Jasmine (Aladdin)

Fictional character from the 1992 Disney film Aladdin

Jasmine is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' animated film Aladdin (1992). Voiced by Linda Larkin with a singing voice provided by Lea Salonga Jasmine is the spirited daughter of the Sultan, who has grown weary of her life of palace confinement. Despite an age old law stipulating that the princess must marry a prince in time for her upcoming birthday, Jasmine is instead determined to marry someone she loves for who he is as opposed to what he owns. Created by screenwriters and directors Ron Clements and John Musker with co screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, Jasmine is based on Badroulbadour, a princess who appears in the One Thousand and One Nights folktale "Aladdin and the Magical Lamp." Originally conceived as a spoiled and materialistic princess, the writers eventually rewrote Jasmine into a stronger and more prominent heroine following the elimination of Aladdin's mother from the script, while borrowing story elements from the romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953). Several months after securing the role, Larkin was nearly fired from the project because Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg felt that her voice was not suitable for a princess, but Clements and Musker managed to convince him otherwise. Discovered by casting director Albert Tavares, Lea Salonga was cast as Jasmine's singing voice based on her performance in the musical Miss Saigon; this unprecedented casting decision made Jasmine the first Disney Princess to have her speaking and singing voices provided by two different actresses. Animated by Mark Henn, Jasmine's design is an eclectic combination of unique sources, including an anonymous theme park guest, Henn's own sister, and actress Jennifer Connelly. The character has garnered mixed to positive reviews, with much of her character arc compared unfavorably to her predecessors Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1989) and Belle from Beauty and the Beast (1991), but has been praised for her personality and her chemistry with Aladdin. She is the sixth Disney Princess and the franchise's first non European member, as well as its first West Asian princess. Due to this, the character is credited with introducing racial diversity to Disney's princess genre. Unlike most of Disney's princesses, Jasmine is a supporting character in her own film, taking the secondary role of the love interest. Jasmine has made subsequent appearances in Aladdin's sequels The Return of Jafar (1994) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), as well as its television series and a Broadway musical adaption of the film. Both Larkin and Salonga have been awarded Disney Legends for their contributions to the role. Naomi Scott played the character in the 2019 live action adaptation of the original 1992 film.

Jasmine is based on the princess who appears in the Middle Eastern folk tale collection One Thousand and One Nights, specifically the story "Aladdin and the Magical Lamp." Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken had first begun to develop Aladdin while they were still writing songs for The Little Mermaid (1989), but further development was abandoned in favor of working on Beauty and the Beast (1991) instead. However, Aladdin was finally resurrected as Beauty and the Beast neared completion. Additionally, the name was also among the decade's most popular at the time. Screenwriter Linda Woolverton eventually drafted a screenplay based on the film The Thief of Baghdad (1940), a revision that included a handmaiden for Jasmine (an idea resurfaced in the 2019 live action film), who was ultimately replaced by a pet tiger. Thus, Jasmine was developed into a more prominent character. The decision to make Aladdin a high comedy ultimately eliminated the need to explore some of Jasmine's deeper storylines. Although several details of the original folk tale were altered for the film adaptation, Jasmine's main storyline being pressured into marriage remained mostly untouched. According to Dave Smith of the Disney Archives, the "liberated" Jasmine primarily "seeks to escape her present lifestyle." The idea of a disguised Jasmine stowing away from her palace in the middle of the night was inspired by the romantic comedy film Roman Holiday (1953), in which Princess Ann, portrayed by actress Audrey Hepburn, similarly escapes the royal embassy in disguise in order to spend one day exploring Rome on her own. The role was only one of several auditions Larkin had scheduled during the same week in which she auditioned for Aladdin, and she originally underestimated the scope of the project, joking, "I thought it was going to be something like DuckTales (sic)." Initially presented with only a few pages of the screenplay, Princesses Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora had been childhood favorites of the actress. Larkin's first audition was held in a Burbank, California recording studio, in which she performed solely for the film's casting director. Jasmine's line 'It's all so magical' helped convince Larkin that she was "meant" to voice the character. Larkin was forced to re audition for the role by Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, who felt that the actress' voice lacked the authority required to voice a princess. Apart from some rough, unfinished storyboards and drawings, Larkin did not see much of her character until the film was finally screened at the Museum of Modern Art. Thus, Disney decided to recruit a singer who could mimic Larkin's speaking voice instead, Salonga's Tony Award winning performance in the musical Miss Saigon helped her garner the interest of casting director Albert Tavares, who proceeded to leave a note for the singer on the stage door before leaving a show he had attended. Salonga's agent then scheduled her audition, at which she performed "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. The writers had originally conceived Jasmine as a spoiled and materialistic princess whose interests were limited to clothing and jewelry, but eventually developed her into a stronger, more mature character. Larkin described Jasmine as "a very strong, well defined character from the very beginning." Out of his desire to introduce Indian architecture into the film, art director Bill Perkins based Jasmine's design on the famous mausoleum, the Taj Mahal, which itself incorporates and expands on Indian design, particularly the curves demonstrated in the character's hair, clothes and jewelry. Henn initially suffered from a severe case of "artist's block" while attempting to design his third heroine, Jasmine. Earliest sketches of Jasmine were based on various exotic looking supermodels in addition to her namesake Jasmine Guy, but the actress' facial features were ultimately considered to be too "severe" for an animated character. who wore her hair in a style similar to what would ultimately become Jasmine's. and the directors ultimately approved of Henn's concept design. Additionally, some of Larkin's own mannerisms and physical traits were incorporated into the character. Thus, they ultimately decided to base Aladdin on actor Tom Cruise instead.

As a character, Jasmine is both similar to and different from Disney heroines who preceded her. grace and beauty among them. Meanwhile, The Hollywood News' Rob Burch observed that the princess is very similar to Ariel, being "independent, beautiful, and desperate for the chance to live her own life," while at the same time concealing kindness beneath "a shield of anger." Belonging to "a series of spunky heroines" inspired by both contemporary feminism and the girl power movement, Jasmine was recognized by Hearing a Film, Seeing a Sermon: Preaching and Popular Movies author Timothy B. Cargal as a member of Disney's "continued efforts to reshape their heroines for a more feminist age," in addition to providing young girls with strong female role models with whom they can identify. Jasmine is already more resourceful than her two immediate predecessors, while sharing their same preference for assertiveness and empowerment over passiveness, traits echoed by several other Disney Princesses introduced throughout the decade. Distinctively, Jasmine is not Aladdin's protagonist, a role held instead by title character Aladdin, while Jasmine herself occupies a secondary role as the film's love interest, However, sometimes both characters are collectively referred to as protagonists, while Jasmine is sometimes identified as the film's "female protagonist." The First Novels Club observed that Jasmine essentially "ends up the same person as when she started." Little is known about Jasmine's interests, hobbies, and goals. Samantha Rullo of Bustle agreed that, despite her secondary role, Jasmine remains "determined to live her life the way she wants to, rather than letting others make her decisions for her," and thus ranks among Disney's most rebellious princesses. Alongside Aladdin's other main characters, Jasmine embodies the film's central theme of longing for freedom from some form of confinement or oppression. Steve Daly of Entertainment Weekly identified Jasmine as "a sexually aware, proto feminist princess." "New" Exoticisms: Changing Patterns in the Construction of Otherness author Isabel Santaolalla wrote that Jasmine appears to have inherited "the legacy bequeathed by the 1960s Women's Movement." Having "stepped out of the 1990s" according to The Washington Post's Desson Howe, Jasmine is appropriately opposed to the glass ceiling." According to singer Brad Kane, who provides Aladdin's singing voice, "Aladdin is a stealth feminist movie" because Jasmine is "willing to give up being a princess to not get stuck marrying someone." The only named, speaking (the male characters account for 90% of the film's dialogue). The character has come to resent the patriarchal society in which she lives. Movies and the Mind: Theories of the Great Psychoanalysts Applied to Film author William Indick observed that Jasmine represents "the rejection of the father king's domination and control over his daughter's life," resembling "a strong and assertive heroine who rebels against her father's tyranny rather than passively accepting his will." Jasmine's life is almost entirely determined by men, by whom she refuses to be ordered, Jasmine's father, the Sultan, responds to his daughter's constant rejection of potential suitors with "I don't know where she gets it from. Her mother wasn't nearly so picky," indicating that Jasmine's mother "belonged to a generation of docile pre feminist  women." In Ulrich Marzolph's book The Arabian Nights Reader, the author described the character as "the mouthpiece of opposition to a vaguely defined Middle Eastern backwardness and authoritarianism." Naomi Scott portrays Jasmine in a live action adaptation of the 1992 film. The film's storyline depicts her mother to originate from Agrabah's neighboring kingdom of Sherebad, desiring to improve her people's lives as sultana despite traditions and Jafar manipulating the Sultan for his own ends. At the end of the film, Jasmine becomes Agrabah's first sultana with the power to legally marry whomever she chooses.

Jasmine appears in the Broadway musical adaptation of Aladdin, which premiered at the New Amsterdam Theatre in March 2014. The role was originated by actress Courtney Reed, becoming her first time originating a Broadway character after appearing in minor roles in Broadway productions such as In the Heights and Mamma Mia! cites Jasmine as her favorite princess because "she was my first experience seeing a Disney princess who looked like me So I thought, 'Wow, I can be like her'," while the others tend to have blond hair and blue eyes. As a member of the Disney Princess franchise, Jasmine's likeness is used in a wide variety of merchandise, including magazines, books, toys, video games, clothes, stationery and school supplies. In 2013, Jasmine's design within Disney Princess marketing was updated, garnering mild controversy because some critics accused the character's skin color of being lightened. The character appears in the film Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, starring in the segment "More Than a Peacock Princess." Having grown weary of her usual princess duties, Jasmine demands more responsibility from the Sultan, who assigns her the position of Royal Assistant Educator at the Royal Academy, a job she actually finds quite difficult due to its rowdy pupils, until she learns to exercise patience and perseverance. The character is also challenged with retrieving the Sultan's horse Sahara, after he goes missing from the stables in order to save the stable boy's job. In print, Jasmine appears in the manga Kilala Princess among several other Disney Princesses, although they never interact with each other. In addition to starring in her own television series based on Aladdin, Jasmine has made cameo appearances in the Disney Channel animated series Hercules: The Animated Series and House of Mouse. with both Larkin and Salonga reprising the respective roles. This occasion marked the character's first television appearance since House of Mouse more than 10 years prior. specifically Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge (2001), Jasmine becomes a playable character at certain points throughout the game, navigating levels stealthily by hiding in a large vase. The princess also appears as a non playable character in the Kingdom Hearts video game series as one of the seven Princesses of Heart captured by Maleficent, each of whom is essential to fulfilling the villain's evil plan. Jasmine's kingdom is one of four featured in Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey (2007), which players taking on the role of their own customizable princess can explore via portals to solve various minigames and puzzles, equipped with a magic wand. Common Sense Media identified Jasmine's kingdom as among the game's more challenging environments. Jasmine appears in Kinect: Disneyland Adventures (2011), In 2015, Disney Interactive released figurines of both Jasmine and Aladdin for Disney Infinity 2.0 (2014). Jasmine became the fifth Disney Princess to be officially added to the game, as well as the first to be made available as a figurine. In Disney Infinity 2.0, Jasmine is equipped with a magic carpet in addition to the ability to summon wind and cyclones, inflicting various consequences upon enemies and targets. In print, an illustrated version of Jasmine appears in the book Tales from Agrabah: Seven Original Stories of Aladdin and Jasmine (1995), a collection of stories written by author Katherine Applegate that details the lives of the two main characters prior to the events of the film, including how Jasmine came to meet her pet tiger Rajah. In September 2016, a live action version of Jasmine debuted as a recurring character in the sixth season of the fantasy television series Once Upon a Time, in which she is portrayed by actress Karen David. The character makes a brief first appearance in the season's fourth episode, "Strange Case," before finally starring in the fifth, "Street Rats," in which Jasmine enlists the help of Aladdin to locate a powerful item capable of interrupting Jafar's control over the Sultan. As has become custom with Once Upon a Time's plots, creative liberties were taken with the original film, including Jasmine taking Aladdin to the Cave of Wonders instead of Jafar and the absence of the pair developing romantic feelings for each other, although the iconic scene in which Jasmine is imprisoned in an hourglass is retained. David had previously expressed interest in playing an ethnic Disney heroine such as Pocahontas, Esmeralda or Jasmine on Once Upon a Time, and was finally cast as the third in July 2016. The actress described preparing for the role as exciting yet "nerve wracking," because "she's such an iconic and beloved character and all the fans have their idealism of what she should and shouldn't be," longing to please fans of both the original film and character. In September 2016, Jasmine's outfit received a "modest" makeover; a redesigned, less revealing version of the character's blue outfit from the film debuted at both Disney World and Disneyland after 24 years. The costume consists of long sleeves, new shoes, full length top concealing her midriff, high neckline, Jasmine's redesign has inspired the most controversial response from the public. while Desson Howe of The Washington Post commended the character for providing the film with "feminist consciousness." The Christian Science Monitor's David Sterrit wrote that Jasmine "is less carefully worked out [than Aladdin] but equally likable as a personality type." Contactmusic. com agreed that the character exhibits "likeably cynical streaks," despite being an "essentially bland" character. Jasmine's strong willed personality has frequently been both positively and negatively compared those of her predecessors Ariel and Belle. Similarly, James Berardinelli of ReelViews commended Jasmine for "show[ing] the same streak of stubborn independence exhibited by Ariel and Belle," but ultimately criticized the fact that "she doesn't fill a more pressing role than that of Aladdin's 'love interest'." Agreeing that Jasmine appears "bland" in comparison to Aladdin's supporting characters, Mari Ness of Tor. com wrote, "Jasmine follows in the footsteps of Ariel and Belle as someone unhappy with the restrictions of her world and her lack of choices: like both of them, she takes active steps to change this, and it's not entirely her fault that she's a secondary character in a film not all that interested in her  She's perceptive, and fast thinking, but this isn't her movie, and in the end, although she does get to choose her own husband, she doesn't really get a chance, like Ariel and Belle, to move out of her world. She can be shown the world, but she stays in her palace." Other critics have been much less forgiving; common critiques have derided the princess as a spoiled, shallow, bland, and overly sexualized character. Common Sense Media criticized Jasmine for lacking an original predicament and premise, while Creative Loafing's Matt Brunson described the character as a "liberated" but "stiff" heroine. Janet Maslin of The New York Times panned Jasmine: "the sloe eyed Princess Jasmine  a nymph in harem pants, use[s] words like 'fabulous' and 'amazing' to express unremarkable thoughts," concluding, "Luckily, [she is] surrounded by an overpowering array of secondary characters who make the film's sidelines much more interesting than its supposed center." Time Out called the character disappointing, and TV Guide described her as "bland." Film critic Roger Ebert cited Jasmine among the film's weaknesses, dismissing the relationship between her and Aladdin as "pale and routine" in comparison to Belle and the Beast's. Additionally, Ebert wrote that the characters "look unformed, as if even the filmmakers didn't see them as real individuals." Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine derided the character as "another 'free spirited' type in the Barbie doll tradition, a faux feminist who wants everyone to know that she can do everything the boys can." Orange Coast's film critic Henry A. Giroux dismissed Jasmine as little more than "an object of [Aladdin]'s immediate desire" and a "stepping stone to social mobility." Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post found Scott's version of Jasmine, "lovely" and also had "more agency and less passiveness" than in the original version. The San Francisco Chronicles critic Mick LaSalle found Scott to be the "real star" of the film and she "thrives and gives everything to her new power anthem" that was written for the film. The Washington Posts Michael O'Sullivan praised Scott's portrayal as someone, "who doesn't just dream of escaping from under her father's restrictive rules about whom she can marry" but also "super feminist." Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun Times described Scott's performance as "winning" and added, "she also gets the chance to shine and absolutely sparkles" in the new song, "Speechless." For her performance, Scott won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Sci Fi/Fantasy and also received a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.

The reverse cover of Aladdin's original home video release proudly touted Jasmine as "a heroine of the 1990s." However, It's Not the Media: The Truth about Pop Culture's Influence on Children author Karen Sternheimer strongly disagreed with this sentiment, writing that despite being "strong willed and almost given feminist qualities," Jasmine nonetheless "resembles heroines of old, waiting for her 'prince' to come and rescue her and using traditional feminine wiles to get her out of trouble." In a similar "Feminist Ranking Of All The Disney Princesses," Bustle's Chelsea Maze appreciated Jasmine for refusing "to let the men in her life boss her around," ultimately placing the character at number eight because she possesses "the agency to choose her own mate and follow her heart, all while financially supporting the guy she loves." Both feminist and Muslim critics have accused Jasmine of being "an offensive role model unworthy of showcasing to impressionable young girls." O'Keefe concluded, "Jasmine's complaints to Aladdin about palace life sound less like a budding feminist finding her voice, and more like the spoiled muse of Pulp's 'Common People'." Bust's Sholeh Hajmiragha began by praising Jasmine's progressiveness: "she challenges her ascribed life as a princess, is skeptical of marriage, and, by falling in love with poor Aladdin, upsets the class system." However, in the end the author criticized the character for being "very sexualized," explaining "while female sexuality is something to be proud and in control of, it maybe isn't the best message for young girls." Within the realm of the internet, the scene during which Jasmine kisses Jafar in order to distract him from Aladdin is oftentimes viewed as a point of contention among feminist writers and bloggers; Meredith Ancret of The Snark Who Hunts Back argued that both the Sultan and Genie are similarly enslaved by Jafar. The same website included Jasmine rejecting traditional standards of marriage second on its list of "27 Feminist Disney Moments That Unapologetically Smashed The Patriarchy." Ranking Jasmine second on a list analyzing "Which Disney Princess Most Embodies Feminist Principles," author Shannon Larson of The Huffington Post appreciated the character for rejecting the idea of marriage being necessary, asserting her right to marry whomever and owning her sexuality, but criticized the fact that she does not complete her attempt to escape royal oppression. Sonia Saraiya of Nerve ranked Jasmine fifth in her article "Ranked: Disney Princesses From Least To Most Feminist." Saraiya praised her personality, likening her boldness, curiosity, and skepticism of marriage to that of Belle while commending her for "falling for a completely inadequate 'street rat' and whisking him out of poverty, instead of the other way around." However, Saraiya labeled Jasmine's use of sexuality her "only power," criticizing her for sending a negative message to young girls. When questioned about whether or not Jasmine is a positive role model because "all she wants to do is get married," Larkin herself defended her character, explaining, "That's not true. Jasmine says to a generation of little kids about marriage that the law is wrong. She risks everything—her safety, her comfort, everything she knows—and goes out and finds a way to change the marriage law  Yeah, she's a good role model!' Really good! Whether it's connected or not, that person that the writers created that I got to portray, I'm so proud of her. And I feel like she was ahead of her time."

Famously, Jasmine was Disney's first princess of color; her unprecedented ethnicity is credited with ultimately inspiring the studio to become more ethnically diverse, as evidenced by the subsequent introduction of their non white princesses Pocahontas and Mulan. However, while the fact that the princess is Middle Eastern is considered to be "a breakthrough," at the same time the characteristics of both Jasmine and Aladdin have been met with controversy; observers widely criticized the characters for being Westernized and Anglicized. The Arabian Nights Reader author Ulrich Marzolph observed that the character speaks "perfect American English" despite her "ostensibly Middle Eastern features," In his book The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence, author Henry A. Giroux accused "the anglicized Jasmine and Aladdin" of communicating in American English, while the film's villains have strong foreign accents. Critics have also derided that the film's "bad" characters appear to be exaggerated in appearance, overweight, drawn with dark skin, large noses and damaged teeth, while Jasmine's skin tone remains lighter in comparison. Slim in stature, Jasmine also lacks obvious character flaws in both her personality and speech. a practice also believed to have been used to differentiate the good from bad characters in The Lion King (1994). According to Debating Disney: Pedagogical Perspectives on Commercial Cinema author Douglas Brode, Aladdin "perpetuates the same racial pyramid" present in most of Disney's films, observing that Jasmine, Aladdin and the Sultan characters at high up on the social hierarchy appear to be the film's "whitest" characters, while the villainous Jafar speaks with a thick accent and exhibits far more Arabian features. Despite Disney's attempt to accurately portray the culture of the time period during which the film is set such as a lack of women in powerful positions,

According to The Fiscal Times, Aladdin is Disney's fourth most profitable princess film in terms of box office returns. Having successfully established herself as a popular character, Jasmine ultimately became one of the original members of the Disney Princess franchise, and is considered to be one of the "classic" members of the lineup. Jasmine is credited with introducing both racial and ethnic diversity to Disney's animated fairy tale genre. Additionally, as one of only two Disney Princesses who wear pants (the other being Mulan), Jasmine remains Disney's only princess whose official costume is not a gown or dress. According to Vanity Fair, Jasmine was the first feminist Disney Princess, although author Alex Beggs admitted that this claim has been exaggerated to some degree. Six years after Aladdin, Lea Salonga would be cast as the singing voice of Mulan in 1998. Salonga joked about being required to audition for the role despite having already voiced a Disney Princess: "Why do I have to audition? I was already a princess before. Wasn't that enough?" In addition to songwriters Menken and Tim Rice, Salonga jokingly thanked Larkin in her acceptance speech for not being able to sing thus providing her with a job opportunity. Salonga became the Disney Legend Award's first Filipina recipient;

Jasmine is now revered as an iconic character and princess. BuzzFeed ranked Jasmine second on their "Definitive Ranking Of Disney Princesses" list, while E! placed character at number four. According to PureWow, Jasmine is the fifth best Disney Princess because she "was not OK with her family marrying her off to some random suitor." Seventeen placed the character at number nine on a similar countdown. Author Jelani Addams Rosa wrote, "Our favorite thing about Jasmine is that her and Aladdin take turns rescuing each other," but at the same criticized her for being too judgmental. Refinery29 readers voted Jasmine the eighth greatest Disney Princess, garnering 351 votes. Seventeen ranked Jasmine the hottest Disney Princess, crediting her with initiating several young boys' sexual awakenings during 1992. Complex placed Jasmine second in its article "The 25 Hottest Cartoon Women Of All Time," praising her hair and her eyes. Screen Rant ranked Jasmine the 14th best animated film character of all time, calling her "the cool idol that we aspired to be like" and concluding that "the movie would truly not be the same if it weren't for the Princess Jasmine." Cosmopolitan placed Jasmine's signature blue outfit at number eight on the magazine's ranking of "The 37 Best Disney Princess Outfits," praising her for pulling off "a wide, jeweled headband, statement earrings, and a heavy necklace all at once without becoming overwhelmed by them."