Aladdin

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This article is about the Disney fandom. For character, see Aladdin (character).
Fandom
Name: Aladdin
Abbreviation(s):
Creator: Disney
Date(s): 1992,
1994, 1996 (sequels)
1994 – 1995 (TV Series)
2019 (Musical Live Action)
Medium: animated films, animated series, musical live action
Country of Origin: United States
External Links: Wikipedia page
"illustration of the Genie's lamp with smoke coming out in the shape of the city of Agrabah"
Aladdin fan poster by Citron--Vert (2011)
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Aladdin is a Disney film series based on the Arab folktale of Aladdin and the magic lamp from One Thousand and One Nights.

Canon

Animated Films

The first film introduced Aladdin, a street rat living on the streets of Agrabah with his sidekick monkey Abu and Princess Jasmine of Agrabah who is frustrated with her life in the palace; this is mainly due to her having to find a husband. Jafar, the Sultan's advisor and a sorcerer, plans to take over Agrabah and marry Jasmine. To do this, he needs Aladdin's help in retrieving the "magic lamp" - which Aladdin does, but he gets trapped underground with Abu and a Magic Carpet and he accidentally releases a Genie. Having fallen for the princess before this event, Aladdin wishes to be a "Prince" to get approval from her father and hopefully Jasmine herself.

The second film, The Return of Jafar, is about just that - Jafar returning and taking revenge against Aladdin and the others, as well as to become the ruler of Agrabah.

The third film, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, is all about Aladdin's and Jasmine's wedding which keeps getting cancelled due to one reason or another. This time, it's because Aladdin's father returns, and Aladdin needs to go after him. It's revealed that Aladdin's father, Cassim, is the King of Thieves.

Animated Series

The animated series aired from 1994 - 1995, and is based off the first sequel to the 1992 film of Aladdin, Return of Jafar. Aladdin is still living on the streets of Agrabah but is now engaged to Princess Jasmine. Aladdin and Jasmine are joined by Abu, Magic Carpet, and Genie as well as the parrot Iago, who had previously worked for Jafar. They face off against other sorcerers, monsters, thieves, etc. and the series introduced a lot of new fan favorite villains such as Mozenrath and Saleen.

Once Upon a Time...

...in Wonderland

Characters of Aladdin appear in the ABC/Disney related show, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland - the spinoff of Once Upon a Time. Genie is known as Cyrus appears as a main character besides Alice from Alice in Wonderland and Will Scarlett aka Knave of Hearts, while the main villain of the series is Jafar, like the original Disney films. Jafar's staff makes an appearance as well, but it is later revealed to be an Sorceress, Amara, that Jafar had betrayed after she taught him how to do magic, and was also revealed to be the mother of the Cyrus and the other two genies that Jafar had managed to steal from Amara.

Original

Both Aladdin, Jasmine and Jafar (with a different actor from the spinoff) appear in the 6th Season of the original show.

Live Action

A live-action remake of the film was released in 2019. Will Smith played the Genie. Reaction to the film appears to have been mixed, though it seems to have garnered a more positive response than many of Disney's other live-action remakes.

Fandom

The fandom behind the Aladdin series is still quite small despite being over twenty years old, however compared to some of the other Disney classics from the same time period, Little Mermaid and Pocahontas,[1] it's more active although it has less fanworks produced for it than newer films such as Tangled and Frozen[2] and is still behind Beauty and the Beast and Lion King.[3] The fandom is mainly focused at FanFiction.net, DeviantArt, YouTube and The Library of Agrabah, with Archive of Our Own slowly catching up.[4] The Tumblr part of the fandom mainly reposts picspams and gifs, sometimes fanart. Due to Robin Williams death in August 2014, Genie and Robin Williams tributes and fanworks were posted and reblogged.

All the main characters seem to be fans favorite characters, but namely Jasmine, Aladdin, Jafar, Genie, and the character from the animated series Mozenrath seem to be more talked about and used in graphics such as fanart, layouts, wallpaper, icons, picspams and gifs.

A popular pairing for the fandom is the canon ship Aladdin/Jasmine. Rarer pairings include: Aladdin/Jafar, Jasmine/Jafar, Aladdin/Mozenrath, Jasmine/Mozenrath, Aladdin/Saleen and Jasmine/Saleen.

Crossovers are fairly popular in this fandom. Most crossovers are with other Disney Fandoms but some are Non/Disney, where Aladdin and Jasmine are paired up with other characters. Mozenrath and Jafar are two of the other characters that are often crossed over in fanvids and fanart.

In the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland fandom, Jafar is often paired up with the Red Queen, rarely with any other characters such as Alice or the Evil Queen. The Genie of the series is mainly shipped with Alice, his canon pairing.

Common Tropes & Themes

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

  • Make Way (it's a bright new star) by Lalaith_Yamainu, Jasmine is the Princess Royal of Agribah, raised to politics. Aladdin was not. This is a problem. (Gen, Jasmine, Aladdin) (AO3, 2015)
  • Whole New World by Roga, Genie always returns to Al (Gen, Genie & Aladdin), made for Yuletide 2008 (AO3, 2008)
  • In Bloom by Anonymous. The next time Jasmine sneaks out of the palace, she leaves her tiara. (Or: Jafar never existed and Jasmine never gets caught by the guard on her first meeting with Aladdin. Instead she keeps meeting up with him without telling him she's the princess. Along the way she learns more about what goes on in Agrabah and the laws that are set against so many people in the city, as well as how she could change them.) (Aladdin/Jasmine, AO3, 2018)
  • Princess is shocked but willing., Archived version (Jasmine/Rajah) by cicada_nymph

Fanart

Vids

  • be here with me by ForsakenWitchery, live action remake 2019 Aladdin/Jasmine, Music Elina - Here With Me

Fangame

Archives and Fannish Links

Mailing Lists

LiveJournal

Fansites

Deviantart

Resources

References

  1. ^ As of 8 September 2014: FFN - Little Mermaid lists 742 works while Pocahontas lists 343 while Aladdin is at 1.1K
  2. ^ As of 8 September 2014: FFN - Tangled lists 2.9K and Frozen at 7K.
  3. ^ As of 8 September 2014: FFN - B&TB lists 1.2K while Lion King lists 3.4K
  4. ^ As of 8 September 2014: AO3 lists 176 works.
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