MD6001 Week 6 - Aladdin in Campbell and Vogler's Hero's Journey and Propp's Morphology narrative sta

Aladdin DVD cover source: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aladdin-DVD-Robin-Williams/dp/B0019T7PC2

This week I was asked to break down the plot of Disney's Aladdin (1992) in at least 12 narrative stages as follows:

1. Ordinary world - Aladdin, the male protagonist, is a street rat who steals goods from the street market (see Fig. 1). Princess Jasmine, the female protagonist, is fed up with staying in the palace (see Fig. 2) all the time and her father, the Sultan, forcing her to marry (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 1: Aladdin steals some bread

Fig. 2: The palace - home of Princess Jasmine and her father the Sultan.

Fig. 3: Jasmine is fed up with her father forcing her to marry.

1. Call to adventure A - Aladdin and Abu, his monkey, are about to eat the stolen bread (see Fig. 4).

Fig. 4

1. Refusal of the call Part A - Aladdin and Abu refuse to eat the bread when they see two hungry children and they give it to them instead (see Fig. 5).

Fig. 5

1. Meeting with the Mentor - Princess Jasmine escapes from the palace, disguises herself as a street rat as she browses the market (see Fig. 6). A street merchant catching her feeding an apple to a hungry child (see Fig. 7). The merchant is about to cut Jasmine's hand off when Aladdin intervenes (see Fig. 8).

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

1. Crossing the threshold - Aladdin introduces Jasmine to his home that overlooks the palace (see Fig. 9).

Fig. 9: Aladdin leads Jasmine to his home.

1. Tests, enemies and allies - Jafar, the film’s antagonist, looks at the sands of time and sees that Aladdin is perfect for entering the Cave of Wonders to retrieve the magic lamp (see Fig. 10). Jasmine confronts Jafar at the palace after he has sent the head of the Royal Palace guards to imprison Aladdin (Fig. 11). Jafar tells Jasmine Aladdin had been beheded, causing Jasmine to run off in floods of tears.

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

1. Approach to the Inmost Cave - Abu releases Aladdin from the prison chains (see Fig. 12). and Jafar, disguised as a beggar and a prisoner (see Fig. 13), asks Aladdin to show him the way to the Cave of Wonders (see Fig. 14). When they arrive, Jafar, still in disguise, asks Aladdin to enter the cave and bring him the lamp. When Aladdin retrieves the lamp (see Fig 15), Abu takes a forbidden ruby (see Fig. 16), which causes the Cave of Wonders to collapse in on itself.

Fig. 12.

Fig. 13

Fig. 14: "Who disturbs my slumber?!"

Fig. 15

Fig. 16

1. The Ordeal part A - This is the first part of the narrative stage in this film. When Aladdin and Abu escape from the Cave of Wonders, Jafar asks for the lamp and Aladdin is about to hand it over when Jafar pulls out a dagger (see Fig. 17), intending to kill Aladdin.

Fig. 17

1. The reward - Aladdin and Abu fall back into the cave (see Fig. 18) before the tiger’s head disappears beneath the sand (see Fig. 19). Aladdin rubs the lamp (See Fig. 20) and the Genie emerges from it (see Fig. 21). The Genie grants Aladdin three wishes as a reward for rubbing the lamp.

Fig. 18

Fig. 19

Fig. 20

Fig. 21

1. Call to adventure part B - Jafar proclaims if Jasmine has not found a suitable person to marry, she will marry him (see Fig. 22).

Fig. 22

1. Refusal of the call part B - Jasmine is reluctant to marry Jafar (see Fig. 23).

Fig. 23

1. The road back - Aladdin returns Jasmine to the palace after their magic carpet ride and the procession where Aladdin disguised himself as a prince.

2. The Ordeal part B - In his final battle with Aladdin, Jafar turns into a cobra (see Fig. 24) and then a Genie (see Fig. 25). Aladdin defeats Jafar by sending him inside another lamp (see Fig. 26.)

Fig. 24

Fig. 25

Fig. 26

Fig. 27

1. Resurrection - Sultan, who knows Aladdin is not really a prince, decides to let Jasmine marry whoever she wants (see Fig. 28. Note: she and Aladdin do not marry until Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the third film in the Aladdin franchise).

Fig. 28. Sultan changes the law to allow Jasmine to marry whoever she wants.

1. Return to Elixr - Aladdin and Jasmine make one last flight on the magic carpet to celebrate their engagement (see Fig. 29).

Fig. 29

Although there are twelve narrative stages in Vogler’s Hero’s journey, I had to split three of them into two different parts. The first half of the ordeal stage is the first time Aladdin faces Jafar (disguised as a beggar) and the second half is when Aladdin faces Jafar in the climax. The first parts of the call to adventure and its refusal refer to Aladdin while the second halves of both stages refer to Jasmine. Ironically the first half of the Call to Adventure and Refusal to the call stages are not particularly adventurous because they refer to an immoral act turned kind deed; however the Approach to the Inmost Cave and Reward stages are the most literal because they refer to Aladdin entering the Cave of Wonders and retrieving the lamp.

There are also some archetypes present in Aladdin. An archytype is a type of character used to help explain the plot of a story. Archytypes I could easily identify in Aladdin are the hero (Aladdin), the false hero (also Aladdin when he disguises himself as Prince Ali), the princess (Jasmine), the villian (Jafar), the donor (the Genie when he grants Aladdin three wishes and Aladdin and Jasmine when they give food to poor, hungry children), the magical helper (also the Genie) and the dispatcher (Jafar disguised as a beggar when he sends Aladdin to retrieve the magic lamp). It was initially hard to determine if there were any leitmotifs associated with these archytypes since I could not find the film to watch in order to spot the leitmotifs but upon re-reading the synopsis I found on Aladdin's IMDb page I found that half a scarab is introduced at the beginning of the film and its leitmotif is eternity.

Although there are twelve narrative stages in Cambell and Volger’s Hero’s journey, I had to split three of them into two different parts. The first half of the ordeal stage is the first time Aladdin faces Jafar (disguised as a beggar) and the second half is when Aladdin faces Jafar in the climax. The first parts of the call to adventure and its refusal refer to Aladdin while the second halves of both stages refer to Jasmine.

Prop’s Morphology narrative stages in Aladdin

Initial situation - similar to the Ordinary World stage in Campbell and Vogler’s analysis.

Absentation - similar to the Meeting with the Mentor Stage in Campbell and Vogler’s analysis.

Reconnaissance - Jafar looks at the sands of time and sees Aladdin as the perfect person to retrieve the magic lamp.

Departure - Aladdin escapes from prison to retrieve the lamp.

Trickery - Jafar disguises himself as a beggar and asks Aladdin to fetch the lamp. When Aladdin finds it, he hands it to the ‘beggar,’ who attempts to kill him.

Acquisition - When the Cave of Wonders collapses in on itself when Abu touches a forbidden ruby, he and Aladdin fall back into the cave when the tiger’s head disappears. Aladdin rubs the lamp and the Genie emerges. He gives Aladdin three wishes.

Guidance and transfiguration - Although Aladdin cannot make Jasmine fall in love with him, he makes his first wish as turning into a prince and the Genie grants the wish (see Fig. 30).

Fig. 30

Claim - Aladdin convinces Jasmine he is Prince Ali (Fig. 31) but Jasmine is unconvinced when ‘Ali' removes his turban briefly and his hair reminds Jasmine of the street rat she met (see Figs 32 and 33). Eventually Aladdin decides to leave Jasmine on the magic carpet but Jasmine wishes to join him. They set off on a worldwide flight on the magic carpet (see Fig. 34).

Fig. 31

Fig. 32

Fig. 33

Fig. 34: A Whole New World

Return - When Aladdin and Jasmine return to the palace (see Fig. 35), the palace guards tie up Aladdin and drop him in a nearby lake (see Fig. 36). Aladdin uses his second wish to be freed from the lake (see Fig. 37).

Fig. 35

Fig. 36

Fig. 37: The Genie saves Aladdin from drowning.

Exposure - Jafar reveals to Jasmine that Prince Ali is really Aladdin (see Fig. 36).

Fig. 38

Struggle Part A: Jafar traps Jasmine in a giant hourglass (see Fig. 39) and transforms into a cobra to defeat Aladdin.

Fig. 39

Victory Part A: Aladdin defeats Jafar in cobra form.

Struggle Part B - Jafar turns into a genie and continues his attempt to defeat Aladdin.

Victory Part B - Aladdin finally defeats Jafar by sending him in his own lamp.

The wedding - Although Aladdin and Jasmine do not marry until Aladdin and the King of Theives, they make one last magic carpet flight to celebrate their engagement since Sultan changed the law saying Jasmine could marry whoever she wanted.

Like the synopsis of Frozen using Propp’s morphology, the stages appear throughout Aladdin in a non-linear fashion, which means they do not appear in the same order as they do in the original structures.

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