A Whole New World

This is such a good idea, so poorly done. Like, a retelling of Aladdin where Jafar gets the genie–cool, let's see where that goes! But like, the first 1/4 of the book is just a novelization of the movie, as far as I can tell, with the exact same dialogue and everything.

But then when Jafar gets the lamp, it gets SO DARK? But it's still Disney, so in some ways it's like, not dark ENOUGH? Like, Jafar KILLS IAGO FOR BLOOD MAGIC. What! And then it's interesting to think about the implications of magic/inflation/mind-control etc, and of Jasmine forced to confront the poverty of the Street Rats, but also... like... in the end, when (spoiler) they defeat Jafar and Jasmine becomes the Sultana, she's basically like “Well now I know poverty exists, so I'm gonna fix it.” But, the genie lost all his magic so it's unclear how she proposes to do this??

Like in an animated movie I don't really question the anachronisms but here where it's sort of trying to get me to take it more seriously, but I want to take it less seriously?

Also Aladdin seems so preachy, like he thinks he's better than the rest of the thieves?? But he is also a thief???

Also it's weirdly like... I don't know, it has a real weird take on ~Middle Eastern~ culture, which, given, the movie is set in ~generic Middle Eastern country desert land~, but here it's like “Jasmine thought it was unfair that girls couldn't go to school, but whatever she'll totally fix that!” And then they call the Genie a “djinn” as if he like...... has anything to do with actual djinn legends???

ALSO THE FLYING CARPET GETS STRAIGHT-UP MURDERED

IT'S SO WEIRD AND UPSETTING

and I'm not talking in a “my childhood is ruined way” just like

UPSETTING