The classic animation ‘Aladdin’ was inspired by an old tale and therefore, there are some differences between the versions; check out what they are!
On November 25, 1992, Disney released “Aladdin”, currently considered one of the studio’s greatest classics. The story also had a live-action version in 2019, grossing more than 1 billion dollars at the global box office.
To celebrate 31 years of production, RECREIO brought some interesting facts about the true story of “Aladdin”, from which Disney was inspired. Check out!
1. The Arabian Nights
Many Disney films are based on fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm, but “Aladdin” was inspired by another famous work. The story of the poor boy who finds the magic lamp is one of the stories from “Arabian Nights”.
In this story, we follow Scheherazade, who has just married a murderous king who kills his wives the day after marrying them. To try to save her life, the woman decides to create a plan: every night she tells her husband a story, but without revealing the ending, promising that she would reveal the outcome later. Out of curiosity, the king ends up delaying her death, to discover the end of the story.
One of the stories that Scheherazade tells the king is that of Aladdin, but it is not the only famous plot. She also told the stories of “Sinbad” and “Ali Baba”.
2. Different place
In the first writings of “Aladdin”, the protagonist does not live in Agrabah, as we see in the Disney animation, but in a city in China.
It is only when the story begins to be told in the early 20th century that the setting and ethnicity of the characters change. From then on, the story takes place in Arabia.
3. Family
In the 1992 film, Aladdin is a young orphan who lives on the streets, but in the “Arabian Nights” story things are different. Aladdin has a family: his father, who was a tailor, has passed away when the story begins, and his mother is still alive. In fact, she was the first person to rub the lamp in the original version.
4. Geniuses
In the original story there is not just one Genie, but two! One of them lives in the magic lamp and the other in a magic ring. The two genies help Aladdin, granting his wishes or helping in complicated situations.
Another different point between the animation and the story, and which is also related to the Genie, is the number of wishes. While in the Disney film Aladdin can only make 3 wishes, in the story of “Arabian Nights” there is no limit to wishes.
5. Princess
One of Aladdin’s first requests to the Genie in the animation is that he becomes a prince to have a chance of marrying Princess Jasmine, with whom he fell in love at the beginning of the film. Meanwhile, the sultan is looking for a suitor for his daughter.
In the story, after seeing the princess, who is actually called Badr al-Budur, the protagonist begins to pursue the young woman and lavishes offers for the sultan to give her hand in marriage. The sovereign accepts the dowries offered, but in the end marries his daughter to the vizier’s son.
The couple only stays together after Aladdin asks the genie to kidnap the vizier’s son, who was already married to the princess, and lock him in a cold, dark cell. The young man was imprisoned for two nights, and only left when he begged for his marriage to be annulled, and his request was granted by the sultan.
Source: Recreio
