truth from her was a mistake (he and the Genie have a whole argument about this, and his choice to continue lying to her ends up causing Jafar to get the lamp) (additional awkward parenthetical to clarify that in terms of the law, he does have a reason to keep hiding his identity, just that Jasmine herself is shown to not care; he already has her heart, whether as a prince or an orphan). you're right that the class difference inside the movie means Aladdin changes himself and Jasmine doesn't (although the movie does imply she needs to, AND that she wants to, during the scene where she sneaks out of the palace and the ensuing fiasco Aladdin steps in to save her from), but i'm struggling to figure out how the movie on a meta level characterizes Aladdin's actions as a poor orphan boy as anything other than a desperate kid trying to survive.

anyway that all got kinda messy lol but i was wondering if you could point me in the right direction :3

Hello~ thank you for reading my rant ehe.

Regarding that part, I suppose I worded it badly but I didn't mean that Aladdin is actively demomised, more that it frames his issues as singularly in need of change and not part of a larger problem, which is how Tobose interpreted the story in twst.

It's true that within the story itself Aladdin's misfortune is shown as exactly that, something he didn't deserve, but it doesn't really frame wealth disparity as a systemic issue which would then involve Jasmine's role and how she's a beneficiary of this systemic issue. And if that sounds too serious for a kids' animation it's really not, they could've fixed it by adding one or two lines where Jasmine plays a role in making their relationship work. Aladdin views Jasmine as a completely neutral party in the class differences between them, which is validated by the narrative's insistence that Jasmine, being a woman, actually is completely innocent and irrelevant in the issue.

It's often the case in mainstream media that the gender struggles of royal/noble women is equited to and placed on the same level of oppression as that of disabled or poor people. Which, that's not really the case, but that's its own separate topic.

The Real problem is that Disney princesses typically don't have an actual character arc, which is why Jasmine, by design, couldn't have had a role to play in actually affecting the ending. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are very simple stories, but even with more poignant ones like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, Jasmine and Belle aren't really the ones with a narrative role, the male protagonists are. Jasmine and Belle are more of an end goal, essentially the happy ending that Aladdin and Eric had to improve themselves in order to achieve. This isn't to suggest that Jasmine doesn't want anything or have any depth to speak of, it just means that whatever she does want/need to achieve as a character is thrown into the backburner. She felt stifled by expectation and gender roles, both of which are fixed via marriage to someone who doesn't care for either of those things. Her relationship with her father the Sultan, which is at the crux of her problems, is immediately mended by this marriage as a consequence and never addressed. Aladdin is... well, about Aladdin, so of course it focuses on him, but Beauty and the Beast pretty much gives Belle the same treatment.

The Heroine's Journey was created partly in response to the idea that women in stories only exist as prizes to be won. There are different variations of it now, but generally it follows the Hero's Journey up until the midpoint. The character gets what they thought they wanted, realizes it isn't actually fulfilling them, and then changes course from there. Ironically, Zuko is a perfect example of a Heroine's Journey. Jo March, Daenerys Targaryen, and Katniss all follow that structure too rather than a standard Hero’s Journey.

If anyone's curious about that topic, check out @morethanaloveinterest on YouTube. She did an entire series breaking down the Disney Princesses and their arcs. She also talks about other things like Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, and Marvel. She's super underrated as a content creator. Same with Better With Bob, who has countless videos about the Disney characters along with other topics.

As for Jasmine specifically, since this is the main topic at hand, at least in the animated movie, I think her arc is about becoming less self absorbed and learning to be more thoughtful of others.

At the start, she siccs Rajah on a suitor, which realistically could've caused major political fallout, but she doesn't consider that because she's focused entirely on her own frustration. The guy was awful, sure, but there were definitely better ways to handle it. She also complains about being expected to marry while overlooking the fact that, compared to most princesses in her position, she's actually super lucky to have any choice at all. She runs away from her duties entirely the next scene.

And honestly, it makes sense why she starts out like that. She's basically a princess trapped in a gilded cage. She had no real friends, no freedom, and was so sheltered she didn't even know you had to pay for things. Of course that would create huge blind spots.

After she believes her choices got Aladdin killed, she starts genuinely thinking beyond herself. She uses her position to help others. She also gets more development in the animated series that takes place after the movie. That's at least my understanding of it, anyhow.

- I didn't find that person on YouTube. More to the point I did not say the classic Disney princesses are simply love interests. They act as the core of the didactic nature of their respective animations; it is them who carry the message of the tale, even if they aren't entirely active participants in the events.

This is a personal perspective of course, I'm just clarifying: as a general rule I don't agree with the practice of reframing old stories for the express purpose of putting them in a framework that feels more comforting and palatable to us, especially when it's done via disregarding authorial intent entirely. I don't find the classic Disney princesses to be worthless or even outdated (as many a Disney hire insists they are every time they want to reproduce them in live action), I just think they present a very limited view of female characters more in line with what girls were encouraged to be like at the time. Snow White not having a true character arc doesn't take away from her story. Like I said, it's a parable. Parables are safe, short and uncomplicated. In short, Disney has the right idea in trying to empower them and give them more active roles in the remake, but in my opimion they just always get it wrong.

- I concede on the Jasmine points here, it's been a long time since I watched it (the orientalism is too much with this one) so it's possible I'm misremembering some parts. Some bits of this I disagree with, not necessarily about the point being made but I mean, Jasmine wasn't running away from her duties because as the story frames it, she had none to speak of as she had less authority than an advisor who wasn't even related to the royal family (as far as we know.) I mentioned this in my original response but something like her siccing the tiger on her suitor can appear illogical to us, the audience, but it's certainly not framed that way in the actual animation. We are seeing negatives in things the actual production team did not (like the orientalism). However overall, based on your description I can see she does have an arc of her own.

- I focused mainly on the original animation in those posts. I do also think some of the latter additions to the classics did add to them. Didn't watch the animated series of Aladdin, but I recall enjoying the third Cinderella animation a lot (I think it was the third? The one about Anastasia). Not only did it give a lot more depth to Cinderella and her sister, it was overall very touching and more character-driven than the original. Kind of sad we didn't get Anastasia and Drizella though we might see them later.