Find out why Jasmine, the princess featured in ‘Aladdin’, was not chosen as the main character in the story
As every rule has an exception, Princess Jasmine, from ‘Aladdin’ (1992), breaks one of the rules used to choose the female characters that will belong to the Walt Disney Company’s Disney Princess media franchise: that of being the protagonist of her own animation, after all, in the story in which she is introduced, the main character is Aladdin.
The plot follows the title character, who is a poor commoner who falls in love with the princess of Agrabah, and who, in order to win her over, will have the help of a 10,000-year-old genie trapped in a magic lamp. More than that, Aladdin also has to face Jafar, the Royal Vizier who is willing to do anything to take the throne and become the Sultan.
But why isn’t Jasmine the protagonist?
The answer was given by the Collider portal, which states that Disney had no intention of turning her into an official princess when she was created. This is because the original idea placed the princess of Agrabah as a method of comic relief, so much so that she would not even be Aladdin’s love interest, who, in the narrative, would have his actions guided by a childhood crush.
In the end, this approach was discarded, and Jasmine won the version that made it to the screen in 1992, becoming Aladdin’s great love.
So why is she a princess?
Even though she is a supporting character, Jasmine’s narrative is full of protagonism, after all, she was written during the Disney Renaissance era, a period from 1989 to 1999, where female characters became more empowered, as in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in which Belle saves her father and ‘Mulan’, where the studio’s first warrior princess assumes the position that would be her father’s in the battle of China against the Huns.
In this way, it would be no different with Jasmine. This is because the princess is willing to take risks to have what should be hers by right, always imposing her limits and focused on taking control of her own destiny, such as when she confronts her father by not accepting an arranged marriage.
More than that, when she discovers love with Aladdin, she decides to confront the tradition of where she lives, since she, as a member of royalty, could only marry a prince, but, determined to have a happy life with the one she truly loves, she ends up changing the law, showing how fearless, intelligent and determined she is, thus becoming a great example.
In addition, Jasmine also fits the other rules established for the Disney Princess franchise, which are: being part of an animation; being human or at least half human; being born a princess, marrying someone from royalty or committing a heroic act and bringing a good financial return to the studios, making her worthy of being alongside Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida and Moana, the other official princesses of the studio.
Source: Recreio
