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DISNEY ALADDIN versus One Thousand and One Nights

One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of folk tales that originated in the Middle East. The collection was assembled in Arabic. However, the English title is often used which is Arabian Nights. In fact, this was the title of the first English edition printed in the early 1700s. Today we exam Aladdin: The Story versus The Disney Movie.

About One Thousand and One Nights

The stories of The One Thousand and One Nights were amassed over centuries by different authors throughout Asia and North Africa. The tales have roots in different cultures such as Arabic, Turkish, Jewish, Greek, Persian, and Indian. These are considered folk tales.

The common elements throughout each of the stories are the ruler Shahryār and his wife Scheherazade. Many of the “tales” are poems or prose. These are considered folk tales. Folk tales are stories passed down through generations, mainly orally. Fairy Tales usually involve magical events. 

It is important to realize that some of the more famous stories such as Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor did not actually come from the original Arabic One Thousand and One Nights. These stories were added by European translators in the 18th century.

Information about Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp

One example of an added story was Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp by Antoine Galland. Documents were unearthed that indicated that the added texts had a historical background, however, further research showed that those documents were forgeries. So we are not really sure if the stories were just added by Antoine Galland, or if there were actual folk-tales that he found along the way.

But because of these added texts, we have the story of Aladdin. While there have been movies of Aladdin before Disney’s version, the story of Aladdin that we know today has increased in popularity because of Disney’s animated Aladdin from 1992. Additionally, Robin Williams made the Genie an unforgettable figure.

Brief Synopsis of Aladdin’s Magical Lamp

In the book version of Aladdin, he is a poor man in China. A sorcerer tells Aladdin that he is Aladdin’s father’s brother. The sorcerer gives Aladdin a magic ring and convinces him to steal a lamp from a magic cave. There is both a genie of the lamp and a lesser genie of the magic ring. Aladdin accidentally releases a genie from the magic lamp, and so a series of events unfold in which Aladdin’s every wish comes true. Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and marries the Princess Badroulbadour. The sorcerer returns, disguised as a lamp salesman – “New lamps for old”, and tricks Aladdin’s wife into giving him the lamp.

Aladdin still has the magic ring and summons the genie of the ring. Although he has less power than the genie of the lamp, he enables Aladdin to find the lamp and recover it. Additionally, Aladdin slays the sorcerer. However, the sorcerer’s more powerful and evil brother plots Aladdin’s destruction for killing his brother. He disguises himself as an old woman with a healing ability. Aladdin’s wife (think Snow White here) falls for the disguise and has the woman stay in the palace. The genie of the lamp warns Aladdin of the dangerous woman. And the sorcerer’s brother is slain. And Aladdin and his princess live happily ever after!

In both the book and Disney’s animated film, the main character is Aladdin. While there are a lot of similarities, there are major differences which are detailed below.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL STORY AND DISNEY MOVIE:

The Original Story

General Facts:

The Narrator is a woman named Shahrazad

Aladdin is a story within a story. The original 1001 Nights is based on a King who sleeps with young virgins and executes them the next day. A young girl tells the King a story to delay her execution. Furthermore, she leaves the story off at a place that intrigues the King. Therefore, each night the King wants to hear more of the tale the next night. After the 1000 Nights, the King has fallen in love with the girl and marries her.

Set in China, however, the sorcerer is from Maghreb (Africa)

Facts about Aladdin:

Aladdin has parents

His father dies of shame because Aladdin chooses to play in the streets instead of working for a living.

Mother takes up weaving to help support them.

Aladdin’s mom tries to help him win the hand of the Princess.

However, Aladdin’s mom is afraid of the genies.

After the Princess marries The Grand Vizier, Aladdin uses the genie to prevent the consummation of the marriage.

Facts About The Princess:

Aladdin first sees the Princess in the streets on her way to a public bath.

The Princess is betrothed to the Royal Vizier’s son.

Her father is the Sultan. The Sultan has a Queen and a harem.

The Princess seems unfazed about who she will marry.

Because Aladdin’s mother presents the Sultan with a huge dowry, the Sultan agrees to let the Princess marry Aladdin.

The Sultan goes back on his word and the Princess marries the Grand Vizier’s son.

Facts About the Evil Villian:

An evil Magician follows the trail of the lamp to China and poses as Aladdin’s Uncle to convince him to help find the lamp.

After Aladdin and the Princess marry, the evil magician gets a brass maker to offer “old lamps for new.” In this manner, he convinces the princess to trade her lamp.

The magician uses the lamp to send the take the princess and palace far away for himself.

The Sultan blames Aladdin for the princess being kidnapped.

Facts About The Genies:

Two Genie’s in the story – one in a magic ring and a more powerful genie in the lamp

The genie is black (Remember the story of Aladdin was added in the 1700s)

The genies are not friendly and do not sing and dance.

Additionally, there doesn’t appear to be a limit to the wishes granted by the genies.

Facts About the Lamp:

The Lamp is in a cave that only Aladdin can enter.

Aladdin becomes trapped in the cave while trying to retrieve the lamp. While trapped in the cave for 3 days, he rubs his hands together, accidentally rubbing the ring and releases the genie of the ring.

Aladdin’s mother is the one who rubs the lamp releasing the genie.

After The Princess is Kidnapped:

Aladdin has 40 days to find the princess or he will be beheaded.

He is beside himself, and as a result, he bends down to pray. While praying, he rubs his hands together. This causes him to rub the ring and release the genie of the ring. the genie takes Aladdin to the palace located in Morocco where the princess is being held.

Aladdin and the princess plot to kill the magician.

Using the genie of the lamp, they transport the palace back to China.

The Disney Movie

General Facts:

The narrator is a lamp salesman

The Story is set in the Middle East

Facts about Aladdin:

Aladdin is an orphan and a street rat. Additionally, he steals food to live

Aladdin first meets the princess in the marketplace. She secretly escaped the palace.

Aladdin saves her from having her hand cut off because she took an apple without paying for it.

Abu is Aladdin’s monkey sidekick

Aladdin is afraid of Princess Jasmine finding out who he really is.

Facts About The Princess:

The Princess’ name is Jasmine.

Her father is the Sultan.

Sultan has no wife. Jasmine’s mother is dead. (Oh, Disney – you can’t keep a mother alive!)

Aladdin is dressed as Prince Ali when he meets Jasmine later in the movie.

Jasmine is not at all charmed by Prince Ali or his riches but she does recognize him as the boy from the marketplace.

Facts About the Evil Villian:

Grand Vizier wants to marry the princess and uses his powers to trick the King into giving him the princess’s hand in marriage.

No uncle in the story – Jafar plays the role of the Grand Vizier

Jafar has Aladdin thrown in prison and poses as a prisoner. He is the one to convince Aladdin to get the lamp.

Jafar uses his powers to convince the Sultan to marry Jasmine.

Aladdin exposes Jafar for who he really is.

Iago (Jafar’s bird) steals the lamp for Jafar.

Jafar uses one wish to become Sultan and uses another to reduce Aladdin back to a street rat. Then, he sends Aladdin far away.

Unaware of the fact that you can’t use wishes to have someone love you, Jafar wants to use another wish to have Jasmine fall in love with him.

Facts About The Genie:

First, there is only one genie. He comes from the lamp, and he is blue

It is important to realize this genie is much different than the book genie. For example, the genie becomes best friends with Aladdin. He sings, dances and tells jokes.

However, this Genie will only grant 3 wishes.

Aladdin agrees to set Genie free after he gets what he needs. To accomplish this, Aladdin is very careful with his wishes.

After realizing that if he sets the Genie free, he will lose his Prince Ali persona, Aladdin reneges on his promise to the Genie.

Facts About the Lamp:

The lamp is in The Cave of Wonders that only Aladdin can enter, but Jafar has already sent another person in before. The cave is sinister and comes to life.

While trapped in the cave, Aladdin rubs the lamp and releases the Genie.

After The Princess is taken by Jafar:

First, Aladdin uses the magic carpet to return to the palace.

Next, Aladdin tricks Jafar into wishing he was an all-powerful genie and he becomes trapped in the lamp.

The now freed Genie throws the lamp with Jaffar in it into the Cave of Wonders.

Aladdin uses his last wish to set the genie free.

The Sultan realizes that Jasmine loves Aladdin and uses his powers to change the law so Jasmine can marry someone who is not a prince.

Finally, Jasmine and Aladdin marry.

CONCLUSION

To summarize, Disney’s Aladdin is a story that teaches that who you are inside is more important than your bank account. It is a magical rags-to-riches story. However, the original story, although similar to Disney’s version, tells you that material possessions can help you overcome the lot you were born into. If you find yourself with a huge financial gain, you too can marry the princess and live happily ever after.

Disney cleaned up the tale to make it more suitable for modern audiences. However, upon a deeper look at other versions of the Aladdin movie, The Thief of Baghdad (1940) is closer to the Disney version than the actual story. In fact, if you watch that movie version, you will find a blue person (not a genie). There is one genie, and the Sultan is mesmerized (by toys) by the sorcerer.

Other Versions of Aladdin:

The Thief of Baghdad (1940)

Upon watching The Thief of Baghdad, it would appear that Disney has taken the majority of their script from this movie. “The Disney filmAladdinborrows freely from it, particularly the characters of the evil Vizier and the Sultan, both drawn with a marked similarity to the characters in The Thief of Bagdad. The villain Jafar is named after Jaffar. The thieving monkey Abu in the Disney cartoon is obviously based on the boy played by Sabu.” (Taken from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thief_of_Bagdad_(1940_film)).

Since Disney adds musical elements that no one else can match, they produce a superior product time after time. However, to find the true source of the Aladdin story, make sure to check out the book. Finally, I highly recommend watching The Thief of Baghdad.

Disney’s Live-Action Remake:

I have reviewed Disney Aladdin live-action movie (2019). While much of it is the same, there are some differences.In the live action Aladdin, the evil Jafar is a lot more sinister than in Disney’s animated version. While Robin Williams plays the Genie in the original movie, Will Smith is the Genie in the live-action film. The live-action film has some dance sequences that definitely give it a Bollywood feel, while the animated version seems like it is more middle eastern with an Arab culture to it. Both Disney films feature excellent music such as A Whole New World, but the 2019 movie has a new song. The lead characters in the live action film were selected because of their heritage. Jasmine is played by Naomi Scott who is of Indian descent. Aladdin is played by Mena Massoud who has Egyptian parents. Massoud is fluent in Arabic.

French writer, Antoine Galland stuck Aladdin into his 18th-century translation of 1001 Nights. He said he heard it from a Syrian storyteller, but there is no proof of that.

Have you seen other versions of Aladdin? Drop me a line and let me know!