Aladdin (Film)

***Aladdin*** is an upcoming animated musical comedy fantasy live action adventure film producing at Disney Studios. It is the reboot film of 2019 Guy Ritchie's Aladdin. Inspired by the story of *Aladdin and the Magic Lamp* from *The Book of One Thousand and One Nights*, the film is centered on a young "street rat" in the kingdom of Agrabah who uses the power of a shape-shifting genie to win the heart of Princess Jasmine. Unbeknownst to them, Jafar, adviser to the Sultan, plots to use the genie to take over the kingdom.

## Plot

The film starts with a street peddler, guiding through the streets of the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah, which is based mainly on a medieval city in the Middle East, the home of the *1001 Arabian Nights*, and there are some inconsistencies in the time period. After trying to sell the viewers on his wares, he pulls out an old oil lamp, claiming it "once changed the course of a young man's life. A young man who like this lamp was more than what he seemed: A diamond in the rough."

The peddler then begins to tell the viewers a tale, beginning on a dark night, where the Sultan's vizier, Jafar, meets with a thief named Gazeem, who hands over half of a gold scarab beetle, of which Jafar has the second half. Putting them together, the beetle flies off, before causing a giant tiger's head to rise from the sand - the Cave of Wonders.

Jafar summons Gazeem to enter, instructing him to retrieve a lamp inside. However, upon approaching the Tiger's Head, it speaks that only one may enter: "*One whose worth lies far within: the Diamond in the Rough!*" Gazeem still attempts to enter upon Jafar's orders, but upon entering the tiger's mouth, it bites down on the thief, closing off the entryway before instructing Jafar again to seek out the Diamond in the Rough it was referring to. It is then that Jafar realizes he needs to find the Diamond in the Rough in order to enter. Jafar seeks to become sultan himself and become the new ruler of Agrabah.

The next day, on the streets of Agrabah, a street urchin named Aladdin is struggling to steal a loaf of bread, along with his pet monkey, Abu. After outwitting the palace guards led by their captain, Razoul, the two settle down to eat their spoils, but are put off from satisfying their stomachs by a couple of hungry children. Aladdin and Abu give the two their bread, but are then sidetracked when a royal prince marches through the streets, and claims Aladdin to be nothing but "a worthless street rat." Aladdin and Abu then retire to their abode, with Aladdin promising his friend that someday, things will be better and people will see him for what he really is instead of as a public menace.

The Sultan, meanwhile, is having problems with finding a prince for his daughter, Princess Jasmine, to marry, especially when the last suitor, whom is the same one who insulted Aladdin earlier, leaves after Jasmine's pet tiger Rajah bites into his pants. The Sultan talks to Jasmine, who claims she is tired of living her life being cooped up behind walls. The Sultan goes to consult with his adviser, Jafar. By mesmerizing him with his magical snake staff, Jafar convinces the Sultan that Jafar needs the Sultan's blue diamond ring to find Jasmine a husband. Jafar actually needs the ring to discover the identity of the "Diamond in the Rough."

Jasmine, who does not want to be married off, decides to run away disguised as a peasant girl. However, her act of giving an apple to a hungry little boy lands her in trouble with the street merchant until Aladdin intervenes and leads Jasmine away just in time before she can lose a hand as payment for the fruit.

Meanwhile, Jafar uses the blue diamond ring of the Sultan's and consults The Sands of Time, and discovers the identity of the "Diamond in the Rough": Aladdin.

Aladdin has retreated with Jasmine to his and Abu's place, and she is rather taken by his kindness. However, Aladdin is suddenly set upon by the Royal Guards. It is then that Jasmine reveals herself to them, demanding Aladdin be released. However, Razoul claims he is acting under orders from Jafar, so Jasmine will need to speak with him to get Razoul to release Aladdin. When Jasmine confronts Jafar, he lies to her by saying he had already been executed for "kidnapping the princess." As Jasmine runs to the water fountain after confronting Jafar, she begins weeping over Aladdin's "loss", and Rajah comforts her.

In actuality, Aladdin has been imprisoned in the Royal Dungeon. Abu manages to free Aladdin, but are then met within the dungeon by an older prisoner, in reality a disguised Jafar, who shows Aladdin a hidden passageway out of the dungeon to free and take him to the Cave of Wonders. At the entrance, Jafar informs Aladdin that if he brings back the lamp, he will be rewarded. The Cave's tiger-shaped head allows Aladdin to enter, but he is instructed to touch only the lamp and nothing else. Aladdin and Abu venture deep into the cavern, where they first encounter a magic carpet, that then leads them to the lamp's location. Aladdin successfully retrieves the lamp, but Abu violates the rule the Cave's guardian imposed, and seizes a large ruby, enraging the tiger guardian, causing the cave to begin to collapse on them. Using the magic carpet, Aladdin and Abu manage to get to the entrance to the cave, where the disguised Jafar pleads for Aladdin to give him the lamp. Aladdin does so, and Jafar then reveals a dagger, intending to kill him. Luckily, Abu bites Jafar's arm, and Aladdin and Abu fall both back into the cavern, as the giant Tiger's Head disappears under the sand. Aladdin, Abu, and Carpet are trapped in the Cave of Wonders. Jafar then laughingly reaches for the lamp only to find it is gone because Abu stole it back.

In the palace, a weeping Jasmine is comforted by the Sultan and informs him that Jafar has done something terrible. The Sultan comforts Jasmine and gets her to tell him what happened. When Jafar comes back, the Sultan confronts him for having an innocent person beheaded and informs him that he must discuss sentencing prisoners with him from now on.

Deep within the cave, Aladdin begins to examine the lamp, finding a worn inscription on the side of it. Aladdin discovers that the lamp is home to a wisecracking blue genie simply named "Genie", who will grant him any three wishes, excluding wishes to force a person to fall in love, kill someone, bring someone back from the dead, or give his master extra wishes.

Aladdin tricks Genie into getting them out of the cave without technically wishing for him to do so. Once out of the cave, and in a small oasis, Aladdin gets to know Genie and asks him what he would wish for if he had the chance; Genie says he would wish for freedom (as he is a prisoner of the lamp), but that can only be granted if his master is benevolent enough to free him with a wish. Aladdin promises to set Genie free with his last wish.

Aladdin, who has fallen in love with Jasmine, is disappointed that he could not wish to make her fall in love with him. However, the law states that only a prince can marry a princess, so he wishes to become a prince. Therefore, as his first wish, Genie turns Aladdin into a fabulously rich prince, and Abu is transformed into a large purple elephant to become Aladdin's mount, while Genie then goes further to make Aladdin's entrance into the palace one that will impress all of Agrabah.

Meanwhile, Jafar, who is worried that Jasmine might have him beheaded as punishment for supposedly having Aladdin executed, comes up with the idea to convince the Sultan to let him become her husband with the help of his talking parrot and main assistant, Iago. He later tries to mesmerize the Sultan into granting this request with his staff. However, his plans are interrupted when a large and noisy royal procession enters the kingdom, proclaiming the arrival of "Prince Ali Ababwa" (aka Aladdin in his new persona). The procession is huge, with riches, exotic animals, hundreds of servants, and Aladdin himself. Aladdin's entourage bounds into the palace, impressing the Sultan. Jafar appears suspicious and cold toward the new suitor. Aladdin is taken to Jasmine, who is unimpressed and rebuffs Aladdin's charms, thinking him to be another arrogant prince like the previous ones. However, when Aladdin removes his turban to shoo away Rajah, Jasmine is reminded of the street rat she met in the marketplace.

Aladdin tries to gain Jasmine's interest again by telling her how rich and powerful he is, but she remains steadfastly ambivalent. Aladdin decides to leave Jasmine and steps off on his magic carpet. Jasmine chooses instead to ride with him. Afterwards, the carpet takes them to China, and Jasmine tricks Aladdin into admitting he's the street rat she met. Naturally wishing to impress her, Aladdin instead lies to her by convincing her that he really is a prince and had often pretended to be a commoner to escape the restrictions of palace life, much like what Jasmine did she relates to. Aladdin brings Jasmine back to the palace, and the two of them share their first kiss together.

Jafar is afraid that "Prince Abooboo", as he incorrectly calls him, may win Jasmine over, ruining his own scheme to marry her, but orders Aladdin out of the way. He orders Razoul and the guards to capture and kidnap Aladdin. The guards end up having Aladdin gagged with a white handkerchief and tied up in metal manacles (which is not a problem, as Razoul, the chief guard, is plagued with a lust for killing). He informs him that he has "worn out his welcome," and a guard clubs Aladdin unconscious, then drops Aladdin over a cliff into the sea. They have attached to his ankles a large metal ball-and-chain, so that he sinks faster. He hits the bottom, and his turban floats down. The lamp tumbles out, and he begins to struggle towards it (which is difficult as the ball-and-chain attached to his ankles pulls him back), but passes out from the lack of oxygen before he can reach it. Aladdin, bound and gagged, slides down towards the lamp, and rolls over, causing it to rub against his fingers. Genie appears (though apparently interrupted in the midst of taking a bath), and rescues Aladdin, using up his second wish.

Aladdin and Genie return to the palace, and Aladdin confronts Jafar over having him almost killed. Jafar uses his cobra staff to try and brainwash the Sultan into believing Aladdin is lying, but Aladdin, seeing what he is doing, grabs the staff and shatters it. He then shows the Sultan that Jafar has been controlling him and plotting against him. The Sultan calls for the guards to arrest Jafar, but Jafar manages to escape and, before doing so, sees the lamp in Aladdin's possession. The Sultan is convinced that his troubles are over as his daughter has finally chosen a suitor and dubs Aladdin as the heir to his throne. However, unbeknownst to the both, Aladdin, though casually happy, is suddenly struck with guilt, feeling unworthy of such a honor, as well as a future with Jasmine, because of the fact that he lied to her.

The next day, Aladdin expresses his frustration to the Genie and considers going back on his promise to free the latter out of fear of losing Jasmine if the truth is revealed and uncertainty of keeping up the facade on without Genie's help. Feeling betrayed, a heartbroken Genie goes back inside the lamp, but not before pointing out how much Aladdin has lied to get where he is. Chastened, especially after taking his anger at Genie out on Abu and Carpet, Aladdin decides to tell Jasmine the whole truth of the matter. Unfortunately, Aladdin leaves the lamp in his chamber, and Jafar summons Iago to steal it. With the lamp in hand, Jafar becomes Genie's next master, giving him three wishes. His first wish is to become sultan. When the former Sultan and Jasmine refuse to bow to him, he wishes to be the world's most powerful sorcerer. Now Jafar forces them to bow to him.

Jafar then uses his magic to expose Aladdin and then banish him with a makeshift rocket to "the ends of the earth", in one of the palace towers. "The ends of the earth" appear to be Antarctica, the mountains of Austria, the Arctic or possibly the Himalayas. Luckily, Abu and Carpet are banished with him, and Aladdin is able to fly back to Agrabah, intent on reclaiming the lamp, stopping Jafar and fixing the mistakes he'd made.

Meanwhile, Jafar, who is angry that Jasmine does not wish to become his queen, makes a wish for Genie to cause her to fall in love with him, so he *can* make her his queen. Genie tries to inform him that he could not grant that wish, but this only frustrates Jafar. Jasmine, who sees Aladdin sneaking into the palace, pretends that the wish has been granted, much to Genie's surprise, in order to distract Jafar. She even goes so far as to kiss him, causing Aladdin, Abu, the Genie, and even Iago to nearly vomit in disgust. At first, it seems to be working; Jafar, however, sees Aladdin's reflection in Jasmine's crown (made from her shackles via a performance of sorcery) and, realizing he'd been tricked, confronts him before he can reach the lamp.

After trapping Jasmine in an hourglass, turning Abu into a wind-up monkey toy, and unraveling the carpet, all of whom had attempted to retrieve the lamp, Jafar eventually turns himself into a giant cobra and fights Aladdin. When Aladdin appears to be defeated, Jafar informs Aladdin he was a fool for thinking he could defeat "the most powerful being on earth." Aladdin informs Jafar he is not the most powerful being on earth and that honor belongs to Genie since he gave Jafar his power in the first place and can therefore take Jafar's power away.

Realizing what Aladdin is saying, Jafar decides to use his final wish to become the most powerful genie in the world. He is at first convinced that his new powers will allow him to rule the universe, but he realizes too late that Aladdin tricked him since being a genie comes with a price. Jafar is suddenly shackled and is sucked into the new lamp created by his wish and is trapped (along with Iago, who tries to flee, but he's dragged by the villain). Not long after, Genie throws the lamp across Agrabah to the desert, left to be banished to the Cave of Wonders for 100,000 years.

Of course, since Aladdin is no longer a prince, he is not eligible to marry Jasmine. Genie, however, insists that Aladdin use his final wish to make himself a prince again, but nevertheless, he keeps his promise and wishes for Genie's freedom. When all seems lost for Aladdin and Jasmine, the Sultan decides that, between his loyalty to Genie and his courage in defeating Jafar, Aladdin has proven his worth; the Sultan, therefore, changes the law so that his daughter shall marry whomever she deems worthy, meaning Aladdin and Jasmine can be married. Genie flies away to see the world while the happy couple begins their new life together.

At night, while the fireworks begin exploding, Aladdin and Jasmine share another kiss and fly off with Carpet near the moon. As "The End" writes in the sky, the moon laughs and turns around to show that it was really the Genie. Genie then pulls up the scene and says, "made you look," while the film ends.

## Cast

* To-be-announced actor as Aladdin
* To-be-announced actor as Genie
* To-be-announced actress as Jasmine
* To-be-announced actor as Jafar
* To-be-announced actor as Iago
* To-be-announced actor as Abu
* To-be-announced actor as The Sultan
* To-be-announced actor as Cave of Wonders