Can we all agree that a whole new world is like the most romantic Disney song of all time?
I mean, a magical starlight flight around the world?
Beautiful. And then then you mix in some of the best lyrics of all time,
Like "when did you last let your heart decide". Smooth as butter there, Aladdin. "Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky".
Gorgeous poetry. "Don't you dare close your eyes".
Uhhh...
What'd you say there? Let you know real talk Aladdin. Maybe you don't need to be a prince to get Jasmine,
maybe, I don't know, you just stop interrupting your beautiful love song with creepy threats.
Just sayin.
Hello Internet
Welcome to Film Theory
the YouTube equivalent of Abu: Getting my dirty paws in everything that you don't want me touching
And then ruining it for everyone.
Today we're finally talking about Aladdin.
Ah ha ha!
Ah, dat's hot.
Indeed it is hot, YouTube and Tik Tok star Will Smith,
because with it being the holidays
I finally got around to seeing The Fresh Prince get decked out like a smurf to reboot Aladdin gotta be honest
There was a lot more screen time dedicated to the genie crushing hard on a human handmaiden than I was expecting
The reboot genuinely surprised me
I did not anticipate walking out of this movie contemplating the physics of Genie human relations
Glad we rebooted this animated class to insert the clearly important story thread
Oh, yeah, and to also insert the fact that Jasmine is totally woke in this version
Even though she was already the most outspoken and independent princess from the original animated era
But you know, maybe that was too subtle or maybe the audience was just distracted by her outfit back then or something
So now we're gonna beat it over your head with a song about being
strong AF and having a voice of your own which
ironically enough
No one hears because it's a song that's happening in your head womp womp confused messaging is confusing
but if I'm being honest
I really like this movie definitely more than I expected and definitely not as much as the original
Kind of sums up my feelings about most of these live-action remakes except for the Jungle Book one
Which was really awesome. Anyway, as you might have suspected
Revisiting this movie also got me to revisit all the old nitpicks people have about the movie's wishing system
Specifically the nitpicks around Aladdin's first wish to become a prince I wish for you to make me a prince
I found it interesting that in both the original
1993 version as well as the better at not being racist
But worse at being entertaining live-action remake that Aladdin's first wish ultimately goes nowhere
It's a waste in both versions of the story
It just doesn't work. Sure we get ourselves a delightful song and dance number but both times
Jasmine is fairly unimpressed and Aladdin has eventually
recognized to be the old street rat he was from before which honestly brings up some interesting questions about how exactly genies powers work
But that's a theory for another day
now obviously
Aladdin's number one goal is to marry Princess Jasmine and the law says that she can only marry a prince and the genie can't make
people fall in love
So I get where Aladdin's coming from with this wish it is the best
workaround that Aladdin can think of but clearly it doesn't work. So that begs the question what should
Aladdin have done given the rules that the film is established for its own universe and also the historical
/political system in which the movie set what would have been the best wish Aladdin could have made to marry
Jasmine and live happily ever after in only one wish which then leaves two others left for
I don't know whatever he wants.... a lifetime supply of classic 90 snack foods? 3d Doritos
You were so gnarly and you are so dead before your time. So let's not waste any more time! Mr. Aladdin, sir
What should your one wish be? Let's do some research get creative. You ain't never had a theory like me
In order to give Aladdin the best advice possible
We need to first narrow down where the events of the movie are taking place so we can at least give him some insight into
The political system that we're dealing with because guess what Agrabah doesn't really exist. Now, obviously we're dealing with the Sultanate
He is the Sultan but what exactly does being the Sultan mean?
Well, a Sultanate is really just a term for any region ruled by a leader who bears the Islamic title of Sultan
Sultanate's have been found historically from Turkey all the way to Indonesia
Which as you can imagine creates a huge problem for us?
We are talking about a massive area of the globe as such it should come as no surprise that
Different sultanates are gonna have themselves different rules,
different structures, different levels of intermingling between religion and politics as such it's
extremely important to nail down Agrabah's location so that we can give Aladdin accurate and
regionally specific advice. Lucky for us
We do get some clues from the movies as to where our fictional setting might really exist
Some people are quick to point out
the design of the Sultan's Palace is awfully reminiscent of the Taj Mahal which would you know it
It is located in Agra, India
And Agra sounds a whole lot like Agrabah so many people conclude that Agrabah must be somewhere in India
But I don't really think that's our best
conclusion at the beginning of the animated Aladdin the merchant mentions Agrabah's relation to the River Jordan
The Jordan River is just off the Mediterranean Sea in modern-day Syria Israel and
unsurprisingly Jordan. Additionally the song Arabian Nights pretty strongly implies that we're in
Arabia which historically referred to what's now Saudi Arabia and the surrounding countries?
So if we're in what's historically known as Arabia and we have ourselves some proximity to the river Jordan
Then Agrabah is most likely part of the Ottoman Empire
Which sprawled from Turkey through much of the Middle East from the 14th century until the early 1900s, still a massive area
But much more targeted than we were before
So if we accept that Agrabah somewhere in the ottoman empire, is it good for Aladdin to wish to become a prince?
well
It depends on what you mean by Prince
Exactly strictly speaking a prince in this form of government would literally be the son of the Sultan
So if his goal is to marry the daughter of a sultan, let's be sure to specify that
He wants to be a foreign prince
Otherwise that prankster genie might fulfill on his wish to the letter and marrying Jasmine might get super awkward
Super quickly depending on how the genie chooses to fulfill on that wish
So Aladdin to make sure that his wishes airtight wishes to become a foreign prince
That's the fix then right? Well, not really in the very earliest days of the Ottoman Empire
marriages with foreign powers were
Tactical but Aladdin is allegedly the prince of a place so small and unimportant that Jasmine's never heard of it before
She can't even find it on a map
As such it's highly unlikely that the Sultan would be willing to marry her off to such a minor
Figure in the greater political scheme of things that said there is another consideration here
the Ottoman Empire was
divided into provinces called eyallets which are further divided into districts called sanjaks
and while the government of these provinces and districts were
not hereditary meaning that they shouldn't have had princes per se many of the sanjaks were established to serve
Lordships that had existed before the territory was a part of the Empire
therefore if Aladdin made himself part of the elite class of one of the sanjaks that may technically make him a
"prince" eligible to marry Jasmin. The problem here though is well, he might be eligible at that point
He wouldn't be very special there were hundreds upon
hundreds of sanjaks throughout the Empire
So again, it's unlikely that any title relating to that sanjak is gonna get in much respect in Agrabah
It would be like rolling into Washington DC and demanding respect because you're the member of a City Council of a small town in Montana
They probably never heard of ya, they probably don't care, probably gonna send you back to your herd of buffalo
So Aladdin's wish to be a prince isn't a very good one whether you're interpreting that to mean that he'd have to be related to
Jasmine, gross or otherwise a small player in a very local government
So that pretty much sums up why the wish he made wouldn't really work the way he made it which leads us to the question
What should?
Aladdin have wished for here. Well since the Sultan made the law in the first place, why not?
Skip being a prince and go directly to the top wish to become the Sultan himself and he could presumably change the law and allow
Jasmine to marry whomever she wanted so what if Aladdin had wished himself to be a sultan?
Unfortunately, there are two pretty big problems here, too
The first is that genie wish-granting
doesn't seem to magically affect everyone involved in that wish so that they just
Automatically go along with what the wish was for Jafar winds up learning this the hard way in the live-action
Aladdin remake when he himself wishes to be Sultan and starts ordering around the imperial guard
And then fast forward one Jasmine speech later
And he suddenly got a mutiny on his hands
Let's think this through the Imperial Guard basically just decides whom they want to follow
Regardless who actually holds the title of Sultan and if they're willing to turn on the Grand Vizier
Closest advisor to the Sultan do we really think that they would have respected?
Aladdin's
authority if he just showed up and magically made himself the Sultan?
They would have probably had him executed for trying to usurp the throne
And that's a whole mess that Aladdin doesn't want to get himself mixed up in. The Ottoman Empire wasn't exactly shy about committing
executions and well
Let's just say that the quality of your execution could vary a lot
If you were lucky you got yourself a quick and pleasant way to die like being strangled to death by someone's bare hands
If you were unlucky, you might get yourself hung from a meat hook Chainsaw Massacre style
The Ottoman Empire did not mess around
And that's not all let's assume that the Imperial Guard and the rest of the government was okay with Aladdin living as the usurping Sultan
Even if they were okay with it other people definitely wouldn't be you see
Succession in the Ottoman Empire was often a pretty messy business
When a Sultan died any of his sons who wanted to claim the throne which spoiler alert was all the sons
conducted a sort of ancient
Fortnight, a Battle Royale in which the last one standing was the new Sultan, but matpat
Aladdin wouldn't have to worry about that because the Sultan's only child was jasmine true
You're absolutely right, but it doesn't mean that he's out of the woods just yet
And it's later years the Ottoman Empire practiced what's called Agnatic Succession
meaning that the eldest living male in the dynasty would take over when the Sultan died
so if the Sultan had himself a brother or a male cousin or some crusty old uncle any of those would likely have had
a similarly strong claim to the throne
And could have tackled Aladdin and trust me when you took the throne that someone else wanted in the Ottoman Empire
You were gonna have yourself a bad time
assassinations happened all the time in this culture
Now there are lots of assassination stories from this period in history
But my personal favorite is Sultan Osman II who was assassinated by a guy called get this Pehlivan the oil wrestler
No way my friends. There's more to this story. You see the method of death in this assassination. It's officially listed as quote
Compression of the testicles. Wow, just so many questions there Pehlivan. Long story short
Aladdin's gonna have himself a lot of problems if he wishes to become the Sultan the nicest
Of which is that everyone ignores him?
and the worst of which is that someone is gonna come and squeeze his magic lamp so hard that his diamonds pop out of the rough
All right
So it's gonna be hard for a land to hop into this line of succession without neither getting himself
Ignored if he shoots too low or killed if he shoots too high
So what if he just gets creative and breaks the system outright?
What if Aladdin just wishes Agrabah stop being a Sultanate and that would get rid of the rule that prevents him from marrying Jasmine right?
It would but then it would open up a whole new set of problems for him
For commoners during the Ottoman Empire young men and women had zero say in whom they got to marry
It was really just an arrangement brokered by the two sets of parents
Aladdin has himself no parents around to help him even approach the situation and we know that his long-lost father
Is it gonna be getting involved in his life until he needs help finding the ultimate treasure #straight-to-video-sequel
So Aladdin has himself an uphill battle
He somehow needs to get the law changed
Without altering Agrabah social order or ruffling the feathers of those in charge by creating a successional crisis
So when you actually look at Aladdin's situation, it's pretty darn complex
He has one wish to get Jasmine to marry him but most of those wishes are either gonna be a waste like him
Asking to become a prince or worse he wishes something that winds up getting him executed, but there is a solution here
There is actually one wish that practically guarantees him. Jasmine's hand in marriage
Aladdin should wish for Jasmine to become the Sultan after their flirtatious meeting in the market
Jasmine already has the hots for Aladdin
Certainly much more so than any of her other suitors like that weird blonde prince guy from the live-action
movies so she would be
Incentivized to do away with the law that states that she has to marry a prince if she where the Sultan that's totally within her
Right to do as Sultan's effectively answer to no one during the Ottoman Empire so that box gets itself a big checkmark
Next question would this create the same crisis of succession as if Aladdin became a Sultan?
well
it's not likely remember that when Jafar names himself the Sultan and it takes
Jasmine less than five minutes to turn the imperial guard to her side
The Sultan himself wouldn't seem to put up too much of a fight either because he literally gives up control of Agrabah toward the end of
The live-action remake. Hey, why shouldn't she rule? She's charismatic enough to lead. She has Agrabah's best interests at heart
Plus she has herself a pet tiger and she likes to study maps
But I'm sure you're all thinking one thing here would the Ottoman Empire have been ready to accept a female as Sultan?
Here's the twist. Yeah, actually they would in the 16th and 17th centuries
the Ottoman Empire had what's called the
Sultanate of women in which the wives and mothers of the Sultan had themselves great political and social power while running the day-to-day
Operations of empire and yes, there are instances in history of female Sultans or Sultanas
There's even an instance where one Raziya al-Din refused the title Sultana in the 13th century
Because she didn't want her title to be distinct from a man
there's even some occasions in history in which a female Sultan ruled without connection to a male Sultan
If Aladdin really wants the best chance at being with Jasmine in one wish and not setting everyone against him
his best bet is not to wish for his own power but to wish for
Jasmine to finally get hers and ironically enough it would get that strong female theme across way more effectively than any
Imaginary power ballad ever could. But hey, that's just a theory
A film theory
You want your wish granted well rub that magic subscribe button
So all your wishes come true
provided your wishes to wish for more theories about your favorite film TV and
YouTube series or maybe your wishes to help us get that
Diamond play button in which case, thank you for helping to grant that wish my wish to
RUB IT!
DON'T YOU DARE CLOSE YOUR EYES!
Wow, that...those...it's...wow. That is...that is disturbing. I apologize for that one
*Apology Accepted MatPat ;)*