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Blog Post #3 Disney Aladdin in contrast to- the original version of Aladdin

In this blog post I am going to discuss the animated Disney film ‘Aladdin’ in contrast to the original story of Aladdin. Here are some of the things I noticed: 

In the animated film, Princess Jasmine was enamored with Aladdin before Aladdin became ‘Prince Ali of Ababwa’. Whereas in the original story, the Princess chooses the other Prince instead of Aladdin to which is a more considerable suitor for the Princess. 

In the animated film Jafar was a contender for princess Jazmin’s heart and not because he truly wanted her but rather for his own selfish desire to rule Agrabah. 

Another interesting catch I found was that, in the original tale of Aladdin, a sorcerer tricks Aladdin into believing he is some long lost uncle looking to connect and want a relationship when that is far different from Disney’s version of Aladdin. In the original story of Aladdin, the sorcerer who lies to Aladdin claiming to be his uncle, has zero connection to Aladdin- it is completely random it seems. Whereas in Disney’s Aladdin, Jafar arrests and captures Aladdin because Aladdin is well known for being a good thief. Making him the best person to retrieve the lamp.

In the original story, Aladdin makes the wish to the Genie every night that the princess’ groom be thrown into the toilet every night and that the princess’ bed be flown out and brought to him in attempts to stop their marriage from being consummated. This is very vindictive and it makes sense why it was not included in Disney’s version of Aladdin. As Disney romanticizes many of their stories’ plots and features in order to accommodate the young audience that it is directed towards. For example, in Disney’s Aladdin, Aladdin is humble and kind. He steals only what he needs- and barely anything of that and gives back to the poor or other’s that are more unfortunate.

Ohhh and here's a thought: Maybe there is a correlation between the original version of Aladdin and Disney’s version of Aladdin… because in the film Aladdin by Disney, the Genie outlines the non-negotiable rule that Aladdin cannot wish to make someone fall in love with him whereas in the original story while Aladdin may not have made that wish, there is still that connection of the two stories’ difference in plot. So, even though in the original story Aladdin didn't directly use the wishes to make the princess fall in love with him, he was still very vindictive by giving the Princess no other option. As Aladdin makes it to where she has no choice but to end up marrying him… and stay in her bed while it gets flown out… and watch her groom be thrown into a toilet… which ultimately isolates the Princess to Aladdin and Aladdin only. Aladdin in Disney’s version is the polar opposite when we look at character. As he would not use his gift to be vindictive or forcefully take advantage of Princess Jasmine. 

They also limit the amount of wishes in the Disney version which I prefer. This eliminates the option for Aladdin to take advantage of the Genie and Princess Jasmine compared to the original story. Where Aladdin has unlimited amounts of wishes to do what he pleases for as many years as he wishes, holding onto the Genie and getting everything he wants by being selfish and vindictive.

What confuses me though is the motive from the sorcerer guy in the original story. I mean.. what led him to prey on Aladdin… could it have been a choice just at random? What’s that connection haha.. I guess we'll never know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Blog Post #2 (Poem)

This is the story of Moncerat and Violette- two girls destined to be friends.

There once were two young girls, with the sparkle of a dream in their eye. Stomachs rumbling with the satisfaction of crumbs, their journeys intertwined long before they knew. 

Comforted by rose hues, an angel and a flower danced in the dreams where they both sought sanctuary from a less than soft world. As they awoke each day, staring at their reflection of curly dew locks, little did they know that they saw glimpses of a friendship untold. 

Scared and unaware, the girls turned the key to the lock and found themselves face to face. Having been worlds apart but sharing the same world of dreams they were able to exchange smiles of warmth, unequivocable understanding and realization of their destiny’s. 

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Required Blog Post #1

Kawk Yexuc (Good day) ninch kélèku. My native name is kélèku which means, ‘Where Thunder Dropped Whale’ but you can call me by my English name, Violette (pronounced like the color violet). The pronouns I use are she/her. 

My favorite activities or hobbies I partake in are mostly culturally oriented. I love harvesting from the land, clam digging, basket weaving and going to any cultural event such as tribal journeys, potlucks/potlatches, ceremonies, etc. I am also a very big animal lover! I like to do a lot of dog walking and training, pet sitting and working with my tribe's animal clinic to go on animal rescue missions. Partly why I enjoy doing these things is because they give me purpose, drive and passion/companionship but mostly because animals (of all shapes and sizes) give me a sense of happiness knowing that I am helping improve lives. And as cliche as this may be, I really do believe it makes the world a better place when you are helping another being and uplifting them from whatever the situation may be. 

I’ve got a question for you.. Do you ever sit back and look at your cat and think- wow I have an actual animal in my house?! Or wow!! My cat is basically a wild animal! Do you get it? because tigers share 95.6% of their DNA with cats:-)  Or are you normal… 

Among many things, I also consider myself to be a bit of an environmentalist. I enjoy learning about the ways in which we can protect our natural resources. Hence why I have chosen to pursue my BA in Environmental Studies!

A little background story: 

As a young girl when I would visit my Tribe's beach, and upon my explorations I would always find myself ending up at the caves. As I gazed upon the massive cave walls, I was always so astonished to see all these star-like shaped creatures stuck to the rock walls of all the caves. There were so many of them in various colors, orange, blue, pink, and even purple. No one ever talks about the sea stars… I have found that people usually favor land animals such as tigers, monkeys, leopards, horses, bears or cats and dogs. So maybe you can understand now why these star shaped creatures (sea stars) seemed so out of this universe to me haha. 

Many years later I had returned to our beach in search of the sea stars, however there were no sea stars in sight anywhere I turned. Devastated by the emptiness of the caves, I took it upon myself to search for an explanation as to where all our sea stars could have gone. I later learned that there was a disease called the sea star wasting disease that was spreading oceanwide and it was the cause of the death of more than 5 billion sea stars. 

The biggest thing I took from this discovery was that, even if the root source wasn't climate change or global warming that caused this disease to erupt, it was a large turning point for me as it changed how I felt about the state of our world in the global crisis we now face to this day. 

From a very young age I have always been very conscientious of my surroundings as I am aware that we share this world with a multitude of creatures and organisms. But I feel my own individual choice won't make that much difference unless I educate myself so that I may return to my Tribal Nation. This would allow me to make a much larger impact by utilizing my knowledge and education of the matter to help change how we do things down on my reservation as well as help protect our natural resources. 

In school I never learned to write essays up until my sophomore year of highschool, but I will tell you that I have come a long way in my writing and reading ability. I am constantly eager to learn more and develop my writing skills. 

I really enjoy using Google Docs and sometimes Word because Word has super cool features that Google Docs doesn't have!

You may learn that my knowledge of the world is somewhat limited. I come from a small tribal reservation and because of this, it can lead to me being unaware of things. Some of my friends would also describe me as uncultured haha… I once also got made fun of because I didn't know what a ferry was if that tells you anything.

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Meet my cat, Ke'Autli (kay-ot-lee)! Which means Little Whale 🐳 in my native language; the language of the Quinault people. 🍃❤️🪶

Fun Fact: He is also my birthday twin! 😸🎂