Things About Aladdin You Only Notice As An Adult
It's pretty apparent to most people past puberty that Disney movies are inherently very, very creepy. With many based on pretty grim fairytales, the movies contain a lot of messed up scenes that you just don't notice when you're watching as a kid.
One of the worst offenders is Aladdin, which acts like it's a cute story of a street savvy kid and a sarcastic princess who find love but that is actually, when you look deeper, a very weird and uncomfortable movie. Here are some of the things you only notice when watching Aladdin as an adult.
A lot of people die in pretty gruesome ways
This happens in a lot of Disney films, but watching as an adult, you start to realize just how brutal a lot of these movies are. For its part, Aladdin kills a lot of people in some pretty gruesome ways.
In the song "One Jump Ahead" alone, a man is impaled on spikes after being trampled, a guy putting a sword down his throat gets knocked by Abu and likely dies, and many, many police officers (and probably civilians) die after being stuffed, trampled, and more. Watching Aladdin as an adult pretty quickly makes you realize that this might not exactly be the children's movie it's advertised as.
The ladies of the brothel seem to be pretty familiar with Aladdin
Also in "One Jump Ahead," Aladdin winds up in a room with three well-dressed women, all of whom seem pretty familiar with him — as does the older woman who lives with them, who nods at Aladdin before kicking him out of the place. As an adult, it seems pretty clear that that's a brothel, and it's a little suspicious that the women seem to know Aladdin so well.
It gets even worse, though — when Aladdin has been prince-ified by the genie and is arriving at the palace in "Prince Ali," he waves to his old conquests as he travels to meet his new girl Jasmine. Kinda makes you see "A Whole New World" in a very different way.
The police are willing to devote a lot of resources to catching a street rat
In "One Jump Ahead," presumably before Jafar has decided that he's out to capture Aladdin as part of his ploy to take over the kingdom, the police are willing to set dozens, maybe hundreds, of men after one street rat accused of stealing a loaf of bread.
As a kid, this seems like a fun romp to start off the movie, but as an adult, this seems really suspicious. Don't they have better things to do? There's probably a lot worse crime going on in Agrabah that the police should definitely be spending their time on.
And not many resources to finding a princess
Like, for example, finding the missing princess. It can't have been too long before the people in the palace realized that Jasmine was missing, and yet there don't appear to be any police out looking for her.
In fact, when she finally is found, it's just because Jafar has sent the police out to find Aladdin. It seems like the police should be much more interested in finding the kingdom's missing princess than in catching a street rat but, in this movie, they just don't have their priorities in order.
Jasmine is awful at disguises
When Jasmine leaves the palace, she gets into disguise so that the townsfolk won't notice who she is — except she is really, really awful at it. Jasmine decides that her "disguise" is going to be pulling on a hooded robe, leaving on her regular outfit and her crown underneath.
Even though it may have been hard for her to find peasant clothes just lying around the palace, she could have at least taken off her crown so that she didn't risk exposing herself. Still, she had to set it up so she could make the big reveal later.
Aladdin and Jasmine are both really young
There's a lot of pressure on Jasmine to get married in this film, but, when you think about it, she's still pretty young. Jasmine is supposed to be 16 years old in the movie, while Aladdin is 18.
While this definitely isn't the youngest a Disney princess has ever been, it does make it a little stranger that there's so much pressure on her to get married so fast — and makes it harder to believe that she and Aladdin truly have a love that will last. Still, for the time, 16 was probably around the right marriage age.
Both Aladdin and Jasmine are really well-adjusted for the way they grew up
Aladdin and Jasmine both seem to be pretty social, normal people, but with the way they grew up, they should be much, much weirder. Aladdin grew up as an orphan, presumably raising himself for most of his life, which means that he would probably be a lot more disillusioned and have a much rougher personality. It also appears from the film that his only friend growing up was a monkey, which means that he probably shouldn't be able to actually speak to humans with any sort of eloquence. Still, he seems to know how to make small talk, how to make friends, and even how to flirt (although the brothel may explain that), even though there's no reason why.
Jasmine, though, would probably be even worse. She grew up locked away in a palace, where she probably didn't have interactions (or at least unsupervised/casual interactions) with any other children. Her only friend was also an animal, her tiger Raja, which means that she also likely wouldn't have any social skills, and especially not the sass and sarcasm that she seems to have developed in the film. Both she and Aladdin grew up in seclusion, and yet they seem perfectly adapted to the regular world.
Abu is kind of the worst
When you're a kid, Abu seems like a cute sidekick who provides some much needed humor in the film's darker moments. However, when you're an adult, you pretty quickly come to realize that Abu is actually the worst.
Abu is the one who is reluctant to give his bread to starving children, even though they're cute as all heck. He's the one who steals a bunch of apples and jewels even after Jasmine is already this close to getting her hand cut off. He's the one who touches the treasure and triggers the lava that forces Aladdin to flee for his life in the Cave of Wonders, and then, on top of all that, he decides to cover Aladdin's eyes as they try to fly away.
Abu is always acting like an immature petulant child, complaining when Aladdin doesn't constantly pay attention to him, and that quickly makes him lose his adorable appeal for any adult viewer.
The Magic Carpet must be able to travel at super speeds
The mystery of the Magic Carpet's powers will enchant any adult watching Aladdin. Regardless of how the carpet figured out how to fly, what's really curious is the speed at which it can fly.
In "A Whole New World," the magic carpet takes Aladdin and Jasmine everywhere from Greece to China, all in one night, traveling at a leisurely enough pace where they don't need to wear seatbelts and don't need to worry about their hair blowing more than just a little bit in the wind. Assuming Agrabah is somewhere in the area of Egypt, Greece might be doable, at just a two hour flight (assuming that the Magic Carpet is moving at plane speeds and ignoring the fact that this would be wildly uncomfortable for Aladdin and Jasmine), but China would be impossible, at a nearly ten hour flight time.
There's no way that Aladdin and Jasmine would be able to travel that far and get back before the sun rises — although considering no one in the palace seems to notice when Jasmine goes missing for long periods of time, it's totally possible that their worldwide trip could have been a few days long.
Everything the Genie does is way too modern
The Genie is hands down the best part of Aladdin, and that definitely still holds when you're an adult. However, as you get older and more discerning, it becomes clearer that a lot of the Genie's jokes make absolutely no sense for the movie.
Aladdin takes place hundreds if not thousands of years ago, and yet all of the Genie's references are to 20th century things, with the magician bringing up images of Disney Easter eggs referencing films like Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid, movie references to Rocky and Jack Nicholson, and references to modern day inventions like slot machines, game shows, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and even a car.
Even if you want to make the argument that the Genie can use his powers to travel to the future and learn about all these pop culture references, Aladdin seems to be at least a little in on the joke, even though he should be wildly confused by everything the Genie is throwing at him.
The Genie's powers are inconsistent
Speaking of the Genie, his powers are wildly inconsistent, especially when it comes to what he can and can't do when not granting a wish. Aladdin tricks the Genie into getting him out of the cave without making a wish, and the Genie is still able to make it happen. However, when Jafar's men throw Aladdin off the cliff and he's literally drowning to death, the Genie says there's absolutely no way he can get him out of it unless he says the words "I wish" — until he does, saving Aladdin and just automatically counting it as his second wish, even though Aladdin never said so.
Even more unclear is what his powers become once he is freed. Aladdin says he can't wish the Genie to free him because he might need his help later, but presumably, the two are good enough friends that the Genie could stay around and help him out even if he is freed.
Because he doesn't mention that he's able to do this, it seems like he'll lose most of his powers when he's freed, but this becomes pretty immediately debunked when he really is freed and is still able to do all of the tricks he had before. What exactly can the Genie do, and when? Aladdin clearly can't decide.
The Sultan is an awful ruler
The Sultan has been under Jafar's thumb for years, so he doesn't need to be the best leader, but he at least has to have some leadership qualities if he's kept this country going all these years. However, the film doesn't show the viewer any of these, as anything and everything about the Sultan shows that he does not have what it takes to stay in control of Agrabah.
He's indecisive, anxious, and fidgety, meaning that he wouldn't be able to inspire confidence in his people or in other rulers. While the Sultan seems like a really nice person and is definitely still a compelling character, it's hard to see why he hasn't been the victim of quite a few more coups during his tenure.
Jafar is a creep
Okay, so you probably noticed this as a kid, but it's even more apparent as an adult just how creepy Jafar is as the film's villain. He shows basically no interest in Jasmine throughout the film other than marrying her for the chance to take over the throne, but once he becomes the world's greatest sorcerer and takes over the kingdom, he decides to basically make Jasmine into his sex slave, all to embarrass her and her father.
He treats her like a literal object before quickly casting her aside as he moves on to trying to kill Aladdin, throwing her away like she's nothing. Jafar is awful, but watching it as an adult just makes you realize how bad a person he is.
The opening scene is basically an infomercial
When you're a kid, you don't think very much of Aladdin's opening scene—it's just a fun way to get you invested in the story and nothing more. But as an adult, you start to realize the sequence is clearly a parody of an infomercial, with the same speech and the same filming style that's popped up on late-night television for years. And on top of all that, if you listen carefully, the salesman is trying to get you to buy a hookah (or a combination hookah and coffeemaker that also makes fries). Not exactly kid-friendly.
Jafar is different colors
Okay, so obviously this isn't important to the movie's plot, but what in the world is up with Jafar's neck? His face is tan, but his neck is mustard yellow. Is it possible that his extremely long chin blocked his neck from the sun? The other potential explanation is that it could be a piece of clothing—a turtleneck-type undershirt—but the cut-off is too close to his chin, too perfectly aligned to his face; a real turtleneck would never be able to achieve that accurate a fit.
Either way, when watching Aladdin as an adult, it quickly becomes nearly impossible to ignore Jafar's different colored face and neck. Considering none of the possible explanations fit perfectly, it's probably best just to chalk this one up to a weird animation decision, but it's still a mystery that'll haunt anyone over the age of 13.