Review
I am totally torn right now between the original Aladdin story and this one. And for the record, I am a huge fan of Aladdin.
Here, the hero is Jasmine more than Aladdin, which I think is pretty awesome. She's always been shown as independent, but in this story, Jasmine is a leader, and not just any leader, but the Princess leader of the Street Rats.
There are several other characters that helped along the way, like Morgiana, for example, whom I love. She's a take-no-prisoners kind of gal. She and the princess work well together.
I thoroughly enjoyed this take on the story plot-wise as well. Though the first quarter of this book was repetitive as far as Jasmine sneaking out of the palace, meeting Aladdin, Jafar tricking him into going into the tiger cave, the story really steers in a different direction after that.
We get to see what Jafar would have done had he gotten the lamp from Aladdin. His actions were not surprising. I mean, he wishes for the same things he wished for at the end of the original story. To be sultan and a sorcerer. But then he just pushed the old sultan off a building. That was new (and totally un-Disney). And his motives were pretty unpredictable.
I never would have thought that Jafar would care about being loved by anyone. Jasmine. The people of Agrabah. Anyone. But that's what he wanted. Of course, he went about it all wrong, but still, it was different.
The thing that I really didn't like about this story, and the big reason it didn't get a 5 star rating from me was because of the lack of genie. Of course, he plays a pretty huge role in the book, but he isn't really in it that much.
His humor is present, just as I thought it would be (and I admit I teared up a little, hearing Robin William's voice saying his lines), but there was also a sad story there for him as well.
I think we get to see new sides to all the characters as well as an all new take on the story.
Here, the hero is Jasmine more than Aladdin, which I think is pretty awesome. She's always been shown as independent, but in this story, Jasmine is a leader, and not just any leader, but the Princess leader of the Street Rats.
There are several other characters that helped along the way, like Morgiana, for example, whom I love. She's a take-no-prisoners kind of gal. She and the princess work well together.
I thoroughly enjoyed this take on the story plot-wise as well. Though the first quarter of this book was repetitive as far as Jasmine sneaking out of the palace, meeting Aladdin, Jafar tricking him into going into the tiger cave, the story really steers in a different direction after that.
We get to see what Jafar would have done had he gotten the lamp from Aladdin. His actions were not surprising. I mean, he wishes for the same things he wished for at the end of the original story. To be sultan and a sorcerer. But then he just pushed the old sultan off a building. That was new (and totally un-Disney). And his motives were pretty unpredictable.
I never would have thought that Jafar would care about being loved by anyone. Jasmine. The people of Agrabah. Anyone. But that's what he wanted. Of course, he went about it all wrong, but still, it was different.
The thing that I really didn't like about this story, and the big reason it didn't get a 5 star rating from me was because of the lack of genie. Of course, he plays a pretty huge role in the book, but he isn't really in it that much.
His humor is present, just as I thought it would be (and I admit I teared up a little, hearing Robin William's voice saying his lines), but there was also a sad story there for him as well.
I think we get to see new sides to all the characters as well as an all new take on the story.
0
