The Profound Train-wreck of Aladdin (2019)

Let's talk about Aladdin! And power! And some other things! Visit curiositystream... and get thousands of exciting documentaries and access to my streaming service Nebula, where I have all my beautiful Nebula Plus videos.
Support me on Patreon: / bigjoel
Follow me on Twitter: / biggestjoel
Edited with help from Ryan A! Thanks Ryan!!

[@laurenbastin8849]

“‘I don’t like it when kids die’ ‘Woke King’” that line fucking broke me lmao

[@jblue1622]

It was the slowly appearing crown that nailed my coffin and threw it in the hole 💀

[@SeasideDetective2]

The idea that capitalists want children to starve to death (or anything of the sort) makes no sense to me. Yes, I know it's usually just a crude joke. But letting children starve while you're rich is not just cruel, but stupid. In the first place, you NEED children to survive in order to further plutocratic dynasties and carry on the rich people's legacies. And, sure, if you're rich the starving children are not YOUR children - but who's to say they won't someday BECOME rich, and wind up as the business partners and society friends of the children you do have? AND, even if that doesn't happen, you still need poor people to survive in order to provide a contrast and accentuate your "superior" social position.

[@YourMajesty143]

@@SeasideDetective2 - The rich don't need the poor as contrast, they need them to grow up and become part of the working class. The rich use the poor to exploit and to divert away resources. If resources were distributed evenly, then the rich wouldn't be as wealthy. The rich needs the poor to starve bc resources are finite, and the rich aren't willing to share anything that they would rather hoard for themselves.

[@rynabuns]

@@YourMajesty143 lmaoooo they really said the rich need poor people to "provide a contrast"

[@riley8385]

@@SeasideDetective2 "Who's to say they won't someday become rich?" Capitalism can say that, because it's a system designed to concentrate wealth, which is what we see more and more with each passing generation. Not to mention why would an ultra-rich capitalist care about who will be the next newly rich in the neighborhood?

[@knavishimp6630]

It feels like Disney can't write female characters with an arc, because that would mean presenting them as flawed at the beginning, which is such a misrepresentation of what writing good female characters means. It's so insulting that a call for better female characters is met with the same 1-dimensional GirlBoss character.

[@latedala07]

Don't bite my head off, but I finally got around to watching Raya and actually really appreciated her story arc flaw. Her voice actor and animators did a good job of selling how her traumas led to "outsized" grief to rage/lack of trust (and demonstrated it in interactions/mistakes with multiple characters, rather than just with her antagonist/future gf). I thought Maleficent was handled decently too (in the first movie only), and Frozen to some extent. I don't think it's coincidental that those examples had character flaws motivated by substantial trauma; I can't think of an example from recent Disney where a female character had a flaw/arc without a trauma motivation. But yeah, other than that, the Disney girlboss has been on the rise for sure, particularly in the live-action movies, and I'm not a fan.

[@Jane-oz7pp]

@@latedala07 I'd actually argue that Elsa's trauma came, first, from a character flaw. That flaw being that she had powers she couldn't control and wasn't careful with. An expected flaw in a magically gifted child, but a flaw nonetheless.

[@acka.]

@@Jane-oz7pp I can't see that as a flaw, it's more akin to an accident that happened despite the character's personality rather than because of it, like it could happen between any two kids playing, magic or not. But even if we were to agree that it's definable as a flaw, it isn't of the type that makes a character act work. It would've been different if Elsa did it out of rage or resentment after a fight or something like that, then the problem would've been a direct consequence of her personality flaw. Or maintaining the same type of incident, if she was acting overly careless and pushed and pressured her sister to play in an extreme manner, even if the sister said she wasn't comfortable with it. Those are all flaws the character can work on and grow out of. But that wasn't the case, it was just two small kids playing in mutual agreement. The flaw in Elsa's character that led her development was connected to her isolating herself, which is something she developed as a result of the accident.

[@Gaawachan]

Mulan? (not the LA version, lol)

[@blakchristianbale]

I’ve thought for a while that pop culture feminism has a big problem with focusing on tropes that it’s adherents personally dislike, instead of the deeper issue which is that Hollywood doesn’t hire nearly enough female creators. Hollywood saw these people, and since they themselves often didn’t really know what they wanted Hollywood had even less of an idea, and that’s why we have so many terrible girl power movies made by men who’d much rather be making movies for other men

[@lonesavior]

Even though it wasn't the intention, I like the idea that the genie grants wishes based on the wisher's understanding. Alladin understood royalty as someone who makes grand displays, so that's what the genie gave him, while Jafar understood Sultanhood as recognized authority, so that's what it gave him. That's my attempt to massage that plot hole.

[@CrazyRiverOtter]

I like that theory, because it's VERY genie. It's not quite a monkey's paw situation, but it plays into the "literal genie" trope.

[@Sheuto]

You're good at massaging holes

[@stapler942]

Later on the Genie gives himself a sort of "power of attorney" while Aladdin is near death and unable to speak, which is a neat way of making up for Aladdin's "freebie" but perhaps partly motivated by his vested interest in Aladdin as a chance for freedom. In any case, he seems to be the type who will infer what the wisher is really asking for, or would ask for if they can't, and try to fill in the blanks to that end. He's not one of those trickster types as a wish granter but more of a people pleaser.

[@TheHooft]

That is my thought exactly. Aladdin want's to be prince to not have to worry about food and get the girl. Jafar wants to be Sultan in order to have power. It isn't the genie that has an inconsistent perception of what the ask for, it is the characters wishing. From a Doylist perspective I'm not even sure the authors would recognize that they might be doing this.

[@redtailarts101]

That makes the most sense. I'd even say it should be a genie power made to prevent misunderstandings. Aladdin's wish was really to be able to marry Jasmine, and Jafar's was to rule Agrabah, so what they got was just what would get them their end goal

[@jaypatron5338]

Aladdin: Make me a prince Genie: you are now Jasmines brother Aladdin: wait no

[@geoffreysorkin5774]

Aladdin: Make me a prince. Genie: First you gotta fuck this tiger.

[@Jane-oz7pp]

What are you doing, Step-Prince?

[@kingwizard8743]

Aladdin: Genie I wish to be a prince Genie: You are know Jasmine brother Jasmine: What are you doing stepbrother?

[@pepi7404]

"Aladdin ... I'm the princess ... And you're my brother ..." "It doesn't matter." > "That's the best part."

[@shadesmarerik4112]

crusader kings theme starts to play

[@beckybyt]

How can Jasmine be so sure she'd be a great sultan if she doesn't even know the economic structure of the state????

[@nm9688]

*sultana

[@hollandscottthomas]

You could ask the same question of like 80% of politicians XD

[@tarvoc746]

@@hollandscottthomas That sounds like a highly optimistic estimate.

[@geoffreysorkin5774]

Because her father taught her the golden rule. She'll make everyone a princess.

[@eoghan.5003]

Well at the start of the animated film she doesn't know she doesn't know that, and presumably learns over the course of the film (it's been a long time since I've watched it). And in the remake she seemingly DOES understand but just doesn't see fit to use her own wealth to help. Of course, the real reason she believes she'd be so good is nothing to do with economics - it is because she's brought up to view hereditary power as legitimate, and sees herself as a good person.

[@syedahmedshaheer117]

its always funny to see jasmin talking about children hungry and mitigate that by stealing a poor proletarian then the vendor is the bad guy because he is mad at some rando stealing his merchandise which he sells to maintain his income. A literal princess with all the power money and authority in the world of aladin going around people hungry in her kingdom by stealing poor or middle class blokes and then giving out aura of morality. She is literally anti robinhood

[@maiasmith3996]

The human incarnation of taxation lol

[@idontwantahandlethough]

I feel like they coulda just changed the scene to have her simply pay the vendor for the bread to give to the children. It's not _quite_ the same, but it shows her as a kind, altruistic person without giving rise to all the pesky problems that arise from her stealing it while fully understanding what she's doing [while also being a princess].

[@Caffeine_Addict_2020]

I more like the "I don't have any money" - like you've got a full entourage with you, certainly someone is carrying your purse, no? It made sense in the original that she didn't because she didn't understand money and was alone. Now she has both soldiers and a deep knowledge of money, and how need should override money

[@Caffeine_Addict_2020]

@@idontwantahandlethough why not just like "wow don't you care about these children?" "fine I'll buy all the food" - proceeds to give it to the kids to take to their family or friends - best of both worlds

[@ВасилийМедведев-з5в]

Just like taxes and shit in real life xd

[@AzA609]

Big Joel holds the microphone like it's expensive wine.

[@jean_etcetera]

I thought it was a glass of wine until I saw this comment, lol

[@rottenisee2751]

@@jean_etcetera same

[@rottenisee2751]

waiting to see him take a sip

[@mw7845]

Kinda like how Ben shabibo held his receipt for that single piece of wood from Home Depot 😭

[@Huedra.]

Oh my god i thought it was a weird glass

[@suzannax]

Jasmine's stealing makes the vendor out to be guilty of following a society that her family are responsible for creating.

[@pagodrink]

"There wouldn't be any thieves if you fixed the socioeconomic status of inequality like you promised!"

[@NabsterHax]

Well, he *is* a man. /s

[@GoogelyeyesSaysHej]

@@pagodrink she could’ve made everybody a princess!!

[@guldmattbb473]

@@pagodrink Twisted references, nice!

[@tarvoc746]

"A society that her family are responsible for creating"? No, that's not how societies work. A society isn't created by a single family, rulers or not. It's the other way around. An existing society can develop in a way that brings forth certain power relations that privilege a single family, and that can become a self-amplifying process (from Chieftain to Duc, from Duc to Petty King, from Petty King to King, from King to Emperor, etc.). That doesn't mean a ruling family (or an entire ruling class) doesn't have some responsibility for how their society looks like, but they didn't literally create their society. They were born into it just like everyone else.

[@Axe-wieldingFox]

I love that Joel goes into extensive detail of the Jeff Bezos scenario, forcing us to imagine it, and then asks: "Could you imagine that?"

[@Ponera-Sama]

Yes. And the thing I imagine after that is a bunch of armed guards slaughtering the union workers.

[@AmyLou733]

It was very Little Joel of him

[@mako3951]

Angry Jeff bezos noises

[@zubetp]

i enjoyed that too. like he was just checking in to make sure we were following along and not struggling with the act of imagination. and i was! i said "yes" out loud when he asked that.

[@hungryhedgehog4201]

I love how he holds the mic like a wineglass and the paintings who are seemingly hung at random heights below eyelevel.

[@0TheJigsawKiller0]

it took me several minutes to realize he wasn't actually holding a drink

[@dsvwtrbeytnryune]

Lol, I thought it was a can of beer

[@gart8224]

Ngl, he could just be on a very tall chair.

[@commbir5148]

The misnomer/typo thing you made with wineglass is pretty comical.

[@xenosbreed]

I was watching while playing a game so I'd side eye it and until near the end I thought it was a wine glass,

[@wl9162]

It's kinda striking how in the live-action Jasmine has a very generalized, american-sounding accent, but the vendor decidedly does not??? Lol yikes

[@JRexRegis]

Just another example of classic disney racism. The "good guys" all speak clear english with an american accent, or an english one if they're *really* cultured, while everyone else speaks in an accent more fitting to the locality.

[@alexbennet4195]

It's even worse in the animated film. I mean, they're literally played by white actors too.

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

@@alexbennet4195 For me it doesn't really matter that much in animation, literally anybody can be anybody. E. G. Samurai Jack was voiced by a black man.

[@Miju001]

Not to mention Jafar!! I can't stand it

[@dannypatrick9361]

@@alexbennet4195 I wonder if you complain when a black voice actor plays a non-black character. Is Kratos offensive to you? Probably not.

[@Figgy5119]

I always understood it that Aladdin said he wanted to be a prince and he was one in a way, but it falls apart because there is no country in existence for him to rule, making his authority unrecognizable. Jafar said make him sultan OF AGRABAH. The genie's spell actually had a real place to put him into. This isn't a perfect solution, but that's how I understood it anyway.

[@zubetp]

i think that's a really good distinction, actually. but you're right that it has some holes - specifically, the genie helps aladdin workshop his wishes. he had the opportunity to say, "actually, it would be better if you wished to be the sultan of a real place." on the contrary, it seemed like a non-issue until the exact moment another person was like, "i've never heard of that place" lmao. in fact, he could have just MADE ababwa a place. there are a lot of areas of vast emptiness in the arabia presented in the movie. it wouldn't have been hard to make a little fake town that looks real at a glance. this would also give them the chance to demonstrate an aspect of how the spell worked - he alters reality in a surface level way, so that ababwa is real and aladdin is the prince of it, and this has always been the case; but that it's still just a magical facade over reality. and if we can assume the spell is susceptible to being broken by some other magical means, then it's easier to accept that this would be revealed to be a trick at some point. i wish the genie had helped the writers workshop their changes and additions. a lot of them are shallow and confusing.

[@lilliefranks7246]

You might also think about it in terms of their intent when making the wish rather than their wording: Aladdin wanted the Sultan to see him as a prince so he could court Jasmine; he didn't want to actually exercise power. Jafar very much did want that, and both got their wish in the sense that they wished it.

[@anomaliecosmos]

Makes sense to me - genies being portrayed as they so often are, I absolutely would not wish to be a nonspecific "princess" because the path of least cosmic resistance would be to magic up the legal documents of an unpopulated fake country, which maybe their phenomenal cosmic power ensures people accept exists and thus the title is real but it wouldn't make people see it as anything but a sham if they learned any real fact about this country. Probably not that far off what actually happened with Aladdin, just. with a little more worldbuilding to sate the nitpickers

[@1SPQR2]

I feel like he gave this 23 times more thought than the creators of the film

[@jimmythebold589]

now i was JUST having that thought....

[@magickaldust1213]

Literally

[@Creedinger]

This is why the message of the new Aladdin is so flawed. It’s not a movie for children to understand human growth and behavior but giving adult reconfirmation for their agenda.

[@giomar89]

Agreed. And the worse is that he's not even talking about production value (music, costumes, etc) as most videos do, he's addressing a much more fundamental problem (which on top of everything, wasn't there in the animated movie) How royally can you screw up your own remake?

[@snusemcgoose1001]

It’s a Disney remake? Definitely

[@lioamoroso8725]

I'm just gonna get this off my chest before it kills me: I find it endlessly funny that in the movie Jasmine has a line like "The people make the kingdom beautiful, and they deserve a sultan who knows that," refering to herself, when earlier in the film, with very little evidence, she accused the first poor boy she spends any time with of stealing her bracelet. Just MWAH, delicioso. I hate this movie so much.

[@zakhawker344]

the peasants of this kingdom deserve a #progressive #girlboss oppressor

[@idontwantahandlethough]

For some reason it's way funnier when somebody says MWAH instead of _chef's kiss._ Thanks Chef Boyardee! 🧑‍🍳

[@Adventurer-te8fl]

Umm she didn’t accuse him of stealing the bracelet, she said “I’m not leaving without my bracelet”. I think u should rewatch that scene, instead of making a simplification or modification of what actually happened. It would be ironic of her to accuse someone of stealing when she stole herself, but I’m guessing because of her life in the kingdom, she never grew up to understand what stealing is until she meets Aladdin.

[@INFILTR8US]

@@Adventurer-te8fl the maintenance of private property isn't enough to kill people

[@ethexreql]

@@Adventurer-te8fl actually, jasmine does accuse aladdin of stealing the bracelet, right before she goes back to the palace, when aladdin doesn’t give her bracelet back she calls him a thief - maybe next time you should double check before correcting someone so confidently

[@dinosaysrawr]

My theory is that as an immortal inter-dimensional cosmic being with unfathomable power, the genie does not grok all this socially-constructed sultan-and-prince stuff, and literally thinks it's just about giving people a really cool hat.

[@maddieb.4282]

Amazing underrated comment

[@misssampo]

The divine ordinance to rule is stored in the fancy hat

[@liamfaoisidhe.]

​@@misssampoI'm *dying* lmao

[@Ponera-Sama]

The genie isn't an interdimensional being. He doesn't travel to, or from, another dimension in the movie.

[@SarahZ]

Yo Aladdin became an actual prince after marrying Jasmine, right? Does that count as granting the wish in the original sense?

[@KangMinseok]

yup

[@BigJoel]

Ohhhhhh huh. Weird. Would be weird to wish to a genie like “hey genie could I have an apple” and he puts an apple plant in your back yard. Like come now bro please give me what I want

[@morethan1]

Did genie really do that, though? He can’t make people fall in love so he can’t have been the one to spark the love Jasmine felt for Aladdin

[@JacksonBockus]

Genie works in mysterious ways

[@ZagorTeNayebo]

Uhhhh wasn't alladin the son of the king of thieves technically making him the PRINCE of thieves this whole time!!!

[@katsdraws]

That point at the end there is really interesting. Because in the 1992 version, in the Prince Ali Reprise that Jafar sings, he says "So Ali turns out to be merely Aladdin. Just a con, need I go on, take it from me." Like he's admitting he's also completely not genuine and only got his power through the same means. "Take it from me." Like it was so smart and it absolutely slapped. Then they just completely play it straight with no irony in the live action. Wah-wahhhh.

[@PointsofData]

Bonus points for "take it from me" because it could ALSO just be him saying "believe me". So the admission of being a fraud is masked.

[@TheJonHolstein]

We know the genie can't make someone fall in love, from that we can extrapolate that he can't alter someone's mind. And if he can't alter the mind of people, all he can do, is to perform tricks, that makes someone think that something is real. He puts on a show declaring Aladdin as prince, but he doesn't have the power to convince the population of any kingdom that Aladdin is their prince. Jafar on the other hand, if the genie just make the Sultan believe that the genie somehow made Jafar the new sultan, the sultan would by the authority invested in him as sultan, give over his power. So the Genie just tricked teh sultan and jafar. Aladdin knew he wasn't ever really a prince. I don't think they actually constructed a theory for this. Or they did, but realized that by telling the audience, they would just wish for Aladdin to realize so that he could tell the sultan that the Genie does not have that power, and that Jafar thus isn't actually made sultan.

[@ToruKun1]

Did anybody else think "Jasmine could've payed for that apple with her jewelry" when they were kids?

[@rickc2102]

💯

[@QuinnArgo]

I guess yeah, but the point of the scene kind of is to establish her as a person who never had to deal with the concept of paying or money, so it makes sense she wouldn't consider it

[@sweetbunnybun]

then a guy would prolly say she stole it, because her clothes weren't expensive

[@devforfun5618]

@@sweetbunnybun and all would be resolved if they called the guards, instead of punishing the crime on sight, were the fuck is the judicial system ?

[@ToruKun1]

@@QuinnArgo I know, but I was a kid and autismal.

[@deansamuels5713]

If the third Disney Aladdin movie is canonical I would like to think that his father becomes the "King of Thieves" at the moment of Aladdin's wish, making Aladdin the "Prince of Thieves" technically a type of prince which is a very genie way of granting wishes.

[@TheAkwarium]

Al's dad highkey a dilf

[@constancemcdonough7229]

Love that

[@simplegarak]

Hah! Nice, I'm stealing that.

[@whong7110]

This just made me realize how liberal (as in opposed to leftism) jasmine is. She uses progressive lamgauge such as those children were starving yet rules as an undemocratic monarch. they did the meme. More female billioniares/monarchs.

[@claynorth964]

yep. liberal feminism. ugh

[@RariettyC]

The lyrics to "Speechless" left me speechless the first time I listened to them because it felt like Disney hired the dudes who wrote La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen to throw a bunch of feminist platitudes into a blender and slap them onto a character who didn't need them, and then it was even worse after I watched the movie and realized how tone-deaf the words truly were All the lyrics are about uprooting tradition and breaking free from sexist expectations only to use them to uphold the same system that tied Jasmine down in the first place

[@Rawnblade13]

It's pretty fitting for a corporation like Disney actually. It's something they do all the time. Use progressive language and pretending to be progressive, but in reality, it's all hollow and meaningless.

[@alaasocool]

in essence shes a girl boss ??

[@anni1348]

It's performative girl Boss feminism, coming from a powerful company that just wants to come off as woke while having no idea about feminism, to earn money. This has nothing to do with actual feminism.

[@nicks1451]

Speaking of genuinely wild, it's amazing how the remake doesn't work on so many levels, like how a cartoon tiger gave you a sweet sense of huggable cuddliness, while a live tiger naturally sets off all kinds of alarms.

[@Multienderguy37]

Real life tigers are cute, this one is just different.

[@ussinussinongawd516]

@@Multienderguy37 should've used a tigerkitten

[@SquidsUnite]

Big Joel thinks he’s soo smart just because he adequately interpreted a film meant for children. Please, I should do what he does, and he should clean my bawls.

[@alicejbbennett]

I wasn’t sure if this was a reference to the video and the 11 minutes I had to wait to find out were agonizing.

[@fisticuffs12]

@@alicejbbennett were you just here to enjoy the comment section?

[@PeterGriffin11]

Evan Ferguson thinks their soo funny because they adequately quoted big joel. You should do what he does and clean my bawls.

[@xp8969]

@@PeterGriffin11 reading that hearing it in my head as Stan Smith's voice saying it made that perfect 😭😂

[@theoriginalrandomman]

I literally scrolled down and read this at the exact same time that he said it

[@SaraAllan]

It's more than a year later, but I feel that it's very important to mention that you missed the best explanation for why Jafar's and Aladdin's transformations were different, which is that the genie grants what is in your heart. As a poor peasant, Aladdin's idea of a prince is limited to the spectacle of princliness. Jafar, on the other hand, has a very pragmatic concept of power and defines Sultan-hood by what he lacks - the acknowledgment of power. He has been wielding power behind the scene successfully for years, but his wish to be the sultan is more about a desire to be seen by others as powerful and important. While this reading undermines some of your conclusion, I think it raises another interesting frame that we can use to see reflections of the real world in this film. It provides a window into the concept that the lower class's ideas of success are often dominated by the trappings of success rather than any real understanding of the power structures that exist to keep the social hierarchy in place, while at the same time giving a thoughtful examination of people like Elon Musk, who, despite his undeniable power, craves acknowledgment. It is not enough for him to have wealth and power. Like Jafar, his deepest wish is to be seen as valid and deserving of that wealth and power. I find tragedy in the idea that in both cases the characters are limited not only by circumstance, but also by their fundamental inability to change those constructions that have created that circumstance. If they could look more deeply at the situation, I think that there is a world in which Jafar and Aladding come to the same conclusion - that the real villain of the story is the Sultan, who wields supreme authority for no good reason and who has no appreciation for his own privilege, and feels little to no responsibility to use that privilege on behalf of others.

[@blackpajamas6600]

That's a great point, and for a moment there I was pondering just how cool it would be for an Aladdin movie to depict both Aladdin AND Jafar recognizing the arbitrary and capricious power held by the Sultan and working against it in their own way. Not like a lame "let's team up!" plot contrivance, but two characters working toward the same thing by different means. Why hasn't Disney jumped on this plot opportunity, not just in Aladdin but any of their "live action" remakes that even remotely touch on the idea of sovereignty? It occurred to me that making the plots even remotely related to the idea of challenging power structures would immediately eat into their bottom line in Chinese and foreign markets. Cuz like, many of those countries are led by autocratic strongmen of various sorts. I know it's not the ONLY reason Disney makes its remake plots so bare-bones, but it sucks that something like narrative exploration is impacted so heavily by, well, the power-structures that don't want their power questioned.

[@Backinblackbunny009]

​@@blackpajamas6600China? CHINA? WHY ARE YOU LOOKING FOR AUTHORITARIAN STRONGMEN OUTSIDE THE AMERICAN EMPIRE THAT CONTROLS MOST OF THE WORLD?

[@SuperSmashDolls]

​@@blackpajamas6600 Don't forget, Disney himself (the person, though he does strike me as the type to upload his mind into a corporation) was instrumental in a lot of America's own cultural propagandizing. Even though the authoritarian strong-men of today hate Disney, it's mainly because of minor aesthetic considerations ("two men are kissing in one easily-removed scene so they're WOKE NOW") or political disagreements ("Disney said the bill that left wingers think is going to criminalize gay people is bad so they're WOKE NOW") and not because Disney is actually hacking at the root of power or even frustrating it's attempts to overthrow democracy. I mean, after all, without a Sultan, who's going to enforce the copyright on all those fairy tale adaptations Disney is still milking?

[@thefreshkingofbel1179]

Remake Jasmin: “HOW DARE YOU NOT GIVE KIDS FREE FOOD” while she holds the position of privilege and the guy has to survive as well Twisted jasmin: “LETS MAKE EVERYONE A PRINCESS!”

[@kingsaracoon9594]

"Oh come on you know it would work!"

[@Quackervoltz]

Twisted is the superior live action remake of Aladdin

[@redtailarts101]

Actually like Twisted did it better The Princess (they weren't actually allowed to use the name Jasmine) may have had very naive ideas and was blind to a lot of her privilege, the Injustice of slavery, and how the world actually works, but she still showed genuine care for making the world a better place. She cared. She had ideas at all, and that was more than many people could say. Especially the Sultan. Her first and second acts as Sultan also actually mattered. She bought Pihkzaar, stopping Achmed from wreaking havoc across her kingdom and slaughtering millions of innocent civilians, instead forging an alliance to help restore her kingdom. And when she made everyone a princess, it brought with it granting respect and kindness to everybody. It's so silly yet Twisted manages to make her a better political activist than Jasmine in this movie

[@vfanon]

​@@redtailarts101Jasmine does anarchomonarchist praxis

[@joshwilson6388]

One of the things that bothered me about the remake was Jasmine's new thirst for power. How is her desire to rule Agrabah(sp?) any different than Jafar's? They both desire to rule out of egoism and a complete certainty in their own capability ("Only I know what is truly best for these people!"). In the original, Jafar's desire for power was recognized as a serious character flaw that rendered him inappropriate for leadership. Now, what really differentiates Jasmine from him other than her birthright?

[@stevethepocket]

One could say the same thing about Simba and Scar, honestly.

[@boriszakharin3189]

@@stevethepocket Except Simba is a little boy who doesn't understand what he's saying and no longer wants it when he grows up

[@roobenbhai8443]

because hehe pretty princess go brrrrr

[@buzzinbea]

Example of Disney trying to make their characters more feminist(?) in the stalest most corporate understanding of the concept. It's that eric andre "Do you think Margaret Thatcher was a girl boss?" bit. The choice seems to accidentally reaffirm the notion of a divine god-given right to rule. Especially if what Joel said is true and there's not a big sequence where we see that Jasmine's rule improved the kingdom's living conditions and can conclude that Jafar's influence was what was causing the widespread poverty. Because otherwise Jasmine can do the exact same things as Jafar but be considered good because she's the princess and 'nice' without having to sacrifice anything.

[@TheRealZeke2003]

MORE👏FEMALE👏POWER-HUNGRY👏TYRANTS

[@Agaporis12]

I’m sure someone already pointed this out but the genie is pretty explicit about how all this works. “That’s how genie magic works, people see what they are told to see.” “Genie magic is really only a facade.” He’s probably overgeneralizing but I think it’s pretty clear the genie enchants peoples minds to change how they view you. He enchanted Aladdin so that people would view him as a prince. He enchants Jaffar so people view him as a sultan. There’s no implication of divine right. The nature of power is clearly in perception according to this movie.

[@JacobGeller]

Big Joel I love this Mr. Robot-esque shot framing and you should never change it

[@brianchenard6150]

Hey ;)

[@PittsburghSonido]

The paintings in the background always do it for me.

[@silasespersen6569]

Jacob Geller, is that you?

[@kapitan762x54R]

Well I love your content! Ha, take that.

[@Tacom4ster]

Crossover

[@SamuraiMujuru]

It's a silly take away, but I can't help but appreciate that when the genie is pointing to/reading out the contract he correctly goes right to left.

[@thatdudeoverthere2188]

Oh yeah. Lol. That is neat.

[@chuchugugu]

you read arabic from right to left so what´s your point?

[@lucyann1573]

@@chuchugugu That WAS the point

[@chuchugugu]

@@lucyann1573 oh ok ^^ never mind, read their comment wrong

[@JackHGUK]

@@chuchugugu how did you take that statement the wrong way 😂

[@kabobawsome]

I do appreciate the fact that the genie didn't just make him like a distant middle child of a nearby king, but rather fundamentally changed the language of everyone around him to redefine Aladdin as a prince. That's probably my favorite weird way of a genie granting a wish.

[@killitwithfire5377]

Instead of the popular "I grant you your wish but in a way that will actually suck" version, Aladdin runs with the lesser known, but more fun version of genies: "I grant you your wish but in a convoluted way, that will require complex sociological analysis of the environment to understand how it was even granted."

[@jorgeluz9560]

With their live action remakes, Disney tries to "fix" "plot holes" in their original stories that don't really matter to the narrative because these are fables, parables, and the nitty-gritty of the system and rules of their universes aren't really important, what matters is the message. By overexplaining stuff, they actually just raise more questions and therefore make their worlds more broken.

[@SlapstickGenius23]

If Disney tries to fix the plotholes of all its Tarzan works when it develops a wholesale reboot to its version of Tarzan, then it has to present them all in a grimmer and grimier way. That’s because Tarzan was first and foremost a pulp fiction franchise.

[@jaimeantonioolaguezchirino5805]

I think heard something like that in Nostalgia Critic's review of Beauty and the Beast REDUX

[@KOTEBANAROT]

@@jaimeantonioolaguezchirino5805 watch lindsay ellis video on that movie instead

[@jaimeantonioolaguezchirino5805]

@@KOTEBANAROT already done that, really good video

[@edgarallenhoe3518]

@@jaimeantonioolaguezchirino5805 people still watch nostalgia critic? In this day and age?

[@CaitieLou]

The ways that these live-action remakes drastically overthink some aspects of the original films, while also drastically underthinking the consequences of the changes they've made is just so fascinating. I could watch you break down these things all day Joel, lol. I think my favorite example from Aladdin 2019 is that big GirlBoss™ song they gave Jasmine that the film screeches to a halt to show. She screams "I won't be silent!" into the time-stopped nether-void she popped into. And then 5 minutes later is captured and rendered totally silent by Jafar. Did no one in this multi-million dollar production really not look at those two sequences and go "Maybe there's some tonal dissonance here?"

[@kaemincha]

i believe ive heard this concept described before as they didnt know what made the original good in the first place, so there were consequences in changing everything without thinking about how it affects the story. i think Schaffrillas video on Cats talks about misunderstanding the components that make something work and fumbling them in the remake.

[@rocalvo6588]

Disney and any other big corporation dont care at al whatsoever what their customers think, want, like, enjoy. Only thing they care about is making profit. People not calling them out for obvious things like the ones you mentioned, instead keeeping buying their products only serves as a feedback for them, telling them what they are doing is fine, since people are rewarding disney by keeping buying tickets to go and see their movies and by keeping spending money for renting their movies online.. This is so laughable that to anyone taking a closer look, it will seem shocking how no one has seen or recognized it; or maybe they have but chose no tto talk about it. I think most people just dont care enough. Or they dont actually recognize how much power they have: they could simply not buy and or consume certain things, and thus telling the corporations who produce these things that they are not wanted..

[@AtamoskTPK]

​@@rocalvo6588 Well when Disney is literally largest most profitable movie producer in the world at this point it is kind of hard to not consume any of their media. I mean I fucking hate capitalism, but god damn I love me some Marvel universe and kingdom hearts. Really we should limit the power of these companies or break up their monopolies. We cant stop them from buying up every IP that exists and then what can you? just stop having fun?

[@ApexGale]

there was a scene in the original movie where aladdin tries to set a plank for jasmine to walk across to get to his hideout, but jasmine chooses instead to vault over like he does. it shows that she is daring, excited to try new things and not a dainty and fearful princess and then in the live action movie they instead have her take the plank because she is afraid. why?

[@BuddySweyzer]

Can't get over how Jafar just looks like a regular guy. Just nothing villainous-looking about him at all, they just slapped a black turban on him and called it a day.

[@platypusbear-v2b]

I mean... Villains don't always come with evil smirks or moustaches to twirl sinisterly. The concept of an innocuous looking guy using his Every Man™ face to seem relatable to people, sowing mistrust and mutiny in their hearts with an easy smile, could've been interesting. (Sort of like Iago - the Shakespearean character, not the animated parrot.) The problem in this movie is that Jafar's harmlessness isn't a carefully constructed facade to gain power. He just legitimately has the gravitas of drywall.

[@earthbenderjfjdj4335]

@@platypusbear-v2b no, OP's point is that Jafar isn't as evil-LOOKING as the OG. The average looking villain look would've been okay if Jafar already looked like that in the OG film but he didn't. A remake should always prioritize keeping the GOOD elements of the original. Add his lack of gravitas and boom, you have a boring and badly-cast and acted villain.

[@shakthi2139]

@@earthbenderjfjdj4335 I disagree. The original's best element was Robin Williams' genie - something Will Smith would've fallen miserably short of, if he'd tried to imitate. Instead, he stuck to his strengths and it mostly worked. A remake should spiritually be in line with the original, but it needs its own creative vision. And sometimes that means adding layers to a character or subtracting quirks that feel ham-fisted in a non-animated medium. Adaptations that are perfectly faithful are pointless to make and boring to watch. Can't speak for OP, but my point is that a less cartoonish depiction of Jafar's villainy would've worked well in a live-action setting - provided he'd been written as a deeper character + yes to the stone-faced acting.

[@Laeiryn]

Perhaps a more accurate representation of most evil than we ever get in film: banal, nondescript, everyday.

[@KOTEBANAROT]

They made Jafar heterosexual :(

[@Patricia_Taxxon]

joel holding the xlr mic like a wine glass, im living

[@communistpropagandist4608]

Love your music especially The Best Day

[@myishenhaines1706]

"Poverty is just a prop." Very good quote man.

[@sonikrajder]

Prince Philip actually was from a monarch family- his grandfather was a king of Greece, and his greatgrandfather was a king of Denmark. He was also related to queen victoria- in short, classical example of royal inbreeding

[@MrGksarathy]

He also barely survived the coup that overthrew the Greek royal family when he was 1. EDIT: Let's be real, he still lived an absolutely privileged life to the end.

[@mdsolomon27]

Yup and the Bolsheviks clapped the other half of his family.

[@mathieuleader8601]

his mum Princess Alice of Battenburg became a nun and helped loads of people

[@sonikrajder]

@@mathieuleader8601 everybody has a chance to redeeme themselves

[@chriss780]

@@mathieuleader8601 yes royals can do good by renouncing their titles and lives of privilege and living simple lives helping people

[@ObesetoBeast]

thought the mic was a drink for far too long

[@beatriceroosmark]

This comment makes me happy on so many levels, thought the same thing for too long

[@cheep5645]

This comment appears right under Sarah Z’s for me, which is perfect lmao

[@lr8150]

Same lmaoo I thought our boy Joel was clutching a White Claw this whole time

[@daniisd2555]

This made me REALIZE the fact

[@jbvibrations]

Stressing me out watching him hold that shit the entire time lol

[@jo.comics]

About the prince wish thing, I like the idea that the genie technically makes that wish come true by manipulating the circumstances surrounding Aladdin, creating an image, in order for him to get married to Jasmine, which would then end up making him a prince, thus fulfilling the wish. Convoluted but I like it.

[@LadyDoomsinger]

True, he didn't say "I wish to be a prince right this moment!" - there's plenty of room for interpretation.

[@TheJonHolstein]

I thought along those lines as well, but that doesn't work, because even though the genie might understand that Jasmine is in love with Aladdin, so he knows that will not get in his was of fulfilling the wish, he would not be able to name Jafar as sultan, because that would get in the way, and he does that. For me, what would make more sense is that since the genie can't make someone fall in love, what he actually can't do, is alter someone's mind directly. He can put on a show that convinces people of something, but he can't alter their minds directly. And when it comes to making Jafar the actual sultan, whereas aladdin knows he isn't that only works because Jafar and the real sultan both believe by the tricks the genie performs that he has actually made Jafar the sultan, so the sultan gives over his title to Jafar.

[@ptaradactletime11]

@@TheJonHolstein actually it makes sense because genie wasn’t Alladins genie anymore. If one wishers wisher counteract with another’s it probably goes by a whoever has it at the time system.

[@LasagnaTheArtist]

@@TheJonHolstein Yeah, and that fits with the narrative of language and perception being discussed here. Jafar only "becomes the sultan" because everyone around him believes he does.

[@skellington7d]

This reminds me of when I saw the Aladdin show at Disneyland and the clothes change effect failed when the Genie turned Jafar into the sultan. So he just stood there awkwardly for a few seconds while nothing happened until the Genie ad-libbed "Ta-da! You're the sultan!"

[@Whatlander]

That makes me smile.

[@SimonBuchanNz]

Kafkaesque

[@Zarmdthecoolest]

That's so great. Theater school paid off

[@alisonwallace5619]

I loved going to that show all the time, but I don't think that's actually an add lib. Jafari never changed outfits in any of the shows. I think the punchline was that they used all these special effects and dramatic music for the result to just be a lackluster "you're the sultan~"

[@RainasRoom]

I can't stop laughing at the line "Clean my balls Jeff Bezos!" 😂😂

[@lyrablack8621]

Same (10:52 for those interested)

[@rusted_ursa]

I kind of hope he puts it on a t-shirt.

[@JeniJustJeni]

I don't even have balls and I want Jeff Bezos to clean them.

[@morganstiefvater2019]

That was a great tangent.

[@eldrago19]

9:44 or to quote Pratchett "where Nobby went wrong was sidling into rooms and stealing small things. If he sidled into continents and stole whole cities slaughtering many of the inhabitants he would be regarded as a pillar of the community."

[@catsentry9115]

everybody gangsta until big joel says "but, here's the thing"

[@alterego9863]

This reading seems correct on the face of it, but...

[@ZijnShayatanica]

"At first blush..."

[@pink_sunflower_girly4705]

"I don't think that . . ."

[@faithgreen9115]

Large Joseph is framed like he's in the Les mis movie adaptation

[@LimeyLassen]

It's close, he just needs to be more out of breath and have laryngitis

[@faithgreen9115]

@@LimeyLassen and extremely dehydrated

[@daltonbedore8396]

it's Joelseph

[@DKF_oli]

@@daltonbedore8396 lol, I was going to write the same exact thing

[@angrytheclown801]

Jasmine not apologizing for stealing and actually being defiant brings to my mind a phrase I like to use to criticize people like her: Nothing is Impossible for the Guy Who Doesn't Have to Do it. That store keeper is to her what the homeless kids are to him. He's struggling to make ends meet and she feeds the kids at his cost not hers and she takes on an attitude of superiority for it. She's in reality no more suited for Sultan than Jafar.

[@friedrice4015]

I love this setup, I'm at a Houseparty full of people I barely know and I'm stuck in a room with this weird man holding his mic like a wine glass and at this point he's too far into a very weird rant for me to leave without being impolite.

[@iguessso1790]

I love this description

[@idontwantahandlethough]

LOL perfect. This is my favorite kind of house party. Just FILLED TO THE BRIM with absolute eccentric weirdos [wearing extra fuzzy sweaters preferably], all talking about their weird passions :) (that way I don't have to talk... easier to focus on _MY_passion of doublefisting large chalices of wine. Sometimes I'll pair the white with the red, yes thank you I'm very cultured. Sometimes I'll throw in a "Ohhh, these bagel bites are indubitably _piquant_ Bethany, where did you find these delicious morsels!? A foreign delicacy importer named Trader Joe, you say?" just so I can say I talked to people)

[@MBTHAIS]

lol 100%

[@LDProductionsClass]

The Existential Crisis comic, especially the bit at the end about how the genie tailored his "lovable rascal" personality specifically to make Aladdin like him and therefore want to release him, blew my mind. After all - this is a supernatural being of immense power and intelligence. He's been trapped in the lamp longer than humans have lived in cities (which is a bit odd when you think about it). Clearly, when dealing with such a being, we can take nothing at face value.

[@kayhaven4710]

Oh yeah technically in middle eastern fairytales they have “jinns” not “genies”, and absolutely should not be trifled with! They are the masters of loopholes, and bloodthirsty to boot.

[@devforfun5618]

the lamp used to be a stick in the stone age

[@LDProductionsClass]

@@devforfun5618 shouldn't it have been a stone in the stone age and a stick in the stick age?

[@littlefieryone2825]

@@LDProductionsClass I kinda hope that if the lamp ever ended up in Greece it took the shape of a marble statue shaped like a naked person.

[@tarvoc746]

To the initiated, it's not at all odd that Genie has been trapped in the lamp longer than humans have lived in cities. Do you really think we humans are the first intelligent species on earth? Ha, you ignorant fool! Genie was clearly trapped in there by the Great Race of Yith!

[@PrimmsHoodCinema]

"Those children were hungry!" Bitch, feed your kingdom 😭😭😭

[@DieNibelungenliad]

This film just really Europeanized the Royal court of the Muslim world. Its like what someone would imagine a French Royal Court with Persian aesthetics

[@Valecto]

One can argue Aladdin's story is set in pre-islamic times. Hence Genie's comment about Aladdin's clothes looking "too 3rd century".

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@Valecto yeah but terms like Sultan (and Sultanate) are part of explicitly Islamic royal structures.

[@munromister777]

@@Valecto The original movie also has the Sultan exclaim "Praise Allah!", meaning it is Islamic times.

[@PremiumVibesMedia]

@@Valecto yeah not true

[@bartelvandervelden9894]

MAYBE, just maybe Aladdin is just hella orientalist and basically lumps everything from Marocco to (Northwestern) India spanning a period of at least 2000 years in one big pile

[@KonniWynn]

Not to defend the movie, but like, Jafar's wish was explicitly to "become the sultan of agrabah" not just any sultan. Aladdin just said "prince", the country he's apparently from was improvised, it wasn't part of the deal.

[@stylis666]

Indeed. Asking to be the ruler of a country requires the magic to include having ruling power. Asking to be "a prince" includes jack shit, as long as someone calls you one. You could time travel and have him stuck in an endless loop in a moment in a school play where he was called one and call it a day. I don't see this as any kind of a problem. I find the fact that Yasmin learned exactly nothing a far greater problem. The movie started exactly where it ended and went nowhere along the way. It's not an adventure; it's a statement of: we shouldn't follow the rules if breaking or changing them yields better/healthier results for the nation and the people in the nation, oh and don't be a dick to people for selfish reasons.

[@definitelynotashark1799]

@@stylis666 Also - for Jafar the word sultan means having power, yada yada. Aladdin's Background is different. Maybe the aspect of princehood he desired was the material one, having food and clothing? Being recognized and admired, instead of being seen as undesirable and pushed to the side? Maybe he paid the whole power aspect no mind? Does the genie consider this? If so, then both Jafar's and Aladdin's wishes were truthfully fulfilled. It's sort of a peasant's utopia scenario imo.

[@eliasmg9144]

Ok, hear me out. In Aladdin 3, it is revealed that Aladdin is the son of of the king of thieves, so... what if Aladdin's wish was somehow granted all along

[@lefandomtrash7746]

@@eliasmg9144 I wanna first say that I’m impressed you watched one of those straight to VHS sequels. Secondly, that’s actually kinda smart. His wish was already granted, all Genie had to do was give him the fancy looks to go with it.

[@tonnentonie2767]

@@lefandomtrash7746 both sequels were fire. But the midas temples takes it all.

[@CarlyJ]

It was the chaotic energy and randomness from Robin Williams that made me love the original Aladdin. Like when he plays chess with the carpet and says 'I can't believe it, I'm loosing to a rug.' Those little moments are my favourite. Will played a friendly, very likable genie but the chaotic energy just wasn't there. The thing I did enjoy about the remake was the fact that there were more scenes and time for Aladdin and Jasmine's relationship to develop. I also liked that the genie found love too.

[@memebinsdimples4104]

The animators 4 the OG Aladdin wrote the part of the genie specifically FOR Robin Williams! They animated the genie using his stand up and used that to pitch the role to him :0

[@morbidsearch]

At least Will Smith didn't try way too hard to be Robin Williams, like Dan Castallaneta in the Aladdin TV show

[@theotherjared9824]

The live action merchant wasn't nearly as threatening as the original. He calmly approached Jasmin and explained that what she did was stealing. After being denied his money, he grabbed her by the wrist with no real plan before alladin immediately intervenes. He then explains again that Jasmin stole from him, but in a petty tone and is told off by everyone for being rightfully upset.

[@alexbennet4195]

But bear in mind the original was a pretty racist depiction ngl - the big scary Arab caricature who tries to cut your hand off right in the middle of a busy marketplace for taking an apple had absolutely no basis in reality.

[@theotherjared9824]

@@alexbennet4195 the scene is absolutely based on reality. It's based on the hudud branch of ancient sharia law, which states the thieves must be publicly decapitated to set an example. The film is actually a toned down version of what should have happened.

[@alexbennet4195]

@@theotherjared9824 No, they absolutely would not chop someone's hand off mere SECONDS after declaring them a thief without any trial or judge or legal procedure or the involvement of literally ANY other party. Do you seriously think they'd just decapitate someone over the tomatoes??

[@theotherjared9824]

@@alexbennet4195 the specific act seen in the film is called hadd, where only the right hand is amputated. Because the full decapitation rule was hard to prove, this was much more frequent. Only a witness was needed for the amputation to take place. You are talking about ta'zir, the system that deals with more substantial crimes beyond petty theft. This is where courts and judges and jail time come into play. This caused the side effect of criminals attempting to cause the largest crime possible when they get caught, as smaller crimes ironically had more severe punishments. The concept of making a trial for petty crimes was not considered until centuries later, when most Arab nations adopted European created legal systems. This might be where your confusion is coming from. I understand, as you did not live in the time period.

[@buzzinbea]

(Speaking of the live action merchant) Also it isn't like the merchant is shown to be demonstrably rich from what I remember. It's cruel to keep food from starving children but he might also in all likelihood be poor? Pretty rich of Jasmine to get annoyed at him for wanting payment in the middle of what seems to be an incredibly poverty stricken time/part of the kingdom when she's one of the richest people in the country and semi-directly responsible for having starving children running around in the first place. Her being like "Those children are starving!" feels like it'd be at home in a political cartoon where she shouts it from her literal palace.

[@guldmattbb473]

I mentioned my issues with this movie before in a comment on another video, but I’ll copy paste what I said there. Honestly, the biggest problem I have with this film comes down to how they changed the characters to try and make them more ‘fleshed out’, when it really didn’t fit the plot. Jasmine now wanting to be the Sultan over her original desire to just be free from the restraints of the palace now makes her relationship with Aladdin just an afterthought. In the original, they both talked about how they felt trapped, and the connection they share over their mutuality. It was beautiful, because you saw how being rich didn’t make Jasmine any more happy than Aladdin. There’s no real reason for her and him to fall in love in this movie outside of ‘because that’s what the story is about’. It also takes away from a Whole New World. The whole reason this scene is great is because Aladdin essentially gives Jasmine what she wants. A chance to see the world, and experience what she never could. It’s what made him different than the other suitors, who could only offer her what she already had. Again, this film is more concerned with making Jasmine’s motivations about being sultan, so this scene comes off as utterly pointless. Or, hell, even the scene that led to them meeting in the first place doesn’t work. Jasmine gives a boy an apple from a cart and doesn’t know you have to pay for them. In the original movie, this was understandable since she had never left the castle walls before, so it made sense. Here, you’re telling me she’s snuck out of the palace before, AND claims to know/care about Agrabah’s people than anyone else, yet she doesn’t know basic things about how their system works? How is she qualified to be Sultan, again? Or Jafar. In the original, he was a twisted man that was well-trusted in the palace by everyone. But here, he’s an insecure little bitch that isn’t intimidating in the least. The head of the guard doesn’t trust him, the Sultan barely seems to trust him, and Aladdin as Prince Ali knows Jafar was the one that betrayed him, yet they do nothing and allow him to be in such a high position of leadership in the palace. None of the guards questioned Jafar ordering them to kill Prince Ali, yet they supposedly already know he’s not exactly trustworthy. In the original, them just blindly following his orders made sense. They had no reason to be suspicious of him. It made him so much more mysterious and vicious, whereas now he’s just some insecure guy that no one trusts anyway. It makes everyone in the palace seem stupid. And lastly, Aladdin. The movie spends so much more time trying and failing to flesh out other characters like Jasmine’s handmaiden or the royal guard that they forget to give the protagonist of the film any character. If anything, they instead take away from what they had on him. Him stealing bread in the beginning, for example, was important because he only steals the bare essentials. We see he only does it to survive, which also shows us, based on the guards’ reactions, that the very law that’s supposed to be protecting them is strict and more harmful than helpful. In this film, however, they’re way more justified, since he’s stealing possessions, rather than necessities. So he goes from being a clever and likeable street rat that just wants to survive, to a bland thief that the movie keeps insisting has more to him. They throw the entire point of the movie, that the only differences between Aladdin and Jasmine is essentially just a flawed class system, away for the sake of elements that don’t even end up servicing the movie well. Those are my two cents, at least.

[@rosemali3022]

If they really wanted her arc to be about becoming Sultan they should have made her materialistic in the first place, and slowly have to learn about the inequity in her kingdom and actually come up with a solution.

[@danielkhan1]

@@rosemali3022 Giving a girl a character arc??? That would mean she would have to be flawed in the beginning in order to have an arc 😱😱😱 God forbid Jasmine is nothing less than a girl boss.

[@liahtru1644]

I very much agree with your points. They also ruined the A Whole New World sequence by flying the magic carpet over a desert landscape instead of going all over the world like in the original. Also, live-action Jazmine and Aladdin have very little chemistry in this one; I couldn't feel any emotions between them at all.

[@aqueercommunist]

aladdin saw power as a social role, and he was granted princehood as a social role. jafar saw power as an innate quality, and he was given sultanhood as an innate quality. so in a way, they both got exactly what they asked for

[@smaakjeks]

I like that. It's more parsimonious, than Joel's take, IMO. Nothing wrong with connecting dots that the makers didn't connect, though.

[@The_Jovian]

Nice to see a fellow anarchist in the wild

[@katherinelynch4193]

More importantly, Jafar then wishes for genie hood as an innate quality (insane supernatural entity beyond human or wizard levels), and gets his comeuppance when he realizes that he’s ignored the social role (prisoner) that genies inhabit.

[@mw7845]

This goes along with what you’re saying just worded differently; Jafar and Aladdin had completely different motives (which ties into them seeing these positions in such different ways) Aladdin just wanted to get with Jasmine (socially motivated), and Jafar wanted control (power motivated). But that’s very interesting. I don’t think the Genie has a say in how their wishes are manifested, I think their wishes come to be how the wisher sees themselves

[@mw7845]

@@katherinelynch4193 i forgot about that! (Not sure if he talks about it, didn’t finish the video yet) But that’s so true!

[@LemonDove]

I vaguely remember an episode in the Aladdin series where she got turned into a rat and somehow ended up in the house of a poor starving family. Later when she got turned back the episode ended with her telling her father they need to do something about poverty. I think the 90s merchandise vehicle gave Jasmine more meaningful actions/storylines than this modern movie

[@raycearcher5794]

I assume they're going with "prince" in the Mediterranean city state sense. So a Prince is basically like a hereditary mayor, and Jasmine is actually a Sultana, the daughter of the national or provincial monarch. If we consider her a princess in context, and not just in that she's a disney princess, then presumably she is princess of Agrabah, presumably because her father was elevated to Sultan by whatever weird religious oligarchy rules wherever Aladdin happens and as his daughter she is entrusted to run the city proper. HOWEVER, because a prince's brothers and sisters are also princes and princesses, and they can't all run a city, the renaissance was actually full of princes who just farted around being rich. So yeah, giving Aladdin a ton of cash and a fancy title really is sufficient.

[@tarvoc746]

"Princes who just farted around being rich" but with no land to rule because they were second sons was essentially how colonialism started. True story!

[@Arrakiz666]

@@tarvoc746 Well, that's pretty reductive, but yeah, it was a factor.

[@Jane-oz7pp]

I've mostly heard that Aladdin takes place in a mythologised Iraq.

[@blakchristianbale]

Those princes’ titles were still real titles though, associated with actual dynasties that could back them up. They weren’t just made up on the spot like they are in the movie

[@tarvoc746]

@@blakchristianbale Yeah, the whole reduction of power to performative speech acts kind of ignores the fact that not all speech acts of this kind manage to be successfully performative, and that it often requires already existing power to ensure their performativity.

[@hannahbrennan2131]

The only Aladdin remake I choose to acknowledge is the Team Starkid musical, Twisted. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it, it's free on KZbin.

[@trinaq]

Oh yes, that's a brilliant musical, and I liked that they didn't try to rehash the plot of the classic movie.

[@hannahbrennan2131]

@@trinaq Yeah. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, it lovingly parodies and decontructs the movie and the Disney company in general.

[@Mike-di1og]

I think it’s their best one, even considering the Harry Potter ones.

[@hannahbrennan2131]

@@Mike-di1og Agreed.

[@eoincampbell1584]

Interestingly Twisted takes the characterization of Jasmine from the apple scene and runs with it to give her a character arc all about realising what she can and should do with her power which relates directly to this video in a bunch of ways.

[@lrpmendes]

The "clean my balls rant" really made my day, Joel.

[@alexanderwill2847]

I have an interpretation of why the movie thinks there's a distinction between Aladdin's princeyness and Jafar's sultanyness. Jafar, at the beginning of the movie, is far more privileged than Aladdin - when Jafar wishes to be made Sultan, that makes everyone (like the captain of the guard) perceive him as Sultan, and Jafar's self-confidence does the rest. But Aladdin (despite "riff-raff, street trash, I don't buy that") lacks the confidence to perceive HIMSELF as a Prince, so even if people are made to believe he is, that reality will be fragile at best, and short-lived at worst. TL;DR the reason Aladdin's wish is less effective than Jafar's is because Aladdin suffers from Imposter Syndrome and Jafar doesn't

[@kamillayessenova4482]

Or maybe he lacks political education and perceives royalty as something far away, dreamy and unattainable (like some people perceive billionaires nowadays) but ultimately unchanging and surprisingly apolitical, while Jafar knows what being a royal requires and gives. So when they ask to become royals they become royals in their own definition of term

[@obamakiske]

IMPOSTER AMONG US

[@tarvoc746]

@@kamillayessenova4482 So Genie gives Jafar a _more_ essentialist appearance of sultanhood because Jafar's own concept of sultanhood is _less_ essentialist than Aladdin's? That's interesting. It almost makes me wonder if conceptualizing power as non-essential is actually necessary in order to achieve and exert power in a way that makes it seem essential.

[@emmy8526]

Or maybe because the leap from ‘advisor to the sultan’ to ‘sultan’ is comparatively small and already in practically the same elevated social status sphere, whereas ‘street urchin’ to ‘prince’ is a huge leap and requires a total rethinking of the value system underlying gross inequality. It’s why British society and nobs accepted Prince Philip being made a prince but everything Meghan Markle and her children should be entitled to in that system makes the UK tabloids scream. Also I think we’re putting way more thought into it than the 2019 Disney crew did. Edit: Actually, speaking of the British royals, it’s funny how they’re supposedly anointed by god, and yet are pushed around like pawns by the civil service of Jafar-like “grey men” / “moustaches” who run the Queen’s admin, calendars, and disastrous PR strategies. Even to this very day, right-wing rags will run headlines like: “Palace advisors upset by Harry/Meghan”. If you buy into the royal system, why do you care? Aren’t palace staffers completely negligible compared to the blue-blood princelings, their wives and broods? Methinks the anti-royalist activity has already been going inside the palace for some time, just to conservative ends.

[@quadpad_music]

sus

[@jesustyronechrist2330]

I like how Big Joel just overthinks things in a way that it still makes sense.

[@Cow-Moth-With-A-CRT-Head]

My headcanon has always been that the Genie magically created a city that doesn't exist but still does in a legal sense, like maybe one house is somehow declared to be Ababwa and that's how Aladdin became a prince.

[@burnedcactus5156]

I wonder if it could be related to how they phrase their wishes: Aladdin wants to be "a prince", to him an abstract concept (maybe even a performance like you mentioned), to Aladdin a princehood does not imply much more than a means to an end, and the way the Genie grants him the wish is to facilitate that end, but Jafar wants to be "the Sultan of Agrabah", his wish is specific because he has observed what being the Sultan of Agrabah means--control of the state and the monopoly on violence; to Jafar being the sultan means he is able to seize the control of the military and become the owner of the resources of Agrabah. I think maybe the genie grants the wish based on the perception of that wish that the person who makes that wish would have--what they would imagine that wish to entail and what they hope to gain from it. So for Aladdin it's a shift in the perception of his social class, for Jafar it's legitimate state power.

[@DanielKRui]

Very interesting take!

[@LadyDoomsinger]

I think it's a lot simpler than that. The Genie granted both wishes exactly as he was told. The twist being that titles are completely arbitrary and meaningless, and only as powerful or real as people believe them to be.

[@LikaLaruku]

I guess this Genie is actually a Djin. There's always a catch to their wishes. Some real Twilight Zone shit. You have to very carefully word your wishes & any mistake will end up being a loophole in a contract. Sometimes Djins are malicious & will be the force behind the wish coming back to bite you in the ass, &U sometimesyou only get one wish or after the 3rd wish, the Djin becomes human & the wisher is stuck in the bottle until he grants 3 wishes.

[@artandbeans]

As Varys says in GoT “…If it is the swordsmen who rule us in truth, why do we pretend our kings hold the power? Why should a strong man with a sword ever obey a child king like Joffrey, or a wine-sodden oaf like his father?” “Because these child kings and drunken oafs can call other strong men, with other swords.” “Then these other swordsmen have the true power. Or do they?” Varys smiled. “Some say knowledge is power. Some tell us that all power comes from the gods. Others say it derives from law. Yet that day on the steps of Baelor’s Sept, our godly High Septon and the lawful Queen Regent and your ever-so-knowledgeable servant were as powerless as any cobbler or cooper in the crowd. Who truly killed Eddard Stark, do you think? Joffrey, who gave the command? Ser Ilyn Payne, who swung the sword? Or… another?Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.” “So power is a mummer’s trick?” “A shadow on the wall,” Varys murmured, “yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”

[@IntrusiveThot420]

On a semi-related note, the value of goods and products work in the same way. Labor and capital don't really create value because nothing creates value; it's assigned after the fact as producers and consumers go back and forth voting with their wallets on prices.

[@cashnelson2306]

read another book

[@tarvoc746]

@@IntrusiveThot420 What is created by labor is the _potential_ for assigning. Assign what you will (or rather what you can get away with), but you won't be assigning anything at all if there's nothing that it could be assigned to. (Confusing what is assigned with what it is assigned to is precisely what Marx calls commodity fetishism.)

[@JoaoPedro-jc5fm]

@@cashnelson2306hahaha there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of game of thrones, mate, take it easy

[@IntrusiveThot420]

@@tarvoc746 capital could also be said to create the potential for assigning, because labor without capital (machinery, training, etc) also can't make anything. Like a lot of stuff with marxism, it's kinda circular logic in service of a flawed idea. Marx was a better sociologist than economist.

[@Katie-ws7xp]

I'm not very far in but I think the jasmine stealing scene is the biggest problem with most Disney remakes. Since they're trying to make basically the same film but modern they have this need to change certain things that were perfectly fine in a way to make the film feel more new but most times this ends up completely breaking subtle character moments that the writers just didn't notice

[@donniejefferson9554]

I have to disagree with you that the genie did anything more to Jafar than he did to Aladdin. It seems like all he did was give him a big hat. Everyone just believed that the genie did more and were therefore willing to accept that Jafar was the real sultan. Power can only exist where people believe it exists. If everyone in the room just said no and proceeded to stab Jafar than he wouldn't be much of a sultan. The fact that they all believe he has power makes that power real.

[@tarvoc746]

He would be a sultan, just the same way Caesar was still dictator for life after being stabbed to death. After all, "dictator for life" means that you die as one. That's why the Jacobins put "Citizen Capet" on trial, not Louis XVI.

[@donniejefferson9554]

@@tarvoc746 But what if they arrested him for trying to take the crown? There was seemingly nothing stopping them from doing that and putting the original sultan back in power. He was only sultan because people accepted him as sultan

[@lulucool45]

this cracked me up. power is sooo arbitrary

[@Spamhard]

Yeah, I wondered that. Like his example with his friend wanting to be president. If Joel gave his friend a president hat, and the real president and/or the majority of those in power then went "They're wearing the president's hat! They must be the rightful president!" then... yeah, I guess giving them a hat did make them president. That's all it took.

[@xDeltaF1x]

Yeah if Big Joel were known to gave cosmic powers and he declared someone president, then some people probably would recognize them as president.

[@adamwier2757]

Forget the analysis. Give me more imaginary union leaders yelling things at Jeff Bezos and everyone going "oooooh sick burn."

[@dhard]

“Clean my balls, Jeff Bezos!”

[@nope8083]

holy shit. if this is in the video I will die happy. edit: yes. yes please. also someone please animate that omG

[@rossthebesiegebuilder3563]

When he went into the bit about how the other person should wash his balls, I was legitimately surprised that it didn't lead into a sponsored ad for a product that washes your balls or something.

[@CorinneA3]

That would've been legendary

[@PawsOnTheBalcony]

A "Manscaped" ad, maybe?

[@Ponera-Sama]

Let's be real, if a bunch of union workers tried to pull that on Jeff Bezos they would probably end up "disappearing" by some armed guards

[@kayhaven4710]

So basically everyone needs to watch “Twisted” by Team Starkid.

[@thomask.98]

brb

[@tarvoc746]

definitely.

[@jeremysworld3061]

Make everyone a princess

[@milenacosta8299]

exactly

[@Towlapeiwa]

I’ve been thinking of this since the Cruella movie came out...

[@soupcansoup]

My favourite niche is videos of someone thinking so hard about a piece of media that wasn"t designed to be thunked hard about. Thank you Big Joel.

[@porkchopchopper]

Jgerijnfwdijfivjjefijvedc lolololol

[@wakkawakkagaming3710]

You know how you fix the scene with Jasmine and the shopkeeper? Have her pay him too much. Like he says "you have to pay for that" and she gives him like jewels or something that she has on her. It communicates what its supposed to (she's ignorant, doesn't get how money works, but wants to help the kids) without making the shopkeeper look like a dick. You could even have Aladdin ask her "what'd you give him?" and she says "just what I had in my pocket." Aladdin wouldn't assume that means jewels, and you could maintain the secret that she's a princess

[@wakkawakkagaming3710]

Also, unrelated, but "I should do what you do, and you should clean my balls" would make for excellent merch

[@nabii5951]

This is an apology for Ratatouille, as noted in another video essay from another creator. In Ratatouille, the filmmakers attempted to balance their sympathy for the poor with a universal moral ethic. "You are a chef," declares the ghost of the great culinary artist, "and chefs do not steal." The rat's hunger, the starvation of himself or his allies, is no excuse to upset the moral order of the film, because Ratatouille is ultimately about worthiness and ownership - who deserves to run the restaurant and why. Aladdin, by contrast, no longer assumes an objective moral order for its personalities. Theft, deception, and other violations of the order no longer occur in a vacuum; the gravity of characters' offenses is subject to the surrounding circumstances. EDIT: Identitarianism, perhaps, as a substitute for tangible change? Someone's been reading Ross Douthat.

[@shan8130]

I would like to point out that the ghost is only just a figment of Remy’s imagination, and it’s made very clear that Gustaeu’s ghost doesn’t say anything that Remy doesn’t already know or believe. It’s Remy’s personal feelings about stealing that stops him from doing it, not a particular structure imposed on him by someone else.

[@libidinalmaterialist9470]

@@shan8130 but those personal feelings exist because of his personal conception of what a 'chef' is. Which is created by the literature he reads about chefs and Gusteau. His personal feelings do not exist in a vacuum, and influence by Gusteau's morality and the morality of the social order Remy and Gusteau exist within, that imposes the belief that stealing is a bad action. This is why he dislikes what his clan does when they steal, as he views the world through the lens of property and ownership, and they do not.

[@joelberlakovich8148]

Counterpoint on the Jasmine live action moment: Disney wanted to make her seem "empowered," because they know that has draw, but are Disney so engage the trope carelessly because they're Disney.

[@leonineKelter]

Once I saw a high school put on a performance of a show parodying Aladdin, and focusing on Jafar. In it, they portrayed Jasmine like a "and yet you live in a society" activist, where she wants the best for people but has no understanding of how these things actually happen. In the show, a servant gives her a scarf, and she turns it down because it was made in a factory. When the servant admits that they work in one of those factories, jasmine tells her she's part of the problem. In her perfect world she wants to make everyone a princess so they all have the same power as her instead of actually finding a way to fix poverty and inequality. This was a funny gag for a spoof or satire musical, but with the context of this interpretation it makes more sense as well.

[@redtailarts101]

You saw a high school performance of the Starkid musical Twisted

[@redtailarts101]

Which I'm surprised they'd do because the original has so much cursing in it there's a running gag about Achmed being a tiger fucker

[@IMatchoNation]

And so, the Aladdin Remake reminds us of what we all know: there are two sets of rules; one for the powerless, and one for the powerful. When the powerless transgress, they are deemed liars and cheats and thus punished. When the powerful transgress, their actions are justified as signs of inherent worth simply settling into existence. *mindblast*

[@Ezrablynx]

It's called "lean-in corporate feminism" and it falls apart when you think about its implications for 5 seconds.

[@gregjayonnaise8314]

It’s like when a corporation makes a big deal about a certain topic (women’s rights, LGBTQ+ issues, racism, etc) and makes commercials appealing to those demographics but backs up organizations and groups that directly cause those systemic issues in the first place. It’s trying to milk the image that comes with activism without having to do the legwork to actually do anything helpful to those affected.

[@LisaNarozhnykh]

@@gregjayonnaise8314 "Jasmin being nice in front of starving children but not initiating perfectly possible change that would prevent starvation in the first place is an allegory for rainbow capitalism" is not the take I was expecting to see today, but I'm glad

[@XMysticHerox]

The recent logitech add that starts with "we oppose the status quo" is another great example.

[@z2yn]

And it is scary, if you think about the implications - *promise me you'll think about the implications* (sorry I just had to, someone mentioned starkid in the comments and I had to think of them)

[@ldskjfhslkjdhflkjdhf]

Woah, it's crazy that you were able to identify and label what it's called like that.

[@NiccoloSeligmann]

The idea that "pageantry is power" is pretty critical for studying later medieval history, both for Christian and Islamic courts

[@c0ttage]

i think the differences in how they ask their wishes matter too. Aladdin asks to be a prince which can be achieved through perception and adherence to social cues. Jafar demands to be the sultan of agrabah, which would require completely circumventing the processes that normally make someone sultan

[@thefinalstair]

100% this

[@skeletonwizard708]

I actually really like this interpertation. Jafar asks Genie to make him a Sultan, and all he does is perform a light show infront of the court and give him a change of clothes. Jafar, for every intent and purpose, already was the Sultan, the power behind the throne, and all he does is bring that truth to the surface. He does, in large part, the same thing to Alladin. Alladin already had the nobility, kindness, and 'innate princeness' of a fantasy ruler, he just needed the power to prove it. It sounds like Divine Blood, but I feel it can be read as a sort of stratification of power. How many great men and women are suppressed by their cultures and economics? How many, dare I suggest it, *diamonds in the rough* are lost time?

[@Cordman1221]

I think that Disney's overwhelming desire to represent women as girl bosses and not as you know, fucking humans, kind of creates the subtle show of the dynamics of power. If the desire of the creator was 'power corrupts absolutely' well, Jasmine protesting about the hungry kids and then not giving a fuck once she gets that power does that pretty well. tbh, I think that video is 'Big Joel stumbles into anarchist thought' because yeah. Power is an undefinable metric, bound by literally nothing other than its own appearance. A good man with power over others and a bad man with power over others are both exactly evil, because power and it's perpetuation itself is the problem, not the intentions of the rulers.

[@Gattsu_OG]

Genie did make Aladdin a real price though. Just in a roundabout way. If not for his making him appear to be prince and the events that followed,the sultan would never have changed the rules to allow Jasmin to sultan.

[@h4zrds]

i wish jafar had a personality in this movie

[@Rainkit]

One thing that might add a layer to your interpretation is that in Arabian folklore, genies are jinn. They are evil and manipulative spirits. Given, Disney changes that and tones down how evil they are. I'm sure they didn't mean to imply that genie was lying to everyone, but that is something a genie would do.

[@jennifern2403]

Fun fact, Jinn’s also quite well known in Indonesian folklore where they are, as you said, evil and manipulative. Personally think the new genie’s more mischievous if anything, since i do agree that Disney would tone it down to their standards.

[@TheDocfri]

Jinn in folklore don't need to be evil and manipulative, they are just guys, but most of the stories that are told are about evil and manipulative jinn because it tends to be more interesting (especially today where there is a stronger association with horror genre). Although, with the story of Aladdin, I don't think the Jinn in the original story was "evil" either, even as he was not friendly, he was just a completely neutral and subservient being from what I can recall.

[@redtailarts101]

Is that why the Djinn in twisted was so frustrating? On purpose?

[@TheAtoll]

Your deep dive videos have inspired me to create an entire KZbin channel focused on the 1995 film Waterworld

[@purplehood8418]

People will def subscribe to that

[@TheAtoll]

@@purplehood8418 Yeah, I hope so. It's a very niche subject but I have created 35 videos so far, all of pretty high quality. I am sort of just digging my own internet rabbit hole.

[@Realkeepa-et9vo]

@@TheAtoll Sound really good my dude

[@geoffreysorkin5774]

Will you make a second channel strictly about The Postman?

[@ManicPandaz]

I also like the ironic symmetry in Aladdin where the main goals in the movie are the three forbidden wishes. Aladdin get Jasmin to fall in love with him(can’t make people fall in love), Jafar gets his mortal life taken away by being turned into a magical being(can’t take life) and the Genie gets his own life back even though he should of died long ago as a mortal(can’t revive the dead). As for the prince question, I always like the idea that the Genie granted Aladdin’s wish by orchestrating his and Jasmin’s marriage. You can of course become a prince by marriage, even as a commoner.

[@naikigutierrez4279]

That last interpretation is even closer to how the Djinn in the original story would act. The Djinn was supernaturally powerful and had untold riches, but he couldn’t change reality on a whim, he had to use his supernatural strength and riches to do whatever was asked of him.

[@deansamuels5713]

Genie or Djinn in Arabian lore aren't undead, they are mythical beings imprisoned by the magic of Solomon. Djinn are not regarded as immortal, though they have much longer lifespan than humans. In the original animated disney movie genie wishes to be free, but in the remake genie wishes to be human. Presumably he wishes to be human because he found love with a human? But in Arabian lore relationships between djinn and human are possible so I don't fully buy into that explanation.

[@Capydapy]

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Mindblown. You are a legend!

[@Kynesonline]

I love video essays like this because they make me think about what a story that was similar but actually considered and interrogated these thematic flaws would look like

[@Tacom4ster]

Plothole, Aladdin could have wished for a classless utopia to hook up with Jasmine

[@gaiusjuliuscaesar8450]

It's a commentary on the way the ruling class indoctrinate the exploited into embodying their own values and principles, what Marx and Engels call "False Consciousness". Capital permeates every facet of society in such a way that it shapes the minds of both the exploited and the exploiters, thus, we should not be surprised that individuals who rise to the top of the social ladder deliberately choose to perpetuate the system that has kept them in bondage, they are legitimately unable to imagine an alternative.

[@Tacom4ster]

@@gaiusjuliuscaesar8450 now do DuckTales reboot, you may reference Chilean Marxist "How to Read Scrooge McDuck" book

[@geoffreysorkin5774]

So you mean, make everyone a princess?

[@L0U_ZER]

15:30 maybe Jafar is “really” a sultan because he has an actual nation to draw power from and the authority to do so, but “prince” Aladdin only has power/authority relative to a non-existent nation?

[@alexrexaros9837]

The way the entire film was shot was like as if it was the most expensive sitcom on Television. There's no vision behind it. No Mise en Scène, no screenplay, no nothing.

[@shannonmichaels2909]

Yeah, it's really ugly tbh. Something about the combination of live action with all that garish, cartoonish CGI is so jarring to me

[@tarvoc746]

It's almost like they were trying to imitate Game of Thrones... the _later_ seasons.

[@geoffreysorkin5774]

It says something when Twisted, a filmed stage musical, has more compelling visuals just from the actors showing real emotions.

[@stevethepocket]

Honestly I'm seeing a lot of that lately. Animated and live action movies alike, that feel like 90-minute episodes of a TV show that doesn't exist. I would love for some film expert with a KZbin channel to do a deep analysis of what the difference is.

[@richardbourton4523]

I’m totally uninformed about this, but based on various video essays I’ve seen, part of it may be the literal filming. Again, I’m no expert, but films shot on digital are a lot flatter in colour, whereas films shot on actual film are a lot brighter. The different cameras capture different types of image which then filters down to the look of the film through differences in colour grading. The flat full appearance of these films is antithetical to the cinematic vibe you get from film so I hear. I love the MCU, but compare the visuals and colours of the Guardians films (shot on film I believe) with the much duller look of the other movies like civil war (digital),which is then homogenised into one washed out consistent look by the colour grading during editing. Part of this dull look is apparently down to film cameras having better black points with areas of true black (ie actual darkness in areas where the image is supposed to be black), whereas digital cameras render this in dark grey, lowering the contrast. I’m probably talking totally out of my arse and I don’t know what cameras these were filmed on but it’s surprising what a difference something like that can have, affecting the entire appearance and cinematic look of a film. Certainly this is the most set-like of the remakes, which should be refreshing (and man do I want to parkour in that Agrabah street set) but the cinematographer needed to do better to make them not look like sets. Dirt, texture, shooting on film, it could all add to the cinematic look of the film, rather than the cheap end result.

[@fusionspace175]

Aladdin voice roughens on the word "much" because that's his highest emotional point in the sentence. That's his true feeling coming out, what specifically upsets him is others misjudging him according to his own self assessment. The voice roughens to show a momentary loss of control of the emotion. It's a good subtle note. And there is a big difference in the wishes Aladdin and Jafar make. Aladdin wished to be a prince for the purpose of wooing Jasmine, but not Prince OF anything. Jafar wished to be sultan of Agrabah. I assume his name was magically replaced on documents that would prove his lineage, or new documents appearing in the Royal vaults. That's where legitimacy would be determined, in the law of the land. Aladdin had no country behind him so he got a magical illusion of princehood and a fake country.

[@tarvoc746]

How is the legitimacy of the rule of law itself determined though?

[@fusionspace175]

@@tarvoc746 Through revolution, or the lack of one. He seems to be doing a decent job as Sultan, or Jafar is doing a decent job through him. The suffering of the people isn't a motivating factor, the status quo is presented as pretty much fine with everyone, they just want to ensure good rule going forward. Wouldn't it be ironic if Jafar started out as a good guy, stepping in to fix the idiot Sultan's economic mistakes? And over time he just got greedy and wanted more power. I smell the next Cruella, I think.

[@geoffreysorkin5774]

@@fusionspace175 Jafar always wanted to help the people. He just became jaded when the Sultan stole his wife.

[@fusionspace175]

@@geoffreysorkin5774 Love it. You want a co-creator credit when we send this off to Hollywood? You claim to be distantly related to Aaron and I'll claim a distant relation to Alan, we can bill it with just the famous parts of our names. And people have gotten their names on scripts for less.

[@geoffreysorkin5774]

@@fusionspace175 it’s the plot of Twisted.

[@TCC180]

I like the "How it should have ended" take on it, where genie just literally makes him royalty and all the things stated in the "prince Ali" song including the strength of 10 regular men, because it's magic.

[@Ululukiful]

As a non-native speaker I genuinely thought you're calling Jasmine "jazz man" for first 3 minutes

[@ohshit4860]

Ok now I wanna watch a movie about The Jazz man getting into a romance with Aladdin

[@marcelapalacios9222]

I think what confirms the legitimacy of the titles "prince" and "sultan" in the movie is the fact that the genie bestowed those powers upon them. The fact that the genie is present when both Aladdin and Jafar proclaim their status before a group of people is a key element in my opinion. Seeing that the genie is backing someone in some way, makes everyone around them believe they are legit. This is why I think when the Genie comes to be under Jafar's rule that the title of prince bestowed upon Aladdin is automatically nullified, because the Genie is no longer backing Aladdin up in that moment.

[@SuperSmashDolls]

...but that's just Divine Right of Kings theory!

[@tumalis]

Omg, the Jeff Bezos bit broke me

[@gaaralvr4695]

I think you’ve overlooked an important detail. Aladdin wished to be “a prince”, while Jafar wished to be “Sultan of Agrabah“. It makes sense that the genie granted these wishes differently because Aladdin’s wish was more abstract while Jafar’s was more concrete.

[@1D4ever]

Both should be concrete, Aladdin should have a full royal backstory.

[@ceelothatmane9421]

I believe one of the original themes were also “be careful what you wish for” so that’s why the wishes are never solid

[@ej3281]

I don't know if I agree with your jafar sultanate analysis. The genie doesn't change Jafar's heritage or rewrite decades of history, the genie doesn't kill the old sultan, he just gives jafar a stupid hat and everyone is like "oh shit he has a stupid hat he's sultan now". You know what I mean? Focusing on the royal guard, who up until that point had little agency and only exists to serve the sultan seems like a questionable decision. You've got a point regarding Aladdin's spontaneous loss of princeship, but I propose maybe since royalty is 100% social and performative, he loses it because it would be a social contradiction to support both jafar and Aladdin, who stand in opposition to one another. Also, I feel as though Jasmine's reaction to the cart owner reflects not just poor writing, but also the way in which power has changed in the united states. Most people don't know what their representative voted for, they only see their sound bites and follow their twitter. We have representatives that voted against covid relief then alluded to supporting the initiative when they told their constituents the good news, that it passed. As long as your public face isn't tarnished, right? Feeding orphans is the right thing to do, so Jasmine was justified. Nobody knows or cares about what she does with her power in the palace because we don't care about that in real life.

[@donqueshot2217]

The video came out a few minutes ago. How tf did you comment on it three hours ago?

[@JoseRS1186]

@@donqueshot2217 Please Support Big Joel on Patreon

[@BigJoel]

So two things. 1) I think just saying “why focus on hakim, who inexplicably decides to follows someone just because, idk, the genie said to, seems kinda odd. 2) I totally agree that jasmines choice is reflective of our political attitudes, that’s why I think it’s neat

[@devforfun5618]

jafar himself say earlier, if you steal enough power nobody questions it, he has a fucking genie they are happy he didnt became sultan by summoning an army and taking the kingdom by force, might as well be loyal to the powerfull wizard with a genie

[@ej3281]

@@donqueshot2217 i'm a patron! :)

[@FoxyBard]

"Being a prince is a social construct." Thanks, Big Joel.

[@kellahanna-wayne4191]

This is the first video of yours that I watched and for the first full minute, I was wracking my brain to figure out why I recognized your voice. It's because you played the voice of Hussy in Sarah Z's follow-up video about the legal threats from the Homestuck creators! Very glad I figured that out. That would've kept me up all night.

[@PittsburghSonido]

Will Smith should’ve played every role. Would’ve made the film less of a disaster.

[@importantstuf8870]

Ew

[@uberlephrad8218]

Will Smith stays as the genie, Aladdin is Samuel Jackson and Jasmine is Nic Cage.

[@chriss780]

@@uberlephrad8218 damn i would fund this if i was jeff bezos

[@temporalAcapella]

@@chriss780 How can you afford it with ball cleaning money?

[@chriss780]

@@temporalAcapella you can make alot with these vacuum- seal lips

[@theoverlord4863]

Cuts him some slack* Everyone else at the rock climbing gym: 😟

[@victoriapulcifer6218]

I love that you opened with comparing Jasmine's interactions with the vendor because that is THE SCENE I use to explain to other people why this movie did Jasmine so raw. Before, as you said, Jasmine's ignorance was the natural result of her being caged up in the palace all her life with 0 control over OR desire for political influences. She's essentially there for show, something to be pampered and led about in whatever way the Sultan sees fit- just like his pet birds. On the other hand, 2019 Jasmine has still been trapped in the palace all her life- *but she is striving for political power.* She reads tons of books and maps to learn about her kingdom and neighboring territories, has a policy of "putting the people first" (as she describes to Aladdin in one scene)-- So how the fuck does she not know how the economy works by taking that vendor's wares and assuming there'd be no consequences? How does she not know how poverty works by assuming that everyone who's hungry should get free food? How does she not know that she is currently under a fucking monarchy and not a socialist state where such a phenomenon is possible? And *SHE* thinks she has what it takes, to rule a kingdom that she doesn't even understand the bare basics of??? Aladdin 2019 turns Jasmine into a fucking Karen and NEVER addresses this character flaw, because she still becomes Sultan at the end of the movie with no real arc where she learns better present. She's... _SHE'S THE PRINCESS FROM STARKIDS TWISTED!_ *I--*

[@rainbowroadthekilljoy8]

Hell yes, another starkid fan in the comments!

[@victoriapulcifer6218]

@@rainbowroadthekilljoy8 IIIII WANT THE MOON. *I WANT TO LIVE ON THE MOON*

[@selahanany5645]

@@victoriapulcifer6218 And eat moonbeam pie!

[@Emma.Lou1]

I love how slowly this comment spiraled into a rant. Yeah though, I agree they did Jasmine dirty in this remake. The OG Jasmine is my favorite Disney princess. (Other than Ariel because of several reasons) but they stripped away her empathy, love, and bravery into the generic girl boss we see in 2019. It irks me to no end. And don't get me started on "speechless." That's a while other issue.

[@redtailarts101]

Do NOT insult the Princess like that. She's a much better character than this Jasmine is. At least she actually tries to do something, and does - she stopped a war with Pihkzaar by buying the kingdom and brought more equality with her making everyone a princess - we know this, Sharizaad tells Jafar such. Everyone was treated with respect and kindness. The Princess doesn't mature much during her stagetime in Twisted but I do believe she eventually does grow up after the events of the musical, with the help of Achmed to teach her how the world works and probably make some of the decisions for her while she's still young. Despite her absolute naivety, she has the seeds of idealism planted and a clear drive to do good. She's also in a comedy, which helps her in 2 major ways. For one, when she's obviously being silly and wrong, it's played for laughs. We're supposed to side with Jasmine when she scolds the shopkeeper for wanting to be paid. We're supposed to know she's ridiculous when the princess says poor people need slaves just as much as rich people do. The narrative, through it's jokes, holds her accountable and frames her as wrong. For two, she's meant to be ridiculous so we can have lower standards for her characterization. It's easier to suspend our disbelief and say The Princess making everyone a princess ensured better treatment for all because it's a funny callback to a joke and helps wrap up the story nicely. That's harder to do with this Jasmine because she's not making a joke, she's supposed to be exposing a corrupt system... By taking from one victim and giving to another.

[@mochure]

I would say the Genie did technically grant Aladdin's wish. The story's setting is in an Arabian land (Possibly Morocco but idk), so the cultural sense should be based on Arabic language. A Prince in Arabic is 'أمير' (Ameer), which is a derivative of 'أمر' (Amr) which means Command in English, so Ameer kind of means Commander. Thus not related to monarchy. There were, for example, uses for Ameer to refer to someone with slaves and stuff just as a description, not as a title (Of course that depends on region and culture but it did happen here and there), and seeing that Aladdin had a few people under his power, he did by definition become a prince. Genie no lie, Genie good.

[@Mistophant]

Interesting take, but I'm not sure that 90's disney was very interested in the arabic etymology of the word for prince.

[@orsonzedd]

He did Grant it because his father Aladdin's father is kasim the king of the Forty Thieves

[@coferre]

haven’t seen this movie so when the first clip immediately had the tired ‘main characters have american accent but side characters/villains have accent from place film is set’ trope, i just went 🙃

[@francoisleborgne6259]

Well, technically, Jafar didn't wish to become "a Sultan" but "the Sultan of Agrabah". His wish is way more specific (and less subject to missinterpretations) than Aladdin's "make me a prince".