Female

# 4: The female character will do everything in her power to destroy those getting in the way of finding her true love.


I chose to analyze Disney's version of Aladdin, another famous animated musical, for this female gender role. Aladdin (1992) is the traditional tale of a street rat who falls in love with the Sultan's daughter. Jafar, a sorcerer, tricks Aladdin into retrieving a lamp from the Cave of Wonders so he can harness his evil powers. However, Aladdin ends up with the lamp, meets the genie inside, and wishes to be a prince so he can woo Jasmine. All is well until Jafar gets a hold of the lamp and can do whatever he wants with his three wishes.


Jasmine is the only female character in the entire movie. Jasmine is a free spirit who refuses to pick a suitor to marry. She wishes that she did not have to marry a prince before her next birthday. She has never been outside the castle walls and feels quite 'trapped'. After she meets Aladdin on the streets she gains a different perspective on life. Jafar throws Aladdin in jail after he finds out, and Jasmine will not rest until her crush is released. She is very demanding, bossy, smart, and used to getting her way. She confronts Jafar to get Aladdin back - then somehow convinces herself that its all her fault and she is responsible for fixing the problem. Eventually she must marry Jafar but she refuses: 'I am not a prize to be won!' When the final battle with Jafar is being fought and Aladdin comes to rescue her, she uses her sex appeal and talks very suggestively in order to distract Jafar completely. She contradicts herself; first being completely disgusted with any thought of marriage and then offering her body to Jafar just to distract him. This could be expected (examining the recent string of Disney movies) but Jasmine is only a teenaged princess and still wears very skimpy clothing. Jasmine manages to perform her role as the desperate girl fighting for a cause extremely well. Its too bad that the males view her only in a sexual manner.


Aladdin, Jasmine's love interest, is a street rat that has to steal food to survive. Despite his constant remarks about being hungry or starving, he is still fairly built. He also possesses the fresh-faced American look common to all Disney heros, even though he is assumed to be Arab. Aladdin depends on lying and stealing to get what he wants, and that includes Jasmine. He is very clever and cannot be defeated with his monkey pal Abu helping him. Aladdin is also very selfish and is used to looking out only for himself. Somehow, Jasmine falls in love with him and will do anything to have him.




The short and stocky Sultan is Jasmine's father. He is a very funny character (again the idea that the funniest characters are fat) who constantly worries about his daughter. He only wants her to be happy but is impatient in trying to find her a husband to marry her. He's also very naive and trusts Jafar, who repeatedly brainwashes him into going along with his plans. He is the character with the most energy in the movie, but always gets tricked and can't do anything when trouble arises.


Jafar is the evil one. He is very tall, skinny, and closely resembles Scar in both appearance and attitude. He wants to be Sultan and will do anything to achieve those means. Jafar is a sorcerer who, while obviously being evil, is never paid any real attention until he gets the magic lamp. While his mind is completely twisted and thought to be heartless, he is very interested in Jasmine (and his curiosity peaks as she is taunting him). He cannot accept Jasmine choosing Aladdin as her husband and this is when he releases his power upon the world with the help of the lamp. Eventually his own greed along with some reverse psychology by Aladdin destroy him.


Finally, the last main character of the story, the Genie, serves as comic relief throughout all of the action. He can morph into many different characters or objects and is always singing or cracking jokes. All he really wants is to be set free and not have to spend thousands of years stuck in a tiny lamp. Genie lovingly calls Aladdin 'Al' (reinforcing his American good-guy role) and is promised that Aladdin will set him free.


Aladdin's male characters exhibit every male stereotype recognized in Disney films. Jasmine knows who she wants to be with and struggles to destroy the one getting in the way of that. The one difference from the female role is that while she is just as tough and confident as the men, she has to resort to using her seduction skills to get any real attention.


Part V: Flik knows he only gets the girl if he wins

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